30 Years of Encores!
Dates
Feb 21 – Mar 3, 2024
WEEK ONE | Feb 21 – 25, 2024
Wed – Fri 7:30pm
Sat 2 & 8pm | Sun 2 & 7pm
WEEK TWO | Feb 27 – Mar 3, 2024
Tue – Fri 7:30pm
Sat 2 & 8pm | Sun 2pm
To download a program accessible for screen readers, click here.
Tickets from $45 (fees included)
Approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes with one intermission
Fri Mar 1 at 7:30pm
Enjoy special drink discounts, a complimentary photo booth, and jazz music curated by WBGO DJ Sheila Anderson.
Stay and continue the conversation! Join George C. Wolfe, Susan Birkenhead, and Daryl Waters in a post-show talkback—Black Theater Legacy: Luther Henderson—moderated by director Robert O’Hara. The bars will stay open for an hour after the talkback to keep the conversation flowing.
Purchase student rush, same-day tickets for $23 (fees included) with a current, photo student ID. Present your photo student ID at the box office on the day of the performance to buy tickets (maximum of two). The box office opens at noon. Tickets are subject to availability.
Special Pricing for Groups
To book a group of 10 or more tickets, visit Broadway Plus, call 646.838.0749, or email concierge@broadwayplus.com.
In the process of blowing the roof off the building they also make your hair stand on end
Christopher is stunning as Morton
This is the kind of theatrical deep cut that Encores! does best... you better not miss it.
Take your seat at the legendary Jungle Inn nightclub for an electrifying musical telling the story of jazz through its self-proclaimed inventor: Jelly Roll Morton. Returning to the New York stage for just two weeks, Jelly’s Last Jam features Nicholas Christopher (Sweeney Todd) as Jelly, John Clay III (Choir Boy) as Jack the Bear, Alaman Diadhiou as Young Jelly, Joaquina Kalukango (Paradise Square) as Anita, Tiffany Mann (Be More Chill) as Miss Mamie, Okierete Onaodowan (Hamilton) as Buddy Bolden, Billy Porter (Pose) as Chimney Man, Leslie Uggams (American Fiction) as Gran Mimi, as well as original Broadway cast members Mamie Duncan-Gibbs, Stephanie Pope Lofgren, and Allison M. Williams who reprise their roles as the Hunnies.
Encores! Jelly’s Last Jam is led by visionary director Robert O’Hara (X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X) with Tap Choreography by tap icon Dormeshia, Choreography by Edgar Godineaux, and Guest Music Director Jason Michael Webb (MJ, Choir Boy) leading the iconic Encores! Orchestra, who perform onstage in this engagement.
Written by Tony-winner George C. Wolfe (Rustin, Shuffle Along), the original 1992 Broadway production secured eight Tony nominations, three wins, and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book. Crafting showstopping numbers and piercing ballads alike from Morton’s own music, lyricist Susan Birkenhead (BOOP!) and composer Luther Henderson create a uniquely compelling musical backdrop for a show that brilliantly utilizes two of this country’s most potent forms of storytelling—jazz and musical theater.
Casting and programming subject to change.
Secure access to premium house seats when you become a Patron starting at $2,500. Please call 212.763.1257 or email Patrons@NYCityCenter.org for more information.
This production includes explicit racial and sexual language and simulated violence. Not recommended for audiences under age 13.
“When people walk out of Jelly’s Last Jam, I hope that they’re not only uplifted by the music, but they’re reminded to take care of each other and to take care of the people that they value in their lives.”
— Guest Music Director Jason Michael Webb
“How many people get the chance, 30 years after they've seen the original, to actually work on a revival of it, and to have the ability to communicate with the people who created it?”
— Robert O'Hara
Critic's Pick: Jelly’s Last Jam Review: A Musical Paradise, Even in Purgatory
The cast is a constellation of stars.
The tap numbers ... are genuine showstoppers.
For 30 years, musical theater lovers like you have come together in our Encores! audience through a shared love of song and dance. Your gift helps keep extraordinary musicals alive for a new generation of audiences.
