Gone Missing, Songs for a New World & Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope Comprise 2018 Encores! Off-Center Season

Encores! Off-Center's co-artistic directors Anne Kauffman and Jeanine Tesori have announced programming for the 2018 season of New York City Center's beloved summer musical-theater series. The centerpiece of the season will be a special two-night-only engagement (July 11 and 12) of Gone Missing, honoring the late composer and Off-Center artistic director Michael Friedman, whose life was tragically cut short last summer. The season will open, June 27-30, with Jason Robert Brown's breakout musical Songs for a New World and close with Micki Grant and Vinnette Carroll's vibrant, radical 1971 work Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope, July 25-28.

“We wanted to celebrate the profound vision of our friend and colleague Michael Friedman, who is sorely missed,” said Kauffman. “Represented by this 2003 work with The Civilians, we’re certain that Michael’s voice will continue to break open what musical theater can be and inspire audiences and artists for decades to come.”

“This season is about the New World—songs of the moment of decision, loss and love, and the raising of the voice for change,” said Tesori. “It’s about three composer/lyricists—Jason Robert Brown, Michael Friedman and Micki Grant—whose work shines a light on the fleeting moments of life, looking back at who we were and forward to who we hope to become.”

In 2003, the New York City theater company The Civilians interviewed real people about the physical objects they’d lost—keys, a sapphire ring, a Gucci pump. The wry and whimsical docu-musical that emerged, Gone Missing, written and directed by Steven Cosson, features a fresh and breezy score by Friedman and presents a very personal account of how we deal with loss in our lives.

Songs for a New World (1995), the first musical from Tony winner Jason Robert Brown (created in collaboration with Daisy Prince), is a collection of powerful songs examining life, love and the choices ordinary people make when faced with extraordinary moments. From the deck of a 1492 Spanish sailing ship to the ledge of a Fifth Avenue high-rise, each character faces the new world which follows the unique challenge they encounter.

Frequent collaborators Micki Grant (composer and lyricist) and Vinnette Carroll (creator and director) produced a total of nine musicals for Urban Arts Corps including the Grammy-winning and Tony-nominated Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope (1971). A celebration of African-American culture and community, this radical work presents the issues of race politics in America through a lively mix of song and dance with a score that includes gospel, jazz, soul, calypso and rock.

Encores! Off-Center was founded in 2013 with the mission of presenting off-Broadway musicals that pushed creative boundaries when they were first produced. Filtered through the lens of today's artists, these shows are presented not as historical documents but as living, vital works that speak to audiences both new and old. Past productions have included Violet with Sutton Foster; Tick, Tick…BOOM! with Lin-Manuel Miranda; A New Brain with Jonathan Groff; Little Shop of Horrors with Ellen Greene and Jake Gyllenhaal; Elizabeth Swados' Runaways and The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin with Nikki M. James.

Casting for the 2018 Encores! Off-Center season will be announced at a later date.