Arena Stage News

Arena Stage announces the pop-concert musical comedy Striking 12 to join Arena Restaged Part Two for this winter holiday season. Co-written with Tony Award-winning author Rachel Sheinkin (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) and performed by pop-rock band GrooveLily, Striking 12 is a witty journey through the ups and downs of the holiday season. Musicians turned actors Valerie Vigoda (electric violinist and D.C.-area native), Brendan Milburn (pianist) and Gene Lewin (drummer) serve as both accompaniment and performers for this amusing score that is ?alive with wit and humor? (The New York Times). This unique blend of musical theater and live rock concert is a distinctive addition to Arena?s 2009/10 season. Striking 12 runs December 2?December 13 at Arena Stage in Crystal City.

Goodman Theatre launches its new 2009/2010 Season with tap dancing, acrobatics, tumbling, guitar- and ukulele-playing in an original take on the rarely-produced Marx Brothers classic musical ANIMAL CRACKERS, written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby

Signature Theatre Company (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) is pleased to announce that the theatre's 20th Anniversary season in 2010-2011, celebrating author Tony Kushner, will feature the first New York revival of Kushner's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning epic work, ANGELS IN AMERICA: A GAY FANTASIA ON NATIONAL THEMES. The production will be directed by Michael Greif with Part One: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES and Part Two: PERESTROIKA presented in repertory. Signature's Tony Kushner season will also include two more works to be announced.

John Bonanni, Big Fish Big Pond, Ltd and the New York Musical Theater Festival present the world premiere of Under Fire, a new musical set in the late 1970's during the bloody revolution in El Mirado, and based upon the 1983 motion picture of the same title.

Tickets are on sale now for the New York one-night-only reading of The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later, the compelling and groundbreaking epilogue to the play, The Laramie Project, which was written in response to the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard. The epilogue, which is written by Tectonic Theater Project members Moisés Kaufman, Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti, Andy Paris and Stephen Belber, will be performed simultaneously in theatres across the globe on Monday, October 12 starting at 8 PM (EST).

Following the great success of her spring engagement, dynamic singer Cindy Marchionda returns by very popular demand to The Laurie Beechman Theater for a series of Saturdays continuing on Sept. 5th, October 17th and Nov. 21st with her sensational show, 'live at the beechman!'

Children's Playhouse is sponsoring a bus trip to New York to see the Broadway musical - NEXT TO NORMAL

Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) opens its 2009-2010 season with THE MASTER BUILDER by Henrik Ibsen, translated by Paul Walsh, directed by Evan Yionoulis at the University Theatre (222 York Street), September 18-October 10. Opening night is Thursday, September 24. Tickets go on sale today, August 31.

The First Wives Club - A New Musical will extend its run by an additional week due to popular demand. The Broadway-bound musical features a book by Tony Award winner Rupert Holmes and a score by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland. Directed by Francesca Zambello with choreography by Lisa Stevens and music direction by Ron Melrose, The First Wives Club will now run through Aug. 30.

There are two things you should know about me: I am a musical theatre lover, and I love to schmooze with actors and composers. I am very fortunate to live in the DC area where our theatre community is growing by leaps and bounds. There are so many productions opening in September in DC, Maryland and Virginia theatres, my head is spinning trying to figure out which ones I will see.

Wayside Theatre Artistic Director Warner Crocker announced today the cast for the third production of the season, Robert E. Lee and John Brown; Lighting the Fuse. This is historical play with music is written by Crocker with music by Wayside Theatre resident composer Steve Przybylski.

The Fountain Theatre continues its unique relationship with one of the world's greatest living playwrights, Athol Fugard, with the West Coast premiere of Coming Home. Stephen Sachs directs Matthew Elam, Deidrie Henry, Noah Murtadha, Thomas Silcott, Timothy Taylor and Adolphus Ward in Fugard's newest work, which opened June 20 and continues through August 29.

The Fountain Theatre continues its unique relationship with one of the world's greatest living playwrights, Athol Fugard, with the West Coast premiere of Coming Home. Stephen Sachs directs Matthew Elam, Deidrie Henry, Noah Murtadha, Thomas Silcott, Timothy Taylor and Adolphus Ward in Fugard's newest work, which opens June 20 and continues through August 29. Low-priced previews begin June 13.

Night Must Fall, a psychological thriller that takes audiences on a chilling journey into the mind of a murderer, targets Olney Theatre Center beginning September 30. Stage, screen and television actor Rosemary Prinz, perhaps best known for her role as Penny Hughes on As the World Turns, plays Mrs. Bramson.

Original cast member AARON TVEIT will return to the Tony Award-winning musical Next to Normal on Monday, September 7 at 8:00pm. Tveit, who originated the role of Gabe in the off-Broadway and Broadway productions of the acclaimed musical, was on a leave of absence this summer to star in the World Premiere production of Catch Me If You Can.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) announced today that Parker Posey has had to withdraw from the cast of THIS, a new play by Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson (Suitcase, [sic]), due to developing a case of Lyme Disease. A replacement actress for the lead role of Jane will be announced shortly.

The 2009 Regional Theatre Tony Award winning-Signature Theatre presents the world premiere theater event First You Dream': The Music of Kander & Ebb, September 10 through 27, 2009. A tribute to Broadway's most celebrated songwriting partnership - from Cabaret to Chicago to Curtains - Signature pulls out the stops with Broadway's Heidi Blickenstaff, James Clow, Norm Lewis, Julia Murney, Matthew Scott, and Eleasha Gamble and a 19-piece orchestra, plus staging and set design by Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer and choreography by Karma Camp.

Goodman Theatre launches its new 2009/2010 Season with tap dancing, acrobatics, tumbling, guitar- and ukulele-playing in an original take on the rarely-produced Marx Brothers classic musical Animal Crackers, written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby

Don Farber and Robert Viagas, authors of The Amazing Story of The Fantasticks, will hold a conversation and Q&A before the Thursday, September 17, 2009 performance of The Fantasticks, the world's longest-running musical, entitled 'The Fantasticks: The Secrets Behind A Long-Running Show - How They Did It And How You Can, Too.' The event, which begins at 6:15 PM at The Snapple Theater Center, is part of the yearlong celebration of The Fantasticks' 50th anniversary.

TINY KUSHNER makes West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep, begins previews on October 16, opens October 21, and closes November 29.