Billy Porter in La Cage Aux Folles highlights theatre season

A musical comedy about a half-boy, half-bat creature, directed by a Tony winner, and an all-black revival of the farce La Cage Aux Folles, starring Billy Porter, will highlight the 2025-26 musical theatre season at New York City Center.

- SARAH BAHR

The four-show line-up is the first chosen by the centre's new vice president and artistic director of musical theatre, Jenny Gersten, who is taking over programming from Lear deBessonet, who was named the artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater.

Gersten, who had for three years been the artistic director of the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts before joining New York City Center as vice president and producer in 2020, said she aimed to focus on the original mission of the 32-year-old Encores! concert series, which stages short-run productions of decades-old musicals, many of which are rarely revived.

"A lot of people think about the Encores! series as being for revivals of musicals that you might not otherwise see, but the rationale for Encores! was always the chance to hear the orchestrations as they were originally intended," she said.

First up is the annual gala presentation, which will be