Encores!: Jelly's Last Jam

City Center's invaluable Encores! series continues its 2024 season with a concert staging of this 1992 musical about the great jazz pianist and bandleader Jelly Roll Morton, featuring  a book by George C. Wolfe and lyrics by Susan Birkenhead set to music by Morton (with additional music by orchestrator Luther Henderson). Sweeney Todd standout Nicholas Christopher leads a first-class cast that also includes Joaquina Kalukango, Billy Porter, LEslie Uggams, John Clay III, Tiffany Mann and original cast members Mamie Duncan-Gibbs, Stephanie Pope Lofgren and Allison M. Williams. Robert O'Hara (Slave Play) directs the production, which features music direction by Jason Michael Webb and choreography by Edgar Godineaux and tap queen Dormeshia.