Signature Theatre Announces Cast and Creative Team for GIRLFRIEND

Signature Theatre is proud to announce the full cast and creative team for the DC premiere of Girlfriend. Directed and choreographed by Signature Theatre Associate Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner (Signature's Crazy for You, Jelly's Last Jam), this coming of age musical features a book by Todd Almondand featuring the music and lyrics of Matthew Sweet. Set in small-town Nebraska in 1993, college-bound jock Mike and self-assured but aimless Will find themselves drawn to each other. This examination of first-time love is set to the songs of Mathew Sweet's iconic alternative-rock album "Girlfriend." Girlfriend will run April 17 - June 10 in Signature Theatre's ARK Theatre.

"Signature Theatre is proud to present the Washington DC premiere of Girlfriend," said Eric Schaeffer, Signature Theatre Artistic Director. "Todd Almond and Matthew Sweet's new musical will be a welcome addition to Signature's eclectic season."

"Todd Almond's Girlfriend examines that strange vulnerable period in your life as a teenager," said Matthew Gardiner. "It is a messy, uncomfortable, and weird time, but also thrilling. And nothing is more thrilling at that point in your life then falling in love for the first time, especially as a gay teenager. To realize there is someone else out there like you, someone you can connect with on that level is such a life changing moment. Matthew Sweet's aching songs remind us of a time in all of our lives that was both terrifying and exhilarating and Todd Almond's script captures this moment in time so beautifully."

The production will star Signature newcomers Jimmy Mavrikes (Constellation's The Wild Party) as Will and Lukas James Miller (Virginia Musical Theatre's FreakyFriday) as Mike.

The creative team includes Musical Direction by Britt Bonney, Scenic Design by Misha Kachman (Signature's Midwestern Gothic), Lighting Design by Colin K Bills (Signature's A Little Night Music), Costume Design by Frank Labovitz (Signature's Jesus Christ Superstar), Sound Design by Ryan Hickey (Signature's Light Years), Production Stage Manager Julie Meyer, Production Assistant Sophia Lewin Adams.

GIRLFRIEND

Book by Todd Almond

Music & Lyrics by Matthew Sweet

Directed by Matthew Gardiner

Eight weeks only!

Performances run April 17, 2018 through June 10, 2018

Single tickets now on sale.

Sponsored by the Bernard Family Foundation

CAST BIOS

Jimmy Mavrikes SIGNATURE: Cabaret, Signature Tenors Cabaret; DC AREA: Constellation Theatre Co, Wild Party (Burrs, Helen Hayes nomination for Best Actor); Arena Stage: Fiddler, Oliver; Olney Theatre Center: My Fair Lady; Adventure Theatre: Petite Rouge, James and the Giant Peach (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Ensemble); Imagination Stage: Looking for Roberto Clemente, Princess and the Pauper; 1st Stage: Bat Boy (Bat Boy, Helen Hayes nomination for Best Actor); Toby's Dinner Theatre, Into the Woods (Jack), Spamalot; Monumental Theatre Company: Co-Artistic Director. EDUCATION: B.M. Musical Theatre, Catholic University. Proud AEA member.

Lukas James Miller REGIONAL: Charleston Stage Co.: Disney's The Little Mermaid; Virginia Musical Theatre: Freaky Friday, Mamma Mia!; Greenbrier Valley Theatre: Pippin; Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival: Cinderella, Henry V; Cortland Repertory Theatre: 1776, The Addams Family, Sherlock Holmes & The West End Horror; The Huron Playhouse: A Chorus Line, Little Shop of Horrors, Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike; Wolfbane Prod.: Bare: A New Musical; Endstation Theatre Co.: Our Town, Macbeth. EDUCATIONAL: The Wild Party, Children of Eden, The Cherry Orchard, Sweet Charity, Assassins. EDUCATION: James Madison University, 2017, Musical Theatre.

ABOUT SIGNATURE

Founded in 1989, Signature Theatre is a Tony Award®-winning regional theater that broadens and brightens the region's cultural landscape with its bold productions of challenging new and established works and engaging education and outreach programs. Under the leadership of co-founder and Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer and Managing Director Maggie Boland, musical theater has become Signature's "signature," and the Theatre is renowned for its definitive Sondheim productions, inventive adaptations of overlooked or forgotten works, and investment in fresh new projects. Called a "musical theater powerhouse" by The Washington Post, Signature combines Broadway-caliber productions with intimate playing spaces and aims to be a leading force in U.S. musical theater. Since its inception, the Theatre has produced 58 world premiere works-including 19 new musical commissions-and is home to the single largest musical theater commissioning project in the United States, The American Music Voices Project. Attracting talent from the DC metropolitan region and New York, Signature has grown to reach more than 100,000 people annually from the Washington, DC region and beyond. Signature has won 103 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in the Washington, DC region's professional theater and has been honored with 411 nominations.

SigTheatre.org