Encores! sets its sights on Off-Broadway musicals

City Center’s much-beloved Encores! series, in which three rarely seen Broadway musicals are revived each year in semi-staged concert productions with full orchestras and starry casts, is finally going to tackle Off-Broadway musicals.

This month, as part of “Encores! Off-Center,” it will stage the 1937 political diatribe “The Cradle Will Rock” and the 1978 feminist piece “I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road,” and it will present a concert of Jeanine Tesori’s 1997 musical “Violet” starring Sutton Foster.

amNewYork spoke with Tesori, who is also serving as artistic director of the series. Her musicals range from family-friendly fare, such as “Shrek” and “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” to more challenging works, such as “Violet.”