The City Center Encores! series will present a first-ever summer program this year. Called Encores! Summer Stars, it will kick off with Tony winner Patti LuPone playing Mama Rose in Gypsy, running from July 9 to 29. Librettist Arthur Laurents will direct the production.
LuPone previously headlined the classic musical, which features a score by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, during a brief concert production at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago in August 2006 under the direction of Lonny Price.
LuPone won a Tony Award in 1980 for originating the role of Eva Peron in the Broadway production of Evita, having been previously nominated for The Robber Bridegroom four years earlier. She also appeared on Broadway in Working, Oliver!, Anything Goes, Patti LuPone on Broadway, Master Class, The Old Neighborhood, Matters of the Heart, Noises Off and Sweeney Todd.