New York City Center

2019 Encores! Off-Center season at New York City Center announced

New York City Center presents Working: A Musical, Promenade and Road Show in 2019.

Sophie Thomas
Sophie Thomas

The Encores! Off Center season at New York City Center has been announced for 2019, coinciding with the theatre's 75th anniversary.

Working: A Musical will kick off the season in a brand new production that also features two new songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Running from June 26 to 29, 2019 and directed by Encores! Off-Center Artistic Director Anne Kauffman, the production will be an updated version of Nina Fasso and Stephen Schwartz's adaptation of the best-selling book by Studs Terkel. Miranda joins an already illustrious group of songwriters for Working that includes Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers and Susan Birkhead, and James Taylor. It was first performed on Broadway in 1978.

Synopsis: "An impassioned documentation of the people who make American run, Working explores the lives of working class men and women who are so often taken for granted."

Maria Irene Fornés' 1965 work Promenade, featuring music by Al Carmines, will be the second show as part of the 2019 season, performed for two nights only on July 10 and July 11. Directed by Laurie Woolery, it is an experimental musical comedy which was last performed as a semi-staged concert in 2010.

Synopsis: "Promenade follows two escaped prisoners, known only as 105 and 106, as they run through The City, mingling with an assortment of characters from the poor and homeless to the extremely wealthy. This absurdist look at the haves and have-nots features music ranging in style from rock to blues to Noel Coward and Puccini."

Finally, closing the season is a revival of Road Show, directed and choreographed by Will Davis, which is set to play the Mainstage from July 24 to 27, 2019. Road Show features music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a book by John Weidman and orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick.

Synopsis: "Road Show tells the somewhat true story of two brothers who inherit a small fortune at the turn of the 20th Century and grab their piece of the American Dream in a country where anything seems possible."

2019 marks the 75th anniversary of New York City Center, with the upcoming season celebrating the venue's involvement in the arts.

Previous Encores! Off-Center seasons have included productions of Violet starring Sutton Foster, Little Shop of Horrors with Jake Gyllenhaal and Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World.

Originally published on

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