Theater News

Jonathan Larson's tick, tick…BOOM! Leads the 2014 City Center Encores! Off-Center Lineup

”In the Heights” pair Lin-Manuel Miranda and Karen Olivo will reunite onstage in the roles created by Raúl Esparza and Amy Spanger.

Andy Lefkowitz

New York City

March 9, 2014

Karen Olivo and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who played opposite each other in the Tony-winning musical In the Heights, will again share the stage in a City Center Encores! Off-Center revival of Jonathan Larson's 2001 off-Broadway musical Tick, Tick...Boom! — Karen Olivo and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who played opposite each other in the Tony-winning musical *In the Heights*, will again share the stage in a City Center Encores! Off-Center revival of Jonathan Larson's 2001 off-Broadway musical *tick, tick…BOOM!*
(© Stephen Lovekin)

Three landmark off-Broadway musicals will lead the second season of New York City Center's Encores! Off-Center series, under the artistic direction of Jeanine Tesori.

The season opens with Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick…BOOM!, June 25-28, starring former In the Heights stars Lin-Manuel Miranda and Karen Olivo. The production will be directed by Oliver Butler. tick, tick… BOOM!, with book, music, and lyrics by Larson, is an autobiographical musical about an aspiring composer who questions his life choices on the eve of his 30th birthday. After the Rent author’s untimely death, tick, tick…BOOM! was revamped by David Auburn as a three-actor piece. It premiered off-Broadway in 2001 at the Jane Street Theatre, featuring Raúl Esparza, Amy Spanger, and Jerry Dixon. Its London production in 2005 starred Neil Patrick Harris.

The second Off-Center production will be a one-night-only performance of Randy Newman’s Faust: The Concert, featuring Newman, on July 1. The production will be directed by Thomas Kail. Faust is a musical about a hilarious falling out between the Lord and the Devil. The show opened in 1995 at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego and was revived at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in 1996.

Amy Spanger and Raúl Esparza in the 2001 off-Broadway production of Jonathan Larson's tick, tick...BOOM!. The musical will be revived this summer at City Center Encores! Off-Center. — Amy Spanger and Raúl Esparza in the 2001 off-Broadway premiere of Jonathan Larson's *tick, tick…BOOM!*
(© Joan Marcus)

Pump Boys and Dinettes, with book, music, and lyrics by John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel, and Jim Wann, concludes the 2014 series, July 16-19. Lear deBessonet directs and Danny Mefford choreographs. With a mix of country, rock, and pop music, Pump Boys and Dinettes is the story of four gas-station attendants and two waitresses at a small-town dinette in North Carolina. It premiered off-Broadway at the Chelsea West Side Arts Theatre in 1981 and opened on Broadway in 1982 at the former Princess Theatre.

The City Center Encores! Off-Center series presents short runs of off-Broadway musicals that made a particular creative mark when they were first produced. The upcoming Roundabout Theatre Company Broadway revival of Violet, starring Sutton Foster, began as a one-night performance at last summer's Off-Center series.

Off-Center also features The Lobby Project, a series of free performances, conversations, and readings by artists, poets, authors, and performers. These events place each musical in the context of its legacy and provide insights into the work the audience is about to experience.

$25 tickets to Encores! Off-Center will go on sale to City Center’s Peer to Peer members beginning March 10. Tickets to the general public will go on sale beginning March 17. All tickets begin at $25.

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