Sutton Foster-Led ONCE UPON A MATTRESS, PAL JOEY with Ephraim Sykes and Jennifer Holliday Set for New York City Center's 2023/24 Season

New York City Center today announced programming for the 2023 – 2024 Season, 80 Years at the Center of the Arts. “As Manhattan’s first performing arts center, City Center has had the privilege of bringing the best in theater, dance, and music to the people of this great city for 80 years,” said Michael S. Rosenberg, President & CEO. “For this season of milestones, we have assembled world-class engagements: from Lyon Opera Ballet, to Pam Tanowitz for our third year of the Artists at the Center series, to the dance-theater work Message In A Bottle crafted by Kate Prince, to a brand-new adaptation of Rodgers and Hart’s Pal Joey reconceived by Savion Glover and Tony Goldwyn. We are thrilled to welcome back our loyal audience members and invite newcomers to experience the breadth and vitality of the place we all call home.”

“The Fall for Dance Festival has brought international and local dance artists in a variety of styles to an audience of newcomers and seasoned enthusiasts for 20 years,” said Stanford Makishi, VP & Artistic

Director, Dance Programs. “This season’s line-up features seven international companies and artists, and two World Premiere City Center Commissions: an original work by Ephrat Asherie and Michelle Dorrance, and an important restaging overseen by Adesola Osakalumi.”

“For 30 years the Encores! series has celebrated the archives of American musical theater,” said Lear deBessonet, Encores! Artistic Director. “This landmark season breathes brilliant life into the work of Mary Rodgers and Marshall Barer, Jelly Roll Morton and Susan Birkenhead, and Maury Yeston—three spectacular scores that left an indelible impact on the musical theater landscape. It’s a season that’s equal parts hilarity, innovation, and operatic scale, and we’re excited to share it with the ever-expanding Encores! community.”

Fall 2023

New York City Center’s 2023 – 2024 Season opens with the 20th Fall for Dance Festival from September 27 – October 8. The inaugural Festival was held in 2004 with the goal of building a new audience for dance. Celebrating 20 years as an essential part of New York’s fall dance season, the Festival showcases an international array of dance artists and companies in five unique programs. In keeping with City Center’s mission of accessibility, all tickets for Fall for Dance are $20. Highlights of the 20th Fall for Dance Festival include an interdisciplinary collaboration between NYCB principal dancer Sara Mearns, choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith, and singer Davóne Tines, co-presented with Vail Dance Festival; Hawaiian hula hālau Ka Leo O Laka I Ka Hikina O Ka Lā; and two World Premiere City Center Commissions—an original work by celebrated street dance artist Ephrat Asherie and tap dance star Michelle Dorrance; and a restaging of sections from the historic Jam on the Groove overseen by acclaimed creator Adesola Osakalumi. The 10-day festival also includes performances by Birmingham Royal Ballet led by director Carlos Acosta in their Festival debut, Germain Louvet and Hugo Marchand of Paris Opera Ballet, the gravity-defying Brazilian troupe Grupo Corpo, and Bijayini Satpathy, renowned interpreter of the classical Indian dance form Odissi. Tickets for the 20th Fall for Dance Festival go on sale on Sunday, September 10 at 11am. Full programming details will be announced this summer.

From October 19 through 21, Lyon Opera Ballet presents Dance, legendary choreographer Lucinda Childs’s 1979 collaboration with composer Philip Glass and artist Sol LeWitt. Widely acknowledged as a masterpiece of postmodernism, Dance unites the soaring Glass score and haunting projections by LeWitt with Childs’s buoyant choreography. This exclusive US engagement at City Center opens the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival which includes performances by Ballet National de Marseille at NYU Skirball Center and Rachid Ouramdane’s Corps extremes at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Sought-after choreographer Pam Tanowitz is the third featured creator in the Artists at the Center series. From November 9 – 11, Pam Tanowitz | Artists at the Center features the New York City premiere of her Song of Songs—fusing David Lang’s choral settings of the Biblical poem with movement mined and abstracted from Jewish folk dance. A reflection on the intimate bonds of romance and community alike, Tanowitz’s intricate assemblage of style, form, and emotion is also her first evening- length work at City Center.

Reconceived by co-director and choreographer Savion Glover and director Tony Goldwyn, the Annual Gala Presentation Pal Joey opens November 1 (through November 5) with a benefit performance followed by a gala dinner at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. In this transformative revision by Richard LaGravenese and Daniel “Koa” Beaty, Joey Evans (Ephraim Sykes) is a Black jazz singer who refuses to compromise his craft as he struggles to make it big on the Chicago nightclub circuit, despite Depression- Era racism. The production also features Jennifer Holliday as nightclub owner Lucille Wallace, and casts Linda English (Aisha Jackson) as a radio chanteuse trying to find her authentic voice, and Vera Simpson (Elizabeth Stanley) as a liberated white socialite following her passions. Rodgers and Hart classics like “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” and “I Could Write a Book” are joined by gems like “My Heart Stood Still” and “The Lady is a Tramp,” which shine with sexy wit and powerful new subtext in this brand-new adaptation. Funds raised by all seven performances allow City Center to continue to provide access to the performing arts by subsidizing education programs and affordable tickets throughout the year.

For 65 years, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has showcased the work of diverse choreographers, amplifying a myriad of voices alongside Mr. Ailey’s own. During this milestone anniversary season (Nov 29 – Dec 31), City Center’s Resident Dance Company expands on that tradition, presenting a variety of world premieres and new productions to be announced, including Ronald K. Brown’s Dancing Spirit (2009). Other highlights include a new Ailey Classics program spanning the breadth of Mr. Ailey’s rich catalog, and performances of his must-see American masterpiece Revelations (with live music on some programs). In a return to pre-pandemic tradition, the Company will perform for a full five weeks, giving audiences the opportunity to once again celebrate the holidays with Ailey.

30th Encores! Series

In 1994, the Encores! series was launched, celebrating the archives of American musical theater. Now in its 30th season, this Tony-honored series of concert stagings centered around The Encores! Orchestra and star-studded ensembles are a vital part of New York theater. Artistic Director Lear deBessonet, Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell, and Producing Creative Director Clint Ramos present a compelling and thrilling 2024 Encores! series of musical theater revivals that continues to welcome an expanding Encores! community of artists and audiences.

Musical theater star and City Center alum Sutton Foster opens the 2024 Encores! series as the brassy, loveable Princess Winnifred the Woebegone in Once Upon a Mattress, January 24 – 28. Directed by Encores! Artistic Director Lear deBessonet with a new concert adaptation by Amy Sherman-Palladino, this comical update of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea” is full of catchy melodies like “Shy” and “In a Little While” with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer, and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer.

Led by visionary director Robert O’Hara, Jelly’s Last Jam (Feb 21 – 25) interrogates legendary jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton—the self-declared “inventor of jazz”—in a purgatorial afterlife, accusing him of denying and denigrating his cultural legacy. Written and originally directed by George C. Wolfe and featuring showstopping numbers like “That’s How You Jazz,” crafted by lyricist Susan Birkenhead and composer Luther Henderson from Morton’s own music, Jelly’s Last Jam weaves a complex fable of American history, legacy, and truth.

Closing out the Encores! series is Maury Yeston and Peter Stone’s five-time Tony Award-winning musical Titanic directed by Anne Kauffman, June 12 – 16. Pared down to its essence and highlighting the majestic sweep of Yeston’s nearly sung-through score, Titanic remains a symphonic musical theater revelation. Highlighting the class divides both illuminated and transcended by the ship’s inexorable sinking, Titanic paints a heartrending portrait of the individuals whose dreams of America were dashed in the Atlantic.

Winter/Spring 2024 Dance Engagements

In March, the Flamenco Festival returns for a two-week extravaganza of music, dance, and unforgettable performances, pairing individual superstars with renowned companies to celebrate the deep roots and diverse styles of the form. First, The National Ballet of Spain (Mar 8 – 10) presents an expansive vision of flamenco’s rich choreographic legacy, featuring 38 dancers exploding onto the stage. Then, Premio Nacional de Danza winner Olga Pericet (Mar 15) returns to kick off a star-studded weekend followed by three performances of Gala Flamenca, (Mar 16 & 17), showcasing the talents of established and up-and- coming stars.

From April 3 through 6, Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) brings its rigor, artistry, and unforgettable stagecraft back to City Center with a season of US premiere works. Dance legend William Forsythe creates 12 N, an expansion of his quartet N.N.N.N. into a sinuous, sprawling new piece for 12 dancers that explores the linkages and breaking points of bodies in motion. Former NDT dancers Imre and Marne van Opstal, in collaboration with Studio Drift, set the company’s uniquely exacting technique against thrillingly theatrical scenic design, and renowned choreographers Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar craft a 40-minute opus titled Jakie making its US debut after a world premiere in May 2023.

Also in April, the incomparable Martha Graham Dance Company returns to City Center for their 2024 Season entitled American Legacies. Graham works to be performed include her visceral masterwork The Rite of Spring and her extraordinary collaboration with Aaron Copland and Isamu Noguchi, Appalachian Spring. The Company also presents a production of Agnes DeMille’s 1942 classic, Rodeo, with Aaron Copland’s iconic score reorchestrated for a Bluegrass ensemble, presenting the ballet in a way that explores the Black origins of that musical form, and a new work by Jamar Roberts with a commissioned score by Grammy-winning composer Rhiannon Giddens. Ballet Hispánico, the nation’s largest Latinx cultural organization and one of America’s Cultural Treasures, also returns in April to celebrate Eduardo Vilaro's 15th anniversary as artistic director. The Company’s performances include two world premieres and repertory favorites like the sublime Mad'Moiselle by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, an acclaimed piece exploring iconic male and female imagery.

Inspired by Sting’s Desert Rose and including “Every Breath You Take,” “Roxanne,” “Fields of Gold,” and many more of the artist’s most beloved songs, the dance-theater sensation Message In A Bottle opened to rave reviews in London in January 2020 and makes its New York premiere at City Center April 30 through May 12. Director and choreographer Kate Prince weaves together Sting’s music into the story of three siblings driven from their home by war. Featuring powerful athleticism by world-class dancers and new musical arrangements by Grammy and Tony Award winner Alex Lacamoire, this street-dance influenced work tells an uplifting tale of humanity and hope.

Studio 5

The Studio 5 series of conversations and performances offer an opportunity to hear from today’s great dance artists in the intimate setting of City Center’s historic studios. Most evenings feature previews of mainstage dance programming and are moderated by leading scholars and writers in the dance world. Events for the fall include (Oct 2) Fall for Dance artist Bijayini Satpathy in conversation with Alastair Macaulay; (Nov 6) Pam Tanowitz │ Artists at Center with composer David Lang, Rabbi Kendell Pinckney, and choreographer Pam Tanowitz; (Nov 20) ABT Studio Company and Artistic Director Sascha Rudetsky, and (Dec 4) New York City Ballet at 75 Years: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® with Artistic Director Jonathan Stafford and Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan. Select Studio 5 programs will again be offered as live-streamed online events this season. Additional programs to be announced.

Community Nights

Building common bonds around the power of performance, these free pre-show events held on Friday evenings invite City Center audiences and New York City community members to meet and mingle with artists, guest speakers, and each other. Events range from panel discussions to interactive learning experiences and take place in City Center spaces immediately preceding mainstage performances. Community Nights for the 2023 – 2024 Season include Pal Joey (Nov 3), Once Upon a Mattress (Jan 26), Jelly’s Last Jam (Feb 23), Flamenco Festival (Mar 15), and Message In A Bottle (May 3).

Visual Art

On view through November 2023 in City Center’s Shuman Lounge (just off the Orchestra Lobby) and Grand Tier Lobby are Hiroshi Sugimoto’s hauntingly enigmatic photographs and Stephen Antonakos’s gold-leaf “Terrains,” each representing just a small portion of a decades-long oeuvre. Sugimoto still works as a lauded photographer, architect, and sculptor, while Antonakos’ 60-year practice in neon and other materials ended with his death in 2013. Sugimoto’s “Theaters” series captures entire films in a single still image, using the movie projector as a continuous light source. In Museé magazine, he explained the images’ mysterious effect: “When light is coming out from some small space, it’s very abstract in a way, suggesting a religious kind of vision.” Antonakos’s “Terrain” works involved manipulating carefully created sheets of gold-leafed Tyvek on his drawing table. “The important thing,” he said, “is to know when to stop.” These installations are available to all audience members to experience before and after mainstage performances.

Tickets and General Information

Fall programming including Pal Joey, Lyon Opera Ballet, and Pam Tanowitz | Artists at the Center goes on sale at noon on June 6 to members and June 13 to the general public. Fall for Dance Festival tickets go on sale Sunday, September 10 at 11am, with all tickets $20. The Winter/Spring dance season will go on sale to members on August 29 and to the general public on September 5. Tickets for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater go on sale September 19 to the general public.

Current subscribers may renew their Encores! subscriptions now through June 30. New Encores! subscriptions for members are available starting August 1 and for the general public starting August 8. Encores! single tickets go on sale to members October 10 and to the general public on October 17.

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.

NEW YORK CITY CENTER (Michael S. Rosenberg, President & CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city since 1943. The distinctive Neo-Moorish building was founded by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia as Manhattan’s first performing arts center with the mission of making the best in theater, dance, and music accessible to all audiences. This commitment continues today through celebrated dance and musical theater series like the Fall for Dance Festival and the Tony-honored Encores! series; the annual season by Principal Dance Company Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; and new dance series Artists at the Center. City Center welcomes audiences to experience internationally acclaimed artists including Kyle Abraham, Matthew Bourne, Ayodele Casel, Manhattan Theatre Club, Nederlands Dans Theater, and Twyla Tharp, on the same stage where legends made their mark. Dedicated to a culture built on the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion, City Center’s dynamic programming, art exhibitions, and studio events are complemented by education and community engagement programs that bring the performing arts to thousands of New York City students, teachers, and families every year, in all five boroughs. Michael S. Rosenberg, President & CEO. “For this season of milestones, we have assembled world-class engagements: from Lyon Opera Ballet, to Pam Tanowitz for our third year of the Artists at the Center series, to the dance-theater work Message In A Bottle crafted by Kate Prince, to a brand-new adaptation of Rodgers and Hart’s Pal Joey reconceived by Savion Glover and Tony Goldwyn. We are thrilled to welcome back our loyal audience members and invite newcomers to experience the breadth and vitality of the place we all call home.” “The Fall for Dance Festival has brought international and local dance artists in a variety of styles to an audience of newcomers and seasoned enthusiasts for 20 years,” said Stanford Makishi, VP & Artistic Director, Dance Programs. “This season’s line-up features seven international companies and artists, and two World Premiere City Center Commissions: an original work by Ephrat Asherie and Michelle Dorrance, and an important restaging overseen by Adesola Osakalumi.” “For 30 years the Encores! series has celebrated the archives of American musical theater,” said Lear deBessonet, Encores! Artistic Director. “This landmark season breathes brilliant life into the work of Mary Rodgers and Marshall Barer, Jelly Roll Morton and Susan Birkenhead, and Maury Yeston—three spectacular scores that left an indelible impact on the musical theater landscape. It’s a season that’s equal parts hilarity, innovation, and operatic scale, and we’re excited to share it with the ever-expanding Encores! community.” Fall 2023 New York City Center’s 2023 – 2024 Season opens with the 20th Fall for Dance Festival from September 27 – October 8. The inaugural Festival was held in 2004 with the goal of building a new audience for dance. Celebrating 20 years as an essential part of New York’s fall dance season, the Festival showcases an international array of dance artists and companies in five unique programs. In keeping with City Center’s mission of accessibility, all tickets for Fall for Dance are $20. Highlights of the 20th Fall for Dance Festival include an interdisciplinary collaboration between NYCB principal dancer Sara Mearns, choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith, and singer Davóne Tines, co-presented with Vail Dance Festival; Hawaiian hula hālau Ka Leo O Laka I Ka Hikina O Ka Lā; and two World Premiere City Center Commissions—an original work by celebrated street dance artist Ephrat Asherie and tap dance star Michelle Dorrance; and a restaging of sections from the historic Jam on the Groove overseen by acclaimed creator Adesola Osakalumi. The 10-day festival also includes performances by Birmingham Royal Ballet led by director Carlos Acosta in their Festival debut, Germain Louvet and Hugo Marchand of Paris Opera Ballet, the gravity-defying Brazilian troupe Grupo Corpo, and Bijayini Satpathy, renowned interpreter of the classical Indian dance form Odissi. Tickets for the 20th Fall for Dance Festival go on sale on Sunday, September 10 at 11am. Full programming details will be announced this summer. From October 19 through 21, Lyon Opera Ballet presents Dance, legendary choreographer Lucinda Childs’s 1979 collaboration with composer Philip Glass and artist Sol LeWitt. Widely acknowledged as a masterpiece of postmodernism, Dance unites the soaring Glass score and haunting projections by LeWitt with Childs’s buoyant choreography. This exclusive US engagement at City Center opens the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival which includes performances by Ballet National de Marseille at NYU Skirball Center and Rachid Ouramdane’s Corps extremes at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Sought-after choreographer Pam Tanowitz is the third featured creator in the Artists at the Center series. From November 9 – 11, Pam Tanowitz | Artists at the Center features the New York City premiere of her Song of Songs—fusing David Lang’s choral settings of the Biblical poem with movement mined and abstracted from Jewish folk dance. A reflection on the intimate bonds of romance and community alike, Tanowitz’s intricate assemblage of style, form, and emotion is also her first evening- length work at City Center. Reconceived by co-director and choreographer Savion Glover and director Tony Goldwyn, the Annual Gala Presentation Pal Joey opens November 1 (through November 5) with a benefit performance followed by a gala dinner at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. In this transformative revision by Richard LaGravenese and Daniel “Koa” Beaty, Joey Evans (Ephraim Sykes) is a Black jazz singer who refuses to compromise his craft as he struggles to make it big on the Chicago nightclub circuit, despite Depression- Era racism. The production also features Jennifer Holliday as nightclub owner Lucille Wallace, and casts Linda English (Aisha Jackson) as a radio chanteuse trying to find her authentic voice, and Vera Simpson (Elizabeth Stanley) as a liberated white socialite following her passions. Rodgers and Hart classics like “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” and “I Could Write a Book” are joined by gems like “My Heart Stood Still” and “The Lady is a Tramp,” which shine with sexy wit and powerful new subtext in this brand-new adaptation. Funds raised by all seven performances allow City Center to continue to provide access to the performing arts by subsidizing education programs and affordable tickets throughout the year. For 65 years, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has showcased the work of diverse choreographers, amplifying a myriad of voices alongside Mr. Ailey’s own. During this milestone anniversary season (Nov 29 – Dec 31), City Center’s Resident Dance Company expands on that tradition, presenting a variety of world premieres and new productions to be announced, including Ronald K. Brown’s Dancing Spirit (2009). Other highlights include a new Ailey Classics program spanning the breadth of Mr. Ailey’s rich catalog, and performances of his must-see American masterpiece Revelations (with live music on some programs). In a return to pre-pandemic tradition, the Company will perform for a full five weeks, giving audiences the opportunity to once again celebrate the holidays with Ailey. 30th Encores! Series In 1994, the Encores! series was launched, celebrating the archives of American musical theater. Now in its 30th season, this Tony-honored series of concert stagings centered around The Encores! Orchestra and star-studded ensembles are a vital part of New York theater. Artistic Director Lear deBessonet, Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell, and Producing Creative Director Clint Ramos present a compelling and thrilling 2024 Encores! series of musical theater revivals that continues to welcome an expanding Encores! community of artists and audiences. Musical theater star and City Center alum Sutton Foster opens the 2024 Encores! series as the brassy, loveable Princess Winnifred the Woebegone in Once Upon a Mattress, January 24 – 28. Directed by Encores! Artistic Director Lear deBessonet with a new concert adaptation by Amy Sherman-Palladino, this comical update of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea” is full of catchy melodies like “Shy” and “In a Little While” with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer, and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. Led by visionary director Robert O’Hara, Jelly’s Last Jam (Feb 21 – 25) interrogates legendary jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton—the self-declared “inventor of jazz”—in a purgatorial afterlife, accusing him of denying and denigrating his cultural legacy. Written and originally directed by George C. Wolfe and featuring showstopping numbers like “That’s How You Jazz,” crafted by lyricist Susan Birkenhead and composer Luther Henderson from Morton’s own music, Jelly’s Last Jam weaves a complex fable of American history, legacy, and truth. Closing out the Encores! series is Maury Yeston and Peter Stone’s five-time Tony Award-winning musical Titanic directed by Anne Kauffman, June 12 – 16. Pared down to its essence and highlighting the majestic sweep of Yeston’s nearly sung-through score, Titanic remains a symphonic musical theater revelation. Highlighting the class divides both illuminated and transcended by the ship’s inexorable sinking, Titanic paints a heartrending portrait of the individuals whose dreams of America were dashed in the Atlantic. Winter/Spring 2024 Dance Engagements In March, the Flamenco Festival returns for a two-week extravaganza of music, dance, and unforgettable performances, pairing individual superstars with renowned companies to celebrate the deep roots and diverse styles of the form. First, The National Ballet of Spain (Mar 8 – 10) presents an expansive vision of flamenco’s rich choreographic legacy, featuring 38 dancers exploding onto the stage. Then, Premio Nacional de Danza winner Olga Pericet (Mar 15) returns to kick off a star-studded weekend followed by three performances of Gala Flamenca, (Mar 16 & 17), showcasing the talents of established and up-and- coming stars. From April 3 through 6, Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) brings its rigor, artistry, and unforgettable stagecraft back to City Center with a season of US premiere works. Dance legend William Forsythe creates 12 N, an expansion of his quartet N.N.N.N. into a sinuous, sprawling new piece for 12 dancers that explores the linkages and breaking points of bodies in motion. Former NDT dancers Imre and Marne van Opstal, in collaboration with Studio Drift, set the company’s uniquely exacting technique against thrillingly theatrical scenic design, and renowned choreographers Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar craft a 40-minute opus titled Jakie making its US debut after a world premiere in May 2023. Also in April, the incomparable Martha Graham Dance Company returns to City Center for their 2024 Season entitled American Legacies. Graham works to be performed include her visceral masterwork The Rite of Spring and her extraordinary collaboration with Aaron Copland and Isamu Noguchi, Appalachian Spring. The Company also presents a production of Agnes DeMille’s 1942 classic, Rodeo, with Aaron Copland’s iconic score reorchestrated for a Bluegrass ensemble, presenting the ballet in a way that explores the Black origins of that musical form, and a new work by Jamar Roberts with a commissioned score by Grammy-winning composer Rhiannon Giddens. Ballet Hispánico, the nation’s largest Latinx cultural organization and one of America’s Cultural Treasures, also returns in April to celebrate Eduardo Vilaro's 15th anniversary as artistic director. The Company’s performances include two world premieres and repertory favorites like the sublime Mad'Moiselle by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, an acclaimed piece exploring iconic male and female imagery. Inspired by Sting’s Desert Rose and including “Every Breath You Take,” “Roxanne,” “Fields of Gold,” and many more of the artist’s most beloved songs, the dance-theater sensation Message In A Bottle opened to rave reviews in London in January 2020 and makes its New York premiere at City Center April 30 through May 12. Director and choreographer Kate Prince weaves together Sting’s music into the story of three siblings driven from their home by war. Featuring powerful athleticism by world-class dancers and new musical arrangements by Grammy and Tony Award winner Alex Lacamoire, this street-dance influenced work tells an uplifting tale of humanity and hope. Studio 5 The Studio 5 series of conversations and performances offer an opportunity to hear from today’s great dance artists in the intimate setting of City Center’s historic studios. Most evenings feature previews of mainstage dance programming and are moderated by leading scholars and writers in the dance world. Events for the fall include (Oct 2) Fall for Dance artist Bijayini Satpathy in conversation with Alastair Macaulay; (Nov 6) Pam Tanowitz │ Artists at Center with composer David Lang, Rabbi Kendell Pinckney, and choreographer Pam Tanowitz; (Nov 20) ABT Studio Company and Artistic Director Sascha Rudetsky, and (Dec 4) New York City Ballet at 75 Years: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® with Artistic Director Jonathan Stafford and Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan. Select Studio 5 programs will again be offered as live-streamed online events this season. Additional programs to be announced. Community Nights Building common bonds around the power of performance, these free pre-show events held on Friday evenings invite City Center audiences and New York City community members to meet and mingle with artists, guest speakers, and each other. Events range from panel discussions to interactive learning experiences and take place in City Center spaces immediately preceding mainstage performances. Community Nights for the 2023 – 2024 Season include Pal Joey (Nov 3), Once Upon a Mattress (Jan 26), Jelly’s Last Jam (Feb 23), Flamenco Festival (Mar 15), and Message In A Bottle (May 3). Visual Art On view through November 2023 in City Center’s Shuman Lounge (just off the Orchestra Lobby) and Grand Tier Lobby are Hiroshi Sugimoto’s hauntingly enigmatic photographs and Stephen Antonakos’s gold-leaf “Terrains,” each representing just a small portion of a decades-long oeuvre. Sugimoto still works as a lauded photographer, architect, and sculptor, while Antonakos’ 60-year practice in neon and other materials ended with his death in 2013. Sugimoto’s “Theaters” series captures entire films in a single still image, using the movie projector as a continuous light source. In Museé magazine, he explained the images’ mysterious effect: “When light is coming out from some small space, it’s very abstract in a way, suggesting a religious kind of vision.” Antonakos’s “Terrain” works involved manipulating carefully created sheets of gold-leafed Tyvek on his drawing table. “The important thing,” he said, “is to know when to stop.” These installations are available to all audience members to experience before and after mainstage performances. Tickets and General Information Fall programming including Pal Joey, Lyon Opera Ballet, and Pam Tanowitz | Artists at the Center goes on sale at noon on June 6 to members and June 13 to the general public. Fall for Dance Festival tickets go on sale Sunday, September 10 at 11am, with all tickets $20. The Winter/Spring dance season will go on sale to members on August 29 and to the general public on September 5. Tickets for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater go on sale September 19 to the general public. Current subscribers may renew their Encores! subscriptions now through June 30. New Encores! subscriptions for members are available starting August 1 and for the general public starting August 8. Encores! single tickets go on sale to members October 10 and to the general public on October 17. 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. NEW YORK CITY CENTER (Michael S. Rosenberg, President & CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city since 1943. The distinctive Neo-Moorish building was founded by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia as Manhattan’s first performing arts center with the mission of making the best in theater, dance, and music accessible to all audiences. This commitment continues today through celebrated dance and musical theater series like the Fall for Dance Festival and the Tony-honored Encores! series; the annual season by Principal Dance Company Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; and new dance series Artists at the Center. City Center welcomes audiences to experience internationally acclaimed artists including Kyle Abraham, Matthew Bourne, Ayodele Casel, Manhattan Theatre Club, Nederlands Dans Theater, and Twyla Tharp, on the same stage where legends made their mark. Dedicated to a culture built on the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion, City Center’s dynamic programming, art exhibitions, and studio events are complemented by education and community engagement programs that bring the performing arts to thousands of New York City students, teachers, and families every year, in all five boroughs. NYCityCenter.org PRESS CONTACT: Sara García, Communications & Marketing Coordinator SGarcia@NYCityCenter.org 212.763.1288 Joe Guttridge, Communications & Editorial Director JGuttridge@NYCityCenter.org 212.763.1279 -more- NEW YORK CITY CENTER 80 YEARS AT THE CENTER OF THE ARTS 2023 – 2024 CALENDAR Tickets from $35 or less Fall programming including Pal Joey, Lyon Opera Ballet, and Pam Tanowitz | Artists at the Center goes on sale at noon on June 6 to members and June 13 to the general public. FALL FOR DANCE FESTIVAL Sep 27 – Oct 8, 2023 Week 1: Wed – Sat | 8pm Week 2: Tues – Sat | 8pm; Sun 3pm All tickets $20 LYON OPERA BALLET Oct 19 – 21, 2023 Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels and New York City Center Thu & Fri 7:30pm | Sat 3pm Tickets from $35 Dance Choreography by Lucinda Childs Music by Philip Glass Design by Sol LeWitt Annual Gala Presentation Pal Joey Nov 1 – 5, 2023 Wed Gala| 6pm Thu & Fri | 7:30pm Sat 2 & 8pm | Sun 2 & 7pm Tickets from $35 Music by Richard Rodgers Lyrics by Lorenz Hart New Book by Richard LaGravenese and Daniel “Koa” Beaty Based on the Original Book by John O'Hara Casting by Tara Rubin Casting Choreographed by Savion Glover Co-Directed by Savion Glover and Tony Goldwyn Starring Brooks Ashmanskas, Jennifer Holliday, Aisha Jackson, Elizabeth Stanley, and Ephraim Sykes PAM TANOWITZ | ARTISTS AT THE CENTER Nov 9 – 11, 2023 Thu – Sat | 7:30pm Tickets from $35 Song of Songs Choreography by Pam Tanowitz Music by David Lang Production Design by Clifton Taylor, Reid Bartelme, and Harriet Jung Alvin Ailey AMERICAN DANCE THEATER Nov 29 – Dec 31, 2023 Tickets from $32 Performance schedule to be announced. Press contact: Christopher Zunner, CZunner@AlvinAiley.org or 212.405.9028 Encores! Once Upon a Mattress Jan 24 – 28, 2024 Wed – Fri | 7:30pm Sat 2 & 8pm | Sun 2 & 7pm Tickets from $35 Music by Mary Rodgers Lyrics by Marshall Barer Book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller and Marshall Barer Casting by The Telsey Office Concert Adaptation by Amy Sherman-Palladino Featuring The Encores! Orchestra Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell Directed by Lear deBessonet Starring Sutton Foster -more- Encores! Jelly’s Last Jam Feb 21 – 25, 2024 Wed – Fri | 7:30pm Sat 2 & 8pm | Sun 2 & 7pm Tickets from $35 Written by George C. Wolfe Music by Jelly Roll Morton Lyrics by Susan Birkenhead Musical Adaptation and Additional Music Composed by Luther Henderson Casting by The Telsey Office Featuring The Encores! Orchestra Directed by Robert O’Hara FLAMENCO FESTIVAL Mar 8 – 17, 2024 Tickets from $35 THE NATIONAL BALLET OF SPAIN Fri | 7:30pm Sat | 2 & 7:30pm Sun | 3pm OLGA PERICET Fri | 7:30pm GALA FLAMENCA Sat | 7:30pm Sun | 2 & 7pm -more- NEDERLANDS DANS THEATER Apr 3 – 6, 2024 Wed – Sat | 7:30pm Tickets from $35 12 N US Premiere Choreography by William Forsythe US Premiere Choreography by Imre and Marne van Opstal Jakie US Premiere Choreography by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM April 2024 Tickets from $35 Press Contact: Billy Zavelson, billy@kornbergpr.com Martha Graham DANCE COMPANY April 2024 Tickets from $35 BALLET HISPÁNICO April 2024 Tickets from $35 Press Contact: Michelle Tabnick, michelle@michelletabnickpr.com MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE Apr 30 – May 12, 2024 Tue – Sat | 7:30pm Sat & Sun | 2pm Tickets from $35 Choreographed and Directed by Kate Prince Music and Lyrics by Sting Presented by Sadler’s Wells and Universal Music UK Encores! Titanic June 12 – 16, 2024 Wed – Fri | 7:30pm Sat 2 & 8pm | Sun 2 & 7pm Tickets from $35 Story & Book by Peter Stone Music & Lyrics by Maury Yeston Casting by The Telsey Office Featuring The Encores! Orchestra Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell Directed by Anne Kauffman STUDIO 5 The Barbara and David Zalaznick Studio Mondays at 6:30pm All tickets $35 In-person and on demand Mon Oct 2 Odissi | Tradition & Innovation Bijayini Satpathy Moderated by Alastair Macaulay Mon Nov 6 Pam Tanowitz │ Artists at the Center David Lang, Rabbi Kendell Pickney, and Pam Tanowitz Performances by Zachary Gonder, Victor Lozano, and Melissa Toogood Moderated by Alastair Macaulay Mon Nov 20 ABT Studio Company Sascha Rudetsky Performances by ABT Studio Company Mon Dec 4 New York City Ballet at 75 Years: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® Jon Stafford and Wendy Whelan Performances by Chun Wai Chan and Sara Mearns Moderated by Alastair Macaulay Additional Studio 5 programs to be announced.">NYCityCenter.org