As the new year begins, the production team at the Encore Musical Theatre is gearing up for what they promise to be “a very exciting season.”

“The big concept we’re starting is our ‘Encore on the Edge’ series,” Dan Cooney, the theater's co-founder said. “Our demographic has largely been an audience that enjoys the classic musicals, but there is a whole other crowd out there that we haven’t tapped into.”

Cooney said the theater will perform several modern productions, such as The Rocky Horror Show, Rent, and a brand new musical called Nevermore using minimalistic sets and costumes to draw in younger patrons.

“It will be challenging to us because we’re adding these shows on top of our classic season line-up beginning with Little Women in February,” he said.

Little Women will run from Feb. 3 through Feb. 20, followed by Forever Plaid on April 21 through May 8, and The Music Man on July 7 through July 31.

When it comes to picking musicals, Cooney said he tries to have a nice mix.

“Basically I try to pick shows that I love and that the audiences will love,” he said.

Fresh off the heals of its successful 2010 season closer with the premiere of It’s a Wonderful Life, co-written by Cooney and Kathie Lee Gifford, Cooney said the Encore continues to thrive since opening two years ago.

“We’ve been very successful,” he said. “I think we’ve been right on target breaking even two years in a row (with costs). We continue to expand our artistic pallet, improve the sound, lighting, and tech issues, and we’re looking at eventually expanding the location for a larger lobby.”

The 2010 season saw the Encore tackle issues of temptation in Damn Yankees, educate audiences with The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, flee the Nazis in The Sound of Music, and bring the Bible to life in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar. In addition, the theatre debuted two original productions in It’s a Wonderful Life and Club Morocco.

Steve DeBruyne, assistant artistic director, said he hopes the new season will be as successful as last year’s.

“It's a Wonderful Life had 10 consecutive sold out shows at the end of the run,” DeBruyne said.  "There were other sold out shows within the run but at the end we had waiting lists and people hoping to get tickets." 

DeBruyne said the show brought in many new patrons to the theater, and helped bring in funds to offset the cost for 2011. 

"It's a Wonderful Life gave us a little bit of a pad to go into our third season, which is great,” he said.

One personal highlight of the season for DeBruyne was the challenge of playing both old and young Joe in Damn Yankees. Two separate actors typically play the role.  The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was another season highlight.

"I would love to do that again, actually, the whole cast would love to do that again.  Every night is different, you just go out and have fun,” he said.

Encore co-founder Anne Koch said she can not pick out one particular highlight from last season.

"It would be very difficult for me to chose a musical that was a favorite, or that stood out.  Each one is so special to me for different reasons," she said. "Every one of our productions has special moments, special people and the thing that I do enjoy the most, which is watching the Encore audience as they laugh, cry, smile,and sing-along.

"To me, that is the best feeling - to see how much joy we bring, especially to our senior audience.  I remember during Club Morocco, which featured music from the Big Band era, watching the smiles on men and women's faces as they heard the music that they remember from their much younger days.  I hope that we were able to give them back a few memories from yesteryear as they were invited to dance and reminisce in our theater that was transformed into Club Morocco."

Cooney said one of his highlights of the year was performing as Judas Iscariot in Jesus Christ Superstar.

“That is always one of my favorite shows to do,” he said. “It was great to be able to revisit an old chestnut with some friends.”

Working on It’s a Wonderful Life with Gifford and John McDaniel, formally of The Rosie O’Donnell Show, was also exciting, he said.

“I enjoyed all the horror and excitement that comes with premiering a new show,” he said. “The movie is such a timeless classic that everyone knows and knows well, so we didn’t want to screw it up.”

Cooney said he looks forward to expanding the musical further with new songs and dialogue and will feature it again in December.

“We’re extremely excited for this season and we’re grateful for the audiences who come back time and time again to the Encore,” he said.