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ENCORES!
NEW YORK CITY CENTER ANNOUNCES 17th SEASON
George and Ira Gershwin’s
GIRL CRAZY
Opens Season
Followed By
The 50th Encores! Production
Harold Rome’s
FANNY,
Stephen Sondheim’s
ANYONE CAN WHISTLE
Concludes Season
Season Begins November 19, 2009
New York, NY, March 30, 2009 – Girl Crazy, with music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book by Guy Bolton and Jack McGowan, will open New York City Center’s 2009–2010 Encores! season on November 19, 2009. The season will continue with Fanny, with music and lyrics byHarold Rome and book by S. N. Behrman and Joshua Logan, on February 4, 2010. Fanny will be the 50th Encores! production presented by City Center since 1994. The season will conclude with Anyone Can Whistle, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ legendary 1964 musical, on April 8, 2010.
Girl Crazy, the Gershwin's fanciful depression-era musical of 1930,is the tale of a sophisticated New Yorker marooned in a dusty Western cowtown with no one who understands him but the Yiddish-speaking cabbie who brought him there and no one to love but the only woman within 50 miles. The show gave birth to one of the all-time flashiest Broadway scores, featuring “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” “But Not For Me” and “Boy! What Love Has Done To Me,” among others. The original production put a hot jazz band in the pit, led by cornet virtuoso Red Nichols, and included such jazz greats as Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden. The resulting sound is a unique treat for theatergoers today, as each musician left a lasting impact on the show’s arrangements and orchestrations. Girl Crazy opened at the Alvin Theatre on October 14, 1930 and ran for 272 performances. The Encores! production will run November 19 – 22, 2009.
Fanny, based on Marcel Pagnol’s trilogy Marius, Fanny and Cesar and set in Marseille, is among Broadway’s greatest love stories – a tale of a young girl’s passion for a young man so in love with the sea that he leaves her, little realizing that she is pregnant with his child. Her marriage of convenience to a wealthy older man desperate to have an heir is complicated by the sailor’s return years later. Joshua Logan and S.N. Behrman provided an earthy book, and Harold Rome’s score contains some of the most ardent and sweeping melodies ever written for the theater, including the title song, “Restless Heart” and “Never Too Late For Love.” Oddly, the big hit single from the show in its day was the novelty tune “Be Kind to Your Parents.” Fanny opened on November 4, 1954 at the Majestic Theater, starring Florence Henderson, Ezio Pinza and Walter Slezak (who won a Tony award for Best Actor in a Musical), and played for a total of 888 performances. Fanny will run February 4 – 7, 2010.
Anyone Can Whistle, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ experimental satire of any and every target on the American cultural scene of the moment – conformity, psychology, race relations, greed, religion, politics – divided the critics, thrilled the emerging counter-culture, baffled the masses and closed quickly, becoming an instant legend that has grown over the years as Sondheim’s reputation has soared. The title song and “With So Little to Be Sure Of” have survived as cabaret classics, but the rarely-heard complete score is a riot of jazzy, show-biz razzmatazz, waltzes, gospel numbers and Broadway pastiche, as full of variety and surprise as the show that gave it birth. Anyone Can Whistle opened on Apr 4, 1964 at the Majestic Theatre, starring Angela Lansbury, Lee Remick and Harry Guardino, directed by Arthur Laurents, and ran for a brief 12 previews and 9 performances. Anyone Can Whistle will run April 8 – 11, 2010.
The Newman’s Own Foundation is a proud sponsor of Encores! The Newman's Own Foundation is an independent, private foundation which derives its grant-making income from royalty payments received in conjunction with the sale of Newman's Own food products. Since the inception of Newman's Own in the early 1980s, over $250 million has been donated to thousands of charitable organizations worldwide.
The season is also made possible, in part, by the Stephanie and Fred Shuman Fund for Encores!
New York City Center Encores! (Jack Viertel, Artistic Director; Rob Berman, Music Director) has, since 1994, celebrated the rarely-heard works of America’s most important composers and lyricists. Conceived as
concert versions, each Encores! season gives three scores the chance to be heard as originally intended by their creators. Over the years, Encores! has presented the works of the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart,
Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Kurt Weill, Bock and Harnick, Burt Bacharach, Kander and Ebb, Comden and Green, and many others. The program is the recipient of a special 2000 Tony
Honor for Excellence in the Theatre, as well as an Outer Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award and Jujamcyn Theaters Award.
New York City Center (Arlene Shuler, President and CEO) has long been known and beloved by New York audiences not only as one of the City’s preeminent performing art institutions but also as an accessible and welcoming venue for dance and theater. New York City Center produces the Tony-honored Encores!
musical theater series, and is home to some of the country’s leading dance companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Paul Taylor Dance Company and Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, as well as Manhattan Theatre Club, one of New York’s leading theater companies. In 2004 New York City Center launched the acclaimed Fall for Dance Festival, continuing to fulfill its mission to make the arts accessible to the broadest possible audience. In 2006, New York City Center formed partnerships with both London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre to facilitate the exchange of innovative dance works, and with Carnegie Hall to work together on exciting new programming initiatives between the two neighboring institutions. In 2007 New York City Center introduced the Encores! Summer Stars series with the critically-acclaimed production of Gypsy¸ starring Patti LuPone, which subsequently enjoyed a successful run on Broadway, and which was followed by this past summer’s Damn Yankees starring Sean Hayes and Jane Krakowski. This summer, Encores! Summer Stars will present The Wiz.
Tickets for the 2009-2010 Encores! season are available at the New York City Center Box Office (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues), through CityTix® at 212-581-1212, or online at www.nycitycenter.org. Tickets for the Orchestra, Grand Tier and Mid-Mezzanine tickets are $95; tickets for the Rear Mezzanine and Front Gallery are $50; tickets for the Rear Gallery are $25.
NEW YORK CITY CENTER
2009-10 ENCORES! SEASON
Girl Crazy (November 19 – 22, 2009)
Opened at the Alvin Theatre on October 14, 1930 and ran for 272 performances.
Music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin
Book by Guy Bolton and Jack McGowan
Fanny (February 4 – 7, 2010)
Opened at the Majestic Theater on Nov 4, 1954 and played for a total of 888 performances.
A musical play by S. N. Behrman and Joshua Logan
Based on the Trilogy of Marcel Pagnol
Music and lyrics by Harold Rome
Anyone Can Whistle (April 8 – 11, 2010)
Opened at the Majestic Theatre on April 4, 1964, directed by Arthur Laurents and played for 12 previews and 9 performances.
Book by Arthur Laurents
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim