Signature Theatre News

Joshua Turchin will return to The Green Room 42 with his cabaret series, 'The Early Night Show with Joshua Turchin,' on February 10, 2019 at 2pm. Turchin has previously performed two successful shows, 'The Early Night Show at The Green Room' and the 'West End Lounge,' and regularly music directs and accompanies at The Green Room 42's (YOUNG) cabaret series. Special guests from Broadway, television and film will join Turchin on stage. Tickets for 'THE EARLY NIGHT SHOW' can be purchased https://ci.ovationtix.com/34878/production/1000029?performanceId=10360554

Lakeland's 2018-19 season concludes with the first locally produced production of the musical version of Mary Rodgers' classic Young Adult novel Freaky Today. Freaky Today, which opens on February 1, 2019 and runs for three weeks at Lakeland Community College's Rodehorst Performing Arts Center, is directed by Martin Friedman and under the Musical Direction of Matthew Dolan.

Theatre production company Parity Productions has released its monthly list of Qualifying Productions for February -their popular directory of New York City shows in which the individual creative teams have 50% of the positions filled with cis women and/or trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) artists (directors, designers, and playwrights). 

The Signature Theatre production of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and Residency 1 playwright Lynn Nottage and directed by Obie Award-winner Kamilah Forbes, has been extended one week to now play through March 10, 2019. The production began performances on January 29 with a February 19 opening night on The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9thand 10th Avenues).

The Australian Discovery Orchestra, the world's first solely digital streaming orchestra, is proud to announce "16 STORIES" - a worldwide online vocal competition. Renowned musical theatre creators from around the world have contributed a song from a musical they have written that has never previously been recorded for commercial release; these 16 songs will comprise an upcoming Australian Discovery Orchestra album, to be released on the Broadway Records label.

Signature Theatre presents Ain't Misbehavin': The Fats Waller Musical Show directed by Signature Theatre's Director of New Works Joe Calarco (Signature's The Scottsboro Boys, Jesus Christ Superstar) and choreographed by Jared Grimes (Signature's The Scottsboro Boys, Jelly's Last Jam). Signature's MAX Theatre will be converted into a 1930s Harlem night club for this tribute to the music of Thomas 'Fats' Waller. This Tony Award®-winning musical includes the beloved tunes 'The Joint is Jumpin',' 'Honeysuckle Rose,' 'Handful of Keys' and more. Ain't Misbehavin'runs from January 23 - March 10, 2019.

Signature Theatre presents Ain't Misbehavin': The Fats Waller Musical Show directed by Signature Theatre's Director of New Works Joe Calarco (Signature's The Scottsboro Boys, Jesus Christ Superstar) and choreographed by Jared Grimes (Signature's The Scottsboro Boys, Jelly's Last Jam).

Manhattan Concert Productions (MCP) has just announced lead casting for their concert performance of Frank Wildhorn and Nan Knighton's musical comedy The Scarlet Pimpernel. One of today's greatest leading men, Tony Yazbeck, will star as Percy Blakeney at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center on February 18, 2019 at 8:00 pm.

Barrington Stage Company announced today that Stacey Rose is the inaugural winner of The Bonnie and Terry Burman New Play Award, a new national play contest at BSC. Rose will be awarded $25,000 and her play America v. 2.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of the American Negro will receive a world premiere production at BSC.

Signature Theatre announces the cast and creative team for the world premiere of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by DC playwright Heather McDonald

Theater Alliance continues Season 16 with Blood at the Root by MacArthur Award-winning playwright Dominique Morisseau. Inspired by the Jena Six case, which roiled tensions in Louisiana in 2006, the play probes the complexities of race, individual freedoms, and what justice means when biases have been normalized. When a black student disrupts the status quo at her high school by occupying space typically reserved for white students, her community erupts in hate speech, violence, and chaos. Moving, lyrical, and bold, Blood at the Root scrutinizes the intrinsic links between justice, bias, and identity.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison and Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been leading the gender parity conversation and championing women in the professional theatre for over 35 years, will present the 2019 Theatre Women Awards at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012) on Monday, March 25 at 7pm (doors open at 6:30pm). For more information on the 2019 Theatre Women Awards, and to purchase tickets, please visit www.theatrewomen.org. 

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley announces a special post-show political forum for its production of the Tony and Olivier Award-nominated drama Frost/Nixon. Following the 2pm performance of Frost/Nixon on Saturday, February 2 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, audiences are invited to discuss the history and current relevance of the Watergate scandal with Dr. Theodore Glasser of Stanford University and Dr. Terri Bimes of University of California Berkeley in a conversation moderated by Cameron Wells, the assistant director of Frost/Nixon. Glasser, a professor emeritus of Communication whose research specializes in media practices and press accountability, and Bimes, a lecturer and Assistant Director of Research for the Institute of Governmental Studies who teaches about the presidency, will bring their unique perspectives to this free political forum, open to audience members and community members.

The mysterious guitar playing shapeshifter knocks on Creative Cauldron's doors again in Thunder Knocking on the Door, a blues musical fable written by Keith Glover, with lyrics and music by three-time Grammy award winner Keb' Mo' and Anderson Edwards. The acclaimed artists behind Creative Cauldron's Bold New Works productions, Stephen Gregory Smith and Matt Conner, are directing and choreographing the production. Smith received praise for his gorgeously and lovingly directed Thunder Knocking at the Door production, which played a sold out run at Creative Cauldron back in 2013. The show runs from February 14 March 10 at Creative Cauldron in Falls Church, 410 South Maple Avenue. Performances are Thursdays at 7:30PM, Fridays at 7:30PM, Saturdays at 7:30PM, and Sundays at 2:00PM & 7:00PM. Press Night is Saturday, February 16th at 7:30 pm.

Today, influencer and talent manager ChiChi Anyanwu of the NYC Black Theater Network, Marcia Pendelton, President of Walk Tall Girl Productions/Black Theater Online, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (Kevin Young, Director, Schomburg Center) announced BLACK PLAYWRIGHTS: THEY SPEAK. WHO LISTENS? A Black Theater Winter Preview: Broadway and Off-Broadway Edition. The event is scheduled at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (515 Malcolm X Blvd) on Monday, January 28, 2019 at 6:30 p.m. Four-time Tony Award-winning producer Ron Simons of SimonSays Entertainment (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Porgy & Bess, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Jitney) will host the program whose purpose is to bring attention to the unprecedented number of plays by black playwrights being produced on Broadway and Off-Broadway this season.

Hartford Stage announced today the cast and creative team for Dominique Morisseau's Detroit '67. The powerful drama, produced in association with the McCarter Theatre Center, will perform at Hartford Stage Thursday, February 14, through Sunday, March 10.

MCC Theater announced today the complete cast and creative team for the first show at their new 52nd Street home: the New York Premiere production of The Light, written by Loy A. Webb, and directed by Logan Vaughn.

Rainy Day Productions will present industry readings of the new play Chasing the River by Jean Dobie Giebel. Directed by Illana Stein, the six-member cast will feature Tony Carlin, Aaron Costa Ganis, Annie Golden, Deborah Rayne, Chet Siegel, and Wendy Rich Stetson. The readings will be held on Monday, January 28 at 3:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m., and Tuesday, January 29 at 4:00 p.m. For more information, please email victoria@PSTheatricals.com.

Town Stages is proud to announce the 2019 slate of recipients of the annual Sokoloff Creative Arts Fellowship: Charlotte Arnoux & Alex Parrish, Nikko Benson, Eamon Boylan, Maximus DeFrancesco, Molly Powers Gallagher, Tess Howsam, Rachel Lin, Anna Lublina, Lacy Marie Meyer, Ben Moniz, Marina Montesanti, Zach Morris, Mark Murray, Tara O'Con, Noah Reece, Tidtaya Sinutoke, Alex Spieth, Jeff Tang, Greg Taubman, The Mother Line Story Project, Will Thomason, Isaac L. Thompson Jr, Rebecca Vineyard, and Emma Rosa Went.