New York City Center adds second performance of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun: In Concert starring Megan Hilty on Wednesday, October 28 at 7:30pm. The previously announced performance on October 27 is part of City Center's annual Gala.
Three years after starring in the Encores! production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Megan Hilty returns to City Center as Annie Oakley in this concert staging of Irving Berlin's classic 1946 musical. Hilty will be joined by a Tony-honored cast including Andy Karl, Chuck Cooper, Judy Kaye, Brad Oscar, and Ron Raines.
The concert's ensemble will include Ward Billeisen, Sam Bolen, Laura D'Andre, Nicolas Dávila, Christine DiGiallonardo, Leah Horowitz, Miles Johnson, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Amy Justman, Patricia Noonan, Daniel Schwait, and Nicholas Ward. Additional casting will be announced shortly. Directed by Tony Award winner John Rando, both performances will feature the Encores! Orchestra led by Encores! Music Director Rob Berman.
Annie Get Your Gun is loosely based on the true story of legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley (Hilty) and her tempestuous romance with gunslinger Frank Butler (Karl). The musical features countless standards, including "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun," "There's No Business Like Show Business," "I Got Lost in His Arms," and "Anything You Can Do." The original production, starring Ethel Merman, opened at the Imperial Theatre on May 16, 1946 and proved to be Berlin's longest-running Broadway show, playing 1147 performances.
Tickets for the performance on Oct 28 start at $35 and go on sale Mon, Oct 5 at noon, along with single tickets for the 2016 Encores! Season (Cabin in the Sky, Feb 10-14; 1776, Mar 30-Apr 3; and Do I Hear a Waltz?, May 11-15). Tickets can be purchased at the New York City Center Box Office (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues), through CityTix® at 212-581-1212, and online at NYCityCenter.org. Further information is available at NYCityCenter.org. For tickets to the Gala performance on Oct 27, which includes pre-performance cocktails and a post-performance dinner at The Plaza Hotel, please call 212.763.1205.
Generous support for Annie Get Your Gun: In Concert is provided by the Zegar Family Foundation.
Megan Hilty (Annie Oakley) returns to City Center after starring in the 2012 Encores! production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Broadway: Wicked, 9 to 5, and Noises Off (upcoming). Her many TV and film credits include two seasons as Ivy Lynn on NBC's Smash; Sean Saves the World; Girlfriends Guide to Divorce; and Warren Beatty's upcoming film. She regularly performs with orchestras and symphonies across the country and her solo show-which marked her sold-out Carnegie Hall debut-has received critical acclaim. Solo album: It Happens All the Time (Sony Records).
Andy Karl (Frank Butler) has appeared in over eight Broadway shows. He received Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama League Award nominations as Rocky Balboa in Rocky and Bruce Granit in On The Twentieth Century, and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Roundabout's revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Off-Broadway: Altar Boyz and Saturday Night. Currently recurring as Sergeant Dodds in Law & Order: SVU. Films: The Silent Treatment (upcoming), And So It Goes, and Joyful Noise.
Chuck Cooper (Pawnee Bill/Mr. Wilson) has been featured?in 13?Broadway shows?in every theatrical genre?from Shakespeare to musical comedy. He has received a Tony Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, a San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award, an Audelco Award, and two Drama Desk Award nominations. TV appearances include House of Cards, Madam Secretary, Nurse Jackie, and Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight.
Judy Kaye (Dolly Tate) Broadway: Nice Work If You Can Get It (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award); Souvenir (Tony Award nomination); The Phantom of the Opera (Tony Award); Mamma Mia! (Tony Award nomination); Ragtime; On the Twentieth Century (Theatre World Award); Grease; Oh, Brother!; and Cinderella. NYCO: Candide, The Pajama Game, and Brigadoon. Encores!: Face the Music, Bells Are Ringing, and Little Me. Concerts with all major US symphonies. Two performances at the White House.
Brad Oscar (Charlie) Broadway: Something Rotten! (Tony Award nomination), Big Fish, Nice Work..., The Addams Family, Spamalot, The Producers (Tony Award nomination), Jekyll & Hyde, Aspects of Love. Encores!: Do Re Mi and Bells Are Ringing. National tours: The Phantom of the Opera, Young Frankenstein, and Jekyll & Hyde. West End: The Producers. Regional: Fiddler on the Roof and Barnum (Carbonell Award). Film/TV: Ghost Town, The Producers, Smash, The Good Wife, and three Law & Orders.
Ron Raines (Buffalo Bill) Broadway: Annie, Newsies, Follies (Tony Award nomination), Chicago, Teddy & Alice, and Show Boat. TV credits include Guiding Light (three-time Emmy Award nominee), Elementary, and Person of Interest. Mr. Raines has starred in virtually every major American musical and operetta and has soloed with over 50 major American and international orchestras. He has appeared four times on PBS' Great Performances, and has two solo recordings on Jay Records. Juilliard graduate.
John Rando (Director) was nominated for a Tony Award for his direction of the recent revival of On the Town. His many Broadway credits include A Christmas Story, The Wedding Singer, Urinetown (Tony Award), A Thousand Clowns, and Neil Simon's The Dinner Party. His Off-Broadway credits include Lives of the Saints, The Heir Apparent (Calloway Award), All in the Timing (Obie Award), and The Toxic Avenger, among many others. He has directed ten shows at Encores!: Little Me, It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, On the Town, Face the Music, Of Thee I Sing, The Pajama Game, Do Re Mi, Strike Up The Band, and Damn Yankees.
Rob Berman (Music Director) is entering his ninth season as music director of Encores!, for which he has conducted 22 productions and four cast recordings. Mr. Berman's Broadway conducting credits include Tuck Everlasting (upcoming), Dames at Sea, Finian's Rainbow, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, The Pajama Game, The Apple Tree, Wonderful Town, and Promises, Promises. For nine years he was music director of the Kennedy Center Honors on CBS, for which he won an Emmy Award for outstanding musical direction. He has conducted for Barbara Cook with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and he was also music director for the PBS presentation of A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House. Other credits include Sunday in the Park with George (Kennedy Center, Helen Hayes Award); Passion (Classic Stage Company); and the world premiere of Steve Martin and Edie Brickell's musical Bright Star (Old Globe Theatre).
Jack Viertel (Artistic Advisor) has been in charge of Encores! since 2000, overseeing 45 productions and counting. He is also senior vice president of Jujamcyn Theaters, which owns and operates five Broadway theaters currently presenting The Book of Mormon, Jersey Boys, Kinky Boots, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, and Something Rotten! He was a producer of the Broadway revival of Gypsy starring Patti LuPone, which was first seen at Encores! Summer Stars in 2007, and he was represented on Broadway by Finian's Rainbow, first seen at Encores! in 2008. He helped shepherd six of August Wilson's plays to Broadway and worked on the original Broadway productions of Angels in America, Into the Woods, and M. Butterfly, among others. He conceived and co-produced the long-running musical revue Smokey Joe's Café, and conceived the Encores! revues Stairway to Paradise and Cotton Club Parade, which transferred to Broadway under the title After Midnight. He served as dramaturg for The Wedding Singer and Hairspray on Broadway, and is the co-author of the musical Time and Again. Mr. Viertel spent two years as dramaturg of the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and began his work in theater as a critic for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.
Program and artists subject to change.
New York City Center (Arlene Shuler, President & CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city since 1943. It was Manhattan's first performing arts center, dedicated by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia with a mission to make the best in music, theater, and dance accessible to all audiences. Today, City Center is home to many distinguished companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, City Center's Principal Dance Company, as well as Manhattan Theatre Club; a roster of renowned national and international visiting artists; and its own critically acclaimed and popular programs. The Tony-honored Encores! musical theater series has been hailed as "one of the very best reasons to be alive in New York." In 2013, City Center launched Encores! Off-Center, a series featuring landmark musicals filtered through the lens of today's most innovative artists. Dance has been integral to the theater's mission from the start, and dance programs, including the annual Fall for Dance Festival, remain central to City Center's identity. Vital partnerships with arts organizations including Jazz at Lincoln Center and London's Sadler's Wells Theatre enhance City Center's programmatic offerings. City Center is dedicated to providing educational opportunities to New York City students and teachers with programs such as Encores! In Schools and the Young People's Dance Series. Special workshops cater to families, seniors and other groups, while events such as the Fall for Dance DanceTalk series offer learning opportunities to the general public. In October 2011, City Center completed an extensive renovation project to revitalize and modernize its historic theater.
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