Encores! Off-Center returns for Second Season

Tom Millward
Tom Millward

Encores! Off-Center have announced they will be returning to the New York City Center for a second season in Summer 2014. Under the artistic direction of Jeanine Tesori, the series will present the following performances:

tick, tick... BOOM!
Book, Music & Lyrics by Jonathan Larson
Director: Oliver Butler
Cast: Lin-Manuel Miranda and Karen Olivo
Dates: 25-28 Jun 2014
Venue: Mainstage

Synopsis: tick, tick... BOOM! 'is an autobiographical musical by Jonathan Larson, the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning composer of Rent. First performed as a solo rock monologue by Larson in 1990, it is the story of an aspiring composer who questions his life choices on the eve of his thirtieth birthday.'

Randy Newman's FAUST: The Concert
Music & Lyrics by Randy Newman
Cast: Randy Newman (as the Devil)
Date: 01 July 2014
Venue: Mainstage

Synopsis: Randy Newman's FAUST: The Concert is, according to Newman, 'like Goethe's Faust Pt. 1, but more complex psychologically; more like Pt 2 but not the product of an ordered mind. The Lord and the Devil are childhood friends who in adulthood have a falling out. The Devil is expelled from Heaven, somewhat arbitrarily some might say, and though he reigns in Hell, he longs to return to his childhood home. He goes up to visit Heaven for the first time in a long while. He finds the Lord and tells him Man is bad, and should never have been created. The Lord says that He doesn't make mistakes. As they did in the 12th, 14th and 16th centuries, they bet on it, pick a young Notre Dame Freshman as a representative specimen and hilarity ensues.'

Pump Boys and Dinettes
Book, Music & Lyrics by John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann
Director: Lear de Bessonet
Choreographer: Danny Mefford
Dates: 16-19 Jul 2014
Venue: Mainstage

Synopsis: Pump Boys and Dinettes is 'a musical tribute to life on the roadside, with the actors accompanying themselves on guitar, piano, bass, fiddle, accordion, and kitchen utensils. A hybrid of country, rock and pop music, Pump Boys is the story of four gas station attendants and two waitresses at a small-town dinette in North Carolina.

Alongside this second season, Encores! will also feature The Lobby Project, a series of free performances, conversations and readings by artists, poets, authors and performers.

- by Tom Millward

Originally published on

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