Ann Morrison

In 2006 Harold Prince secured her for the workshop and several backers auditions for the new musical Lovemusik, to play Lotte Lenya opposite Michael Cerveris as Kurt Weill. When the show opened on Broadway, the role went to Donna Murphy and a small role was added for Ann who understudied and performed as Lotte Lenya on May 13, 2007.

In the years that followed, Morrison created the role of Lizzie in the highly acclaimed Polly Pen/Peggy Harmon musical Goblin Market first Off-Off Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre, then moving to Circle In The Square Downtown Off Broadway. This earned her a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical nomination. With Teri Klausner she made an Original Cast recording with JAY Records. In her new home of Los Angeles she played Faye Apple in the West Coast Premiere of Anyone Can Whistle and won a Dramalogue Award for Blame It On The Movies II. In regional theaters across the country she has starred in Peter Pan, Guys and Dolls, Little Shop Of Horrors, Cabaret, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Oliver!, Good News, musical versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night and Love's Labours Lost, Can-Can (musical), Sunset Boulevard, Shadowlands and On The Verge. She has done countless cabaret performances and concerts, most notably the S.T.A.G.E. benefits for APLA, the Merrily We Roll Along Reunion Concert in 2002 and the Stephen Sondheim birthday celebration, Children And Art, at the New Amsterdam Theater.

American Producer Louis Busch Hager wanted to cast an American Actress in the title role of a new musical version of Peg O' My Heart set for the West End in London. He cast Ann after her London audition and back in New York she began a series of backers auditions while working with composer David Heneker (Half A Sixpence). Heneker completed the song Manhattan Hometown while he and Morrison were staying at Hager's Cooperstown, NY home. Peg as the musical was now titled, began rehearsals in London for an April 1984 opening. She was welcomed by her British cast of West End stars Sian Phillips, Edward Duke, and Patricia Michael, in a small production (9 characters, no chorus) giving them a modest run through the summer. They made a cast recording before Morrison returned to New York.

Ann Morrison (born April 9, 1956) is an American actress, best known for her Broadway debut as Mary Flynn in the Stephen Sondheim/George Furth musical, Merrily We Roll Along directed by Harold Prince for which she won the 1982 Theatre World Award. Off-Broadway she played Lizzie in the highly acclaimed Polly Pen/Peggy Harmon musical Goblin Market which garnered her a 1986 Drama Desk Award Nomination as Best Actress in a Musical and a Best Plays Theatrical Yearbook Citation as Best Actress in a Musical.

At the end of the year-long program each apprentice earned their Actors' Equity Association card by signing a contract for The Sound Of Music (Ann played Sister Margaretta), the last show of the season. Prior to that they each appeared on Dinah! when Dinah Shore brought her daytime TV talk show to the stage of the Burt Reynolds Theater for one week. Morrison sang "I Can Cook Too" wearing a 1940s style costume with hat and gloves. After wowing Dinah and the live audience, Burt Reynolds declared that Morrison was the one to watch and that we would probably see her on Broadway in a year or so.

Having Earned her AEA card, Morrison moved to New York where within a month was cast in a new Waldman/Uhry musical Dream Time. Regional productions of Grease, Babes In Arms and Godspell followed. Then she was cast in a role that would change her life. After seeing her play silent film actress Mabel Normand in a new musical Keystone at the GEVA Theatre in Rochester, NY, famed choreographer Ron Field told her she should play Mary Flynn in the new Sondheim/Furth musical Merrily We Roll Along. All of the roles had been cast but Harold Prince was still looking for Mary. She was flown to New York for a first audition for the Casting Director, then returned to GEVA to finish her run. Back in New York, on her 25th birthday she was asked to sing for Harold Prince and Stephen Sondheim. She recalls in interviews that Prince walked down to the stage and offered the role of Mary. They would begin rehearsals 6 months later.