Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

The songs of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, from “Suddenly, Seymour” to “Under the Sea,” have become part of the American subconscious—but few have heard their first musical, Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. The 1979 show tells the story of Eliot Rosewater (Santino Fontana), a drunken millionaire who decides to blow his fortune on a town full of pitiable creatures: the illiterate, the depressed, and the eternally pregnant. But there are forces who want to put the kibosh on his philanthropy—like Norman Mushari (Skylar Astin), a lawyer plotting to have Eliot declared insane. With an irresistible crazy-quilt score that volleys between pop, ragtime, Gilbert & Sullivan, and proto-Disney ballads, Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater deserves to be part of our world again. The Encores! Off-Center production will feature orchestrations by Danny Troob, which will be heard for the first time.