Signature Theatre News

Broadway's Future Songbook Series - presented by Arts and Artists of Tomorrow - continues its twenty-seventh season on Monday, May 21st in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center located at 111 Amsterdam Avenue and 65th Street.

On Friday June 8, the company of  Be More Chill hosts a special box office event. From 3:00 - 5:00PM, fans are invited to The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street, NYC) to buy their tickets and meet company members from this summer's hotly anticipated musical. Come and chill out with cast members including Katlyn Carlson, Lauren Marcus, Will Roland, George Salazar and Jason SweetTooth Williams, as well as composer/lyricist Joe Iconis and director Stephen Brackett. There will be opportunities for selfies with the company, fun giveaways and other surprises.

GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS has announced it will record the new musical Miss You Like Hell, the New York premiere production from The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham), for an original cast recording to be released later this year. With book and lyrics by Quiara Alegria Hudes, music and lyrics by Erin McKeown, and choreography by Danny Mefford, the new musical was directed by Public Theater Resident Director and Founder of Public Works Lear deBessonet, and stars Daphne Rubin-Vega and Gizel Jimenez. The recording is being produced by Erin McKeown and Kurt Deutsch.

The Free Student Matinee Program of Signature Theatre (Paige Evans, Artistic Director; Harold Wolpert, Executive Director; James Houghton, Founder), sponsored byDelta Air Lines, will offer free performances of Dominique Morisseau's Paradise Blue, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, and Stephen Adly Guirgis' Our Lady of 121st Street, directed by Phylicia Rashad, the company announced today. The student matinee performance of Paradise Blue will take place on Wednesday, May 16 at 1pm and the student matinee performances of Our Lady of 121st Street will take place on Wednesday, May 23 at 1pm and Wednesday, May 30 at 1pm. Performances will take place at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).

From May 16 to 27, The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. will present the world premiere production of 'Hercules Didn't Wade in the Water' by Michael A Jones.  The play is winner of the troupe's 2017 Emerging Playwrights Competition.  Called a 'drama with comedy,' it is a story of displacement of Black families and the forces that lead to it in modern America.  Performances are at Theatre 80 St. Marks, 80 St. Marks Place.

The DC theatre community hurried along the waterfront on Monday night, attempting to beat the looming, black storm clouds that threatened, but this could not dampen the vibrant crowds as they entered the recently opened Anthem for this year's Helen Hayes Awards. This stunning, modern space will be greeting the likes of Belle & Sebastian, Janelle Monae, and Nine Inch Nails in the coming months, and on this evening, theatre creative showed off their finest.

The Muny announced today its complete cast and design team for the theatre's centennial season production of Gypsy, July 27 - August 2. Gypsy is proudly sponsored by Missouri Lottery.

Paradise Blue opened on Monday, May 14 and runs till June 10, 2018 in The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10thAvenues). Check out the photos below!

Overture Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the Wisconsin premiere and the state's only engagement of the hit Broadway musical ON YOUR FEET! will take the Overture Hall stage Today, May 15-Sunday, May 20. Based on the life story of seven-time GRAMMY® winning international superstar Gloria Estefan and her husband, 19-time GRAMMY® winning producer-musician-entrepreneur Emilio Estefan, the first national tour stars Cuban-American Broadway actress Christie Prades as Gloria Estefan, and acclaimed stage and television actor Mauricio Martinez as Emilio Estefan.

This evening, the 34th Annual Helen Hayes Awards celebrated Washington's diverse and vital theatre community with a gala event at The Anthem, recognizing 258 Helen Hayes Award nominees and 48 award recipients drawn from 202 eligible productions presented at 64 theatres in 2017. GALA Hispanic Theatre's Spanish-language production of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes' In The Heights received nine awards, putting them at the top of a list of 20 theatres receiving Helen Hayes Awards this year.

Signature Theatre announces the full cast and creative team for the DC premiere of The Scottsboro Boys directed by Signature Theatre's Director of New Works Joe Calarco (Signature's Jesus Christ Superstar, Gypsy) and choreographed by Jared Grimes (Signature's Jelly's Last Jam). John Kander and Fred Ebb's final musical collaboration premiered on Broadway in 2010 and was heralded as 'an absolute marvel' by The Associated Press. The Scottsboro Boys is centered around nine young African-American teenagers who were ripped off a train in 1931, falsely accused of a crime, hastily tried and sentenced to death in an outrageous disregard of due process. The Scottsboro Boys will run from May 22 - July 1 in Signature Theatre's intimate MAX Theatre.

Today's subject Euan Morton has been seen in the DC area in a variety of plays and musicals. You might remember him portrayal of Anatoly in Chess at Signature Theatre or his Helen Hayes Award winning performance as Leo Frank in Parade at Ford's Theatre or Launce in The Two Gentlemen of Verona at Shakespeare Theatre Company.

The selection committee for the inaugural session of The 5th Avenue Theatre's new musical initiative, First Draft: Raise Your Voice, has been announced. This cycle is currently soliciting submissions nation-wide from womxn, gender non-conforming and non-binary folx with a submission deadline of June 15. Comprised of a team of outstanding womxn, the selection committee includes performers, producers, directors, playwrights and thought leaders in the Seattle theater landscape: Desdamona Chiang, Lauren DuPree, Keiko Green, Allison Narver, and Sarah Porkalob, lead by The 5th's Kelsey Thorgalsen and Bill Berry.

Yangtze Repertory Theatre (Chongren Fan, Artistic Director; Sally Shen, Executive Director) announces a new production of Romulus the Great, by Friedrich Durrenmatt, based on the translation by Gerhard Nellhaus, directed by Chongren Fan. With performances beginning on Thursday, June 7th at the TBG Theatre (312 West 36thStreet, 3F), Romulus The Great will celebrate it's opening night on Saturday, June 9, and will play through Saturday, June 23.

Classic Stage Company announced today that Clifton Duncan, most recently seen on Broadway in The Play That Goes Wrong, will play the role of Joe in the company's new production of the musical CARMEN JONES, now beginning performances Saturday, June 9 (8pm) at CSC (136 East 13th Street).

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $80 million in grants as part of the NEA's second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $10,000 to Broadway Dance Lab in support of its commitment to provide choreographers with free rehearsal space and dancers to assist in the creative process. Art Works is the NEA's largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meet the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts.

Bay Street Theater and Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the cast and creative team for the second production in their 2018 Mainstage Season: FROST/NIXON, a new play by Peter Morgan, directed by Sarna Lapine. The production will run from June 26 - July 22, 2018. Single tickets are now on sale, and tickets are also still available as part of a Mainstage Subscription. To purchase tickets and subscriptions, call the Box Office at 631-725-9500 or purchase online at www.baystreet.org.

The Geffen Playhouse today announced the full cast for its Los Angeles Premiere production of Skeleton Crew, the third and final installment in Dominique Morisseau's award-winning three-play cycle, The Detroit Project. The play features Amari Cheatom (Roman J. Israel, Esq.) as Dez, Caroline Stefanie Clay (Broadway's The Little Foxes) as Faye, Kelly McCreary (Grey's Anatomy) as Shanita and D.B. Woodside (Lucifer) as Reggie. Patricia McGregor will direct.

LAByrinth Theater Company (Artistic Director John Ortiz) recently announced that they will present the World Premiere of Devil of Choice by LAB Member Maggie Bofill (Winners, Drawn and Quartered). They are thrilled for performances to begin Wednesday, May 23, and will run through Saturday, June 9, 2018, at The Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street, New York, NY 10014). An official opening night has been set for Monday, May 28, 2018. Tickets are available for $20 each and can be purchased online at www.labtheater.org/shows-and-events

The Drama Book Shop was thrilled to host a discussion and signing with award winning playwright Dominique Morisseau on Monday, May 7th. Moderating the discussion was actor, director, and executive assistant to Ms. Morisseau, Stori Ayers.