ABC is airing a one-hour musical television special Encore! It’s the baby of actress/singer Kristen Bell (Bad Moms, The Good Place, Frozen) who is the executive producer of the special. She’s reunited the cast of a high school musical (Stephen Sondheim’s Tony winning musical Into the Woods) and asks them to perform it again 20 years later. But this time around, the actors and singers get to work under the tutelage of Broadway directors, choreographers and voice coaches. Why does a Hollywood movie star (Bell) want to take on such a project?
Bell explains, “My first high school musical was a watershed moment, changing the way I experienced the world from thereafter and I often think, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to re-live that?’” She’s hoping others will re-discover their love of high school theater. Note: After studying at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Bell made her Broadway debut as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 2001. The following year she starred in the Broadway revival of The Crucible. Encore! will air Sunday, December 10 at 10pm on ABC.
