20th Anniversary season announced

We're so excited to announce the 20th Anniversary season! For more info, click here.


Tony Award®-Nominee Emily Skinner is Mae West in
DIRTY BLONDE
A Play with Music by Claudia Shear
Directed by Jeremy Skidmore

"Hands down the best new American play of the season. Dirty Blonde presents one of the canniest portraits on record of that floating dialogue between icons and idolizers that remains so much a part of American culture." – The New York Times

"I made myself platinum but I was born a dirty blonde." – Mae West

A funny, bawdy New York hit, Signature's production of Dirty Blonde stars Tony Award®-nominee and Signature favorite Emily Skinner in the two roles she was born to play – cinematic legend Mae West and West's most fixated fan Jo.

Half celeb-bio and half examination of America's fascination with celebrity, Dirty Blonde is a "smart, tough and tenderhearted comedy" (The New York Times). It reveals the individual behind Mae West's sexy celluloid façade and examines why lost souls like Jo are so mesmerized by the provocative sex goddess.

Nominated for five Tony Awards®, Dirty Blonde combines transformation and drama with a fabulous dollop of show biz magic!
August 11 – October 4, 2009

SHOW BOAT
Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Music by Jerome Kern
Based on the novel Show Boat by Edna Ferber
Directed by Eric Schaeffer

In the vein of earlier productions like Allegro and Les Misérables, Signature Theatre reinvents this American classic in a brand new production that features such beloved songs as Make Believe, Bill, Can't Help Lovin ‘Dat Man, and Ol' Man River.

Spanning the years 1880 to 1927, this lyrical masterpiece concerns the lives, loves, and heartbreaks of three generations of show folk on the Mississippi. Show Boat is a sweeping tale of enduring love and devastating hatred, illuminating through unforgettable music the cruelty of prejudice – and the beauty of romance.

Show Boat is a musical epic, a classic theater event not to be missed.
November 10, 2009 – January 17, 2010

Helen Hayes Award-Winner Andrew Long in
I AM MY OWN WIFE
By Doug Wright
Directed by Alan Paul

Winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize and the 2004 Tony Award® for Best Play

"I Am My Own Wife is the most stirring new work to appear on Broadway this fall… both moving and intellectually absorbing." – The New York Times

Inspired by interviews conducted by the playwright over several years, I Am My Own Wife tells the fascinating real-life story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a German transvestite who managed to survive both Nazi rule and the repressive East German Communist regime.

Von Mahlsdorf was an iconic figure who created a safe-space in the bowels of her antiques museum for East Berlin's "undesirables" – homosexuals, cross-dressers, and prostitutes. But in order to survive, she sacrificed her ideals – becoming an informer for the East German secret police, the Stasi.

In this "brilliant" (New Yorker) one-man show, the award-winning Andrew Long (My Fair Lady, Saving Aimee) portrays Charlotte's complexity – a non-conformist shrouded in an image of conformity; a protector of minorities who ultimately becomes their betrayer.
January 12 – March 7, 2010

20th ANNIVERSARY PRODUCTION
SONDHEIM. SIGNATURE'S SIGNATURE.
SWEENEY TODD
Book by Hugh Wheeler
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Based on the play by Christopher Bond
Directed by Eric Schaeffer

The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is back! The first musical ever presented at Signature gets a brand new environmental staging in the MAX Theatre as part of our 20th anniversary season.

No one's work better represents Signature than composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim's. And Sweeney Todd is Sondheim's masterpiece – with all its gothic gore, lush songs, and romantic melodrama. It's a grand musical that has all the stuff of a classic horror story – betrayal, revenge, madness, and murder.

The "meat" pies will be baking and the blood will be flowing in this thriller musical comedy featuring a celebrated cast of Signature Theatre favorites.
February 9 – April 4, 2010

The Washington Premiere
[title of show]
Book by Hunter Bell
Music and Lyrics by Jeff Bowen
Directed by Matthew Gardiner

"Hilarious! A fresh new musical worth cheering!" – The New York Times

[title of show] is a witty new musical written by two struggling writers about two struggling writers writing a witty new musical.

Originally presented at the 2004 New York Musical Theatre Festival, it is a musical about friends putting together a show to be presented at the New York Musical Theatre Festival.

Faced with the festival's submission deadline, Jeff and Hunter can't decide what to write about. With friends Susan and Heidi (and Larry on the piano), they come up with a solution - write about what to write about.

Are you dizzy yet?

[title of show] is a love letter to musical theater – a can't-miss for those who know Broadway… or want to know Broadway… or just want to get a glimpse into the creative process of putting together a show for Broadway!
March 30 – June 20, 2010

A World Premiere
American Musical Voices Project: Part Two
SYCAMORE TREES
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Ricky Ian Gordon
Directed by Tina Landau
Sponsored by The Shen Family Foundation

Composer Ricky Ian Gordon is the second recipient of the American Musical Voices Project Award to present a new work of musical theater on Signature's stage. Sycamore Trees is the moving story of his family's struggles and their reliance on each other through good and bad.

"When my father came home from World War II in 1945, my family lived in a crowded tenement in the Bronx, poor and with bed bugs. Then my parents got the idea to move to the suburbs where the dream of life flowering in a clean and spacious environment promised to be the answer.

It wasn't.

This is the story of a family and what happened to them … and music is its heartbeat and inner life." – Ricky Ian Gordon

Steppenwolf Theatre member and acclaimed director Tina Landau (Iphigenia 2.0, The Trojan Women) comes to the Washington area to direct this world premiere musical.
May 18 – June 20, 2010