A Conversation with Sherz Aletaha
on bringing Merrily We Roll Along to Broadway
It’s a pleasure to welcome Sherz Aletaha to The Sondheim Hub. Sherz starred in the recent Tony Award-winning revival of Merrily We Roll Along, making her Broadway debut and understudying the role of Mary. In our conversation, she reflects on a production that gathered an extraordinary number of firsts into a single experience, alongside the precise, high-wire craft of stepping into such an iconic role. Our conversation begins below:
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To start at a high level, as you reflect on your journey with Merrily We Roll Along, what stands out to you most clearly?
We all had a sense of being part of something really special. There was immense gratitude to be in that production. For me especially, that was my Broadway debut, and I’m no spring chicken. I’ve been working at this for quite a while, and to have it happen in my mid-30s was really exciting. We all recognized how special it was to be on stage every night.
Since the show closed, I’ve been personally reflecting on how this one show helped me check so many boxes of things that I dreamed to do and goals I hoped to reach. I got to be on an original Broadway cast album. I got to perform at the Tony Awards. I got to make my Broadway principal debut. I got to make my Broadway debut, period. I got to work at New York Theater Workshop, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. To have one job, one show, encapsulate so many firsts and goals was so mind-blowing. All of those things happened because of one job.
You’d lived with this production off-Broadway, honing and developing it. Do you have a clear memory of when the transfer was confirmed? And in that moment, were you conscious of all that would likely follow?
Honestly, I think I actually took all of those things for granted. It took doing them to be like, oh yeah, this is not everyone’s reality when they make their Broadway debut. There are a lot of really quirky little traditions that happen. There’s a robe that gets passed from show to show, to company members in the ensemble, and that’s part of the Broadway opening. Debuts are celebrated. All these things are so special and community-based.
Those things just didn’t register in the moment until after the show was up and running, and I was like, wow, how lucky am I that this has been my experience? I can move forward knowing that I’ve had that. But I am so grateful for those little things.
The offer for New York Theater Workshop came in May 2022. They told us that, if it transfers, it’s going to be in this time period. It wasn’t concrete. And also, for me, I have been a part of shows off-Broadway that have transferred and not all of us got to go with it. I’d been burned before — so I wasn’t going to believe anything until actually setting foot on that Broadway stage. That, to me, is confirmation that it is happening. Because I’ve learned my lesson in the past that even with paperwork, even with legal jargon saying that you are a part of this company, there are always workarounds, and they can be enforced if they decide they want to take something in a different direction.
I remember hearing rumblings of a transfer when the contract first came through in May of 2022. Fall of 2022 is when we started rehearsals and the run of the show. We closed January 2023. And they had told us all at that point, during the run, that everyone was being offered their jobs and it was transferring. Our entire company from off-Broadway moved. That was magical, and so special, because again, nothing in this industry is ever guaranteed.
In the six months between off-Broadway and your Broadway opening, did the show still feel very much in your body? When you were back together as a company on day one of Broadway rehearsals, how quickly did things click back into place?
Being in the rehearsal room for Broadway, the big thing for us was that New York Theater Workshop has something like 190 seats — and we went from having this beautifully intimate show, where the direction, especially for the opening number and all the transitions, was to make direct eye contact with the audience. It was so easy to do that there, and it was all about welcoming them into our show and making them feel like they were part of this experience with us. We could see every single person — last row, front row, everything in between.
And then to go to a Broadway house where we had a mezzanine and a balcony, we all were like, oh wait — is part of the magic going to be gone? That was a big conversation. And we quickly learned that, no, we can still make that magic happen, we can still have that invitation, we can still look up and connect with each person. That was a really big thing to play with in the rehearsal process for Broadway.
Do you see a through-line between that off-Broadway intimacy and the way the show was captured on film, with the proshot’s emphasis on close-ups and individual moments?
I think that was something that was very important to them to capture for the proshot. I remember a lot of conversations about it. The way we filmed it was that we had three days where, during the daytime, the whole cast would be there and we would have specific scenes and numbers that they wanted to shoot. The cameras were on stage with us, moving around between us and getting really specific shots. And then at night, they would put cameras in specific places in the audience, and we would film the show start to finish with the audience there. We did that three times.
I remember specific times when we were doing the show in the evening with the audience there, being told: there’s going to be a camera stationed here — you’re going to look for a red dot. I need you to stare down the barrel of the lens. We are capturing all of you looking into the camera, so that we can invite the audience in that way when they watch the proshot. That’s going to be the equivalent of our off-Broadway invitation. That was something they were really intentional about in the filming of the proshot.
I’d love to ask you about making your principal debut. Could you talk me through those hours between receiving notice and stepping onstage as Mary for the first time?
I can never stress enough how incredible understudies and swings are. You can think you’ve prepared for everything, and then you’re in the middle of doing it and you’re like, nope, I actually never thought about this one little thing. And you’re there for a paying audience who, for our show, paid quite a bit of money to see it — so you really want to deliver. They don’t know how much or how little you’ve been rehearsed, or if it’s your first time going on or your fortieth.
We opened the show in mid-October. I went on in mid-November. At that point, the way our understudy rehearsals had been scheduled, I had had about two or three understudy rehearsals as Mary, totalling around six hours, I think. I had walked through the traffic of the show. I knew where all the props were. I was tracking, like: she has the red folder and she has to put it here. There’s a lot of business with Mary’s purse. I have to have the cigarettes here, and the lighter is in this pocket. I’d tracked all of those details. But I’d never done it in costume. I’d never done it all the way through without stopping. I’d never done it with a full cast.
I found out Tuesday evening, after the show, that I would be going on for the Wednesday matinee. It’s interesting to track how the brain and body work in these moments. I’d been an understudy one other time, and both times, my brain did the same thing: instead of panicking, everything went very calm and very focused. I said, “Okay, thank you for the heads-up,” went home, and I did the show maybe four times in my living room by myself. Just the traffic through of, you’re going to walk here, you have to watch out for this person, they’re crossing in front of you. I said it all out loud to make sure I felt secure on everything. I tried to get a little bit of sleep.
They had called me in a little early, because I had never done it before, to run a couple of quick changes, to make sure I knew the choreography of, “You’re going to use your right foot first to step into the dress because your left shoe is getting taken off. And when the dresser is putting on your sweater with your right hand, you’re grabbing the purse with your left, and that’s your chance to grab a bottle of water and take a sip before you have to come back on stage.” Little things like that. I remember getting to the theater early, having done the show again in my living room first, running the quick changes, and again everything just felt very calm and very focused.
Good lord, I was the luckiest person ever to have Daniel and Jonathan as scene partners. I don’t think they even realize that they are genuinely just the kindest people, and so generous on stage. I was asking them, “Is there anything that you really need in any scene? Please let me know.” And they were like, “No, of course not, we’re here for you. Whatever you want to do, we’re following your lead!” They couldn’t have been more on board, and kind, and encouraging. Same for our whole cast.
I kind of blacked out once the show started. I remember waiting in the wings to make my first entrance, and telling myself, you have to walk, and you have to open your mouth. You’ve prepared a lot — something’s going to come out — but you have to do those two things, because right now your body is a little nervous and kind of wants to just stay here, and you can’t, you have to enter. So I don’t fully remember what happened. I remember coming to at bows, with people smiling, and assuming that it had gone well.
I’m thinking of a number like “Opening Doors,” which must be challenging enough when you’re locked into it eight times a week. But to slot into that trio must be quite something…
Absolutely! I remember Lindsay once asked me, is “Opening Doors” the scariest thing for you to do as an understudy? And it is pretty scary — but for me personally, “Now You Know” was the most stressful. Because the fact is, I played Scotty every night, and Scotty starts the song. It’s a weird thing for my body to be on stage, and to be like, who are you singing? Are you singing right now? No, you have to wait.
There was one week where Lindsay was in her second trimester, pregnant, and she didn’t realize it at the time, but she had full-blown pneumonia. She was trying to power through and be the leading lady of all our dreams. She’s incredible. But that week, I switched between Scotty and Mary literally every performance. by the end of the week, my body was like, do you even know the words to this song? Do I come in on beat 1, or beat 3, or beat 4?
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That, for me, was the scariest part of the show. That was the number that made my heart really, really race. During that week of back and forth, there was one time when I was on as Scotty, standing next to one of my castmates, and I went to open my mouth and sing, but it was a Mary part. I just stopped myself — and my castmate slowly turned and looked at me like, what just came out of your mouth?
For “Opening Doors,” I was usually an auditionee — isolated — so it was easy for me to figure that out. And what was lucky for me was that almost every single night, I was able to stand in the wings and watch it. I had the gift of observation, listening to so much of that song, versus being a part of it. “Opening Doors” was certainly stressful the first time, with all the various elements like a cigarette you have to put out at a certain point, and the typing that needs to be in rhythm. Sometimes a typewriter would get stuck and you had to problem-solve and fix it really fast, without getting distracted or messing anybody up. Those little things were harder than actually just locking in and learning the notes.
Zooming out a little, where did Sondheim fit into your story before Merrily? Were you surprised that a Sondheim show and your Broadway debut arrived in the same package?
It felt so meant-to-be, to be part of this show, in so many strange little ways. When I was 14 and first started getting involved with theatre and falling in love with it, the very first Sondheim show I learned was Merrily. Two upperclassmen at my school came and told me, as if they were bestowing the greatest honor upon me, “We would like to sing something from Merrily We Roll Along. I’m going to be Charley, he’s going to be Frank, and we would like you to be Mary.” And I said, “I don’t know what any of this means!”
They gave me the original cast album. They said, “Go home, listen to this — these are the songs we want to sing.” It was “Old Friends,” “Good Thing Going,” and “Our Time.” I took it home, and I fell in love with the show. I was like, this is a thing? I didn’t know this type of musical theatre existed! And that was my gateway into Sondheim.
That cast album stayed with me — little bits of it would always just live in my head, rent-free, that I could conjure at any moment. And then one of the projects I did right before Merrily was a production of Kismet, directed by Lonny Price. When that audition hit my inbox, I was like, Lonny Price! How crazy would it be to work with this man whose voice has been in my ears since forever? I sat on my bed as a kid and listened to that album and fell in love with this art form. And I’d been such a fan of his directing for so many years as well.
That show happened, and I got to be a part of it, and I was like, “I’m Lonny Price’s leading lady? This is insane! I never thought I could experience this! Lonny Price knows my name! The voice that sang “Our Time” in my head a million years ago is saying my name.” And he is the kindest, most wonderful man. What a treat to work with him.
To check that box, and then have the next thing be Merrily — crazy. Those moments of, I can’t believe this is my life. I can’t believe I get to work with this man who I’ve known of for so many years. I can’t believe I’m now doing Merrily. I can’t believe I’m emailing Lonny saying, “Isn’t this crazy? I’m in callbacks for Merrily We Roll Along.” And one of the first people I got to tell when I booked Merrily was Charley Kringas himself.
Fast-forward to him coming to see the show, and getting to hang in Jonathan’s dressing room and have him tell us stories of the original production — so insane. In my brain, I couldn’t calculate it. I couldn’t believe this is my life right now. I can’t believe this all worked out this way. Who would have thought? It was crazy. And so magical.
In the completely unstable trajectory of a career in the arts, all of the nos all of a sudden were worth it. All of the heartbreaks of things that didn’t work out — things that before had felt like they could have been life-changing — were worth it, because they made this yes possible. That is so magical, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.
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