The tagline for Love Life may seem strange at first: It's a show about a family over 200 years who never ages. But to get one thing out of the way: "We are not vampires," says Kate Baldwin, who leads the musical at New York City Center alongside Brian Stokes Mitchell. But the Tony-nominated actor did compare the musical to a certain popular television show with a sci-fi concept: "It's very Severance in that we don't know what era we're in...the rules are different." Hear from the show's cast and creative team in the video above.
Love Life, created by Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner, was first produced in 1948 and has rarely been produced since. That makes it perfect for the Encores! series, which typically spotlights rarely produced musicals. And, in fact, the musical was supposed to be produced before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, but was postponed until now. Love Life runs March 26–30.
Consulting producer Jack Viertel, who ran the Encores! series and who departed City Center in 2020, was asked to come back to help oversee this particular production, which is near to his heart: "The show is just a spectacular experiment from a long time ago, and when you see it, you can see bits of pieces of Cabaret and Company and Follies and all of these concept musicals that followed. Hal Prince, who worked on all of those, said Love Life was one of the most important shows he saw as a young person because it introduced the idea of cracking open the narrative and do it in a completely different way."
Two-time Tony winner Victoria Clark (Kimberly Akimbo; The Light in the Piazza) is directing.
The cast also includes Sara Jean Ford as Miss Ideal Man, Clarke Thorell as Mr. Cynic, Andrea Rosa Guzman as Elizabeth Cooper, and Christopher Jordan as Johnny Cooper. (Baldwin, Mitchell, Edwards, Ford, and Thorell were all part of the canceled 2020 production.)
The ensemble includes Kate Bailey, Jordan Barrow, Adam Bashian, Kerry Conte, John Harmon Cooper, Daniel Everidge, Nicole Fernandez-Coffaro, Ta’Nika Gibson, Joseph Ryan Harrington, Mary Illes, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Esther Lee, Cory Lingner, Cameron Loyal, Renni Anthony Magee, Robin Masella, Michael Milkanin, Kristin Piro, Nathan Andrew Riley, Heath Saunders, Daniel Schwait, Allyson Tucker, Nicholas Ward, and Minami Yusui.
The production also has choreography by JoAnn Hunter, music direction by Rob Berman, scenic design by Ryan Howell, costume design by Tracy Christensen, lighting design by Paul Miller, sound design by Scott Lehrer, hair and wig design by J. Jared Janas, and illusions and magic by Skylar Fox. Casting for Love Life is by The Telsey Office's Destiny Lilly.
The 2025 Encores! season will conclude with Wonderful Town, starring Aisha Jackson and Anika Noni Rose (April 30–May 11).
For additional information visit NYCityCenter.org.
