Gary Griffin, John Rando and Warren Carlyle to Direct 2013 Encores! Season!

Jack Viertel, Artistic Director of New York City Center's Encores! series, today announced the directors and choreographers of the Encores! 20th Anniversary season, opening on January 30, 2013. The Tony Award-winning series welcomes back directors Gary Griffin, John Rando and Warren Carlyle, choreographers Alex Sanchez and Joshua Bergasse, and Guest Music Director Rob Fisher.

The anniversary season opens with Bock and Harnick's Fiorello! (January 30 - February 3), the story of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, the man singularly responsible for saving City Center from the wrecking ball and transforming it into Manhattan's first performing arts center. Fiorello! will be directed by Gary Griffin with choreography by Alex Sanchez and music direction by Rob Berman.

The season will continue with Strouse and Adams's It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman (March 20 - 24) directed by John Rando with choreography by Joshua Bergasse and music direction by Rob Berman.

Rodgers and Hart's On Your Toes (May 8 - 12) will be directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle with music direction by Rob Fisher. On Your Toes opened on Broadway in 1936, and was choreographed by George Balanchine. The Encores! production will feature Balanchine's original choreography for the legendary "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" ballet, staged by Susan Pilarre, who served as a Ballet Mistress of the show's 1983 Broadway revival.

Gary Griffin (Director, Fiorello!) directed the Encores! productions of The New Moon, Pardon My English, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Apple Tree, Music in the Air and Lost in the Stars. Gary directed the Broadway productions of The Color Purple and The Apple Tree as well as Pacific Overtures at London's Donmar Warehouse. His many credits for Chicago Shakespeare Theater include Sunday in the Park With George, Follies, As You Like It, Passion and A Little Night Music. Gary has won nine of Chicago's prestigious Joseph Jefferson Awards.

Alex Sanchez (Choreographer, Fiorello!) choreographed the Encores! production of Where's Charley? and appeared in Li'l Abner. He choreographed Michael John LaChiusa's Giant at The Public Theatre, Far From Heaven at Williamstown Theatre, and Follies at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, among others.

Rob Berman (Music Director, Fiorello! and Superman) is entering his sixth season as music director of Encores!, where he has conducted 13 productions and several gala concerts. Last season, Rob conducted the cast recordings of all three Encores! productions: Merrily We Roll Along, Pipe Dream, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Rob's Broadway conducting credits include Finian's Rainbow, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, The Pajama Game, The Apple Tree, Wonderful Town and Promises, Promises. He recently won an Emmy Award for his work as music director of the Kennedy Center Honors and he won a Helen Hayes Award for his musical direction of the Kennedy Center's production of Sunday in the Park with George. Rob recently conducted for Barbara Cook with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and he was also music director for the 2010 PBS presentation of A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House.

Page 2 »