Orchestra of St. Luke’s and Carnegie Hall announce five-year series of classic American musicals in concert, led by Rob Berman and launching with On the Town directed by Shuler Hensley (Jan 11 & 12)
(June 2026) — Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) launches a five-year series in January 2027 celebrating classic American musicals with two performances of Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town, a love letter to New York City featuring a 45-piece orchestra and a cast of Broadway favorites, led by Emmy- and Grammy-winning Series Music Director Rob Berman (Jan 11 & 12, 2027). Presented by Carnegie Hall, these performances in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage follow the resounding critical and artistic success of Oklahoma! In Concert, a sold-out performance staged as part of the Hall’s “United in Sound: America at 250” festival in January 2026. Like Oklahoma! In Concert, On the Town will be directed by Drama Desk and Tony Award winner Shuler Hensley and choreographed by Chase Brock, while the schedule will expand to two performances. This new series highlights OSL’s long-standing expertise in musical theater, exhibited not only last season but in past special Carnegie Hall benefit performances of Candide: A Concert Version in 2018, Guys and Dolls in 2013, The Sound of Music in 2012, and Show Boat in 2008. Tickets for these performances can be added now to current and new subscription packages for Carnegie Hall’s 2026-2027 season. Single tickets will go on sale to the general public on August 10 at 11:00 am.
Clive Gillinson, Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall, comments:
“We are delighted to launch this new five-year initiative with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, creating a new tradition that brings iconic musicals to the concert stage. We look forward to kicking off the project next January with Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town—an exuberant love letter to New York City and a work that feels especially at home at Carnegie Hall.”
James Roe, OSL’s President and Executive Director, agrees:
“Following the tremendous success of Oklahoma! in Concert, we are thrilled to expand our partnership with Carnegie Hall through this exciting five-year series celebrating the rich legacy of American musical theater. There is no better way to launch the series than with Bernstein’s On the Town—a joyful, quintessentially New York work brought to life by top creative team Rob Berman and Shuler Hensley. We look forward to sharing this beloved musical with audiences and building on OSL’s tradition of bringing great music to life.”
Rob Berman adds:
“It doesn’t get any better than the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Carnegie Hall, and the scores of the great American musicals. I’m thrilled audiences will get to hear these pieces played by this magnificent orchestra in such a historic venue and I’m so looking forward to leading this series of concerts, starting with the dynamic On the Town by Leonard Bernstein.”
On the Town
Written in 1944, On the Town tells the musical tale of three American sailors on a 24-hour leave in New York City before they head off to fight in World War II. With music by Leonard Bernstein and script/lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the celebrated score includes many musical theater standards, including “Come Up to My Place,” “I Can Cook, Too,” “Some Other Time” and “New York, New York.” Reviewing the show in The New York Times in the year it premiered, Lewis Nichols declared: “’On the Town’ is the freshest and most engaging new musical since the golden day of ‘Oklahoma!’ Everything about it is right. It is fast and it is gay, it takes neither itself nor the world too seriously, it has wit.”
About Rob Berman
Rob Berman is an Emmy and Grammy Award-winning, New York-based conductor and music director. For fifteen years he was the music director of Encores!, New York City Center’s acclaimed series of great American musicals in concert. His many Broadway credits include Into the Woods, Bright Star, Finian’s Rainbow, and The Pajama Game. For nine years, he was music director of the Kennedy Center Honors, for which he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction.
About Shuler Hensley
Shuler Hensley is a Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning actor and director. He is the Artistic Director of City Springs Theatre Company, where his directing credits include The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Sound of Music. He also directed Orchestra of St. Luke’s sold-out Oklahoma! in Concert at Carnegie Hall, presented as part of the “United in Sound: America at 250” festival.
About Chase Brock
Chase Brock is a choreographer working in theater (Be More Chill, Picnic and Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark on Broadway, Be More Chill on the West End, the U.S., German, Austrian and Japanese companies of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the original Japanese musical The Ghost and The Lady), concert dance (19 seasons, 10 commissioned scores and 35 original works as Artistic Director of The Chase Brock Experience, including American Sadness, Big Shot, Come Home, The Four Seasons and The Girl with the Alkaline Eyes), opera (Roméo et Juliette, The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Salzburger Festspiele), television (“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” “Dash & Lily,” “Good Morning America,” “Late Show with David Letterman”), ballet (New York Theatre Ballet, Ballet Spartanburg) and video games (Dance on Broadway, Nintendo Wii).
About Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Founded in 1974, when a group of virtuoso chamber musicians began performing together at Greenwich Village’s Church of St. Luke in the Fields, Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) evolved into a full orchestra, becoming a vibrant force in New York’s classical music scene. Today OSL makes its artistic home at New York’s Carnegie Hall, where, since debuting at the venue in 1983, it has performed more concerts than any other orchestra. In addition to a concert series in each of Carnegie Hall’s three venues, OSL’s annual season features two programs spotlighting contemporary composers: Visionary Sounds and the DeGaetano Composition Institute. Both programs take place at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, the midtown Manhattan rehearsal, recording, and performance facility that was designed and built by OSL in 2011. Similarly central to OSL’s mission is the Education and Community Engagement initiative, which presents free concerts to thousands of New York City public school students each year, offers a mentorship program for pre-professional musicians, brings accessible concerts to all five boroughs, and oversees the Youth Orchestra of St. Luke’s (YOSL), the city’s only youth orchestra affiliated with a professional ensemble. OSL also proudly collaborates with Paul Taylor Dance Company each year at Lincoln Center, as well as performing with a variety of other artistic partners at venues throughout the city and beyond.
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Orchestra of St. Luke’s: On the Town In Concert at Carnegie Hall
Jan 11 & 12, 2027
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
“On the Town In Concert”
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Rob Berman, conductor
Shuler Hensley, director
Cast TBA