Nova Y. Payton News

Washington, DC is never lacking outstanding theatre, whether epic Broadway shows, engrossing dramas or bold fringe offerings. BroadwayWorld is rounding up our top recommended theatre every month. Check out our selections for August including Steve Martin and Martin Short, The Color Purple American Prophet, No Place To Go and more!

Signature Theatre has announced the cast and creative team for the musical The Color Purple. The cast features Nova Y. Payton (Signature’s After Midnight, Dreamgirls) starring as Celie. Performances run August 16 – October 9, 2022.

What did our critic think? This past weekend Signature Theatre and Wolf Trap teamed up for the second annual edition of Broadway in The Park which like last year featured some of Signature Theatre’s best performers, two Broadway headliners and a 25, yes, 25-piece orchestra. The result was a truly lovely evening of showtunes from multiple decades.

Olney Theatre Center has updated its summer schedule for Olney Outdoors with the full schedule and roster of performers featured in its Cabaret concert series which runs on most Friday nights begininng July 8 - August 19.

Signature Theatre has announced the cast for the concert presentation of We Shall Someday, a timely new musical written by Harrison David Rivers and Ted Shen. The concert presentation will take place June 30 – July 2, 2022.

Ford’s Theatre Society celebrated the legacy of President Abraham Lincoln at its Annual Gala on Sunday evening, June 5, 2022, at Ford’s Theatre. Check out photos of Deborah Cox, Telly Leung, Clive Davis and more!

“You Can’t Stop the Music” as the Village People say and this might have been the mission of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC (GMCW) as they sang their hearts out in esteemed composer Andrew Lippa’s original work entitled Unbreakable.  This East coast premiere by Mr. Lippa (composer of the musicals The Wild Party, Big Fish, and the oratorio I am Harvey Milk) was originally planned for 2020 but thanks to the “unbreakable” GMCW spirit, this fascinating work by Mr. Lippa was finally presented at the Lincoln Theatre.

Olney Theatre Center unveiled its schedule of over 25 summer programs to be held in its open-air Omi Pavillion on the Root Family Stage for the second edition of Olney Outdoors. Learn more about all of the events here!

On May 16, 2022, Virginia’s Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre will honor Carol Burnett with the company’s eleventh Stephen Sondheim Award. Paying tribute to Ms. Burnett with live performances are stars of stage and screen Bernadette Peters and Santino Fontana.

Signature Theatre and Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts announced today the cast for the second annual musical theater collaboration, Broadway In The Park (Friday, June 24 at 8PM). The show will star Tony Award-winners Kelli O’Hara and Adrienne Warren and will feature an ensemble of local talent.

The Olney Performance Series launches later this month with a wide variety of performances ranging from jazz to theatre for young audiences and kicking off on April 22 & 23 with a two-night competitive poetry slam hosted by Simply Sherri.

Ford's Theatre Society is presenting the world-premiere musical Grace, with Music and Lyrics by Nolan Williams, Jr.; Book by Nolan Williams, Jr., and Nikkole Salter; and Directed and Choreographed by Robert Barry Fleming.

Billed as the “New Musical”, the musical Grace is a soulful and heart-filled affirmation of a family hanging on to hope and love as their community changes and as the future propels them onwards. This new musical now playing at Ford’s Theatre is also about letting go of the past yet still honoring it while hanging in with grit and endurance. Grace is shot through with musical numbers that grab you by the gut (gloriously eclectic music and lyrics by Nolan Williams, Jr.) and a superb cast of talent that knocks this out of the park vocally and with finely-honed acting chops.

Packed with an eclectic mix of styles including Jazz, R&B, rousing up-tempos and raise-the-roof ballads, Grace is a new musical examining the little-told history of African-American culinary tradition and the challenges faced by Black-owned businesses.

Ford’s Theatre Society today announced full casting and the design team for the world-premiere musical Grace, with Music and Lyrics by Nolan Williams, Jr.; Book by Nolan Williams, Jr., and Nikkole Salter; and Directed and Choreographed by Robert Barry Fleming.

Signature Theatre has announced that special arrangements have been made to stream Everybody Rise: Signature Remembers Stephen Sondheim for free for a limited 72-hour period.

While Labor Day weekend marked the unofficial end of summer it also marked Signature Theatre’s return to presenting LIVE entertainment. In this case, it was not in the cozy confines of their home in Shirlington but at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap. The concert entitled Broadway in the Park marked the first of what we hope to be many collaborations between these two giants of the arts organizations.

The pair will join a cast of Signature favorites in a program of Broadway's greatest hits including “Don't Rain on My Parade,” “I Am What I Am,” “The Schuyler Sisters,” “You'll Never Walk Alone,” and so much more.

The 2021/2022 Signature Theatre season kicks off early November 2021 with a reimagined new production of Jonathan Larson’s musical RENT and continues with the DC premiere of Daphne’s Dive by Quiara Alegría Hudes; a new production of She Loves Me by Joe Masteroff, Jerry Bock, and Sheldon Harnick and more.

Signature Theatre is now streaming its production of After Midnight, beginning today, June 13 and running through August 4, 2021. This exhilarating song and dance extravaganza is set to the swinging sounds of Duke Ellington, Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields, Harold Arlen and more and framed by the poems of Langston Hughes.