On the Town, Music in the Air and Finian's Rainbow Set for Encores!

On the Town, the first Broadway musical written by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, with original choreography by Jerome Robbins, will open the 2008-2009 Encores! season. The musical will run from November 19, through November 23, and will be included as part of the citywide Leonard Bernstein 90th birthday celebration. The season will continue with the rarely seen Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II tuner, Music in the Air, which will run from February 5 through February 8. It will conclude with Finian's Rainbow, running March 26 through March 29.

On the Town is set in wartime 1944 and inspired by Robbins' ballet Fancy Free. It follows three sailors' adventurous 24-hour leave in New York City. The production originally played at Broadway's Adelphi Theatre in 1944 for a total of 462 performances. On the Town has since enjoyed two Rialto revivals, one in 1971 and the other in 1998. The show was memorably made into a big budget movie in 1949, starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin as the three sailors.

Music in the Air was directed by its authors at the Alvin Theatre in 1932 and has been restored with assistance by the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. The show, about one quarrelling musically inclined couple using another young pair to rouse jealously and lust in their failing relationship, had a brief revival at the Ziegfeld Theatre in 1951. It was made into a film in 1934, starring Gloria Swanson, John Boles and Douglass Montgomery.

Finian's Rainbow, the classic musical hit by Burton Lane, E.Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy, opened at the 46th Street Theatre on January 10, 1949. The show played for a total of 725 performances, winning Michael Kidd a Tony Award for his choreography. The musical follows Irishman Finian McLonergan and his daughter Sharon, who arrive in the small Southern town of Rainbow Valley in the mythical state of Missitucky with plans to bury a stolen pot of gold in the shadows of Fort Knox. They have been followed from Ireland by the owner of the gold, a leprechaun, who shows up determined to recover his treasure. The show was revived in 1955 and again in 1960.

Encores! Musical Director Rob Berman will musical direct and conduct all three productions. Casting and creative teams will be announced at a later date.