Helen Hayes News

Rorschach Theatre an award-winning company known for its dedication to impossible, fantastical realism kicks off the new year with a significant commitment to connecting artists, audiences and new work. The company's spring production of 410 Gone and three new initiatives build on Rorschach's long history of discovering, shaping and launching emerging talent and new works in the nation's capital.

As previously announced, the critically acclaimed Beautiful Soup Theater Collective will present the world premiere production of Steven Carl McCasland's Memorare this winter. The new drama, featuring an all female ensemble, will bow at St. John's Lutheran Church on Christopher Street in January of 2018. Set to star in the production is Helen Hayes Award-winner Patti Mariano as Sister Mary Cecelia (Broadway: Original Cast of The Music Man, George M!, The Full Monty and more) and newcomer Ashleigh Awusie as Sister Mary Azu (Ain't Never Been Easy). Award-winning director Peter Darney (5 Guys Chillin') directs the limited engagement.

Maestro Luke Frazier and The American Pops Orchestra - Washington, DC's innovative hometown orchestra - will continue their star-studded third season with Around the World in 80 Days, the world premiere of a new family-oriented musical written by Claybourne Elder ('Gossip Girl,' Broadway's Sunday in the Park...) and directed by Kelly Crandall d'Amboise.

Theater for the New City presents Happenstance Theater's BrouHaHa in its NYC premiere, with previews January 4 & 5 for an opening today, January 6, and a run through January 21st, 2018.

As previously announced, the critically acclaimed Beautiful Soup Theater Collective will present the world premiere production of Steven Carl McCasland's Memorare this winter. The timely piece about a New York City convent will offer free tickets to all performances (at the box office only) to Sisters of any convent in the tri-state area.

Kitchen Theatre Company continues its 2017-2018 Season with the regional premiere of Ironbound by Martyna Majok, a gritty, honest, and at times humorous look at an immigrant experience in America. Performances of Ironbound begin at the Kitchen Theatre Company in The Percy Browning Performance Space on January 21 and run through February 4.

This January Signature Theatre will acquire the website EverythingSondheim.org and begin publishing new articles and content this winter. Everything Sondheim is a print publication and website created by Rick Pender featuring extensive international coverage of the most influential composer and lyricist of contemporary musical theater, Stephen Sondheim.

Rehearsals begin today for The 5th Avenue Theatre's new production of Mamma Mia!, the celebrated musical that features the music of global pop sensation ABBA. The 5th Avenue Theatre is the first producing theater company in the Pacific Northwest to be granted the rights to create its own refreshed version of the show, which toured the world for nearly 20 years.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre today announced the full cast and creative team for Tony Kushner's Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Part One: Millennium Approaches and Part Two: Perestroika.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Lauren Worsham (A Gentleman's Guide To Love And Murder Broadway) and Lesli Margherita (Matilda The Musical Broadway; Dames At Sea Broadway) in Session Girls on March 6, 2018, 9:30PM. A raucous and heartfelt evening of original tunes about three working women in the music industry, Session Girls gives us the inside scoop on music-producer-in-training Joli Nye, bawdy backup vocalist Cocoa, classical cellist Mariana, and their trials and tribulations as they navigate the music world, their love lives, and the untenable travail of a big studio merger!

The Washington Stage Guild offers a warm and touching tale of young love with the Washington area premiere of See Rock City by Arlene Hutton. It is the height of World War II, and Raleigh and May, the young couple from last season's uplifting hit Last Train to Nibroc, have returned home to Kentucky to figure out their lives. Their two very different mothers have plenty of ideas for them, but the war's progression affects them all, and leads to a heartwarming, bittersweet conclusion.

Walnut Street Theatre's 2017-18 Independence Studio on 3 Season continues with Tony Award-winner Ken Ludwig's hilarious whodunit comedy, Baskerville, A Sherlock Holmes Mystery.

Theater for the New City presents Happenstance Theater's New York Premiere of BrouHaHa, an existential clownesque escapade devised by Happenstance Theater at Theater for the New City (155 1st Avenue between 9th and 10th Streets), January 4-21.

Lesli Margherita is heading to Pennsylvania! Bucks County Playhouse has just announced that the Olivier Award winner will bring her new solo concert,'This Broad's Way,' to the New Hope venue on January 20 (8pm).

Two-time Obie Award winning playwright, Susan Miller, will be joined by cast members from the new Off-Broadway play 20TH CENTURY BLUES for a post show talkback following the 7:30 PM performance on Tuesday, January 9th. 20TH CENTURY BLUES opened on November 26 at The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street) with the New York Times calling it the show 'heartfelt and genuine' and a Critic's Pick from Deadline. The show will end its 10-week limited engagement on Sunday, January 28.

Walnut Street Theatre's 2017-18 Independence Studio on 3 Season continues with Tony Award-winner Ken Ludwig's hilarious whodunit comedy, Baskerville, A Sherlock Holmes Mystery. Philadelphia audiences will be the first to see this production before it becomes the eighth national and international tour of a Walnut Street Theatre production. Directed by Walnut favorite, Bill Van Horn, Baskerville, A Sherlock Holmes Mystery begins previews in the intimate Independence Studio on 3 at the Walnut on January 2nd, opens January 4th, and continues through February 4th.

This winter and spring Bucks County Playhouse offers a full slate of entertainment representing a wide variety of musical, comedy and special event performances as part of the Visiting Artists Series at the Playhouse.

Congregation Rodeph Shalom, in association with Burke Cohen Entertainment, presents seven time Emmy Award winner Ed Asner and two-time Tony and Drama Desk Award nominee Johanna Day in a one-night only performance of Jeff Cohen's powerful play The Soap Myth on Wednesday, January 31st at 7 pm at Congregation Rodeph Shalom, (615 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia). The play, directed by Pam Berlin, is part of a tribute to the United Nation's International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27), the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, under the leadership of Artistic Director Diane Paulus and Executive Producer Diane Borger, will offer a sensory friendly performance of Bedlam's Sense & Sensibility on Tuesday, January 9 at 6:30PM. The performance for adults and children ages 12 and up will be specially modified for individuals with sensory needs, including people on the autism spectrum and their families and caretakers. This expansion of the theater's access performances, which include ASL interpreted, audio described, open captioned, and family-friendly sensory friendly performances, reflects A.R.T.'s commitment to providing quality arts experiences for all.

Adventure Theatre MTC (ATMTC), recent recipient of three 2017 Helen Hayes Awards, brings to the stage the musical version of a day gone wrong in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, directed by Cara Gabriel. Based on the popular book by Judith Viorst, this production is recommended for all ages and opens February 9, 2018. Tickets are $19.50 each and can be purchased online at www.adventuretheatre-mtc.org or by calling 301-634-2270.