Billy Porter to Star in La Cage aux Folles at New York City Center Encores!

New York City Center has announced its 2025-26 theater season.

This year’s gala presentation will be the cult musical Bat Boy, directed by Alex Timbers. Running October 29-November 9, Bat Boy is inspired by a tabloid article from the 1990s and tells the story of a half-human, half-bat teenager who searches for acceptance in a small town after he’s discovered living in a cage. It has a score by Laurence O’Keefe and book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming.

On tap for Encores! are two rarely seen musicals and a genuine classic, reimagined.

High Spirits, a musical adaptation of Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit, written by Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray, will run February 4-15, 2026, under the direction of Jessica Stone.

Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe’s The Wild Party will run March 18-29. The Wild Party was postponed from this recent season, when the attached director was Saheem Ali. Lili-Anne Brown now takes the helm.

Finally, Tony winner Billy Porter will play Albin in a new production of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s La Cage aux Folles, directed by Robert O’Hara. Joseph Joubert will serve as music director for this first-ever New York mounting of La Cage with an all-Black company. It runs June 17-28.

Casting and additional details will be revealed in the coming months.