STAGE TUBE: ENCORES! Alumni Kelli O'Hara, Victoria Clark, Chuck Cooper and More Reminisce for 20th Anniversary

The Encores! 20th Anniversary season opens on January 30, and Encores! alums have been sending in their best wishes. Below, check out a video of Stephen Wallem, Victoria Clark, Mylinda Hull, Chuck Cooper, Elizabeth Stanley, Judy Kaye, Mayor Bloomberg and more riffing on their Encores! experiences!

The anniversary season opens with Bock and Harnick's Fiorello! (January 30 - February 3), the story of Mayor Fiorello LaGuarda, the man singularly responsible for saving City Center from the wrecking ball, and transforming it into Manhattan's first performing arts center. The season will continue with It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman, followed by On Your Toes. Encores! Music Director Rob Berman will helm both Fiorello! and It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman. Founding Encores! Music Director Rob Fisher will return as Music Director for On Your Toes.

New York City Center Encores! (Artistic Director Jack Viertel and Music Director Rob Berman), has presented 57 musical productions since its founding in 1994 for an audience of more than half a million people. The series celebrates the rarely heard works of America's most important composers and lyricists. Each season, Encores! gives three glorious scores the chance to be heard as their creators originally intended. Each production is a whirlwind, with just eight days of rehearsals, one day of dress rehearsal and seven performances. The cast is backed by The Encores! Orchestra, often more than 30 players strong.

Over the years, Encores! has presented the works of Harold Arlen, Burt Bacharach, Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, George and Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Stephen Sondheim, Kurt Weill and many others. The program received a special 2000 Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre, as well as an Outer Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award and Jujamcyn Theater Award. Past productions have included Christine Baranski, Kristin Chenoweth, Tyne Daly, Christine Ebersole, Sutton Foster, Anne Hathaway, Heather Headley, Megan Hilty, Cheyenne Jackson, Patti LuPone, Donna McKechnie, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Donna Murphy, Bebe Neuwirth, Rosie O'Donnell, Kelli O'Hara, Lynn Redgrave, Ann Reinking, Vanessa L. Williams, Charles Dutton, Peter Gallagher, Nathan Lane, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Robert Morse, James Naughton, Martin Short, Jock Soto, Patrick Wilson and Jerry Zaks.

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