Scott Suchman News

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.

Hip-Hopia is back and as fly as ever when P.Nokio: A Hip-Hop Musical returns to open Imagination Stage's 2012-2013 season. P.Nokio, written by hip-hop theatre artist and playwright Psalmayene 24 and called "inspired and quirky" by The Washington Post, updates the classic Pinocchio story with a new beat for today's audiences. Made possible by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, this Helen Hayes Recommended musical enjoyed its world premiere at Imagination Stage this past February and a successful tour to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in March.

Tickets go on sale today, July 26 for "Elephant Room" at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Bringing pure, unadulterated fun and transforming the space into a mystical place of wonder and amusement, "Elephant Room" runs August 22 through September 16, 2012. The opening is set for August 26.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) Artistic Director Carey Perloff announced today the casting for the West Coast premiere of The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer's landmark play focusing on the early years of the AIDS crisis in New York City in the 1980s. Directed by five-time Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe, The Normal Heart unfolds like a real-life political thriller as a tight-knit group of friends refuse to let doctors, politicians, and the press bury the truth about an epidemic ravaging the gay community behind a wall of silence. The Normal Heart performs a limited run September 13-October 7, 2012, at the American Conservatory Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco). Press night is Wednesday, September 19, at 8 p.m. The Normal Heart is presented in association with Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater in Washington, D.C., by special arrangement with Daryl Roth.

Tickets go on sale Thursday, July 26 for "Elephant Room" at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Bringing pure, unadulterated fun and transforming the space into a mystical place of wonder and amusement, "Elephant Room" runs August 22 through September 16, 2012. The opening is set for August 26.

Imagination Stage in Bethesda, MD has embarked on a new adventure with its current production of C.S. Lewis' beloved tale, The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe. In collaboration with The Washington Ballet, it has succeeded in putting forth a theatrical revelation- a production that's not a ballet, a musical, or a straight play, but something in between. Although Imagination Stage is generally very much geared towards children, theatre and dance-loving adults are likely to be enamored with this piece, including those who come to the theatre without children! Put succinctly, this is an astounding work of art.

Imagination Stage, in a collaboration with The Washington Ballet, presents its world premiere summer production, THE LION, THE WITCH & THE WARDROBE. In this fusion of theater, dance, and puppetry, based on the novel by C.S. Lewis, the roles of the four children are played jointly by an actor and a dancer, and the courageous lion Aslan is portrayed by a life-size puppet operated by three actor/puppeteers, similar to the puppets used in the Broadway production War Horse. Check out the latest photos from the production below!

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: ONCE scores big at the Tonys, ROCK OF AGES hits the big screen, HARVEY returns to Broadway, and so much more!

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater presents the 2011 Tony Award-winning production of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart. George C. Wolfe, who directed the show's sold-out Broadway engagement last season, is mounting the professional D.C.-area premiere of this production, which features returning Broadway cast members Patrick Breen and Luke MacFarlane, among others. Presented by special arrangement with Daryl Roth, The Normal Heart is now playing though July 29 in the Kreeger Theater.

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. 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 through July 1, 2012. Check out production shots below!

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater's production of MerEdith Wilson's The Music Man, helmed by Artistic Director Molly Smith, stars Kate Baldwin (Tony Award nominee for Broadway's Finian's Rainbow) as Marian the librarian, joined by Burke Moses (original Gaston in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast) as Harold Hill. The Music Man runs May 11-July 22, 2012 in the Fichandler Stage. Get a first look below!

Imagination Stage is extending its popular production of Rapunzel by a week. Rapunzel now runs in Imagination Stage's Annette M. and Theodore N. Lerner Family Theatre through May 26.

Hodges and Hodges recommend that you go see CAMELOT in San Francisco. Oh, wait. No, that's not quite right. Sorry about that. Blimey! It's actually Monty Python's SPAMALOT at San Francisco's Orpheum Theatre, playing now through April 22nd.

Who would think to deem Eugene O'Neill as one of the original forefathers of reality television? But perhaps we should - to add it to his long list of artistic achievements as one of the great playwrights of our time. Especially in the context of Long Day's Journey Into Night, one of O'Neill's brilliant constructions now playing at Arena Stage through May 6th, 2012.

A wild and wacky acting troupe will be making their way to the City by the Bay and they'll be holding court at the Orpheum Theatre April 10-22nd. San Francisco audience members will be playing host to Monty Python's SPAMALOT!

South Florida theater fans are in for an array of Broadway hits as the awesomely cool, ROCK OF AGES, opens the all musical Broadway in Miami 2012 - 2013 season at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami Dade County. Scheduled to launch the season with a bang, from October 9-14, ROCK OF AGES will be followed by the high-stepping Broadway Musical for the entire family, MARY POPPINS, set to bring in the New Year, January 1-6; the return of the world's greatest musical, LES MISÉRABLES, in a brand new 25th anniversary production, February 26 - March 3; the outlandishly colorful PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT will keep audiences on their feet with its parade of dance-floor favorites, April 2-7; and Best Musical Tony Winner of 2010 MEMPHIS will make its triumphant Miami debut with its explosive dancing and powerhouse songs, May 7-12.

Following a highly successfully L.A. premiere this past February 2011, ROCK OF AGES, the five-time Tony Award nominated smash-hit musical, returns to Los Angeles for a strictly limited, face-melting one week engagement now through March 25, 2012 at the Pantages Theatre. L.A. audiences were so amped during the show's premiere engagement that it was clear those die-hard fans who continued singing 'Don't Stop Believin' down Hollywood Boulevard as they left the Pantages Theatre hadn't been rocked hard enough!