Photos: New York City Center Opens PAL JOEY With Benefit Performance

New York City Center's Pal Joey opened with a benefit performance last night, November 1, and BroadwayWorld was there! Check out photos below!

The production runs through November 5, celebrating 80 years at the center or the arts, followed by a gala dinner at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. Funds raised by all seven performances help to ensure the future of City Center’s founding mission: to provide all New Yorkers affordable access to world-class performing arts. 

The cast is led by Brooks Ashmanskas (Melvin), Jeb Brown (Tony), Loretta Devine (Lucille), Aisha Jackson (Linda), Elizabeth Stanley (Vera), and Ephraim Sykes (Joey).

Joining the cast are ensemble members Mary Antonini, Taylor Marie Daniel, Leandra Ellis-Gaston, Jodeci Milhouse, NaTonia Monét, Rory Shirley, and Allysa Shorte. As dance plays an essential role in storytelling for this adaptation, the ensemble also includes Krystina M. Burton, Marshall L. Davis Jr., Dormeisha, Savion Glover, Jarvis Manning, and Brittany Nicole Parks, who appear as descendants of ancestral spirits that speak in the language of dance.

In this revival, reconceived by co-director and choreographer Savion Glover and co-director Tony Goldwyn, Joey Evans (Ephraim Sykes) is a Black jazz singer who refuses to compromise on his craft as he struggles to make it big on the Chicago nightclub circuit. With a new book by Richard LaGravenese and Daniel “Koa” Beaty, the production reimagines Linda English (Aisha Jackson) as a radio chanteuse trying to find her authentic voice, and Vera Simpson (Elizabeth Stanley) as a liberated white socialite following her passions. Rodgers and Hart classics like “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “Do It the Hard Way,” “I Could Write a Book,” and “That Terrific Rainbow” are joined by gems like “I Wish I Were in Love Again,” “Falling In Love With Love,” “My Heart Stood Still,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” and “This Funny World.”

Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski