Christian Borle and Laura Michelle Kelly Will Star in Encores! Production of ME AND MY GIRL

Encores! Artistic Director Jack Viertel today announced casting for Me and My Girl, the final production of the Encores! at 25 season at New York City Center. Me and My Girl, the first Encores! production originally written and produced in London's West End, will star Christian Borle, Suzzanne Douglas, Mark Evans, Harriet Harris, Edward Hibbert, John Horton, Simon Jones, Laura Michelle Kelly, Lisa O'Hare, Ken Page, and Don Stephenson.

The ensemble includes Alex Aquilino, Maddy Apple, Philip Attmore, Florrie Bagel, Sam Bolen, Abby Church, Jake Corcoran, Christine DiGiallonardo, Jordan Grubb, Brittany Rose Hammond, Jared Howelton, Lizzie Klemperer, Eloise Kropp, Cory Lingner, David Scott Purdy, Mariah Reshea Reives, Price Waldman, Jessica Wockenfuss, and Chaz Wolcott.

The toast of the 1937 London season, Me and My Girl is a delightfully old-fashioned musical about Cockney everyman Bill Snibson (Christian Borle) who, after being unexpectedly elevated to the lofty position of Earl of Hareford, wreaks havoc on high society and risks losing his girl, Sally Smith (Laura Michelle Kelly). Part music hall frolic, part class-warfare comedy, Me and My Girl features an infectious score by Noel Gay, which includes popular songs like "Leaning on a Lamp Post" and "The Lambeth Walk" - the famous first act finale that launched a worldwide dance craze. A newly revised version of the show opened in London in 1984 and became a smash hit for a second time. That production transferred to Broadway at the Marquis Theatre on August 10, 1986 and ran for 1,420 performances.

Directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, the Encores! production will feature music direction by Rob Berman. Me and My Girl will run for seven performances at New York City Center from May 9 - 13, concluding the Encores! at 25 season.

The 2018 Encores! season is made possible by Roz and Jerry Meyer, Stacey and Eric Mindich, Nathalie and Pablo Salame, The Shubert Foundation, and the Stephanie and Fred Shuman Fund for Encores!

Support for Me and My Girl is generously provided by The Malkin Fund and The Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust.

Encores! at 25
Me and My Girl
May 9 - 13, 2018
Wed & Thu at 7:30pm, Fri at 8pm, Sat at 2 & 8pm, Sun at 2 & 7pm

Book and Lyrics by L. Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber
Book revised by Stephen Fry, with contributions by Mike Ockrent
Music by Noel Gay
Featuring The Encores! Orchestra
Encores! Artistic Director Jack Viertel
Encores! Music Director Rob Berman
Directed and Choreographed by Warren Carlyle

Warren Carlyle (Director & Choreographer) Broadway: directed and choreographed After Midnight (Tony Award for Choreography; previously Encores! Special Event titled Cotton Club Parade), Chaplin, Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway, Finian's Rainbow (previously Encores!), and A Tale of Two Cities. He choreographed She Loves Me, On the Twentieth Century, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, A Christmas Story, and Follies. He directed and choreographed the 2015 Radio City New York Spring Spectacular starring The Rockettes. Additional New York/international credits: directed and choreographed On Your Toes (City Center Encores!); choreographed "Carousel" (New York Philharmonic; Emmy Award nomination); choreographedGirl Crazy, On the Town, Finian's Rainbow, Juno, Stairway to Paradise (Encores!), and 101 Dalmatians(Madison Square Garden/national tour). Directed and choreographed the sold-out Australian arena tour Hugh Jackman: Broadway to Oz. Television: staging of the 68th and 69th Annual Tony Awards (CBS) and So You Think You Can Dance (Fox).

Rob Berman (Encores! Music Director) is in his 11th season as music director of Encores! for which he has conducted close to 30 productions and four cast recordings. Berman's Broadway credits include Bright Star,Tuck Everlasting, Dames at Sea, Finian's Rainbow, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, The Pajama Game, The Apple Tree, Wonderful Town, and Promises, Promises. For nine years he was music director of the Kennedy Center Honors on CBS, for which he won an Emmy Award for outstanding musical direction. He has conducted for Barbara Cook with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and he was also music director for the PBS presentation of A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House. Other credits include Sunday in the Park with George (Kennedy Center, Helen Hayes Award), Pacific Overtures, and Passion (Classic Stage Company). Recordings include the complete restored score of Jerome Kern's Roberta for New World Records.

New York City Center (Arlene Shuler, President & CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city since 1943. For 25 years, City Center's Tony-honored Encores! series has been "an essential New York institution" (The New York Times). In 2013, City Center launched the Encores! Off-Center series, which features seminal Off-Broadway musicals filtered through the lens of today's innovative artists. Dance has also been integral to the theater's mission from the start and programs like the annual Fall for Dance Festival remain central to City Center's identity. Home to a roster of renowned national and international companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (City Center's Principal Dance Company) and Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City Center was Manhattan's first performing arts center, founded with the mission of making the best in music, theater, and dance accessible to all audiences. That mission continues today through robust education and community engagement programs which bring the performing arts to over 9,000 New York City students each year and the expansion of the theatrical experience to include art exhibitions, pre-show talks, and master classes that offer an up-close look at the work of the great theater and dance artists of our time. NYCityCenter.org