Encores!
Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert is a program that has been presented by New York City Center since 1994. Encores! is dedicated to performing the full score of musicals that rarely are heard in New York City. Scores by Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Kurt Weill, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, Kander and Ebb, Jule Styne, and Comden and Green have been heard at Encores! productions.
The Encores! series was awarded the Jujamcyn Theater Award in 1997, the Association for Independent Music Indie Award in 1998, Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 2000, several Lucille Lortel Awards, and an Outer Critics Circle Award. Cast recordings of the Encores! productions of Call Me Madam, Out Of This World, Pal Joey, Chicago, The Boys From Syracuse, St. Louis Woman, Babes In Arms, Do Re Mi, Tenderloin, Face the Music, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Merrily We Roll Along and Pipe Dream have been released. Videotapes of many Encores! productions are collected at the Billy Rose Theater Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
In 2007, the Encores! board created a "spin-off" summer series entitled Summer Stars; the series produced classic, well-known Broadway shows, with well-known performers, full sets and costumes. The first musical in the series was Gypsy, and was produced in July 2007. Patti LuPone starred as Rose, fresh from her acclaimed performance in Lonny Price's concert production of Gypsy at the Ravinia Festival, Chicago in 2006; Boyd Gaines played Herbie and Laura Benanti played Louise. The show received an unprecedented response for an Encores! show, and eventually transferred to Broadway at the St. James Theatre where the majority of the original company reprised their roles. LuPone, Gaines, and Benanti all won Tony Awards for their performances.
2013 saw the creation of a new spin-off series, Encores! Off-Center!, devoted to groundbreaking Off-Broadway musicals and led by Artistic Director Jeanine Tesori.[1]
Encores! Productions
- 1994: Fiorello!; Allegro; Lady in the Dark
- 1995: Call Me Madam; Out of This World; Pal Joey
- 1996: DuBarry Was a Lady; One Touch of Venus; Chicago
- 1997: Sweet Adeline; Promises, Promises; The Boys from Syracuse
- 1998: Strike up the Band; Li'l Abner; St. Louis Woman
- 1999: Babes in Arms; Ziegfeld Follies of 1936; Do Re Mi
- 2000: On a Clear Day You Can See Forever; Tenderloin; Wonderful Town
- 2001: A Connecticut Yankee; Bloomer Girl; Hair
- 2002: Carnival; Golden Boy; The Pajama Game
- 2003: House of Flowers; The New Moon; No Strings
- 2004: Can-Can; Pardon My English; Bye, Bye, Birdie
- 2005: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; Purlie; The Apple Tree
- 2006: Kismet; 70, Girls, 70; Of Thee I Sing
- 2007: Follies; Face the Music; Stairway to Paradise
- 2008: No, No, Nanette; Juno; Applause
- 2009: On the Town; Music in the Air; Finian's Rainbow
- 2010: Girl Crazy; Fanny; Anyone Can Whistle
- 2011: Bells Are Ringing; Lost in the Stars; Where's Charley?
- 2012: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Merrily We Roll Along; Pipe Dream
- 2013: Fiorello!; It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman; On Your Toes
- 2014: Little Me; The Most Happy Fella; Irma La Douce
- 2015: Lady, Be Good!; Paint Your Wagon; Zorba!
- 2016: 1776; Cabin in the Sky; Do I Hear a Waltz?
- 2017: Big River; The New Yorkers; The Golden Apple
Encores! Summer Stars
- 2007: Gypsy
- 2008: Damn Yankees
- 2009: The Wiz
Encores! Off-Center
- 2013: The Cradle Will Rock; Violet; I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road
- 2014: Tick, Tick... Boom!; Randy Newman's Faust; Pump Boys and Dinettes
- 2015: A New Brain; Little Shop of Horrors; The Wild Party
- 2016: Runaways; Off-Center Jamboree!; God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
External links
- Encores! at the Internet Broadway Database
- City Center website
- https://soundcloud.com/american-theatre-wing/episode-143 Downstage Center Walter Bobbi interview at American Theatre Wing, March 2007]
- Downstage Center Jack Viertel interview at American Theatre Wing, 2005
