New York’s City Center takes you behind the scenes with a new digital series premiering on Wednesday, November 18 at 2 pm entitled Encores! Inside the Revival. The five-part mini documentary explores the creative process of productions in development. Led by Encores! Artistic Director Lear deBessonet and newly announced Producing Creative Director Clint Ramos, viewers will hear one-on-one conversations with the directors and artists involved with the productions.
All Encores! Inside the Revival episodes will be streamed for free below or on City Center’s YouTube channel. Here’s the schedule:
Encores! Inside the Revival | The Life
Premieres Wednesday, Nov 18 at 2 pm
In the first installment of the series, Emmy and Tony Award-winning artist Billy Porter (FX’s “Pose,” Kinky Boots) takes audiences through his reimagining of The Life, a twelve-time Tony-nominated musical (including Best Musical). The 1997 musical dramatizes complex lives in Times Square in 1980 and tells the story of Queen, a prostitute who strives for a better life against all oppressive forces. Interviewed by Encores! Producing Creative Director Clint Ramos, Porter discusses his vision for an updated take on the story that breathes a fresh, honest, and discerning view into the life of sex workers.
Music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Ira Gasman, and book by Coleman, Gasman, and David Newman
Adapted and directed by Billy Porter
Encores! Inside the Revival | The Tap Dance Kid
Date to be announced
Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun) dives into the 1983 Tony-nominated musical The Tap Dance Kid, centered around the life of an upper-middle class Black family and a 10-year-old’s dream of being a professional tap dancer despite the challenges posed by his lawyer father and society. Leon, alongside book adaptor Lydia Diamond, gives audiences an up-close look at the percussive heart of the story with the help of choreographer Jared Grimes.
Music by Henry Krieger, lyrics by Robert Lorick, book by Charles Blackwell, adapted by Lydia Diamond, based on the novel “Nobody’s Family is Going to Change” by Louise Fitzhugh
Choreography by Jared Grimes
Directed by Kenny Leon
Adapted by Lydia Diamon
Encores! Inside the Revival | Love Life
Date to be announced
Tony Award winner Victoria Clark (director), Consulting Producer for Musical Theater and previous Encores! Artistic Director Jack Viertel, and Music Director Rob Berman discuss their process of imagining Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner’s rarely seen 1948 musical Love Life. The team explores how Love Life—a musical depicting more than a century and a half of American history through the eyes of a family who never ages and the challenges they face in a rapidly changing world—resonates more than ever as its values, social satire, and activism comment on the national divorce we currently find ourselves in.
Book by Alan Jay Lerner, music and lyrics by Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner
Directed by Victoria Clark
Note: This spring 2020 Encores! production was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Encores! Inside the Revival | Thoroughly Modern Millie
Date to be announced
Cast in the role of Millie Dillmount for the spring 2020 Encores! production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, Ashley Park speaks about what she most hopes to explore in creating a new Millie. Step inside the process with Lear deBessonet (director), Clint Ramos, Lauren Yee (creative consultant), Camille A. Brown (choreographer), Durra Leung (Cantonese lyricist), and authors Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan. Learn what inspired Brown’s new choreography as she walks audiences through the iconic dance break from “Forget About the Boy” and the actual audition sequence.
Book by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlan, new music by Jeanine Tesori, new lyrics by Dick Scanlan, and original story and screenplay by Richard Morris for the Universal Pictures film
Directed by Lear deBessonet
Note: This spring 2020 Encores! production was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Encores! Inside the Revival | Annual Celebration of Iconic American Musicals
Date and production title to be announced
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