Joshua Henry, Caissie Levy and Brandon Uranowitz to Lead Ragtime at New York City Center; Encores! Season Announced

New York City Center has announced its 2024-25 season, featuring a gala presentation of Ragtime starring Joshua Henry, Caissie Levy and Brandon Uranowitz. The 2025 Encores! Series will also feature productions of Urinetown, Love Life—originally scheduled to run in City Center's 2019-20 season but cancelled due to the coronvirus pandemic—and Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party.

Ragtime follows three fictional families in pursuit of the American Dream: Black pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Henry) and his sweetheart Sarah; Latvian immigrant Tateh (Uranowitz) along with his Little Girl; and a wealthy white family led by Mother (Levy). The musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s novel of the same name with music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and a book by Terrence McNally won four Tony Awards in 1998. Tony nominee and Encores! artistic director Lear deBessonet will direct with music director James Moore. Opening as part of New York City Center’s annual gala presentation on October 30, the show will have a two-week run through November 10.

Urinetown will open the Encores! series, running February 5 through 16, 2025, directed by Teddy Bergman with Encores! music director Mary‐Mitchell Campbell. The satirical musical is set in a dehydrated, dystopian city where all citizens must pay a fee for the privilege to pee. With a score by Tony winner Mark Hollman, lyrics by Hollman and Tony winner Greg Kotis and a book by Kotis, Urinetown opened on Broadway in 2001 and won three Tony Awards.

The rarely staged 1948 musical Love Life, the only collaboration between Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner, will take the City Center stage March 26 through 30, 2025. Considered by some to be the first “concept musical,” it depicts a love story that takes place over 200 years of American history, seen through the eyes of a family who never ages. Tony winner Victoria Clark directs the production with guest music director Rob Berman.

The Wild Party, with music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa and book by LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe, will close out the 2025 Encores! season. An adaptation of Joseph Moncure March’s 1926 narrative poem—widely banned for its lewdness—that premiered on Broadway in 2000, the show depicts a night of jazz-age indulgence and asks, "What happens when a night of debauchery leads to a morning of sobering truths?" The presentation will be directed by Saheem Ali with Encores! music director Mary-Mitchell Campbell. The show is not to be confused with Andrew Lippa's musical of the same name, which was presented at New York City Center in 2015 as part of the Encores! Off-Center Series.