Keegan Theatre's Full 2015-16 Season to Feature ANNAPURNA, NEXT TO NORMAL & More

Keegan Theatre has announced its full 2015-2016 lineup, the inaugural season in the company's renovated theatre. "We are beyond excited to open our next season in our upgraded and modernized facility," says Mark A. Rhea, Keegan's producing artistic director. "We can finally provide our audiences the comfort and facility that they deserve - while keeping the intimacy and feel of the original space."

The company's 18th season will be its biggest to date, with ten main stage
productions. The season features three musicals, two world premieres, one regional premiere - and runs the gamut from epic rock show to intimate two-handers, and everywhere in between. "We have classics, we have new plays, we have big shows and small shows, we have comedies and dramas and shows that don't fit into any one category," says Rhea. "With our reopening season, Keegan is firing on all cylinders, from our love of all things Irish, to our passion for intimate storytelling, to our more recently discovered passion for rock musicals. I hope our audiences will be as excited as we are to take this journey through the 2015-2016 lineup."

In January, the company announced that it will produce two premieres as part of the Women's Voices Theatre Festival this fall, as well as the musicals DOGFIGHT (Music and Lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul; Book by Peter Duchan) and AMERICAN IDIOT (Music by Green Day; Lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong; Book by Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer). Keegan will kick its season off with Tennessee Williams American masterpiece CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, opening in late June. Matthew Keenan's AN IRISH CAROL, the company's beloved original holiday show, will also return for its fifth anniversary year.

Keegan now announces the remaining shows in its 2015-2016 season:

Steve Martin's PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE will kick off 2016, giving audiences reasons to laugh during the chilly winter months. Keegan first produced PICASSO in 2006, when the company was performing out of Gunston Arts Center in Arlington, VA. "It's exciting, ten years later, to bring this show to DC audiences," says Mark A. Rhea, Producing Artistic Director. "Picasso was a runaway hit for us when we produced it in Arlington, and now we want to share the joys of this marvelous comedy with our DC audience. Winter is prime time to give people something to smile about - and Martin's script is as rich in wit as it is in humor. It's going to be a great treat."

As previously announced, the rock musical AMERICAN IDIOT will follow PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE, opening in March 2016.

Keegan will follow up this expansive rock show with an intimate two-hander: ANNAPURNA, by Sharr White. This regional premiere will feature Mark A. Rhea and Susan Marie Rhea, Keegan's producing artistic director and associate artistic director, as an estranged husband and wife reunited by the husband's illness. As death looms, the two must face their painful, unspoken history - a past that until now they've not faced. Equal parts funny and heartbreaking, ANNAPURNA is the perfect intimate counterpoint to the sweeping rock landscape of the musical that precedes it.

Following ANNAPURNA, Keegan will present the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical NEXT TO NORMAL (Music by Tom Kitt; Book and Lyrics by Brian Yorkey). NEXT TO NORMAL opened on Broadway in 2009 and was subsequently nominated for eleven Tony Awards, winning three, including Best Original Score. "We've been hoping for the right opportunity to produce this stunning piece," says Rhea, "and with the lineup this season, the time is definitely now. In addition to its gorgeous score, NEXT TO NORMAL is a tremendously moving and intimate story about deeply complicated and flawed human beings - a natural fit for the kind of storytelling we love at Keegan."

The company will close out its 2015-2016 season with Martin McDonagh's THE LONESOME WEST, another script that Keegan has been waiting to produce for
years. "Again, we just needed it to be the right fit in the right spot in the right season, and that time didn't present itself until now. LONESOME WEST is one of the funniest scripts I've ever encountered - and we think DC audiences are going to eat it up, especially in the heat of summer, when we're all looking for a great laugh."

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