RuPaul Drag Diva Sharon Needles Goes Legit, Thomas Sadoski Gets Into Gaming & More Cross-Country Highlights

Broadway.com is the home for everything Broadway, but theater fans know that amazing productions are happening all around the country. In our new feature, Broadway.com offers you a weekly roundup of hot shows you ought to know on stages across the U.S.A., plus national tours headed to a city near you! Read on for what's hot in your hometown.


WASHINGTON, DC
Janis Joplin Rocks the Capital
Bluesy belter Mary Bridget Davies has won raves across America for her ability to channel Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll Janis Joplin, and now she's shining a light on the whiskey-voiced singer in One Night with Janis Joplin at Arena Stage. Creator, writer and director Randy Johnson packs the show with songs from Joplin’s catalogue, as well as spotlighting women who influenced her, from Bessie Smith and Etta James to Aretha Franklin. Rock out with Janis in the nation’s capital through November 4. 


LOS ANGELES, CA
Thomas Sadoski Begins to Build
Fresh from HBO’s The Newsroom, Tony nominee Thomas Sadoski returns to his stage roots in Build, a world premiere by Michael Golamco about a pair of Silicon Valley video game developers who reunite on a new project after the success of their billion-dollar hit drives them apart. (Sadoski plays a widower who escapes into the world of artificial intelligence.) Laura Heisler and Peter Katona co-star in the Will Frears-directed play, which began performances at the Geffen Playhouse on October 9 and will open on October 24.


NEW HAVEN, CT
Louis Armstrong Trumpets Back to Life
Acclaimed Shakespearean actor John Douglas Thompson takes on a much different role in Satchmo at the Waldorf, a one-man show set at the end of the life of jazz legend Louis Armstrong. In addition to the gravel-voiced Satchmo, Thompson plays the star's Mob-connected manager, Joe Glaser, and Miles Davis, who famously criticized Armstrong for appealing to white audiences. Adapted by Terry Teachout from Armstrong's taped reminiscences, the show is running at Long Wharf Theatre through November 4. What a wonderful world!


SAN ANTONIO, TX
A Drag Diva Sashays Into Rocky Horror
Campy gets a new definition in the form of Sharon Needles, winner of season four of RuPaul’s Drag Race and now the star of The Rocky Horror Show at San Antonio’s Woodlawn Theatre (running weekends through October 27). Needles plays sweet transvestite Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the reimagined production, which director Greg Hinojosa has described as “futuristic industrial grunge.” Audience participation is encouraged, so make sure to brush up on your Time Warp before taking your seat.


CHICAGO, IL
New Girl Creator Skewers Office Life
Before she created FOX's dorky hit New Girl, Elizabeth Meriwether authored quirky plays such as Heddatron, Nicky Goes Goth and the 2006 dark comedy The Mistakes Madeline Made, now being revived at Chicago's LiveWire Collective. Kristen Collins stars as Edna, an unhappily employed young woman who rebels against office life by developing Ablutophobia—a fear of bathing. The dirt piles up in Meriwether’s ferocious coming-of-age comedy, which runs at the Greenhouse Theater through November 3.

Check back in to Broadway.com every Wednesday for the latest Countrywide Guide. To submit shows for consideration, send us an e-mail!