Road Show

“Addison Mizner and Wilson Mizner were brothers who, although they played only a minor role in the cultural history of this country, might well be seen to represent two divergent aspects of American energy: the builder and the squanderer.”—Stephen Sondheim

“The score is full of delights, intelligence and tension . . . with a tight, funny book.”—New York Daily News

Road Show, Stephen Sondheim’s first musical since his 1994 Tony Award–winner Passion, is making its highly anticipated New York premiere this season at the Public Theater. The show—with the book by John Weidman, Sondheim’s collaborator from Pacific Overtures and Assassins—has been in development for several years with productions in Chicago and Washington, DC, and grew from an idea that germinated in Sondheim’s mind some fifty years ago. The show dramatizes the real-life Mizner brothers, following their fortunes from the 1890s Alaskan gold rush to the 1920s Florida land boom: Addison as an architect and Wilson as a con man, each brother seeking his own American dream.

Stephen Sondheim’s career spans from his work as lyricist for West Side Story and Gypsy, to composer/lyricist on such masterpieces as Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, and Sunday in the Park with George.

John Weidman wrote the books for Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures and Assassins, and he co-authored the books for America’s Sweetheart and the revival of Anything Goes. He also co-created, with Susan Stroman, the Tony Award–winning Contact.