The 14th season of the Encores! series will kick off with Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's Follies, which was inspired by the Ziegfeld Follies. The musical — which features such Sondheim classics as "Broadway Baby," "I'm Still Here" and "Losing My Mind" — will run Feb. 8-11, 2007, and will feature musical direction by Paul Gemignani.
A full-scale restoration of Face the Music, the 1932 Irving Berlin-Moss Hart musical, will follow, playing March 29-April 1. Originally directed by George S. Kaufman, Face the Music concerns "a desperate producer in New York trying to raise the money for his latest revue, Rhinestones of ’32." The musical features such Berlin tunes as "Let’s Have Another Cup of Coffee" and "Soft Lights and Sweet Music." Rob Fisher will be the musical director for the second Encores! offering.
The season will conclude with Stairway to Paradise, an original revue created specially for the Encores! series. Playing May 10-14, the production, according to press notes, will be "a celebration of the very best material from a half century of Broadway revues, and will include numbers and sketches from Florenz Ziegfeld’s shows and other legendary musicals and revues of the era." Paul Gemignani will be the musical director for this production as well.
About the upcoming season, Encores! Artistic Director Jack Viertel said in a statement, “We’ll open the season with Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s Follies. For many theatregoers of my generation, Follies was a first exposure to this kind of material, as Stephen Sondheim wrote brilliant pastiches of songs from the teens, ‘20s and ‘30s in the style of Gershwin, Berlin and Porter. We’ll begin with those wonderful re-imaginings, and spend the season delving back into the originals.”
Tickets for the upcoming season are available by visiting the New York City Center box office, which is located on West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues; by calling (212) 581-1212; or by logging on to www.nycitycenter.org. Tickets are priced $25, $50, $90 and $95.