Nova Y. Payton News

Signature Theatre closes out its 2011/12 season sporting funky legwarmers and wielding neon glow sticks with the Washington premiere of the musical comedy hit Xanadu. Beginning performances tonight, May 6th, Xanadu will be transforming Signature's MAX Theatre into one big disco-ball heaven - complete with satin shorts and roller skates! Nominated for four Tony Awards® (including "Best Musical"), the musical features a Book by Douglas Carter Beane, with Music and Lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar. Xanadu will play at Signature from tonight, May 6, 2012 through July 1, 2012. Tickets are now on sale.

Signature Theatre closes out its 2011/12 season sporting funky legwarmers and wielding neon glow sticks with the Washington premiere of the musical comedy hit Xanadu. Beginning performances on May 6th, Xanadu will be transforming Signature's MAX Theatre into one big disco-ball heaven - complete with satin shorts and roller skates! Nominated for four Tony Awards® (including "Best Musical"), the musical features a Book by Douglas Carter Beane, with Music and Lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar. Xanadu will play at Signature from May 6, 2012 through July 1, 2012. Tickets are now on sale.

Eric Schaeffer, Artistic Director of Signature Theatre, today announced the lineup for the company's 2012/2013 season. The Tony Award®-winning company, long renowned for staging bold and innovative productions of classic musicals, will be reinventing four legendary Broadway favorites for their exciting 23rd season. In addition to a co-production with Ford's Theatre of the 10-time Tony Award®-winner Hello, Dolly!, Signature will be bringing the uproarious musical comedy The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and the inspirational award-winning musical Dreamgirls to the intimate MAX Theatre. Signature, the Theatre most closely associated with producing definitive productions of Stephen Sondheim, will also present the quintessential musical on love and marriage, Company, for the first time in twenty years.

Last night before a crowd of 200 theatre makers and theatre lovers, theatreWashington announced the nominees for the 28th Helen Hayes Awards. The National Theatre's Helen Hayes Gallery set the scene for the announcement of nominees in 26 categories for artistic excellence and the announcement of the recipient of the 2012 John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company. The Helen Hayes Awards is one of the most prestigious honors for artists and theatre companies in Washington's vibrant theatre scene.

Signature Theatre today announced that the run of Hairspray will be extended for one week, through February 5th.

Signature Theatre today announced that the run of Hairspray will be extended for one week, through February 5th.

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.