Encore! (TV series)


Encore! is an American reality web television series hosted and executive produced by Kristen Bell and Will Gluck. Based on a pilot special aired on ABC on December 10, 2017, the series premiered on Disney+ on November 12, 2019.

Premise

Encore! reunites the cast members of high school musicals to recreate their performance years after they originally performed.

Production

Development

A television special, also titled Encore! and hosted by Bell, aired on ABC on December 10, 2017. It reunited the cast of a 1997 South Hills High School production of Into the Woods to recreate their original performance.
In April 2019, Disney+ ordered a series based on the special, to be hosted and executive produced by Kristen Bell.
When asked during the COVID-19 pandemic about the future of the series, creator Jason Cohen said, "Obviously, things right now are a little bit funky, with the coronavirus, and things have been thrown into flux a bit. But we are hoping we can do more."

Episodes

Special (2017)

Season 1 (2019–20)

Release

Encore! debuted on November 12, 2019, on the streaming service Disney+ in 4K HDR. Episodes were released weekly rather than all at once.

Marketing

A first trailer of the show was released on August 23, 2019, at the Disney+ Panel at D23 Expo 2019.

Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 68% approval rating for the first season with an average rating of 6.75/10, based on 16 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "While it often feels more like a dress rehearsal, Encore! has just enough charm to keep theater lovers in their seats–though everyone else may duck out at intermission". Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 63 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
The show was honored with a 2019 Directors Guild of America Award for Best Directing for a Reality Program.