Ann Morrison

Ann Morrison is an American actress born on April 9, 1956, in Sioux City, Iowa, whose Broadway career has spanned from 1981 to 2024. She is best known for originating the role of Mary Flynn in the Stephen Sondheim and George Furth musical Merrily We Roll Along, directed by Harold Prince, a performance that earned her the 1982 Theatre World Award.

Morrison's early exposure to theater came through her family, who co-founded a summer theater company called The Banner Players on the shores of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. During her teenage years there, she alternated between performing lead roles such as Gigi and working backstage crew. Her parents, both teachers at George Williams College, regularly incorporated her into their programs and performances. After high school, she was awarded a scholarship to a new musical theater training program at Boston Conservatory of Music.

She subsequently left Boston Conservatory and studied at HB Studios in New York before spending time in San Francisco and returning to Chicago. At nineteen, Morrison joined The Benny Kim Show, a seven-member family band led by Korean Big Band leader Benny Kim, performing as emcee and singer and trombone player in nightclubs and Holiday Inns in and around Chicago for approximately one year. She then gained admission to an apprentice program sponsored by Burt Reynolds at his Jupiter, Florida dinner theater, where she observed performers including Tyne Daly, Sally Field, and Kate Jackson and was given the opportunity to play the Girl in The Fantasticks. During that program she appeared on Dinah Shore's daytime television talk show Dinah! when it broadcast from the Burt Reynolds Theater, performing "I Can Cook Too" in a 1940s-style costume. Each apprentice concluded the year-long program by earning an Actors' Equity Association card through a signed contract; Morrison played Sister Margaretta in The Sound of Music, the final production of the season.

After earning her AEA card, Morrison moved to New York and within a month was cast in the Waldman and Uhry musical Dream Time. Regional productions of Grease, Babes in Arms, and Godspell followed. The role that altered the course of her career came when choreographer Ron Field saw her portray silent film actress Mabel Normand in the new musical Keystone at the GEVA Theatre in Rochester, New York, and recommended her for the role of Mary Flynn in Merrily We Roll Along. All roles had already been cast, but Harold Prince was still seeking his Mary. Morrison auditioned first for the casting director, returned to GEVA to complete her run, and then, on her twenty-fifth birthday, sang for both Prince and Sondheim. Prince came down to the stage and offered her the role, with rehearsals beginning six months later.

Merrily We Roll Along underwent significant changes during its six weeks of previews, totaling fifty-two performances, including the replacement of James Weisenbach by Jim Walton and the substitution of Larry Fuller for choreographer Ron Field. Morrison has noted in interviews that alterations were made at virtually every performance until three days before opening night. The morning after the show closed, the cast recorded the Original Broadway Cast album at RCA Records. The following spring, Morrison received the Theatre World Award for her portrayal of Mary Flynn.

Following Merrily, Morrison joined former castmate Jason Alexander as a replacement in the original cast of Forbidden Broadway at Palsson's in New York, where she impersonated Mary Martin, Julie Andrews, and Carol Channing. She also appeared on The Merv Griffin Show portraying Patti LuPone in Evita, and taped a television version of Keystone for broadcast on New Jersey Network, again playing Mabel Normand.

American producer Louis Busch Hager cast Morrison in the title role of Peg, a new musical adaptation of Peg O' My Heart developed for the West End in London, after she auditioned there. She collaborated with composer David Heneker, known for Half a Sixpence, and the production opened in April 1984 with a British cast that included Sian Phillips, Edward Duke, and Patricia Michael. The production ran through the summer and a cast recording was made before Morrison returned to New York.

Off-Broadway, Morrison created the role of Lizzie in the Polly Pen and Peggy Harmon musical Goblin Market, which originated at the Vineyard Theatre before moving to Circle in the Square Downtown. The performance earned her a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Musical as well as a Best Plays Theatrical Yearbook Citation for Best Actress in a Musical. She and Teri Klausner recorded an original cast album for JAY Records. In Los Angeles, Morrison played Faye Apple in the West Coast premiere of Anyone Can Whistle and received a Dramalogue Award for Blame It On The Movies II. Her regional theater work has included Peter Pan, Guys and Dolls, Little Shop of Horrors, Cabaret, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Oliver!, Good News, musical adaptations of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, and Love's Labour's Lost, Can-Can, Sunset Boulevard, Shadowlands, and On the Verge. Among her concert appearances, she participated in the Merrily We Roll Along Reunion Concert in 2002 and the Stephen Sondheim birthday celebration Children and Art at the New Amsterdam Theater.

In 2006, Harold Prince engaged Morrison for the workshop and backers auditions of the new musical Lovemusik, in which she played Lotte Lenya opposite Michael Cerveris as Kurt Weill. When the production opened on Broadway, the role of Lotte Lenya was performed by Donna Murphy, though a smaller role was created for Morrison, who also understudied the lead and performed as Lotte Lenya on May 13, 2007. Morrison's Broadway credits additionally include Kimberly Akimbo, and she is currently touring the United States in the title role of the 2025–26 national tour of that production.

Morrison's recordings include the original Broadway cast album of Merrily We Roll Along, the cast recordings of Peg and Goblin Market, and albums including A Stephen Sondheim Collection, Songs of New York, Richard Rodgers' last musical I Remember Mama, Good News!, Lady Be Good, The Busby Berkeley Album, You Can't Put Ketchup On The Moon, Sing Before Breakfast, The Road to Ruin, and Lovemusik.