DeWitt Fleming, Jr. News

The 2019 National Black Theatre Festival has ended with memories of grandeur and spectacular stage plays. Here is my review of the productions I attended.

2019 Tony winner Andre De Shields has been attending The National Black Theatre Festival® (NBTF) in Winston-Salem, N. C. since 1995. Dubbed the 'Black Theatre Holy Ground,' NBTF is the international outreach program of the North Carolina Black Repertory Company, founded by the late Larry Leon Hamlin in 1979. The Festival, also founded by Hamlin, has been held biennially since 1989. The NCBRC celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, while the NBTF celebrated its 30th.

The North Carolina Black Repertory Company (NC Black Rep) announces that George C. Wolfe's Tony Award Winning musical, Jelly's Last Jam, will be the opening night performance at the 2019 National Black Theatre Festival (NBTF).

For nearly 50 years, Jesus Christ Superstar has electrified audiences around the globe, and has become the standard by which all future rock operas have been measured. For one weekend only in March, an all-star ensemble of singers and rock musicians are joining forces to present Andrew Lloyd Webber's 70's rock-infused retelling of Jesus Christ's final week. Alpine Theatre Project will present Jesus Christ Superstar March 8 - 10 at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center in downtown Whitefish.

For nearly 50 years, Jesus Christ Superstar has electrified audiences around the globe, and has become the standard by which all future rock operas have been measured. For one weekend only in March, an all-star ensemble of singers and rock musicians are joining forces to present Andrew Lloyd Webber's 70's rock-infused retelling of Jesus Christ's final week. Alpine Theatre Project will present Jesus Christ Superstar March 8 - 10 at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center in downtown Whitefish.

Signature Theatre presents Ain't Misbehavin': The Fats Waller Musical Show directed by Signature Theatre's Director of New Works Joe Calarco (Signature's The Scottsboro Boys, Jesus Christ Superstar) and choreographed by Jared Grimes (Signature's The Scottsboro Boys, Jelly's Last Jam). Signature's MAX Theatre will be converted into a 1930s Harlem night club for this tribute to the music of Thomas 'Fats' Waller. This Tony Award®-winning musical includes the beloved tunes 'The Joint is Jumpin',' 'Honeysuckle Rose,' 'Handful of Keys' and more. Ain't Misbehavin'runs from January 23 - March 10, 2019.

Signature Theatre presents Ain't Misbehavin': The Fats Waller Musical Show directed by Signature Theatre's Director of New Works Joe Calarco (Signature's The Scottsboro Boys, Jesus Christ Superstar) and choreographed by Jared Grimes (Signature's The Scottsboro Boys, Jelly's Last Jam).

Go inside the rehearsal room with the incredible cast of AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' at Signature Theatre. Performances begin January 23.

New Jersey Tap Ensemble presents Homecoming 25, a concert performance recognizing the organization's 25th Anniversary, Sunday, January 13, 2019, 2pm at the Wilkins Theater on the campus of Kean University, 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJ. Under the Artistic Direction of its founder, Deborah Mitchell, the company has become New Jersey's most prominent tap dance company promoting and preserving the art form of rhythm tap dancing.

Signature Theatre is proud to announce the full cast and creative team for Ain't Misbehavin': The Fats Waller Musical Show

The McKittrick Hotel (530 West 27th Street, NYC), home of Sleep No More, and Hot Jazz Productions announce the sixth annual New York Hot Jazz Festival will return to the hotel on Sunday, September 30.

The McKittrick Hotel (530 West 27th Street, NYC), home of Sleep No More, and Hot Jazz Productions announce the sixth annual New York Hot Jazz Festival will return to the hotel on Sunday, September 30.

Signature Theatre presents the DC premiere of The Scottsboro Boys directed by Signature Theatre's Director of New Works Joe Calarco and choreographed by Jared Grimes. Get a first look at the production below!

Signature Theatre presents another Kander and Ebb musical for the ages.

Signature Theatre presents the DC premiere of The Scottsboro Boys directed by Signature Theatre's Director of New Works Joe Calarco and choreographed by Jared Grimes. 

The topics of the distinguished Broadway writing team of John Kander and Fred Ebb's musicals have never been light and frothy. Their first musical Flora the Red Menace deals with the red scare. Cabaret uses Nazi Germany as a backdrop. The Rink deals with family dysfunction in a dilapidated roller rink and, of course, there's Chicago with the shadiness of 1920s Chicago murderesses and the media that fueled them.

Signature Theatre presents the DC premiere of The Scottsboro Boys directed by Signature Theatre's Director of New Works Joe Calarco and choreographed by Jared Grimes. Get a first look at the production below!

Last week, I introduced you to ten performers in Signature Theatre's current production of Kander and Ebb's final, complete collaboration, The Scottsboro Boys, which runs through July 1st. This included eight of the nine gentlemen who play the African American men who were falsely accused of raping two Caucasian women, as well as two others who play the minstrel characters known as Mr. Bones and Mr. Tambo.

Get a first look at Signature Theatre's D.C. premiere of The Scottsboro Boys, directed by Signature Theatre's Director of New Works Joe Calarco (Signature's Jesus Christ Superstar, Gypsy) and choreographed by Jared Grimes (Signature's Jelly's Last Jam). John Kander and Fred Ebb's final musical collaboration premiered on Broadway in 2010 and was heralded as 'an absolute marvel' by The Associated Press.

I always say the best kind of theater educates as well as entertains. If you walk out of the theater a little uncomfortable about what you just saw then a piece like The Scottsboro Boys has done its job in full. The final complete collaboration of Broadway's legendary writing team of John Kander and Fred Ebb tells the story of nine young African American men falsely accused of raping two young Caucasian women in the 1930s. Signature Theatre is currently presenting this groundbreaking musical now through July 1st.