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Next up at Encores Off-Center is Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. The first musical written by the blockbuster team of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, the Off-Center production will star Skylar Astin, Derrick Baskin, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Nick Choksi, Eddie Cooper, Kevin Del Aguila, Santino Fontana,Clark Johnson, James Earl Jones, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Kevin Ligon, Marla Louissaint, Liz McCartney, Bonnie Milligan, Brynn O'Malley, and Kate Wetherhead. Check out a sneak peek of the cast in action below...

Next up atEncores Off-Center is Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. The first musical written by the blockbuster team of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, the Off-Center production will star Skylar Astin, Derrick Baskin, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Nick Choksi, Eddie Cooper, Kevin Del Aguila, Santino Fontana, Clark Johnson, James Earl Jones, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Eddie Korbich, Marla Louissaint, Liz McCartney, Bonnie Milligan, Brynn O'Malley, and Kate Wetherhead.

New York City Center today announced casting for the Encores Off-Center production of Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. The first musical written by the blockbuster team of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, the Off-Center productionwill star Skylar Astin, Derrick Baskin, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Nick Choksi, Eddie Cooper, Kevin Del Aguila, Santino Fontana, Clark Johnson, James Earl Jones, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Eddie Korbich, Marla Louissaint, Liz McCartney, Bonnie Milligan, Brynn O'Malley, and Kate Wetherhead.

The mood was ecstatic last night for the first of three concert performances of Little Shop of Horrors, the nearly perfect 1982 musical that’s the centerpiece of this summer’s “Encores! Off-Center” series. (The two remaining performances are today at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.) In the dark before the purple curtain rose, the sound of the first guitar chords drew cheers of recognition; later, the evening’s big celebrity draw, Jake Gyllenhaal, though costumed for his role as the nebbishy Seymour Krelborn, was welcomed like a rock god. So too were the trio of singing urchins (Tracy Nicole Chapman, Marva Hicks, and Ramona Keller) who act as the show’s sassy chorus, and the adorable little boy (Anwar Kareem) who did nothing much but carry around the bloodlusting Venus flytrap that eventually (in a larger form played by Eddie Cooper) eats Cleveland. Saturday Night Live’s Taran Killam,...

Eddie Cooper and Joe Grifasi will join the previously announced Ellen Greene, Jake Gyllenhaal and Taran Killam in the Encores Off-Center concert production of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's Little Shop of Horrors, running for three performances, July 1-2, 2015 at New York City Center. Eddie Cooper replaces his father Chuck Cooper, who will be starring in the upcoming Broadway musical Amazing Grace.