Call Me Madam, I Married an Angel & High Button Shoes Set for City Center Season; A Chorus Line Gala Also on Tap

New York City Center has announced the new season of its Encores! series, which mounts rarely produced musical-theater classics with Broadway stars and a full orchestra. Call Me Madam, I Married an Angel and High Button Shoes will make up the season; City Center has also announced a gala presentation of the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning musical A Chorus Line along with a concert performance of Lady in the Dark starring Tony winner Victoria Clark. The new season marks City Center's 75th anniversary.

Kicking off the Encores! season will be the 1950 musical Call Me Madam (February 6-10, 2019), featuring a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and a score by Irving Berlin. Call Me Madam centers on a brassy ambassador to the fictional European nation of Lichtenberg. The show features standards including “It’s a Lovely Day Today” and “Something to Dance About,” along with Berlin’s most famous counterpoint duet, “You’re Just in Love.” The original Broadway production, directed by George Abbott, featured a Tony-winning performance from Ethel Merman.

Next up at Encores! will be the 1938 musical I Married an Angel (March 20-24, 2019), with a book and score by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Adapted from the play by Janos Vaszary, I Married an Angel centers on the angel of the show's title, who descends from heaven to save an unhappy and unscrupulous banker from his sins. The Encores! production will be directed and choreographed by Tony nominee Joshua Bergasse and will star New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns.

The third entry in the new Encores! season will be the 1947 musical High Button Shoes (May 8-12, 2019), featuring a book by Stephen Longstreet, music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Sammy Cahn. Based on Longstreet's semi-autobiographical novel The Sisters Liked Them Handsome, High Button Shoes centers on the comic entanglements of the Longstreet family with two con men in Atlantic City. The Styne and Cahn score produced two big hits from its day: “Papa, Won’t You Dance with Me” and “I Still Get Jealous.”

Additionally, City Center's new season will feature a gala staging of the iconic 1975 musical A Chorus Line (Nov 14-18, 2018)—with a Tony-winning book by Nicholas Dante and James Kirkwood and score by Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban. The gala presentation will be led by original co-choreographer Bob Avian and original cast member Baayork Lee with music direction by Patrick Vaccariello. City Center will also feature Tony winner Victoria Clark in a two-night staging of the 1941 musical Lady in the Dark (April 25-26, 2019), with a book by Moss Hart, music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Ira Gershwin.

Additional casting and creative team members for City Center's new season will be announced at a later date.