New York City Center goes Off-Broadway with Encores! Off-Center, a new musical theater series led by artistic director Anne Kauffman & creative advisor Jeanine Tesori Off-Center features seminal Off-Broadway musicals filtered through the lens of today’s most innovative artists.
SEASON 2019
June 26 – 29
WORKING
Based on the best-selling Studs Terkel book of the same name, Working: A Musical celebrates the vital roles played by those who make our country run. Originally adapted by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso, Off-Center’s new incarnation incorporates fresh stories from City Center’s own staff, in honor of our 75th Anniversary Season, alongside old favorites such as “Just a Housewife,” “Millwork,” and “Fathers and Sons.” Two new songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda enrich the score by an already illustrious and eclectic list of songwriters: Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers and Susan Birkenhead, and James Taylor as well as Schwartz.
Jul 10 – 11
PROMENADE
Escape into the absurdly funny world of Promenade where two fugitives, known only as 105 and 106, navigate the world of haves and have-nots while on the run from the law. A zany anti-adventure written by the “mother of avant-garde theater,” Maria Irene Fornes, and featuring an eclectic musical blend by Al Carmines, Promenade promises lighthearted fun while exposing the ever-present chasm between the rich and the poor and observing the ways in which social status can both liberate and imprison.
Jul 24 – 27
ROAD SHOW
At what point does the pursuit of the American Dream become an empty enterprise? Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Road Show is a larger-than-life account of two brothers—schemer Wilson Mizner and his more thoughtful sibling Addison—who are inspired, by their dying father, to stake their claim on a piece of the world. Set during the Alaskan gold rush and the Florida real estate boom of the early 1900s, and loosely based on a true story, follow the Mizner brothers on their ambitious and ultimately ill-fated quest for gold.
