The Band Wagon

Based on the 1953 MGM film, The Band Wagon is the classic showbiz tale of a washed-up Hollywood star (Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell) who attempts to make a comeback by doing a Broadway show, and encounters an assortment of colorful characters: a British director who is a genius but has no business directing a musical (Tony Award nominee Tony Sheldon), a leading lady who's never done a show before (Tony Award nominee Laura Osnes), and a composer and a lyricist who are at each other's throats (Academy Award nominee Michael McKean and seven-time Emmy Award winner Tracey Ullman). All things that could never happen in the New York theater today.

Written by Broadway's ultimate insiders, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the 1953 film used Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz's wonderful songs to tell their story and took its title from the famed 1931 Broadway revue written by Schwartz, Dietz, and George S. Kaufman. Now five-time Tony Award nominee Douglas Carter Beane will use the original Comden and Green screenplay (including scenes never filmed) as a basis for this Encores! Special Event, with a glorious score that includes "Dancing in the Dark," "By Myself," "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan," "A Shine on My Shoes," and that great anthem for all of show business, "That's Entertainment."