Encores! The Light in the Piazza

An American mother and daughter living in the shadow of a tragic accident find joy, memories, and undreamt-of opportunities while on vacation in 1950s Florence. Heralded as a new direction for musical theater when it opened on Broadway, The Light in the Piazza won six Tony Awards, including Best Original Score for Adam Guettel, who—following in the footsteps of his grandfather Richard Rodgers—brought surprising chromatic complexity to his lush, romantic songs, and took the adventurous step of including untranslated Italian lyrics and dialogue to better capture this cross-cultural love story.

Director Chay Yew (Cambodian Rock Band) and Tony-winning actress Ruthie Ann Miles (The King & I, City Center’s Sunday in the Park with George) embark on a deeply personal exploration of the material, transmuting the musical’s drama of encounter across barriers of language, culture, and ability into something as essential as it is revelatory.