Theater News

Sondheim Musicals West Side Story and Road Show Slated for Signature Theatre's 2015-16 Season

Annie Baker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play ”The Flick” joins the lineup.

Signature Theatre will ring in 2016 with a production of West Side Story.
Signature Theatre will ring in 2016 with a production of West Side Story.

Arlington, Virginia's Signature Theatre has announced the lineup for its 2015-16 season, which is set to include two world premiere musicals.

The season will open with The Fix (August 11-September 20), the inside-Washington musical satire by John Dempsey and Dana Rowe. The production will be directed by Eric Schaeffer, who currently helms the Broadway revival of Gigi.

The world premiere of Cake Off will follow (September 29-November 22). Based on the original play by Sheri Wilner, the story follows a "battle-of-the-baking-sexes" at the the 48th Annual Twillsbury Bake-Off. The musical features a book by Sheri Wilner and Julia Jordan, music by Adam Gwon, and lyrics by Julia Jordan and Adam Gwon. Sherri L. Edelen is set to star, with direction by Joe Calarco.

Cake Off will be followed by another world premiere musical, Girlstar (October 13-November 15), starring Signature Theatre veteran Donna Migliaccio. The story follows legendary record producer Daniella Espere, who, while searching for her next international sensation, finds it in her long-lost niece, Tina, who dreams of being a world-famous pop star. The musical, directed by Schaeffer, features a book and lyrics by Anton Dudley and music by Brian Feinstein.

Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim's classic Romeo and Juliet-inspired musical West Side Story is next (December 8-January 24, 2016). The production will be based on a conception by Jerome Robbins and will feature direction by Matthew Gardiner.

Another Sondheim musical, Road Show, will follow, making its D.C. premiere (February 9-March 13, 2016). With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by John Weidman, the show is described as "a freewheeling musical travelogue of the optimism and opportunism of the early twentieth century through the eyes of two ambitious, eccentric, yet playfully charming brothers," based on the real-life Mizner siblings. Honeymoon in Vegas director Gary Griffin will helm the production.

Annie Baker's Pulitzer Prize winner The Flick will also make its D.C. premiere (March 1-April 17, 2016). Set in the popcorn-strewn, empty aisles of a crumbling Massachusetts movie theater, the play exposes the surprising tenderness and comedy in the everyday. Calarco will direct.

Bathsheba Doran's The Mystery of Love & Sex, now in performances at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, will make its D.C. premiere at Signature (April 5-May 8, 2016). The play follows complete opposites, Charlotte and Jonny, who have been best friends since they were children. Now, as college students on the eve of graduation, they toy around with taking their friendship romantic.

The Tony Award-winning 1983 musical La Cage aux Folles will close out the season (May 31-July 10, 2016). Directed by Gardiner, the show features music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and a book by Harvey Fierstein.

For more information about Signature Theatre's 2015-16 season, click here.

Featured In This Story

West Side Story

Closed: January 24, 2016