This staged concert, part of New York City Center’s Encores! series, played a limited engagement in May 1995. Starring Peter Gallagher and Patti LuPone, the production also featured Ned Eisenberg, Vicki Lewis and Daisy Prince, with Bebe Neuwirth singing Melba’s show-stopping strip number, “Zip.” The show featured a newly-adapted book by Richard Greenberg, with direction by Lonny Price and musical direction by Rob Fisher.

Vincent Canby of The New York Times noted that, despite being “corrosive” in 1940, “In 1995, Pal Joey is a treasure. Just why is made exuberantly clear at the City Center, where the show is being given a first-rate concert staging.” Canby called Rodgers’ score “beguiling” and said “the Hart lyrics are so clever they make the mind reel. They’re also the brazenly lubricious souvenirs from a time of long-gone innocence.”