MetroStage News

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

There's just two weeks left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Washington, DC Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

Some pieces of theater require your undivided attention because of some deep underlying message that the playwright doesn't want you to miss. This is not the case for MetroStage's return holiday engagement of Catherine Flye's Christmas at The Old Bull & Bush and that's totally ok. This British Variety Music Hall Entertainment is full of music, good performances, and some really corny jokes. In other words, it is everything you would expect from a show set in 1918 in Hampstead, London.

Producing Artistic Director Carolyn Griffin is pleased to announce that Christmas at the Old Bull and Bush 2018 will be returning to MetroStage (Nov 29-Dec 30). The play, written and directed by Catherine Flye, had an acclaimed six year run at the Old Vat Room at Arena Stage (1997-2003) before debuting at MetroStage last season. Two members of the original Bull and Bush cast will be joined by some new members of a very eccentric British troupe to entertain audiences for the holidays.

Producing Artistic Director Carolyn Griffin is pleased to announce that Christmas at the Old Bull and Bush 2018 will be returning to MetroStage (Nov 29-Dec 30). The play, written and directed by Catherine Flye, had an acclaimed six year run at the Old Vat Room at Arena Stage (1997-2003) before debuting at MetroStage last season. Two members of the original Bull and Bush cast will be joined by some new members of a very eccentric British troupe to entertain audiences for the holidays.

One of the best things about being a columnist is you can introduce some fresh new talent to the public. Take, for example, today's subject Candice Shedd-Thompson who is currently living her theatre life onstage at MetroStage in its tenth anniversary production of the pop-rock musical Rooms a Rock Romance. The production runs through November 11th.

Marni Penning is an audiobook narrator, playwright, acting coach, children's book illustrator, two-time Helen Hayes Award nominee, and other-award-winning actress who lives with her husband, son, dog, fish, and chickens in Falls Church, VA. She is starring as Susan B. Anthony in Mosaic Theater Company's upcoming production, The Agitators.

Returning to MetroStage for its tenth anniversary, ROOMS: A ROCK ROMANCE boasts an enthusiastic two-person cast and energetic backing band. It's exactly as described, a simple girl-meets-boy tale steeped in 1970s musical flair. But instead of boiling the romance down to timeless emotion, the book's simplicity and pat ending make this a bit of a tough sell.

Producing Artistic Director Carolyn Griffin is pleased to announce that the musical ROOMS a rock romance with book by Paul Scott Goodman and Miriam Gordon, music and lyrics by Paul Scott Goodman, and directed by MetroStage Artistic Associate Thomas W. Jones II will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a new production at MetroStage, running Oct 11-Nov 11.

Creative Cauldron opens its 2018-2019 season with Nevermore, the hauntingly beautiful musical written by resident composer and director, Matt Conner and writer, Grace Barnes. Nevermore draws from the poetry and short stories of the iconic Edgar Allan Poe. After its premiere at Signature Theatre in 2006, The Washington Post hailed Nevermore for its 'romantic music, ablaze with feeling.' Following its 2011 run at Creative Cauldron, Nevermore earned Creative Cauldron its first Helen Hayes Award recommendation. This imaginative musical delves deep into Poe's psyche and explores his gripping obsession with the pivotal women who seemingly haunt his tortured existence. The production will run through October 28 at Creative Cauldron, Falls Church, 410 South Maple Avenue. Performances are Thursdays at 8:00PM, Fridays at 8:00PM, Saturdays at 8:00PM, and Sundays at 2:00PM & 7:00PM. 

For more than 60 years, Athol Fugard has helped us explore South Africa through his complex, flawed, and empathetic characters. He is one of the most significant voices of our time. Fugard's most recent work, The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, makes its DC-area premiere at MetroStage. When Producing Artistic Director Carolyn Griffin slated The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek as MetroStage's season opener, little did she know that an August tweet would thrust South African farm ownership and race relations firmly back into the world spotlight.

Producing Artistic Director Carolyn Griffin announceS that the play The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek by Athol Fugard, directed by MetroStage Artistic Associate Thomas W. Jones II will open the 2018-19 season at MetroStage, running August 30-September 30.

"How Hope Happens," the Fourth Season at Mosaic Theater Company, will open with Marie and Rosetta, written by George Brant and directed by local artist Sandra L. Holloway. This play featuring gospel music, blues, and rock n' roll tells the story of the first rehearsal between Sister Rosetta Tharpe (recently inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame), and her young protegee Marie Knight.

Free For All, one of the capital's cherished annual traditions, will return this summer to Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC), offering two weeks of free performances of the Company's 2016 production of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. Directed by STC Associate Artistic Director Alan Paul, whose hit production of Camelot has extended through July 8 due to popular demand, the production will run at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F St NW) from August 21-September 2, providing more than 12,000 people the chance to see the play free of charge.

La Ti Do Productions celebrates Asian American Heritage Month with the city's first all Asian American cabaret to support The National Asian Artists Project, and is pleased to announce the featured artists and partner organizations.

I have seen and worked on plenty of solo shows in my more than twenty years in the business and sometimes I see one that just leaves me asking, 'How did this performer get to do this show?' Unfortunately Deb Filler is in that situation right now at MetroStage with her concoction called I Did it My Way In Yiddish (In English).

Refusing to end their 2017/2018 season, Delaware Theatre Company reprises their hit production Maurice Hines is Tappin' Thru Life. Happy to be performing for Wilmington audiences again, tap dancing legend Maurice Hines will wow audiences for one weekend only, Friday, June 1 to Sunday, June 3, 2018.

Internationally acclaimed Canadian/New Zealand Jewish comic performer, musician and writer Deb Filler returns to MetroStage with her latest smash hit, having performed it in Toronto, London, Sydney, Jerusalem, NYC and LA. A brilliant storyteller she has charmed audiences world-wide with stories of her encounters with three Lennys: Leonard Bernstein, Leonard Cohen and another Jewish musician called Lenny with only a guitar and a raft of lovable characters.

Shakespeare Theatre Company today announces the cast of Lerner and Loewe's multiple Tony Award-winning musical Camelot. Directed by STC Associate Artistic Director Alan Paul (Kiss Me, Kate; Man of La Mancha), the classic musical will play at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F St NW) from May 22 through July 1, concluding STC's 2017-2018 mainstage season.

The Women's Voices Theater Festival may be winding down in D.C. proper, but Alexandria's MetroStage is looking to keep the focus on female-centered stories with their Spring Solo Series. The second of these one-woman shows, George-Don't Do That: The Music and Magic of Joyce Grenfell, is a love-filled tribute to British comedienne Joyce Grenfell who became a global sensation in the mid-20th century thanks to her intellectual satire and good natured spirit. Despite clear adoration for the play's subject, the work doesn't properly explain who Ms. Grenfell is or why she became so famous, information which would be helpful for a modern American audience.