2024 Encores! Series

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CELEBRATING 30 YEARS

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This series of concert stagings revisits the archives of American musical theater. Centered around The Encores! Orchestra, these revivals are produced with limited runs and rehearsal schedules, spotlighting the vocal talents of star-studded ensembles.

Encores! On-Sale Dates
  • Once Upon a Mattress
  • Jelly's Last Jam
  • Titanic
    Members General Public
New Subscriptions     On sale now
Single Tickets   Oct 10 Oct 17
 

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Join Friends of City Center and get advance access to tickets and more. Memberships from $100.

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Subscribe to all three shows and save on handling fees, plus enjoy one free ticket exchange per show.*

*Subscriptions are only available for the first week of performances. To request a ticket exchange for another date during the run, please email Info@NYCityCenter.org. For additional questions, call 212.581.1212. Learn more about our ticket policies.

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ONCE UPON A MATTRESS
Jan 24 – Feb 4, 2024

Week One | Jan 24 – 28
Wed – Fri 7:30pm
Sat 2 & 8pm
Sun 2 & 7pm

Week Two | Jan 30 – Feb 4
Tue – Fri 7:30pm
Sat 2 & 8pm
Sun 2pm

Music by Mary Rodgers
Lyrics by Marshall Barer
Book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller & Marshall Barer
Concert Adaptation by Amy Sherman-Palladino
Featuring The Encores! Orchestra
Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell
Choreography by Lorin Latarro
Directed by Lear deBessonet
Starring Sutton Foster

In 1959, two as-yet-untested stars made their Broadway debuts: Mary Rodgers, with a gorgeous score that put her on the map, and Carol Burnett, in her first stage role as the brassy, loveable Princess Winifred the Woebegone—or “Fred” to her friends. More than six decades later, musical theater legend Sutton Foster (The Music Man) returns to the City Center stage alongside an all-star creative team to recapture that same infectious energy and joy.

Led by Encores! Artistic Director Lear deBessonet (Into the Woods, Lionel Bart’s Oliver!) and with a new concert adaptation by Amy Sherman-Palladino (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Once Upon a Mattress sets an unapologetic free spirit loose in a repressed kingdom, reveling in Fred’s ability to charm and transform with willpower, honesty, and a little bit of help from her friends. Full of gloriously catchy melodies like “Shy” and “In a Little While,” this uproarious update of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea” promises both classic charms and new delights.

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Be First

Join Friends of City Center and get advance access to tickets and more. Memberships from $100.

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JELLY’S LAST JAM
Feb 21 – Mar 3, 2024

Week One | Feb 21 – 25
Wed – Fri 7:30pm
Sat 2 & 8pm
Sun 2 & 7pm

Week Two | Feb 27 – Mar 3
Tue – Fri 7:30pm
Sat 2 & 8pm
Sun 2pm

Book by George C. Wolfe
Music by Jelly Roll Morton
Lyrics by Susan Birkenhead
Musical Adaptation and Additional Music Composed by Luther Henderson
Featuring The Encores! Orchestra
Music Director Alvin Hough, Jr.
Choreography by Edgar Godineaux
Directed by Robert O’Hara

A vivid, impressionistic portrait of legendary jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton, the original 1992 Broadway production of Jelly’s Last Jam secured national recognition for writer/director George C. Wolfe (Shuffle Along, Angels in America), as well as nine Tony nominations, three wins, and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book.

Now, visionary director Robert O’Hara (A Raisin in the Sun) takes up the mantle of this wildly imaginative show that interrogates the self-declared “inventor of jazz” in a purgatorial afterlife, accusing him of denying and denigrating his cultural legacy. With showstopping numbers like “That’s How You Jazz” crafted by lyricist Susan Birkenhead (Working) and composer Luther Henderson from Morton’s own music, Jelly’s Last Jam captures the profound contradictions behind the artist’s explosive talent. Brilliantly utilizing two of this country’s most potent forms of storytelling—jazz and musical theater—Jelly’s Last Jam weaves a complex fable of American history, legacy, and truth.

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TITANIC
Jun 12 – 23, 2024

Week One | Jun 12 – 16
Wed – Fri 7:30pm
Sat 2 & 8pm
Sun 2 & 7pm

Week Two | Jun 18 – 23
Tue – Fri 7:30pm
Sat 2 & 8pm
Sun 2 & 7pm

Story & Book by Peter Stone
Music & Lyrics by Maury Yeston
Featuring The Encores! Orchestra
Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell
Directed by Anne Kauffman

 

Operatic in its style, historical inspiration, and ambition, Titanic may have seemed unlikely material for musical drama when Maury Yeston (Grand Hotel) and Peter Stone (1776) began work. But by the time the show premiered on Broadway in 1997, cultural fascination with the “ship of dreams” had reached a fever pitch, and Titanic received critical and audience acclaim, as well as five Tony Awards including Best Musical.

Pared down to its essence by director Anne Kauffman (The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window) and highlighting the majestic sweep of Yeston’s nearly sung-through score, Titanic remains a symphonic musical theater revelation. Our Encores! production meditates on the nature of ambition and the human scale of this epic tragedy, focusing on the class divides both illuminated and transcended by the ship’s inexorable sinking, and painting a heartrending portrait of the individuals whose dreams of America were dashed in the Atlantic.

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Artistic Leadership

Lear deBessonet | Artistic Director
Mary-Mitchell Campbell | Music Director
Clint Ramos | Producing Creative Director
Josh Clayton | Director of Music Administration & Score Restoration

Creative Advisors
Camille A. Brown, Eisa Davis, and Robert O'Hara

VP & Producer of Musical Theater
Jenny Gersten

Art by Ben Wiseman

Casting and programming subject to change.

ONCE UPON A MATTRESS, JELLY'S LAST JAM, and TITANIC are presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals. www.concordtheatricals.com

Sponsors

LEADERSHIP SUPPORT FOR ENCORES!
Stacey and Eric Mindich Fund for Musical Theater

MAJOR SUPPORT FOR NEW YORK CITY CENTER
Ford Foundation
Howard Gilman Foundation

ENCORES! SEASON SPONSORS
The Shubert Foundation
Stephanie and Fred Shuman Fund for Encores!
Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust 

SUPPORT FOR THE ANN REINKING ENCORES! CHOREOGRAPHY FELLOWSHIP IS PROVIDED BY
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Peter Talbert in honor of Ann Reinking

MAJOR SUPPORT FOR ONCE UPON A MATTRESS IS PROVIDED BY
Tom and Maren Hood
Robbie Moray and Scott Dunn
Eleanor and Howard Morgan

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR ENCORES! IS PROVIDED BY
Luigi Caiola
Margo and John Ernst
The Kaplen Brothers Fund
The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation
The Frederick Loewe Foundation
Daryl and Steven Roth
The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.
The SHS Foundation
The Ted Snowdon Foundation
Marta Heflin Foundation

Photos

For 30 years we’ve watched our Encores! series bring a community together through a shared love of song and dance. Help us celebrate this milestone by making a gift with your subscription order today, and ensure another 30 years of musical theater magic.