Full Casting Set for Savion Glover-Helmed Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope at Encores! Off-Center

Casting is complete for Encores! Off-Center's highly anticipated new staging of Micki Grant and Vinnette Carroll's Tony-nominated 1971 musical Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope. Directed and choreographed by Tony winner Savion Glover with music direction by Annastasia Victory, the previously announced production will run at New York City Center from July 25-28.

Leading the principal cast will be Rheaume Crenshaw (Groundhog Day), Dayna Dantzler (Waitress), Aisha de Haas (Caroline, or Change), James T. Lane (King Kong) and Wayne Pretlow (The Civil War). The ensemble will include Alexandria Bradley (Shuffle Along), Marshall L. Davis Jr. (Shuffle Along), CK Edwards (Shuffle Along), Shonica Gooden (Cats), Marla McReynolds (The Color Purple), Amber Barbee Pickens (Cirque du Soleil Paramour), Jeffry Foote and Nina Hudson.

Frequent collaborators Grant (composer and lyricist) and Carroll (creator and director) produced a total of nine musicals for Urban Arts Corps including Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope. A celebration of African-American culture and community, the 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 Filtered through the lens of today's artists, these shows are presented not as historical documents but as living, vital works that speak to audiences both new and old.