Producer Jack Stein has acquired the rights to the new musical, which features a score by the Sherman brothers and a book by Paul Butler and Fred Fox, Jr. The musical was conceived by Andy Belling, who will also direct.

MerryGoRound, according to press notes, is "the story of a young man who, believing his existence is meaningless attempts to end his life, only to be saved by his estranged father who persuades him to travel back in time on a magical merry-go-round to rediscover who he really is and how precious and wonderful life is."

The musical is scheduled for an out-of-town tryout this fall with an eye toward an early 2008 Broadway opening.

Bob Mackie will design the costumes for MerryGoRound, which will boast state-of-the-art video screen projection and 3-D CGI animation. Production design will be created by Redesign, Inc. (Peter Morse and Perry "Butch" Allen). The show will also feature magical illusions created by John Gaughan. Manny Kladitis' Niko Companies, LTD will general manage.

In a statement Richard Sherman said, "Bob and I learned from the master — Walt Disney. He once told us, early on in our career, 'Don't insult the kid — don't write down to the kid. And don't write just for the adult.' So we write for grandpa and the four-year-old and everyone in between — and all see it on a different level." The Sherman Brothers penned the scores for such movie musicals as "Mary Poppins," "101 Dalmatians," "Winnie the Pooh," "The Jungle Book," "The Aristocats" and "Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang." Their theatre credits include Over Here, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins. They also wrote the most-played song on Earth, "It's a Small World (After All)," the tune that plays on a continual, multilingual loop every few minutes at Disney theme parks across the world.