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The estimable musical-theater staged-concert series Encores! announced its first round of casting today for its spring season at New York City Center, and the centerpiece is set to be a doozy. In May, the series will present a star-studded two-week run of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's 1987 fractured-fairy-tales musical Into the Woods, starring four of Broadway's most exciting performers: Heather Headley as the Witch, Christian Borle as the Baker, Sara Bareilles as the Baker's Wife and Ashley Park as Cinderella.
This production of Into the Woods, which will run from May 4 through May 15, marks a departure of sorts from Encores!'s official mandate since its 1994 debut: to stage shows that are rarely seen in full productions, usually with their original orchestrations. Into the Woods, after all, has had two major revivals in New York in the past few years, along with a movie adaptation. In practice, however, this has always been something of a gray area: Encores! has previously created workarounds to mount Gypsy and Sunday in the Park with George, for example, both of which later moved to Broadway, following in the footsteps of earlier Encores! productions like Chicago and Wonderful Town.
Under the new artistic leadership of Lear deBessonet, who will be directing Into the Woods herself, the series is using Sondheim and Lapine's show to inaugurate what it says will be a new annual tradition to "bring together Broadway’s brightest talents with a multi-generational group including New York City public school students" in an iconic American musical. As such, it can be seen as extension of deBessonet's efforts as the founder of the Public Theater's community-minded Public Works wing.
Unlike every previous season of Encores!, the new lineup includes no musicals from before 1960. In addition to Into the Woods, the 2021–22 season will include two less well-known shows from the past few decades. Pose and Kinky Boots divo Billy Porter will adapt and direct Cy Coleman, Ira Gasman and David Newman's The Life (1997), a portrait of Times Square in the seedy 1980s, with choreography by Camille A. Brown—who will be helming a revival of for colored girls… on Broadway next year—and a cast that includes Ledisi, Mykal Kilgore, Ken Robinson and original cast member Chuck Cooper. Rounding out the season roster is Henry Krieger, Robert Lorick and Charles Blackwell's The Tap Dance Kid (1983), directed by Kenny Leon and choreographed by the young tap master Jared Grimes, and featuring original cast member Dulé Hill.
The Tap Dance Kid runs from February 2 through February 6. The Life runs from March 16 through March 20. Into the Woods runs from May 4 through May 15. Tickets start at $35. New subscriptions for the entire season are currently on sale to existing members and will go on sale to the general public on August 23; individual tickets will not be on sale until October 4 for members and October 18 for others. Click here for more information about subscriptions and tickets.