Will Chase is Valentin in Signature's 'Spider Woman' with Di

Will Chase will join Natascia Diaz (Spider Woman/Aurora) and Hunter Foster (Molina), playing the role of the young radical Valentin at the Signature Thetre in Arlington, VA.  Kiss of the Spider Woman runs March 11 - April 20, 2008 in The Max Theatre.

Will Chase, a three-time Chicago area Joseph Jefferson Award nominee, is best known for his role as Roger Davis in Rent.  Chase has starred on Broadway in High Fidelity, Lennon, The Full Monty and Aida.

The cast also includes Helen Hayes Award winner Erin Driscoll as Marta, Channez McQuay as Molina's mother, Helen Hayes Award winner Steven Cupo as Warden, Christopher Bloch as Esteban, Helen Hayes Award winner Andy Brownstein as Marcos, and the ensemble:  Danny Binstock, Kurt Boehm, Matt Conner, James Gardiner, LC Harden, Jr., and Helen Hayes Award winner Stephen Gregory Smith.

The creative team for the new production of Spider Woman is director Eric Schaeffer, music director Jon Kalbfleisch, scenic designer Adam Koch, costume designer Anne Kennedy, lighting designer Chris Lee, and sound designer Matt Rowe.

Winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical, "Kiss of the Spider Woman weaves a distressing tale of persecution into a theatrical web.  Signature brings to life the thrilling tale of two men, a window dresser and a socialist rebel, forced to share a jail cell in Argentina. Imprisoned for their beliefs and lifestyles, each man comes to find comfort in the other's company as the line between reality and fantasy blurs," explain press notes.

As one of America's leading forces in innovative musical theater, Signature Theatre is saluting the great Broadway songwriter team John Kander and Fred Ebb in a festival running from March - June 2008.  In addition to Kiss of the Spider Woman, the celebration will feature the East Coast premiere of The Visit starring Chita Rivera and George Hearn, the rarely produced work The Happy Time. 

Additional performances include Tony-nominated artist Karen Akers's cabaret show First You Dream: The Songs of Kander & Ebb, Kander & Ebb Overtures Cabaret, Bowen McCauley Dances Kander & Ebb, Kander & Ebb at the Movies, One on One with John Kander, Colored Lights - The Kander & Ebb Gallery and The Kander and Ebb Gala .  John Kander and Fred Ebb, whose musicals Cabaret and Chicago are staples of the American musical theater canon, were the longest-running songwriting partnership in Broadway musical history, working together from 1965 until Ebb's death in 2004. 

Subscriptions are available to the Kander & Ebb Celebration by calling Signature Theatre's Box Office at 703-820-9771 or by visiting www.signature-theatre.org