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Flashback Friday: Fred Astaire Got Some Shine on His Shoes in The Band Wagon

But he’s got nothin’ on the Encores! cast featuring Brian Stokes Mitchell, Laura Osnes, and Michael McKean.

In 1953, Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse hitched their stars to The Band Wagon, the movie musical written by Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Alan Jay Lerner and featuring music by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz. Over six decades later, this song-and-dance extravaganza is finally getting the stage production it always deserved.

Brian Stokes Mitchell, Laura Osnes, Michael McKean, and more Broadway favorites star in a Douglas Carter Beane adaptation of the musical at Encores!, offering only 12 performances from November 6-16. Stokes shuffles into the role that dance legend Fred Astaire originated, and he does his predecessor proud — albeit with a little less dancing and a little more velvety crooning.

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