RAGTIME, THE WILD PARTY, URINETOWN & More Set for NY City Center's 2024/25 Season

A new season is on the way at New York City Center! The line-up is set to include a star-studded gala performance of Ragtime, in addition to three new Encores! productions, which will include Urinetown, Love Life, and The Wild Party. 

“We have been welcoming a growing number of artists, audiences, and students to New York City Center for more than 80 years,” said Michael S. Rosenberg, President & CEO. “For next season, we've crafted a series of dance, musical theater, and community events that will have everyone and their friends coming back to see it all. You're not going to want to miss a moment that these international dancers, Broadway stars, new discoveries, and community leaders illuminate.” 

New York City Center’s 2024 – 2025 Season opens with the Fall for Dance Festival from September 18 through 29. An essential part of New York’s fall dance season, this annual showcase features an eclectic array of international dance artists and companies in five unique programs. 

On October 30, the Annual Gala Presentation Ragtime opens with a benefit performance followed by a gala dinner at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. Led by Tony-nominee and Encores! Artistic Director Lear deBessonet with Music Director James Moore, Ragtime follows three fictional families in pursuit of the American Dream: Black pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Joshua Henry) and his sweetheart Sarah; Latvian immigrant Tateh (Brandon Uranowitz) along with his Little Girl; and a wealthy white family led by Mother (Caissie Levy). This sweeping, powerful musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s novel of the same name with music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and a book by Terrence McNally won four Tony Awards in 1998. Presented in a special two-week run through November 10, funds raised by all 14 performances allow City Center to continue to expand access to the performing arts by subsidizing education programs and affordable tickets throughout the year.

Award-winning tap dance artist Michelle Dorrance returns to City Center with her Company in a joyful program featuring live music from November 22 through 24. Hailed for their ingenuity and expanding the boundaries of tap dance while also honoring its roots, Dorrance Dance has been a Fall for Dance favorite since 2013.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Center’s Principal Dance Company and a beloved cultural ambassador, returns December 4 - January 5 for a five-week holiday season celebrating a lineage and legacy that continues to open doors and break new ground. Ailey’s extraordinary dancers will bring to life world premieres and new productions by a number of choreographers for whom Alvin Ailey paved the way, including the 25th anniversary return of Ronald K. Brown’s blockbuster Grace, a rapturous work in which the secular and sacred meet, connecting African and American dance.

Led by Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Artistic Director Lear deBessonet, and Creative Producing Director Clint Ramos, the Tony-honored Encores! series returns in 2025 with a season of musical theater revivals to captivate both seasoned enthusiasts and newcomers alike. The series opens with Urinetown from February 5 through 16. Directed by Teddy Bergman with Encores! Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell, this side-splitting satire takes place in a dystopian city on the brink of dehydration where all citizens must pay a fee for “The Privilege to Pee” at one of the public facilities controlled by a selfish tycoon. With an incisive and clever score by Tony winner Mark Hollmann, fourth-wall-breaking humor by Hollman and Tony winner Greg Kotis, and a plot of thrilling twists and turns, Urinetown examines the darkest dilemmas of humanity—skewering everything from capitalism to environmental activism with irreverent charm and razor-sharp wit.

Love Life takes the City Center stage March 26 through 30. Originally scheduled as part of the 2019 – 2020 season, the performances were cancelled at the start of the Covid-19 shutdown. The only collaboration between Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner, this rarely staged 1948 musical depicts a love story that takes place over 200 years of American history, seen through the eyes of a family who never ages. Directed by Tony winner Victoria Clark with Guest Music Director Rob Berman, the musical explores the epic and intimate aspects of a marriage through a juxtaposition of heartfelt scenes and satirical vaudeville acts. Considered by some to be the first concept musical, Love Life is an inspiration for musical theater favorites such as Cabaret, Chicago, and Company.

Closing out the 2025 Encores! series from April 30 through May 11 is The Wild Party. With music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa and book by LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe, The Wild Party brings Joseph Moncure March’s notorious poem to life in this vivid musical adaptation. What happens when a night of debauchery leads to a morning of sobering truths? Directed by Saheem Ali with Encores! Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell, this “dangerous, seedy, fantastic” (The Observer) gin-soaked party is full of jazz-age indulgence and Vaudeville stars letting loose off-the-clock.

For more than 20 years, Flamenco Festival has brought Spain’s greatest flamenco dancers and musicians to City Center. This “beloved, yearly spectacle” (Time Out) returns from March 6 through 9 with a line-up that includes the “visionary, magisterial dancer” (The Guardian) Eva Yerbabuena, and more to be announced.

The legendary Twyla Tharp also returns from March 12 through 16 celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Twyla Tharp Dance with a program of two New York premieres. Set to Beethoven’s masterpiece of the same name, the Olivier-nominated Diabelli Variations makes visible the elegant humor and depth of the composer’s layered genius as Tharp’s movement effortlessly shifts from ballet to jazz, to modern, and even unexpected bits of social dance, accompanied by live piano. Combined with a new work set to a reimagining of Philip Glass’s iconic Aguas da Amazonia, arranged and performed live on a collection of custom-designed instruments by Third Coast Percussion, these two premiere works guarantee an evening of stellar dancing and phenomenal musicianship. 

Celebrated New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns has a long artistic relationship with City Center including eight performances in the Fall for Dance Festival, starring in Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes, and making her musical theater debut in Encores! I Married an Angel as part of the 75th Anniversary Season (2018 – 2019). This season, Mearns makes her curatorial debut as part of the ongoing Artists at the Center series. From April 3 through 5, Mearns expands the boundaries of the balletic form as both a dancer and curator in this annual series.

Bringing their bold vision for the world of classical ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem returns April 10 through 13 with an exciting season of new works and fan favorites. And from May 29 through June 1, the nation’s largest Latinx cultural organization Ballet Hispánico returns with a gala performance, their signature En Familia/Family Matinee, and CARMEN.maquia. Choreographed by Gustavo Ramírez Sansano, CARMEN.maquia is a bold and electrifying reimagining of Bizet’s timeless tale with costumes by fashion designer David DelfÍn and set designed by Luis Crespo.    

Tickets:

Tickets for the Annual Gala Presentation Ragtime go on sale at noon on May 16 to members and May 23 to the general public. Dorrance Dance and the Winter/Spring dance season go on sale to members on August 20 and to the general public on August 22. Fall for Dance Festival tickets are on sale Sunday, August 25 at 11am, with all tickets remaining at $20 (plus $10 in fees).  Tickets for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater go on sale September 10 to the general public.

Current subscribers may renew their Encores! subscriptions now through June 28. New Encores! subscriptions for members are available starting August 6 and for the general public starting August 20. Subscriptions may be purchased for the first week of two-week engagements. Encores! single tickets go on sale to members October 1 and to the general public on October 8.

Tickets can be purchased online at NYCityCenter.org, by calling 212.581.1212, or in person at the City Center Box Office. Access City Center Club is available to those 38 years of age and under and offers a limited number of $28 tickets (fees included) to City Center productions. For more information and to sign up, visit NYCityCenter.org/Access. New York City Center is located at 131 W 55th St between Sixth and Seventh avenues.

Learn more about the New York City Center Season here.