Wikipedia
Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert is a program that has been presented by New York City Center since 1994. Encores! is dedicated to performing the full score of musicals that rarely are heard in New York City. Scores by Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Rodgers & Hart, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Kurt Weill, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, Kander and Ebb, Jule Styne, and Comden and Green have been heard at Encores! productions.
The Encores! series was awarded the Jujamcyn Theater Award in 1997, the Association for Independent Music Indie Award in 1998, Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 2000, several Lucille Lortel Awards, and an Outer Critics Circle Award. Cast recordings of the Encores! productions of Call Me Madam, Out Of This World, Pal Joey, Chicago, The Boys From Syracuse, St. Louis Woman, Babes In Arms, Do Re Mi, Tenderloin, Face the Music, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Merrily We Roll Along and Pipe Dream have been released. Videotapes of many Encores! productions are collected at the Billy Rose Theater Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
In 2007, the Encores! board created a "spin-off" summer series entitled Summer Stars; the series produced classic, well-known Broadway shows, with well-known performers, full sets and costumes. The first musical in the series was Gypsy, and was produced in July 2007. Patti LuPone starred as Rose, fresh from her acclaimed performance in Lonny Price's concert production of Gypsy at the Ravinia Festival, Chicago in 2006; Boyd Gaines played Herbie and Laura Benanti played Louise. The show received an unprecedented response for an Encores! show, and eventually transferred to Broadway at the St. James Theatre where the majority of the original company reprised their roles. LuPone, Gaines, and Benanti all won Tony Awards for their performances.
2013 saw the creation of a new spin-off series, Encores! Off-Center!, devoted to groundbreaking Off-Broadway musicals and led by Artistic Director Jeanine Tesori.