This evocative new musical celebrates Duke Ellington’s years at the Cotton Club using his original arrangements, along with timeless songs of Harold Arlen, Cab Calloway and their contemporaries, woven together by the prose of Langston Hughes. The Jazz at Lincoln Center All-Stars, 17 musicians hand-picked by jazz legend Wynton Marsalis, puts you at the center of one of Harlem’s legendary nightclubs in a hotbed of Jazz–its intoxicating rhythms, its innovative style, its unpredictable danger and fun. Special guest stars, beginning with Grammy®-winner Fantasia, join offer vocal interpretations that shatter everything you think you know about music, nightlife and Broadway.

After Midnight began at City Center Encores in 2011 under the title Cotton Club Parade. The show played an encore engagement in the fall of 2012.

• The opening night cast includes past Tony-winner Adriane Lenox and past-nominees Desmond Richardson and Karine Plantadit.
• The musical reintroduces the Cotton Club's tradition of welcoming contemporary stars in limited engagements throughout a show's run. After Fantasia, the second announced guest star was K. D. Lang.