Arlene Shuler, New York City Center President & CEO, today announced that Kelli O'Hara (The King and I), Steven Pasquale (The Bridges of Madison County), andRobert Fairchild (An American in Paris) will star in a concert production of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's musical BRIGADOON, directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon (An American in Paris), with music director Rob Berman leading The Encores! Orchestra. The first performance, on November 15, will be City Center's annual Gala, honoring City Center Board co-chair and Broadway producer Stacey Mindich. An additional five performances will be held November 16 through 19. Funds raised at all six performances of Brigadoon will allow City Center to make the best in the performing arts accessible to the widest possible audience by subsidizing affordable tickets throughout the year to programs such as Fall for Dance and Encores! Off-Center.
New York City Center thanks The Frederick Loewe Foundation for its lead sponsorship in support of this special production of Brigadoon.
"Brigadoon is a huge part of City Center's legacy," said Shuler. "Between 1950 and 1967, it was revived here six times in star-studded productions featuring everyone from Farley Granger to Edward Villella. We're very excited to welcome the show home for these benefit performances and to honor Stacey for her extraordinary achievements at New York City Center and in the world of musical theater. As the co-chair of our Board, she championed the idea of Encores! Off-Center as a home for young artists and audiences; as a producer, she has nurtured important new musicals like Dear Evan Hansen andThe Bridges of Madison County on their way to Broadway."
"I am deeply committed to City Center, which is a beacon of cultural life in New York City," said Mindich. "This honor means the world to me and I am especially delighted to reunite with two very special colleagues and extraordinary performers, Kelli O'Hara and Steven Pasquale."
Stacey Mindich is a Tony Award-winning producer and the winner of the 2016 Robert Whitehead Award for Excellence in Commercial Producing. After an eight-year journey developing Dear Evan Hansen, Mindich is proud to have brought it to the Broadway stage at the Music Box Theater, where it has garnered critical acclaim since its opening in December 2016. Other noteworthy productions include the Tony Award-winning Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Bridges of Madison County (Tony Award, Best Score), The Crucible, Blackbird, Annie, The Heiress, Lucky Guy, The Cripple of Inishmaan,The Lion (Drama Desk Award), and Small Mouth Sounds, hailed by The New York Times as one of the best Off-Broadway plays of 2016. Mindich is co-chair of the Board of Directors at New York City Center and a founding board member of the Lilly Awards, where she presents the annual "Go Write a Play Award," which supports a new work by a female playwright. She initiated the "Fund for New Musicals" at the National Alliance for Musical Theater, where she was vice president of the board for many years, and she is a proud member of The Jimmy Awards (The National High School Musical Awards).
Before My Fair Lady and Camelot there was Brigadoon, Lerner & Loewe's transcendent romantic fantasy about the past, the present, and what it means to (almost) be in love. The classic 1947 musical, celebrating its 70th anniversary, follows Tommy Albright (Pasquale), a jaded New Yorker who gets lost in the Scottish Highlands and stumbles into an idyllic town that only appears for one day every century. He quickly becomes smitten with the headstrong Fiona MacLaren (O'Hara) and makes an enemy of the rebellious Harry Beaton (Fairchild), bringing about a chain of events that could spell doom for the entire town.
Tickets will go on exclusive presale to City Center Members beginning at noon on April 24 (General public April 27) online at NYCityCenter.org, by calling CityTix at 212.581.1212, or in person at the City Center Box Office (131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues). The Gala performance onNovember 15 will be followed by a dinner at The Plaza Hotel (58th Street at 5th Avenue). Benefit tickets are available at $2,500, $5,000 and $10,000. Tables of ten are available at $25,000, $50,000, $100,000 and $150,000. For benefit table and ticket details, please call 212.763.1205.
New York City Center (Arlene Shuler, President & CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city since 1943. For nearly 25 years, City Center's Tony-honored Encores! series has been "an essential New York institution" (The New York Times). In 2013, City Center launched the Encores! Off-Center series, which features seminal Off-Broadway musicals filtered through the lens of today's innovative artists. Dance has also been integral to the theater's mission from the start and programs like the annual Fall for Dance Festival remain central to City Center's identity. Home to a roster of renowned national and international companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (City Center's Principal Dance Company) and Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City Center was Manhattan's first performing arts center, founded with the mission of making the best in music, theater, and dance accessible to all audiences. That mission continues today through robust education and community engagement programs which bring the performing arts to over 9,000 New York City students each year and expand the theatrical experience beyond the proscenium to include pre-show talks, master classes, and art exhibitions that offer an up-close look at the work of the great theater and dance artists of our time.
www.NYCityCenter.org
Kelli O'Hara most recently appeared on Broadway as Anna in Lincoln Center's 2016 revival of THE KING AND I. She won a Tony Award for her performance. Her other Broadway credits include THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT, SOUTH PACIFIC, THE PAJAMA GAME and THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos
