ENCORES! OFF-CENTER Will Return to New York City Center in Summer 2014

New York City Center's 2013-14 season continues with a lineup of dance, theater and music, featuring Tony Award-winning actors, world-class dance, and world premiere theater.

The 21st season of City Center's Tony Award-winning Encores! series begins in February with Little Me starring Christian Borle and Rachel York, followed by The Most Happy Fella, starring Shuler Hensley, Laura Benanti and Cheyenne Jackson, and Irma La Douce. Flamenco Festival 2014 sweeps into City Center in March with works by flamenco stars Eva Yerbabuena, Antonio Canales, Carlos Rodríguez, Karime Amaya and Jesús Carmona, and The Ballets de Monte-Carlo returns to New York with the N.Y. premiere of Jean-Christophe Maillot's LAC (After Swan Lake).

Theater Productions also include four world premiere plays by Manhattan Theatre Club and works by The Women's Project Theater, the nation's oldest and largest company dedicated to producing and promoting theater created by women.

The Spring 2014 Season

ENCORES! LITTLE ME
February 5 - 9, 2014
Director, John Rando; Choreographer, Joshua Bergasse; Music Director, Rob Berman

Christian Borle and Rachel York will be joined by Robert Creighton, David Garrison, Harriet Harris, Judy Kaye, Lewis J. Stadlen, Lee Wilkof, and Tony Yazbeck in Little Me, the opening production of New York City Center's 2014 Encores! season, directed by John Rando with music direction by Rob Berman and choreography by Joshua Bergasse.

Little Me, Neil Simon's first musical, is the story of the glamorous Belle Poitrine (Rachel York as young Belle, Judy Kaye as older Belle), a self-invented celebrity who has spent her life in pursuit of wealth, culture and social position. Tony Award-winner Christian Borle will play all six of Belle's oddball lovers, who range from an innocent college boy to an octogenarian lecher to the dying king of a tiny European country that doesn't seem to exist.

Based on the novel Little Me: The Intimate Memoirs of that Great Star of Stage, Screen and Television/Belle Poitrine, by PatRick Dennis, Little Me has a book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh. The original production starred Sid Caesar as Belle's six love interests. It opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 17, 1962 and ran for 257 performances. Songs include "I've Got Your Number," "Real Live Girl" and "The Other Side of the Tracks." www.NYCityCenter.org
Tickets: Starting at $30

FLAMENCO FESTIVAL 2014
March 6 - 9, 2014

The internationally renowned Flamenco Festival returns to New York City Center March 6 - 9 for a 14th season of world-class flamenco dance and musicfeaturing Spain's finest dancers and singers in three programs. The Festival opens with a gala performance that showcases the best of modern flamenco, followed by two New York premieres by Spain's great flamenco star, Eva Yerbabuena.

The opening gala on March 6 and 7, directed by Ángel Rojas, brings together four of the world's most celebrated flamenco dancers: Antonio Canales, Carlos Rodríguez, Karime Amaya and Jesús Carmona, accompanied by musicians and three female dancers.

The Festival continues with two New York premieres by Eva Yerbabuena: AY! on March 8 and Lluvia on March 9. In AY! , Yerbabuena returns to a more traditional format: a series of solo set pieces with live musical accompaniment. Lluvia showcases Yerbabuena at her most elegant and emotive. Accompanied by four dancers and her critically acclaimed ensemble of musicians, she delivers an unforgettable tour-de-force performance in what has been described as the most sophisticated and powerful production of her career. www.NYCityCenter.org
Tickets: Starting at $35

Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo Presents In Association with New York City Center & Ardani Artists
Jean-Christophe Maillot's
LAC (AFTER SWAN LAKE)
March 14 - 16, 2014

This season marks the 20th anniversary of Jean-Christophe Maillot as Choreographer-Director of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo and the company's long-awaited return to New York. It also marks the New York premiere of Maillot's personal vision of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. It is a vast challenge for any choreographer to tackle this legendary piece, which is so well known throughout the world. Maillot worked with the writer Jean Rouaud, 1990 Prix Goncourt winner, to adapt the timeless story of Siegfried and Odette. With scenery design by visual artist Ernest Pignon-Ernest and costumes by Philippe Guillotel. www.ardani.com
Tickets: $50, $75, $100

Martha Graham Dance Company
Mar 19 - 22, 2014

The Martha Graham Dance Company brings exciting premieres by international stars Nacho Duato and Andonis Foniadakis to New York, along with the new one-act production of Graham's Clytemnestra. The season also features the 70th Anniversary celebration of Appalachian Spring and the 30th of Graham's The Rite of Spring, as well as an opening night gala performance with special guests.
Tickets: Starting at $35

ENCORES! Frank Loesser'S MUSICAL THE MOST HAPPY FELLA
April 2 - 6, 2014
Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw; Music Director, Rob Berman

Laura Benanti, Cheyenne Jackson and Shuler Hensley will star in the Encores! production of Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella, directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, with music direction by Rob Berman.

The Most Happy Fella, Frank Loesser's most ambitious and romantic musical, tells the heart-stopping story of a love triangle between an aging Napa Valley farmer (Shuler Hensley), a young waitress (Laura Benanti) and a handsome, restless ranch hand (Cheyenne Jackson).

The Most Happy Fella is based on the play They Knew What They Wanted by Sidney Howard. It has a book, music and lyrics by Frank Loesser. Loesser's score displays an astonishing range - ardent operatic numbers stand side by side with Broadway show-stoppers - and includes "Somebody Somewhere," "My Heart Is So Full of You," "Big D" and "Standing on the Corner." It opened at the Imperial Theatre on May 3, 1956 and ran for 676 performances. www.NYCityCenter.org
Tickets: Starting at $30

ENCORES! IRMA LA DOUCE
May 7 - 11, 2014
Director, John Doyle; Choreographer, Chase Brook; Music Director, Rob Berman

Encores! breaks the mold with its first musical not written on American soil. Irma La Douce, the tale of a Parisian lady of the evening and the law student who falls in love with her, has music by Marguerite Monnot and English book and lyrics by Julian More, David Heneker and Monty Norman.

After a three-year run in Paris, an English-language version of Irma La Douce, directed by Peter Brook, enjoyed tremendous success first in London and then on Broadway. It opened at the Plymouth Theatre on September 29, 1960 and ran for 524 performances. The score produced one standard, "Our Language of Love," and also features "The Valse Millieu" and "Dis Donc." www.NYCityCenter.org
Tickets: Starting at $30

ENCORES! OFF-CENTER
Summer 2014

City Center's Encores! Off-Center, featuring three seminal Off-Broadway musicals filtered through the lens of today's most innovative artists, will return for its second season this summer (schedule to be announced).

In the Encores! tradition, there is a great emphasis on the scores, with the orchestra performing onstage, and each show receives a brief rehearsal period followed by five performances. The series also features free, pre-curtain conversations with a range of special guests including artists, scholars and musicians. These events, while informative, are also entertaining in their own right, featuring genres ranging from visual art to spoken-word poetry and beyond. The events place the musical in the context of its legacy and provide insightful explorations of the work the audience is about to experience. www.NYCityCenter.org

MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, Manhattan Theatre Club has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theater companies. Over the past four decades, MTC productions have earned a total of 19 Tony Awards and six Pulitzer Prizes, an accomplishment unparalleled by a New York theatrical institution. Mandy Greenfield, MTC's Artistic Producer, is the lead in programming and execution at MTC's Off-Broadway homes at City Center. www.mtc.org

MTC's City Center spring season currently features The Commons of Pensacola, a world premiere play by Amanda Peet, directed by Lynne Meadow, starring Blythe Danner and Sarah Jessica Parker (through January 26). The season continues with the world premiere of Tales from Red Vienna, (February 26 - April 27) by David Grimm, directed by Kate Whoriskey, starring Nina Arianda and Kathleen Chalfant. Next up is When We Were Young and Unafraid (May 22 - August 10), a world premiere play by Sarah Treem, directed by Tony Award winner Pam MacKinnon, starring Emmy and two-time Tony Award winner Cherry Jones.

A summer production as part of MTC's The Studio at Stage II will be announced shortly.
Stage I tickets: $90 - $105 ; Stage II tickets: $30

WOMEN'S PROJECT THEATER

Following its outrageously successful first season at City Center Stage II, Women's Project Theater returns with three boldly theatrically, intellectually rigorous, and emotionally gripping plays written and directed by women for everyone. The Spring season includes Row After Row by Jessica Dickey, directed by Daniella Topol (January 15 - February 16); The Architecture of Becoming, by Kara Lee Corthron, Sarah Gancher, Virginia Grise, Dipika Guha and Lauren Yee, directed by Elena Araoz, Lydia Fort and Lauren Keating (February 25 - March 23, 2014) and The Most Deserving by Catherine Trieschmann, directed by Shelley Butler (March 30 - May 4).

Women's Project Theater is the magnetic force field for innovative artists and adventurous theatergoers from around the world. Under the direction of Julie Crosby and throughout its luminous history, Women's Project Theater has staged over 600 off-Broadway and workshop productions, and published 11anthologies of plays by women.www.WomensProject.org.
Tickets: $60