Former classmates are reunited years after graduation to rehearse and perform their high school musical one more time in Encore!, ABC’s new one-hour musical television special premiering December 10 at 10 PM ET.
Frozen and The Good Place star Kristen Bell, who is a theatre kid herself, hosts and executive produces the documentary-style special which follows former students reprising their roles from their 1997 high school production of Into the Woods in its premiere episode.
“They’re a diverse cast of people who we felt would benefit coming back together again,” Bell told Playbill. “Two of them were high school sweethearts. One of them is pregnant now. Two of them were best friends and one had an announcement to make to the group he had never told them before. We just felt like there was a great story behind all of them and the best part about it is they were all incredibly eager to get back onstage.”
Check out the trailer for the special at the bottom.
Broadway directors, choreographers, and voice coaches are brought in to rehearse the cast for one week in preparation for their encore performance.
As of its premiere, it has not yet been picked up as a full series.
Encore! was created and is co-executive produced by Jason Cohen, Alycia Rossiter, Will Gluck, Richard Schwartz, Jim Roush, and Chris Wagner. Anthony Carbone is editor and executive producer.
Bell, whose roots are in musical theatre, starred as Dorothy in her high school production of The Wizard of Oz. She appeared on Broadway in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Crucible, and starred in the role of Mary Lane in the Off-Broadway musical Reefer Madness. She voiced the role of Anna in the Disney hit film Frozen.
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