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Duke Ellington’s granddaughter, Mercedes Ellington, the cast and band of the Tony Award-nominated for Best Musical After Midnight, Tony Award-nominated director and choreographer Warren Carlyle, Tony Award-nominated actress Adriane Lenox and Tony Award-nominated costume designer Isabel Toledo will lead the way today Immediately following the matinee with the cast and band (in full costume) to parade to 47th and Broadway where West 47th Street will be renamed “DUKE ELLINGTON WAY” in an official Street Sign Unveiling Ceremony. Musicians from the Jazz at Lincoln Center All-Stars (including Arthur Baron, one of the last surviving members from Ellington’s orchestra) will play two Ellington favorites for all of Times Square, in celebration.

 

Directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, the evocative new musical After Midnight takes the sexy, smoky glamour of the original Jazz Age and catapults it into a whole new era of heart-pounding, mind-blowing entertainment for modern Broadway audiences. Refracted through a contemporary lens, After Midnight celebrates Duke Ellington’s years at the Cotton Club using his original arrangements and performed by a world-class big band of 17 musicians hand-picked by living jazz legend, Wynton Marsalis. The timeless tunes set against a narrative of Langston Hughes poetry provide an authentic backdrop for an array of cutting-edge performances by 25 sensational vocalists and dancers, including special guest stars, whose interpretations shatter everything you think you know about music, nightlife and Broadway.