Of Thee I Sing to Conclude City Center Encores! Season

Of Thee I Sing, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical by George and Ira Gershwin, George S. Kaufman, and Morrie Riskind, will conclude the 2006 season of the City Center Encores! series with performances May 11-15.

A political satire about a U.S. President named John Wintergreen, the show opened on Broadway on December 26, 1931 and ran for 441 performances. In addition to the title song, the score’s hits include “Who Cares?” and “Love is Sweeping the Country.” (Because the Pulitzer was awarded for “Drama,” George Gershwin did not actually receive the award.)

Of Thee I Sing had a brief encore engagement on Broadway in the summer of 1933, chalking up another 32 performances. A 1952 revival, starring Jack Carson, ran only 72 performances. In 1972, CBS-TV aired a rewritten version of the musical starring Carroll O’Connor, Jack Gilford, Cloris Leachman, and Michele Lee. Concert performances of the show in its original form, with Larry Kert, Jack GIlford, and Maureen McGovern heading the cast and Gershwin scholar Michael Tilson Thomas conducting, took place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in 1987. The L.A. Reprise! series presented Of Thee I Sing in 1998 and the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey revived the show last year, with Ron Bohmer starring as Wintergreen.

As previously reported, the 2006 Encores! season will begin February 9-12 with Kismet, starring Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie. It will followed March 30-April 2 by 70, Girls, 70, the 1971 Kander & Ebb musical about spunky senior citizens. For further information on Encores! and other City Center events, visit www.citycenter.org