Encores! Sets Cast for 2020 Season; Alexandra Socha, Kate Baldwin, Ashley Park

New York City Center today announced select casting for the 2020 Encores! season.

The series opens with Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart's love letter to the silent film era, Mack & Mabel (Feb 19 - 23). Directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes, the production will star Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills (War Paint) as pioneering filmmaker Mack Sennett and Alexandra Socha (Head Over Heels) as his first great discovery and muse, the comedienne Mabel Normand. The pair were featured in selections from the show as part of Hey, Look Me Over! in the Encores! at 25 season.

Love Life (Mar 18 - 22), music and lyrics by Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner, is a journey across American history seen through the eyes of a family that never ages-accentuated with entertaining vaudevillian acts that comment on the evolution of the "American Dream." Directed by Tony Award winner Victoria Clark, with choreography by Joann Hunter, the production will star Tony Award nominee Kate Baldwin (Hello, Dolly!, Finian's Rainbow) and Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell (Shuffle Along, 2016) as Susan and Sam Cooper. Described by Lerner as "a cavalcade of American marriage," the 1948 work is considered by some to be the first "concept musical" and was an inspiration for generations of musical theater creators.

The third production of the season, as previously announced, will star Ashley Park (Mean Girls) in Dick Scanlan and Jeanine Tesori's Tony Award-winning tribute to the indomitable spirit of New York, Thoroughly Modern Millie (May 6 - 10). Tony-nominated choreographer Camille A. Brown joins the artistic team of Encores! Resident Director Lear deBessonet and creative consultant Lauren Yee. The team of artists, working with the show's authors, will explore the work with a fresh perspective to deliver a thoroughly modern Thoroughly Modern Millie.

All three Encores! productions will feature The Encores! Orchestra under the direction of Encores! Music Director Rob Berman.

All single tickets can be purchased online at NYCityCenter.org, by calling 212.581.1212, or in person at the City Center Box Office. New York City Center is located at 131 W 55th St between Sixth and Seventh avenues.

Photo Credit: Alexandra Socha by Walter McBride; Kate Baldwin and Ashley Park by Jennifer Broski