Signature Theatre News

Signature Theatre is proud to present Billy Elliot the Musical directed and choreographed by Signature Theatre Associate Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner (Signature's Passion, West Side Story). Based on the powerful and acclaimed film, all 11-year-old Billy wants to do is dance. Initially facing opposition from society and his father, Billy's passion instead unites the community and changes his life in extraordinary ways. The original production with book and lyrics by Lee Hall and music by Tony, Grammy and Academy Award® winner Elton John was universally lauded, sweeping the Tony, Drama Desk and Olivier Awards for Best Musical. Billy Elliot the Musical runs now thru January 6, 2019 in Signature Theatre's intimate MAX Theatre.

Signature Theatre is proud to present Billy Elliot the Musical directed and choreographed by Signature Theatre Associate Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner (Signature's Passion, West Side Story). Based on the powerful and acclaimed film, all 11-year-old Billy wants to do is dance. Initially facing opposition from society and his father, Billy's passion instead unites the community and changes his life in extraordinary ways. The original production with book and lyrics by Lee Hall and music by Tony, Grammy and Academy Award® winner Elton John was universally lauded, sweeping the Tony, Drama Desk and Olivier Awards for Best Musical. Billy Elliot the Musical runs now thru January 6, 2019 in Signature Theatre's intimate MAX Theatre.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre today announced the full cast and creative team for Paradise Square: An American Musical. The world premiere is helmed by acclaimed director Moises Kaufman, with choreography by the legendary Bill T. Jones and a book by Marcus Gardley, Craig Lucas, and Larry Kirwan. Music by Jason Howland and Larry Kirwan, with lyrics by Nathan Tysen, and based on the songs of Stephen Foster. Paradise Square is produced by special arrangement with Garth H. Drabinsky in association with Peter LeDonne and Teatro Proscenium Limited Partnership.

The Public Theater announced complete casting today for the world premiere of EVE'S SONG, written by The Public's Emerging Writers Group alum and 2017-18 Tow Playwright-in-Residence, Patricia Ione Lloyd.

Cheo Bourne and Lena Moy-Borgen are bringing their hit variety cabaret show to Don't Tell Mama for an ELECTION DAY SPECIAL, November 6th at 7pm! Watch them, your party planning committee, as they curate an awesome party for you, complete with special appearances by the Employee of the Month Jerry Phelps (No Evil: A Resistance Cabaret) and Temp Katie McManus (Mama's Next Big Act Top 5, 2018). Andrew David Sotomayor music directs. Special discounts for 'I voted' stickers, election themed trivia and more! Come have fun and eat cake before finding out the fate of our democracy.

Signature Theatre will partner with American Theatre, the national magazine for the American professional not-for-profit theatre published by Theatre Communications Group, on a new series of panel discussions covering subject matters relevant to theatre audiences and practitioners. All panels, which are free and open to the public, will take place at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).

Some girls would kill to be on the team! Midnight Theatricals and Producers S. Asher Gelman & Matthew Hui have announced that WE ARE THE TIGERS, an original pop/rock musical and teen horror comedy written & composed by Preston Max Allen, will make its New York Premiere Off-Broadway in February 2019. Michael Bello will direct the pitch-black comedy about a dismally low-ranking team of cheerleaders terrorized by a serial killer. Patrick Sulken is the Music Supervisor. The cast, creative team and theater are soon to be announced. www.tigersmusical.com

The Fred Ebb Foundation in association with the Roundabout Theatre Company will present the fourteenth annual Fred Ebb Award for aspiring musical theatre songwriters to Will Reynolds and Eric Price. The award, named in honor of the late award-winning lyricist Fred Ebb, will be presented by Alan Cumming on Monday, November 26th from 6-8pm at a by-invitation-only ceremony in the Penthouse Lounge of The American Airlines Theater.

Up until just a few years ago, Michael Urie may have been best known as Marc St. Jame from the television series Ugly Betty. Now, however, Broadway fans have come to know him as a household name in the theatre community. Today, we're taking a look back on Urie's stage career, ahead of his return to Broadway this season in Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song.

Her words. His voice. Hollywood legend Judy Garland's infamous private recordings are the basis of The Book That I'm Going to Write, By Judy Garland, faithfully adapted and performed by Jason Powell. On the heels of winning The Producer's Encore Award at Hollywood Fringe in Los Angeles, the show makes its New York City debut on November 3 at The Jerry Orbach Theater (1627 Broadway at 50th Street) for three performances through November 5.

Today's subject, Nancy Anderson, has been living her theater life on Broadway and in regional theaters for many years now. You can currently see her as the tight-fisted, but caring dance teacher Mrs. Wilkinson in Billy Elliot at Signature Theatre. The production plays through January 6, 2019 in the MAX space. Directed and choreographed by Signature Theatre's Associate Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner, it very well may be the largest production the company has presented to date.

Daniel J. Watts (Hamilton, TBS' "The Last O.G.," Signature Theatre's The Death of The Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World) and WattsWords Productions present Daniel J. Watts' The Jam: Only Child, an evening of music, dance, spoken word, and storytelling on Monday, December 3rd at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater (425 Lafayette Street).  Doors open at 6pm, the show begins at 7pm. 

The Cher Show begins previews tonight, Thursday, November 1, 2018 at the Neil Simon Theatre. Get to know the cast below as they begin Broadway performances!

The Broadway production of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, a new play by Aaron Sorkin, starring Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch, begins previews tonight, Thursday, November 1. Get to know the cast below as they begin Broadway performances!

Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre (MET), now located in the historic Warwick Theater on Main Street in Kansas City adjacent to the Plaza District presents 'The Orphans' Home Cycle' continuing in repertory until November 18.

Producing Artistic Director Mei Ann Teo and Musical Theatre Factory present the Developmental Residency presentation of Agent 355, a new punk-rock musical with Music, Lyrics, and Book by Preston Max Allen and Book and Dramaturgy by Jessica Kahkoska. Agent 355 is directed by Estefania Fadul and features music direction and orchestrations by Madeline Smith ,with General Management by Simpson & Longthorne Theatricals and MTF Creative Producing by Maggie Snyder.

Monumental Theatre Company will present 'Black Girl Magic,' a fundraising concert for their upcoming season, on November 27, 2018. The concert will feature local Black artists Jade Jones (Mrs. Lovett in Rep Stage's Sweeney Todd), Awa Sal Secka (Simon Zealotes in Signature Theatre's Jesus Christ Superstar) and Ines Nassara (Dorothy in Ford's Theatre's The Wiz). The women will be performing popular songs and standards, as well as audience favorites from hit musicals. The concert will be music directed by Chris Urquiaga, a singer songwriter whose album "I'm Here" is currently available on all platforms.

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

Cheo Bourne and Lena Moy-Borgen are bringing their hit variety cabaret show to Don't Tell Mama for an ELECTION DAY SPECIAL, November 6th at 7pm! Watch them, your party planning committee, as they curate an awesome party for you, complete with special appearances by the Employee of the Month Jerry Phelps (No Evil: A Resistance Cabaret) and Temp Katie McManus (Mama's Next Big Act Top 5, 2018). Andrew David Sotomayor music directs. Special discounts for 'I voted' stickers, election themed trivia and more! Come have fun and eat cake before finding out the fate of our democracy.

Ford's Theatre Director Paul R. Tetreault announced that acclaimed Washington actor Craig Wallace will return to Ford's to perform the role of Ebenezer Scrooge for the company's holiday production of A Christmas Carol. Performances of the classic Charles Dickens story begin November 15 and continue for a six-and-a-half-week engagement through December 30, 2018. This "musically high-spirited" and "infectiously jolly" (The Washington Post) production is adapted by Michael Wilson and directed by Michael Baron.