My Fair Lady, Cook, Wilson Series Headed for Kennedy Center

 Upcoming performances for the 2007-2008 theater season at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will feature the previously announced "August Wilson's 20th Century," the playwright's complete 10-play cycle performed as staged readings, a five-concert cabaret series curated by Barbara Cook and productions of My Fair Lady and Disney's The Lion King. Lineup and dates for the Washington, D.C. theater include:

"Barbara Cook's Spotlight", featuring the legendary singer and actress and some of her favorite performers in a series five cabaret evenings at the Terrace Theater, will show on October 19, followed by performances by three-time Tony Award nominee Judy Kuhn on October 26, Tony winner Lillias White on November 16, Broadway regular Brent Barrett on December 28 and Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner on April 11, 2008.

The revival of Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady will play the Opera House from December 27 to January 20, 2008, directed by Trevor Nunn (Cats, Les Miserables) with choreography by Matthew Bourne (Swan Lake, Mary Poppins). No casting for the show has yet been announced.

"August Wilson's 20th Century," a series including the late playwright's entire 10-play cycle, will show in the Terrace Theater from March 4 to March 29, 2008.  The director of the forthcoming Broadway production of Wilson's Radio Golf, Kenny Leon, will serve as the festival's artistic director and direct productions of Gem of the Ocean, Fences, The Piano Lesson and Radio Golf. Other directors for the series will include Lou Bellamy (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), Gordon Davidson (Jitney), Todd Kreidler (Joe Turner's Come and Gone) and Derrick Sanders (Seven Guitars, Two Trains Running and King Hedley II).

Making up the cast for "August Wilson's 20th Century" are a group of about 25 actors who will each perform in at least three of the plays. Actors include John Amos, Cherise Booth, Rocky Carroll, Anthony Chisholm, Rosalyn Coleman, Keith David, Viola Davis, Hassan El-Amin, Lynda Gravátt, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Billy Eugene Jones, Ron Cephas Jones, Eugene Lee, Anthony Mackie, Afemo Omilami, Phylicia Rashad, Roslyn Ruff, Keith Randolph Smith, Michole Briana White and James Williams. Additional actors will be announced in the coming months.

Other scheduled performances include Disney's The Lion King, directed by Julie Taymor, will be making its Washington, D.C. debut beginning June 26, 2008 at the Opera House. Julie Marie Myatt's Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter, a play about a wounded Marine sergeant home from Iraq, will play at the Terrace Theater from July 19 to July 27, 2008

Due to some scheduled renovations, the Eisenhower Theater will be closed for the 2007-2008 season.