Helen Hayes News

Today's top stories: A Soldier's Play begins previews tonight on Broadway, and more!

The cast of Dear Evan Hansen stopped by Tamron Hall today to perform 'You Will Be Found' today!

Acclaimed Broadway, film, and television star Tovah Feldshuh ('The Walking Dead', 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend') returns to Feinstein's/54 Below by popular demand with her show, Aging is Optional ('Cause G-d I hope it is!) this February 6, 7, and 8 at 7pm.

Rorschach Theatre's first musical follows Melvin Ferd the Third, who wants to clean up Tromaville, the most polluted town in New Jersey (just off Exit 13B on the Turnpike). Foiled by the mayor's bullies, Melvin is dumped into a vat of radioactive toxic waste, only to reemerge as The Toxic Avenger, New Jersey's first superhero. Affectionately known as Toxie, our new hero is a seven-foot mutant freak with superhuman strength and a heart as big as Newark. He's out to save New Jersey, end global warming, woo the blind librarian in town, and save the world.

The cast of Dear Evan Hansen is set to perform 'You Will Be Founda?? on Tamron Hall this Friday, December 20.

The Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Metro Washington DC (PACC-DC), in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines, is spearheading what is now being billed as the largest Philippine-American event in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area - the Fil-Am Expo 2020 on June 13 and 14, 2020, following the June 12 Philippine Independence Day.

Irish Repertory Theatre (Charlotte Moore, Artistic Director and Ciarán O'Reilly, Producing Director) has announced three new productions for Winter 2020. First on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage will be Incantata by Paul Muldoon (The Dead, 1904) and directed by Sam Yates (The Starry Messenger).

Ed Dixon, Drama Desk winner, Helen Hayes winner, star of countless Broadway shows returned to The Green Room 42 with the world premiere of his new one man show, SHOW STORIES.

Obie Award-winning playwright and actor Nilaja Sun will perform her acclaimed solo show, Pike St., at Hartford Stage Thursday, January 9, to Sunday, February 2, 2020. Pike St. will be directed by Ron Russell, who also serves as Sound Designer.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces casting for Octavio Solis' Mother Road, a sequel to John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Mother Road premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2019 and will run at Arena Stage from February 7 - March 8, 2020 in the iconic in-the-round Fichandler Stage.

Casting is set for Studio Theatre's production of Pipeline, playwright Dominique Morisseau's searing drama about the school-to-prison pipeline and a mother desperately trying to keep her son from becoming ensnared in it. The production runs January 15-February 16, 2020 and is directed by Awoye Timpo. Starring are DC theatre favorite Justin Weaks (Studio's Curve of Departure) as high school student Omari and Andrea Harris Smith making her Studio debut as his mother, public school teacher Nya. In its recent People Issue, Washington City Paper's called Weaks a 'standout,' going on to say: 'D.C. theater audiences love Justin Weaks. ...Weaks came to D.C. for a job about four years ago, not expecting to stay. But he kept getting cast in shows, and lucky for local theatergoers, he's still here.'

As final casting is being announced, the engagement of playwright Heidi Schreck's 'What the Constitution Means to Me' at Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum is already being extended by a week due to overwhelming early sales. The Tony-nominated play, originally scheduled to run January 12 - February 16, 2020, will now continue until February 23, 2020.

The Kimmel Center Cultural Campus and The Shubert Organization announced today that individual tickets for the Philadelphia premiere of DEAR EVAN HANSEN will go on sale Friday, December 6, 2019 at 10:00AM EST. Tickets are available at The Forrest Theatre box office (1114 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19107), calling Telecharge at 1-800-447-7400, or by visiting www.telecharge.com.

When the mischievous Falstaff overestimates his own scheming prowess and underestimates the savvy wives in the town of Windsor, hilarity is ahead. Folger Theatre concludes its successful 2019/20 season with The Merry Wives of Windsor. Aaron Posner (King John, The Winter's Tale, Twelfth Night at Folger Theatre) returns to the Folger to direct Shakespeare's delightful comedy on love, money, deception, and the power of women, set here in the early 1970s.

WP Theater, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty and Managing Director Michael Sag, has announced that the world premiere of playwright and performer Donnetta Lavinia Grays' Where We Stand, co-presented by WP Theater and Baltimore Center Stage, will star Grays [Men on Boats, In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)], who will alternate select performances with David Ryan Smith (One Man, Two Guvnors; Passing Strange) beginning February 15. Directed by Tamilla Woodard (Hadestown Broadway associate director), previews begin Off-Broadway on Friday, January 31 at WP Theater with an opening night of February 11, 2020. The limited engagement at WP Theater will run through March 1, 2020 before playing Baltimore Center Stage April 2-26.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, will present a special celebratory concert to mark the 10th anniversary of the musical Yank! opening off-Broadway. When this romantic gay love story set during WWII opened in 2010 at the York Theatre it was a surprise hit, garnering rave reviews and a raft of award nominations (Best New Musical and Score from the Outer Critics Circle, Outstanding Musical by the Lucille Lortel Awards, and 6 Drama Desk nods, including Best Musical, Music and Lyrics).

The Seth Rudetsky Broadway Concert Series presented by Mark Cortale returns to Parker Playhouse in January. The series, co-presented by the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, delivers three intimate evenings of incredible music and hilarious conversations hosted and music directed by Sirius XM Radio star Seth Rudetsky, whom the New York Times dubbed 'The Mayor of Broadway.'

From December 11th-22nd, Theatre in the Park will be presenting their 45th anniversary production of A Christmas Carol. I recently had the great pleasure of interviewing the show's playwright, Ira David Wood III, who is not only back directing this year, but he'll also be alternating the role of Ebenezer Scrooge with his oldest son, Ira David Wood IV.

Global sensation, COME FROM AWAY has added to its international award tally, being crowned Best Performance by a Theatre Company for the 2019 VCE Theatre Studies Playlist. This award is given annually by Drama Victoria for a play that demonstrates strong dramatic merit and offers rich opportunities for students studying theatre in their senior years. 

The national tour of 'Come From Away' is warming hearts across America. A 'Best Musical' winner all around the world, the smash hit musical has won the Tony Award for 'Best Direction of a Musical' (Christopher Ashley), 4 Olivier Awards (London) including 'Best New Musical,' 5 Outer Critics Circle Awards (NYC) including 'Outstanding New Broadway Musical,' 3 Drama Desk Awards (NYC) including 'Outstanding Musical,' 4 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards (North American Tour) including 'Best Production,' 4 Helen Hayes Awards (D.C.) including 'Outstanding Production of a Musical,' 4 Gypsy Rose Lee Awards (Seattle) including 'Excellence in Production of a Musical,' 6 San Diego Critics Circle Awards including 'Outstanding New Musical,' 3 Toronto Theatre Critics Awards including 'Best New Musical,' 3 Dora Awards (Toronto) including 'Outstanding New Musical/Opera' and 'Outstanding Production,' and the 2017 Jon Kaplan Audience Choice Award (Toronto).