Entitled Carefree: Dancin' with Fred & Ginger, the song-and-dance spectacular will be co-produced by New Jersey Performing Arts Center and RKO Stage. The production will have its tryout at NJPAC's Victoria Theater November 4-5, followed by a November 6 performance at Princeton's McCarter Theatre Center. The tour will continue to a handful of cities before concluding by Thanksgiving. Plans are underway for a national tour to resume in 2017.

Carefree will pay homage to Astaire and Rogers’ show-stopping numbers from their nine films for RKO Pictures.

Carlyle, a Tony winner for his choreography of After Midnight, said in a statement, “I don't want to make a reflective history; it's important to deliver certain moments, and I want this reimagining to be inspired, but not bound, by choreography…What we'll have is an incredible combination of the past and present.”

The greatest dance duo of Tinseltown's golden era of musicals will be portrayed by a company of six to be announced at a later date. An onstage band will strike up American Songbook favorites by composers such as Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and the Gershwins, including “Night and Day,” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” “Cheek to Cheek” and more.

Carlyle promises “a visual feast as well as a choreographic feast.” The scenic design will incorporate many of RKO's treasured film clips, along with state-of-the-art digital scenery and projections that “take spectators from rehearsal studio settings to far-flung, exotic locales,” according to press notes. Costuming will take a leaf from more than a half-century of high-style, trendsetting couture.

Casting and creative team as well as ticket information will be announced at a later date. Visit njpac.org and mccarter.org.