Tony Award-Winning Signature Theatre Announces Summer Events

This summer, the Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre features exciting performances ranging from its specialty, fully staged musicals with Ititle of show] and Chess, to its popular cabaret evenings of show tunes, jazz, blues, and rock.  The summer offerings are topped off by the annual Target Open House on July 17, a free all-day extravaganza for the whole family.  Tickets to Signature are available by calling Ticketmaster at (703) 573-SEAT (7328) or visiting www.signature-theatre.org.  Group discounts are available for parties of ten or more.

Signature's Summer Schedule:

Through June 27
The Washington Premiere of the musical
[title of show]
Music and Lyrics by Jeff Bowen
Book by Hunter Bell
Directed by Matthew Gardiner
Tickets: $52 - $76

The hit musical comedy [title of show], winner of three Obie Awards and a Tony nomination, is a zany take on two friends' decision to write a musical.  When two struggling writers, Jeff and Hunter, decide to submit their own musical to a festival, they find the process of writing a musical itself more interesting than any play or movie they could adapt.  So assisted by actress friends Susan and Heidi (and Larry on the piano), they chose their subject - two friends writing about what to write about.  [title of show] puts the audience right in the middle of the creative process-dizzy, unpredictable, and uproarious.  Helen Hayes Award-winner Matthew Gardiner directs this love letter to musical theater - a uniquely American art form - and to the joys of collaboration.

June 24 - 26
"Signature Sings" Performances
Tickets: $33
The final chapter in Signature's 20th Anniversary series ends with a bash in The MAX Theatre featuring songs from the last five years at Signature.  Eleasha Gamble, Will Gartshore, Tracy Lynn Olivera, and Bligh Voth will perform from Signature Productions including Pacific Overtures, Urinetown, Nevermore, My Fair Lady, Saving Aimee, The Witches of Eastwick, Merrily We Roll Along, Glory Days, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Happy Time, The Visit, Ace, Les Misérables, and Giant.

July 6 - 24
Signature's "Sizzlin' Summer Cabaret" Performances
Tickets: $20
Signature offers three weeks of live music and performances ranging from cabaret and show tunes to jazz, blues, and rock. Resident Director Matthew Gardiner has lined up the best talent from Broadway and beyond for Signature's summer audience:

July 6, 8pm
Nynth Avenue Drifters
July 7, 8pm
NYC Singer-Songwriter Circle
July 8, 8pm
Next Generation Honorees Showcase
Chris Miller & Scott Davenport Richards
July 9, 8pm
21/24: Tamar & The River
July 10, 8pm
21/24: Tamar & The River
July 13, 8pm
Nick Blaemire & Danica Dora
July 14, 8pm
Bligh Voth & Weslie Woodley
July 15, 8pm
Tracy Lynn Olivera
July 16, 7:30pm
Ain't Got No: A Rock/Pop Cabaret
July 16, 9:30pm
Will Gartshore
July 20, 8pm
Stephen Gregory Smith & Karissa Swanigan
July 21, 8pm
Sandy Bainum Sings Dorothy Parker
July 22, 8pm
Natascia Diaz with Michael Pemberton
July 23, 7:30pm
Marcy Heisler & Zina Goldrich
July 23, 9:30pm
Bob McDonald Sings John Raitt
July 24, 7:30pm
Colleen McHugh: The Songs of Judy Garland
July 24, 9:30pm
Natascia Diaz

Saturday, July 17 from noon - 9:30 pm
Signature's Target Open House
Tickets: Free!

Signature celebrates the best in musical theater and drama at its Target Open House on Saturday, July 17 from noon - 9:30 pm.  Free and open to the public, this fun-filled special event sponsored by Target is 9½ hours of exciting performances, master classes, demonstrations, exhibits, and kids' activities offered in locations all over the Signature Theatre complex and on the Plaza.  Events begin every 15 minutes.   Details to be announced.

The Target Open House is sponsored by Target.

August 10 - September 26, 2010
CHESS
Book by Richard Nelson
Music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson
Lyrics by Tim Rice
Directed by Eric Schaeffer
The MAX
Tickets: $55 - $81

Washington's First Major Production of the 1984 Rock Musical by the Composers of Mamma Mia!

Broadway's Jill Paice (Curtains, The 39 Steps), Euan Morton (Boy George in Taboo, Sondheim on Sondheim), and Jeremy Kushnier (Footloose, Rent) star in the rock musical Chess, to be directed by Signature's Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer.  Written by Mamma Mia! composers Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson with Evita and Lion King lyricist Tim Rice, the 1984 cult musical of Cold War competition in love and chess is being given its first major Washington area production.  Chess features the hit single "One Night in Bangkok," and unforgettable songs as such "Anthem," "I Know Him So Well," "Nobody's Side," and "Pity the Child."  Time Magazine called it "one of the best rock scores ever produced in the theater."

AMENITIES - ALI'S BAR
Starting one hour before and extending for one hour after performances, patrons can visit Ali's Bar for outstanding wine, beer, mixed drinks, and chef-prepared light fare.  The theater's much praised source of refreshment overlooking a tree-lined boulevard has been masterminded by wine expert Suzanne McGrath, the proprietor of Shirlington's gourmet wine store, The Curious Grape.  Ticket purchase is not required to eat or drink at Ali's Bar.

ABOUT SIGNATURE
Recipient of the 2009 Regional Theatre Tony Award, Signature Theatre is a non-profit professional theater company dedicated to producing contemporary musicals and plays, reinventing classic musicals, and developing new work.  Under the leadership of co-founder and Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer and Managing Director Maggie Boland, Signature has become renowned for combining Broadway-quality productions with intimate playing spaces.  In addition to the finest talent from the DC metropolitan area and New York, Signature has been a home to such theater luminaries as John Kander and Fred Ebb, Cameron Mackintosh, Terrence McNally, and the company's signature composer, Stephen Sondheim.  Since its founding in 1989, Signature has been nominated for 276 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in the professional theater and has been honored with 70 Helen Hayes Awards, including Outstanding Musical in 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2009, and Outstanding Play in 1999.

Signature is partially supported by a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts and by a gift from Arlington County through the Arlington Commission for the Arts and the Cultural Affairs Division of the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources.

Directions
Signature Theatre is just nine minutes from the Washington Monument in Arlington's Shirlington Village.  The theater complex is located at 4200 Campbell Avenue (22206) off I-395 at the Shirlington exit.  After the exit, blue Signature signs mark the way to the Theatre.  Free parking is available in two adjacent public garages.  Please note that Campbell Avenue is a new street and some GPS online mapping systems do not yet recognize Signature Theatre's address.  For directions visit http://signature-theatre.org/map.htm.

Contact Information
Ticketmaster (703) 573-SEAT (7328)
Signature Administration (571) 527-1860
Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Avenue
Arlington, VA  22206
http://www.signature-theatre.org