Becki Newton (Molly Gray) currently plays the role of Amanda Tanen in "Ugly Betty," a role which earned her an Emmy nomination. She also stars in ABC.com's "Mode After Hours" webisode series and has appeared in "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "Charmed." Ms. Newton is married to co-star Chris Diamantopoulos.
Richard Poe (Jake Howell) is a veteran of Broadway's Cry-Baby, Journey's End, M. Butterfly, 1776, Our Country's Good, The Dinner Party, Moon Over Buffalo, Fiddler on the Roof and The Pajama Game. Off Broadway, he was recently seen in Christopher Durang's Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them.
Daniel Stewart Sherman (Lank Sanders) has appeared on Broadway in Desire Under the Elms, Cyrano de Bergerac, A Touch of the Poet, Henry IV and The Full Monty.
Gregory Wooddell (Tom Mason) has appeared in Cymbeline at Lincoln Center Theatre, the world premeire of Terrence McNally's Some Men at Philadelphia Theatre Company, the American premiere of School of Night at Mark Taper Forum, the world premiere of Miracle at Naples at Huntington Theatre, Othello at Shakespeare Theatre Company and The School of Night at the Mark Taper Forum.. His television and film credits include "30 Rock" and recurring roles on "One Life to Live," 'Guiding Light' and 'Days of Our Lives' and The Paradise Virus.
Jerry Zaks (Director) directed Stairway to Paradise and Bye Bye Birdie for Encores! and acted in the first production, Fiorello! He has received four Tony Awards, four Drama Desk Awards, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, an Obie Award, and an NAACP Image Award nomination. Mr. Zaks has directed more than 30 New York productions, including, on Broadway: Guys and Dolls (Tony Award), Six Degrees of Separation (Tony Award), Lend Me A Tenor (Tony Award), House of Blue Leaves (Tony Award), A Funny Thing...Forum, Smokey Joe's Café, Anything Goes, and A Bronx Tale. His television credits include "Everybody Loves Raymond" "Fraiser" and "Two and a Half Men." Mr. Zaks served as resident director at Lincoln Center Theater from 1986-1990. Since 1990 he has been proudly affiliated with Jujamcyn Theaters.
Rob Fisher (Guest Music Director) was the founding music director and conductor of Encores! from its inception in 1994 until 2005, for which he won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Special Achievement in 1997. He served as Music Director for the 40th anniversary production of Hair in Central Park (continuing his association with the Broadway revival in 2009), for the revival of My Fair Lady with the New York Philharmonic in 2007 and for Chicago and its Grammy Award-winning cast album. Along with conducting many leading orchestras, Mr. Fisher has collaborated recently in concert with Kristin Chenoweth, Victoria Clark, Patti LuPone and David Hyde Pierce.
Warren Carlyle directed and choreographed last season's Encores! productions of Finian's Rainbow and the show's current Broadway production. His other credits include the Broadway production of A Tale of Two Cities, and off-Broadway productions of You Again for the NY Fringe Festival, Working and Slut! Regionally he has choreographed Mame at The Kennedy Center, The Pirates of Penzance at Goodspeed and Paper Mill Playhouse and The Baker's Wife at Goodspeed, among many others. In addition to Finian's Rainbow, his previous Encores! credits include Juno and Stairway to Paradise.
This production is generously supported by The Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Fund, Roz and Jerry Meyer and Ruthe and Tony Ponturo.
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 Damn Yankees starring Sean Hayes and Jane Krakowski and this past summer's The Wiz starring Ashanti.
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.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.
