Nova Y. Payton News

The holiday season is just around the corner and New Year's Eve will be here before you know it. And what better way to celebrate 2012 than to go back in time to the funkadelic 60's as Signature Theatre hosts their annual New Year's Eve party.

It's time to let your hair down and dance the night away! The 1960's are coming back to Washington as the Broadway sensation Hairspray will begin performances at the Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre on November 21st - just in time for the holidays. Directed by Signature's Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer, the production will star national radio host Robert Aubry Davis (WETA's 'Around Town' and Sirius/XM Radio), making his musical theater stage debut in the iconic role of Edna Turnblad. The impressive cast of DC favorites is headlined by Carolyn Cole (Tracy Turnblad), Nova Y. Payton (Motormouth Mable), Sherri L. Edelen (Velma Von Tussle), PatRick Thomas Cragin (Link Larkin), and Harry A. Winter (Wilbur Turnblad). Hairspray will play at Signature's MAX Theatre through January 29, 2012. Check out highlights from the show below!

What a way for Signature Theatre to end 2011...you just can't stop the beat!

November has over 60 more openings in the professional, community, universities, and children's theaters in the DC/MD/VA area. A week has already passed in November and over 20 new productions have opened. To read reviews of these shows, go to Maryland Theatre Guide, where I am the Editor and a columnist. A recent back surgery kept me from posting this earlier, so we have some catching up to do.

The holiday season is just around the corner and New Year's Eve will be here before you know it. And what better way to celebrate 2012 than to go back in time to the funkadelic 60's as Signature Theatre hosts their annual New Year's Eve party.

It's time to let your hair down and dance the night away! The 1960's are coming back to Washington as the Broadway sensation Hairspray will begin performances at the Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre on November 21st - just in time for the holidays. Directed by Signature's Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer, the production will star national radio host Robert Aubry Davis (WETA's 'Around Town' and Sirius/XM Radio), making his musical theater stage debut in the iconic role of Edna Turnblad. The impressive cast of DC favorites is headlined by Carolyn Cole (Tracy Turnblad), Nova Y. Payton (Motormouth Mable), Sherri L. Edelen (Velma Von Tussle), Patrick Thomas Cragin (Link Larkin), and Harry A. Winter (Wilbur Turnblad). Hairspray will play at Signature's MAX Theatre from November 21, 2011 through January 29, 2012. Tickets are now on sale.

In an era when Waller had to enter some of the places he played by a side door, it would have been inhuman to resist completely the allure of white privilege. It's all on view in his song LOUNGIN' AT THE WALDORF, which contrasts the kind of freedom and looseness he could enjoy performing in Harlem with the stiffer, whiter milieu of the Waldorf Astoria. Nevertheless: "Ain't it swell doin' swell with the swells in the swellest hotel of them all? One of the strengths of the show is that it doesn't whitewash (if I may use that word here) this part of Waller's legacy.

Victoria Theatre Association presents 3 Mo' Divas as part of the KeyBank African American Festival on January 16, 2011 at 7:30 pm in the Mead Theatre of the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center in downtown Dayton

Queens Theatre in the Park (QTP) presents 3 Mo' Divas, on Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 8pm at Queens College in Colden Auditorium, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing, NY. Tickets are $40 and $38 and are available through the Colden Auditorium Box Office at 718-793-8080. Time Warner Cable of New York and New Jersey is the series media sponsor.

Queens Theatre in the Park (QTP) presents 3 Mo' Divas, on Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 8pm at Queens College in Colden Auditorium, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing, NY. Tickets are $40 and $38 and are available through the Colden Auditorium Box Office at 718-793-8080. Time Warner Cable of New York and New Jersey is the series media sponsor.

Queens Theatre in the Park (QTP) presents 3 Mo' Divas, on Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 8pm at Queens College in Colden Auditorium, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing, NY. Tickets are $40 and $38 and are available through the Colden Auditorium Box Office at 718-793-8080. Time Warner Cable of New York and New Jersey is the series media sponsor.

Queens Theatre in the Park (QTP) presents 3 Mo' Divas, on Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 8pm at Queens College in Colden Auditorium, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing, NY. Tickets are $40 and $38 and are available through the Colden Auditorium Box Office at 718-793-8080. Time Warner Cable of New York and New Jersey is the series media sponsor.

Marion J. Caffey's 3 Mo' Divas announces a back by popular demand concert at the world famous Apollo Theater! The Divas had audiences literally dancing in the aisles during their New York debut concert in June 2009.

Marion J. Caffey's 3 Mo' Divas announces a back by popular demand concert at the world famous Apollo Theater! The Divas had audiences literally dancing in the aisles during their New York debut concert in June 2009.

Crossroads Theatre Comapny, recipient of the 1999 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in the United States, and one of the nation's premiere African American theaters, announces four new plays for their 2009-2010 season.

Marion J. Caffey?s 3 Mo? Divas has been awarded its first PBS Television Special! After receiving rave reviews and playing to sold out audiences & standing ovations ?3 Mo? Divas (Smashing Musical Barriers)? will air nationally March 1st-10th and June 1st-15th (WLIW in NYC on March 10th @ 8pm - check local listings for exact dates and times in other areas). In celebration of the PBS Special, 3 Mo' Divas will also release their debut CD ?Smashing Musical Barriers? on March 1st and a Hi-Def & Blu-Ray DVD recording of the PBS special on May 12th.

The 2006 Barrymore Awards, celebrating achievement in Philadelphia-area theatre, were announced on October 23rd at the Merriam Theatre

Christopher Durang, Frank Wildhorn, Lauren Kennedy and Jarrod Emick were among those who scored Barrymore Award nominations

The Prince Music Theatre's hit production of Dreamgirls will now close on February 26th

Dreamgirls composer Henry Krieger will show up for an informal discussion after the January 10th performance of the musical at the Prince Music Theatre in Philadelphia