Photo Flash: Encores! 'MUSIC IN THE AIR'

Kern and Hammerstein's Music in the Air, the second Encores! production of New York City Center's 2008-09 season, runs February 5-8. Music in the Air, a rarely seen 1932 musical, is directed by Gary Griffin with music direction by Rob Berman and choreography by Michael Lichtefeld. The production runs for five performances at City Center, West 55th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues).

The cast includes Kristin Chenoweth, Douglas Sills, Dick Latessa, Marni Nixon, Tom Alan Robbins, Sierra Boggess, Walter Charles, Anne L. Nathan, David Schramm, Ryan Silverman and Robert Sella.

Music in the Air, with music by Jerome Kern, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett, has been restored by the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization and has not been seen in New York in its original form since its premiere Broadway engagement at the Alvin Theatre in 1932. Opening on November 8th of that year, it played for 342 performances in a production directed by the authors. A revised version had a brief revival at the Ziegfeld Theatre in 1951.

Music in the Air is a musical romance, with the wit and elegance of an Ernst Lubitsch film. It's the story of a Bavarian music teacher (Robbins), his beautiful young daughter (Boggess), and the daughter's suitor (Silverman), who travel to the big, bad city of Munich where they encounter a cast of self-involved, egotistical theater folk who promise them fame, fortune and romance. Kristin Chenoweth and Douglas Sills play a Diva (Chenoweth) and an egotistical operetta librettist (Sills) who take the young couple under their wings (and claws). Songs include "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star" and "The Song Is You."

Photos by Joan Marcus

Douglas Sills and Kristin Chenoweth

Douglas Sills, Kristin Chenoweth and Sierra Boggess

Marni Nixon and Dick Latessa

Ryan Silverman and Kristin Chenoweth

Sierra Boggess and Ryan Silverman

Ryan Silverman, Sierra Boggess and Tom Alan Robbins

Ryan Silverman, Kristin Chenoweth, Sierra Boggess and Douglas Sills