As an actor, Michael De Rose says he can relate to Franklin, the character he plays in a staged reading of Merrily We Roll Along a musical about friendship, compromise and the high price of success.

Franklin is a wealthy composer who has become estranged from his two best friends over a 20-year period. “I understand how that search for success and reaching the top rung has its compromises,” De Rose said.

“The thing about being an actor is it requires you to miss weddings, to miss funerals, to miss important dates, and moments in your own family history. So you miss enough of those, you start to lose your balance of who you are and that’s where Franklin finds himself.”   

The show, with lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth, begins in the present, when the characters are in their 40s. It journeys back in time and ends when the three friends – Franklin; Mary (Lizzie Kurtz), a theatre critic, and Charley (Ryan Kelly), a playwright – were in their early 20s, talented, and ready to take on the world.

This is De Rose’s first time singing Sondheim’s compositions in a full-length work and he finds it challenging. “I’ve done a lot of pop/rock musicals. To be working on something that’s so lyrically intelligent and musically dexterous, it really requires your full brain power,” he  said.

De Rose has performed in Rock of Ages at Stage West Calgary; in My Dinner with Casey Donovan at Theatre Passe Muraille; Avenue Q at the Sacramento Theatre Company and in Blood Ties at the Edinburgh Fringe.

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Melodically, Sondheim writes the idiosyncrasies and flaws of his characters into his songs. The melodies are complex and to miss where a note has a different value – a note value is the relative duration of a note – you’re missing out on a certain part of your character, De Rose said.

Also, Sondheim’s multi-layered music doesn’t always feel natural to a singer, De Rose added. “Often, it’s going atonal or something that takes you on a weird melody that is counter to what the accompaniment is behind you, so you really have to know what you’re singing, know the structure of it.”

Christopher Wilson, the show’s director, said because Merrily We Roll Along, is one of the most fascinating and complex scores Sondheim has written, it’s conducive to being presented in a concert context. That way we “don’t have to put the onus on production values like sets and costumes and we can really focus on the storytelling through the script and the music,” he added

Presented by Toronto Musical Concerts (TMC), Merrily We Roll Along, with musical direction by Scott Christian, runs for two nights, on Oct. 17 and 18, at the Al Green Theatre in Toronto’s Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre.

TMC recently became a venue partner of the Al Green Theatre. They’ll be presenting a staged reading of the musical Parade, by Sondheim protege Jason Robert Brown, at Al Green Theatre on March 21 and 22. Parade dramatizes the 1913 trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank, who was accused and convicted of raping and murdering a 13-year-old employee.

TMC’s programming supports emerging artists, represents diverse voices and offers arts access to at-risk and marginalized youth.

For tickets to Merrily We Roll Along, $25 general admission and $20 for students, seniors and arts worker, on Oct. 17 and 18 at 7:30 p.m., visit merrilywerollalong.brownpapertickets.com.