Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Little Me, Fella, Irma In Encores 2014 B'way Lineup

The 2014 season of New York City Center’s Tony Award–winning Encores! series will open with Little Me directed by John Rando and starring Christian Borle (“Smash,” Peter and the Starcatcher) on February 5, 2014. The season will continue with The Most Happy Fella, directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw and starring Shuler Hensley (Oklahoma!, The Whale), followed by Irma La Douce, directed by John Doyle. Encores! Music Director Rob Berman will helm all shows.

Little Me, Neil Simon’s first musical, is the story of the glamorous Belle Poitrine, a self-invented celebrity who has spent her life in pursuit of wealth, culture and social position. Her seven oddball lovers are played by one actor: seven plum roles, from an innocent college boy to an octogenarian lecher to the dying king of a tiny European country that doesn’t seem to exist. The Encores! production will star Christian Borle.

Based on the novel Little Me: The Intimate Memoirs of that Great Star of Stage, Screen and Television/Belle Poitrine, by Patrick Dennis, Little Me has a book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh. The original production starred Sid Caesar as Belle’s seven love interests. It opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 17, 1962 and ran for 257 performances. Songs include “I've Got Your Number,” “Real Live Girl”and “The Other Side of the Tracks.” Little Me will run February 5 – 9.

The Most Happy Fella, Frank Loesser’s most ambitious and romantic musical, tells the heart-stopping story of a love triangle between an aging Napa Valley farmer, a young waitress and a handsome, restless ranch hand. The Most Happy Fella will star Shuler Hensley.

The Most Happy Fella is based on the play They Knew What They Wanted by Sidney Howard. Ithas a book, music and lyrics by Frank Loesser. Loesser’s score displays an astonishing range –ardent operatic numbers stand side by side with Broadway show-stoppers – and includes “Somebody Somewhere,” “My Heart Is So Full of You,” “Big D” and “Standing on the Corner.” It opened at the Imperial Theatre on May 3, 1956 and ran for 676 performances. The Most Happy Fella will run April 2 – 6.

(HISTORICAL NOTE: The Most Happy Fella was revived by the New York City Center Light Opera at City Center for a limited run of 16 performances from February 10 through February 22, 1959.)

Encores! breaks the mold with its first musical not written on American soil with Irma La Douce, the tale of a Parisian lady of the evening and the law student who falls in love with her. It has music by Marguerite Monnot and English book and lyrics by Julian More, David Heneker and Monty Norman.

After a three-year run in Paris, an English-language version of Irma La Douce, directed by Peter Brook, enjoyed tremendous success first in London and then on Broadway. Itopened at the Plymouth Theatre on September 29, 1960 and ran for 524 performances. The score produced one standard, “Our Language of Love,” and also features “The Valse Millieu” and “Dis Donc.”Irma La Douce will run May 7 – 11.

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