Matt Conner News

Virginia's Signature Theatre is happy to announce that the run of Miss Saigon is extended throughSeptember 29 due to popular demand - an addition of eight performances.

The all-star Summer Hummer burlesque returns for a second triumphant year, with direction by Eric Schaeffer and performances by the best - and bawdiest - talent that Washington stages have to offer. Last year the event raised more than $16,000 for the Taking Care of Our Ownemergency fund, which provides short-term assistance to Washington-area theatre artists in unexpected need. Building on that success, this year's production features an added performance and an astounding line-up of top performers from Washington and Broadway.

Love to sing? The Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre is looking for the next 'Signature Idol,' as the wildly popular Signature Idol Competition returns for one day only during the theatre's annual Open House on August 3rd. Held in Signature's MAX Theatre, the competition enters its fourth year with a panel of three celebrity judges in search of the best undiscovered singers in the DC region.

Five Washington-based playwrights have formed a new playwrights' collective dedicated exclusively to developing and producing new work. The Welders' inaugural members-playwrights Bob Bartlett, Renee Calarco, Allyson Currin, Caleen Sinnette Jennings, and Gwydion Suilebhan and Executive and Creative Director Jojo Ruf-will write, develop, and produce new plays over the course of the next three years. After their three-year term is complete, the five playwrights will give The Welders' entire operations-everything from the logo to the checking account-to a new generation of five playwrights, who will carry The Welders forward for another three years, and so on into the foreseeable future.

Music Theatre of Madison's performance of Edgar Allan Poe's Nevermore leaves audiences thrilled, haunted.

Sol Children Theatre will present two completely different productions in June. Nevermore, a one-act musical based on the life and work of literary great Edgar Allan Poe will run June 14-16, and The Commedia Puss in Boots will play June 28-30.

New Line Theatre, "the bad boy of musical theatre," announces its 23rd season of adult, alternative musical theatre, including the regional premiere of the new musical thriller NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, running Oct. 10-Nov. 2, 2013; the Pulitzer Prize winning rock opera RENT, running March 6-29, 2014; and the regional premiere, straight from Broadway, of the new rock musical HANDS ON A HARDBODY, running May 29-June 21, 2014.

New Line Theatre has announced the cast for the regional premiere of the taut musical thriller NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, which will open its 23rd season, running Oct. 10-Nov. 2, 2013, and closing on Halloween weekend. The rest of New Line's 2013-2014 season will be announced soon.

According to the Washington Post, Signature Theatre's 2013-14 season will include three world premiere musicals, one world-premiere play, a developmental run of a world-premiere musical, and revivals of Miss Saigon, Gypsy and The Threepenny Opera. Signature's Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer will be directing all four of the new musicals, as well as Miss Saigon.

New Line Theatre, 'the bad boy of musical theatre,' has secured the rights for the regional premiere of the taut musical thriller NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD to open its 23rd season, running Oct. 10-Nov. 2, 2013, and closing on Halloween weekend. The rest of New Line's 2013-2014 season will be announced later this year.

Conceptually, Conner and Smith are on to something although additional refinement is very much necessary if this show is to have a future life. The small cast delivers some fine performances in this premiere.

Matt Conner shows promise as a composer and I look forward to seeing what will become of 'Crossing' in the future.

As part of its continuing commitment to developing new works, Signature Theatre presents a one-weekend-only concert of Crossing, a musical by Matt Conner (Nevermore; The Hollow) and Grace Barnes (Nevermore, Zander's Boat). The concert will have four performances, all held this weekend, October 20th through 21st in the MAX

As part of its continuing commitment to developing new works, Signature Theatre presents a one-weekend-only concert of Crossing, a musical by Matt Conner (Nevermore; The Hollow) and Grace Barnes (Nevermore, Zander's Boat). The concert will have four performances, all held on the weekend of October 20th through 21st in the MAX.

Signature Theatre kicks off its 2012/13 season with the Tony Award-winning musical comedy The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, now playing through October 7, 2012. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production photos below.

Yee-haw! It's time to start two-steppin' and boot-scootin' in the aisles, as Signature Theatre kicks off its 2012/13 season with the Tony Award-winning musical comedy The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, beginning performances tonight, August 14.

The Washington Theatre community has joined forces to present the first annual Summer Hummer, a bawdy variety show benefiting Taking Care of Our Own, an initiative that assists DC-area theatre professionals & artists in personal emergency situations.

Yee-haw! It's time to start two-steppin' and boot-scootin' in the aisles, as Signature Theatre kicks off its 2012/13 season with the Tony Award-winning musical comedy The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, beginning performances on Tuesday, August 14.

Continuing in its ongoing efforts of supporting new musical theater works, Eric Schaeffer, Artistic Director of Signature Theatre, announced today that the Tony Award®-winning theatre is commissioning two new musicals under Signature's American Musical Voices Project (AMVP): The Next Generation. Composers Joshua Rosenblum (Einstein's Dreams, Fermat's Last Tango) and Josh Schmidt (Adding Machine, A Minister's Wife) will be creating new musicals for future seasons at Signature. In December of 2011, Mr. Rosenblum and Mr. Schmidt were awarded "honoree grants" and shared selections from projects in development at a special performance held at Signature Theatre.

Musically Human Theatre Productions (MHTP) will close its inaugural season with the world premiere of Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory Smith's NightoftheLivingDead: The Musical (NOTLD), which will run May 31 to June 17 at the Richmond Shepard Theater. Previews will be May 31 and June 1, prior to a gala opening on June 2. Performances will be Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. The Richmond Shepard Theater is located at 309 East 26th Street. To purchase tickets, available for $18, you can call 212-352-3101, visit https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/911658, or go to the box office one hour prior to show time. Tickets for the two preview performances are available on TDF.