Message In A Bottle

Dates

Apr 30 – May 12, 2024

SPECIAL TWO-WEEK RUN

Times

Tue – Fri 7:30pm
Sat 2 & 7:30pm | Sun 2pm

Price

Tickets from $45 (fees included)

Accessible Program PDF

To download a program accessible for screen readers, click here.

Run Time

Approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes with one intermission

Community Night

Fri May 3 at 6:30PM
Community Night welcomes Kate Prince for a conversation that highlights artists and organizations creating and sustaining a sense of belonging for immigrant communities, including People’s Theatre Project and poetry by Mujib Mehrdad through the Artistic Freedom Initiative network. Ticket buyers will be emailed to RSVP.

Talkback with Sting & Kate Prince

Post show Sun May 5 after 2pm matinee  
Join us after the performance for a conversation with the show’s creators Sting, Kate Prince, Lukas McFarlane, and dancer Natasha Gooden, moderated by Tony Award winner Jeanine Tesori

Student Rush

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.

Group Sales

For groups of 10 or more people, email Info@NYCityCenter.org

About

Broadway World

This is such a powerful, serious piece about love and family. They've used my songs in a way that I find so heartening.”
Sting on MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

POV Evening Standard

4 stars

Infectious energy & knock-out style

Inspired by Sting’s greatest hits, including “Desert Rose," “Every Breath You Take,” “Roxanne,” “Fields of Gold,” and 23 more of the artist’s most beloved songs, this dance-theater sensation opened to rave reviews on London’s West End and makes its New York debut here at City Center.

Five-time Olivier Award nominee Kate Prince and her company ZooNation have been celebrated for dance-theater hits like Some Like It Hip Hop and Into the Hoods, and Prince received raves for her choreography on Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. In this latest acclaimed work, she weaves Sting’s music together into a story of three siblings driven from their home by war. Featuring powerful athleticism by world-class dancers and new musical arrangements by Alex Lacamoire (Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen) and Martin Terefe, this contemporary and street dance-influenced work tells an uplifting tale of humanity and hope.

Message In A Bottle contains some scenes of an adult nature, including depictions of wartime violence and displacement.

Want the best seats in the house?

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.

Learn More

Programming subject to change.

Photo by Helen Maybanks

Dates

Apr 30 – May 12, 2024

SPECIAL TWO-WEEK RUN

Times

Tue – Fri 7:30pm
Sat 2 & 7:30pm | Sun 2pm

Price

Tickets from $45 (fees included)

Accessible Program PDF

To download a program accessible for screen readers, click here.

Run Time

Approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes with one intermission

Community Night

Fri May 3 at 6:30PM
Community Night welcomes Kate Prince for a conversation that highlights artists and organizations creating and sustaining a sense of belonging for immigrant communities, including People’s Theatre Project and poetry by Mujib Mehrdad through the Artistic Freedom Initiative network. Ticket buyers will be emailed to RSVP.

Talkback with Sting & Kate Prince

Post show Sun May 5 after 2pm matinee  
Join us after the performance for a conversation with the show’s creators Sting, Kate Prince, Lukas McFarlane, and dancer Natasha Gooden, moderated by Tony Award winner Jeanine Tesori

Student Rush

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.

Group Sales

For groups of 10 or more people, email Info@NYCityCenter.org

Synopsis

Synopsis

by Dramaturg Lolita Chakrabarti

We are confronted by stories of displacement every day — in newspapers, on television and on our streets. We regularly hear about migrants fleeing oppressive regimes, but the focus is often on the catastrophic political in-fighting and violence and we lose sight of the people affected.

Message In A Bottle is an imagined story about one family.

In a fictional village in a country far away, the community live well and support each other. But when civil war breaks out, this idyll of existence is devastated as the community is broken and homes destroyed. We follow the fortunes of a father, mother and their three teenage children — Leto, Mati, and Tana — who face this brutal reality together. They are confronted with impossible choices in order to survive. They must leave their homeland and undertake a perilous journey to safer shores. Along the way, they will be separated from each other and must persevere alone.

Inspired by the passionate, evocative and iconic music of Sting, Message In A Bottle is a universal story of loss, fear, survival, hope, and love.

miab-pdp-1920x1080.webp

Photo by Lynn Theisen

Song List

Interview with Lukas McFarlane

Echoes of STing

Associate Choreographer Lukas McFarlane on translating Sting’s music to dance in Message In A Bottle

Photo by Lynn Theisen

Read the interview

In the Press

POV Guardian

4 stars

The story of loving, losing and finding your way

The Guardian
POV Sunday Mirror

5 stars

This is what dance is supposed to do. This is how it should make you feel.

Sunday Mirror logo
POV Chicago Tribune

As conceptually compelling as it is thrillingly executed

Chicago Tribune

Cast & Credits

80 years ago, this City got its center.

Audiences like you got to enjoy world-class art at prices they could afford—and Manhattan got its first performing arts institution.

Your unwavering support has sustained City Center programming for 80 years. Deepen your impact today with a one-time donation and ensure this treasured programming continues for many years to come. Thank you.

Sponsors

Related Events

Buy Tickets