Once upon a time, Signature Theatre would attract theatergoers by the hundreds this time of year with the lure of “summer hummer”-themed shows, in which top-notch entertainers get a little closer and more personal with patrons, packed into the organization’s intimate spaces in Shirlington.
Two years after the pandemic put a damper on all that, the company has announced a more diverse, as well as dispersed, summer season, kicking off with the free off-site “Signature Theatre Under the Stars” concert featuring powerhouse vocalist Kanysha Williams accompanied by Mark G. Meadows and his band The Movement.
Set to take place Friday, June 10, at 8 p.m., in Arlington’s Lubber Run Amphitheater (200 N. Columbus St.), the concert will include a mix of original tunes by Meadows as well as covers of upbeat iconic jams including “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” and “Superstition.”
Speaking of Meadows covering Stevie Wonder, this year’s summer cabaret series — officially marking the first cabarets at Signature since the pandemic — promises a focused riff on the impressive repertoire of the pop/R&B legend, centered around his 1980 platinum-selling album Hotter Than July, known for the hit “All I Do” and “Master Blaster (Jammin’).”
Meadows is the lead behind the cabarets, which will be directed by Signature’s Matthew Gardiner and presented in the ARK Theatre from July 5th to July 17th. Tickets are $38.
The summer 2022 schedule also includes Signature’s second annual “Broadway in the Park” outing at Wolf Trap featuring Signature stars and headlined by two Tony-winning leading ladies, Kelli O’Hara (The King and I) and Adrienne Warren (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical). The musical theater “under the stars” program takes place Friday, June 24, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 to $180.
Meanwhile, summer will get to sizzling at Signature a week before the Stevie Wonder cabarets with a concert presentation of a timely new musical written by Harrison David Rivers with music and additional lyrics by Ted Shen.
Performed in the intimate ARK space Thursday, June 30, through Saturday, July 2, We Shall Someday, directed by Kelli Foster Warder, weaves together story and song to chronicle three generations of a Southern Black family tracing the effects of racism, activism, and legacy from the Civil Rights era to today. Tickets are $25.
Signature Theatre is at 4200 Campbell Ave., in Arlington, Va.
Everyone is entitled their own opinion, but is everyone entitled to their opinion of your opinion? Furthermore, is your opinion a reflection of who you are in a greater scope as a person?
Those questions lie at the heart of Art, a starry play on Broadway that has been revived since its initial 1998 run, for which it won a Tony. Back then, it starred Alan Alda, Victor Garber, and Alfred Molina. Now, Neil Patrick Harris, Bobby Cannavale, and James Corden step into the work from French playwright Yasmina Reza, translated from its original language by Christopher Hampton.
Even in our era of short-form entertainment, the 100-minute comedy feels much too long. It evolves around a trio of three longtime friends who debate a $300,000 painting. As Porky Pig so succinctly stated, "That's all, folks!" Much like an artist and their sycophants who believe that a pretentious artpiece is masterful, theatergoers will also delude themselves into thinking that they have witnessed a show of great import. In fairness, they aren't totally wrong. Art does have more to offer than what it offers at first blush.
The D.C. theater season doesn't tiptoe in -- it arrives with gale force. The Shakespeare Theatre Company leads the charge with The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Wild Duck, and a freshly mounted Guys and Dolls, a trio that underscores why STC still sets the bar for classical and modern reinvention. Woolly Mammoth continues to push boundaries with time-bending dramas and audience-driven experiments, while Theater J stakes its ground with provocative premieres that blur the line between history, satire, and survival.
If you want spectacle with edge, Broadway at the National delivers high-gloss imports from Stereophonic to Some Like It Hot. Keegan continues its fearless streak with punk-rock carnage in Lizzie the Musical and raw new work like John Doe. GALA Hispanic Theatre reasserts itself as one of D.C.'s most vital cultural players with El Beso de la Mujer Araña and La Casa de Bernarda Alba, reminding us that Spanish-language theater isn't niche, it's essential.
Metro Weekly magazine was barely a year and a half old when, in 1995, we were offered the chance to interview — and photograph — Broadway legend Carol Channing, then appearing at the Kennedy Center in Hello, Dolly! that fall. Two moments from that experience stand out, the first at the photo shoot with Annie Adjchavanich.
We'd set up a black velvet backdrop in the Hall of States and were waiting for Miss Channing to arrive. When she finally swept in, she looked radiant. Except… she refused to remove her enormous sunglasses. Indoors.
I begged her to take them off, but she firmly declined. "I don't have my eyelashes on," she said. "You are not seeing me without my eyelashes!" And that was that — sunglasses it would be. The result was a cover that was both thrilling (Carol Channing!) and oddly surreal (Carol Channing in giant sunglasses!).
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