World Premiere Musical Blackbeard & More Set for 2018-2019 Season at D.C.'s Signature

Arlington, Virginia's Signature Theatre has announced a variety of new productions for its 2018-2019 season. Highlights include Blackbeard, a world premiere musical created by Dana P. Rowe and The Pirate Queen co-lyricist John Dempsey; Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, a world premiere play by Broadway-alum playwright Heather McDonald; and new mountings of George C. Wolfe's Spunk and Tony-winning musicals Passion and Billy Elliot.

Beginning the Signature season will be a brand-new production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Passion (August 14-September 23, 2018), directed by Signature Theatre Associate Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner. Set in 1860s Italy, a fiery love triangle erupts when a handsome army captain is transferred to a remote military outpost and into the blinding infatuation of Fosca, the ailing cousin of his superior. Fosca's desperate and fervent longing draws him in as it threatens to upend his career. The production will star Broadway alum Natascia Diaz (Man of La Mancha) as Fosca.

Next up at Signature will be the D.C.-area premiere of Simon Stephens' Heisenberg (September 18-November 11, 2018), directed by Signature's Resident Director/Director of New Works Joe Calarco. Heisenberg centers on a chance encounter at a London train stop that changes the course of life for two people; after mistaking him for someone else, Georgie finds herself improbably drawn to the much older Alex.

For the holiday season, Gardiner will direct and choreograph Billy Elliot the Musical (October 30, 2018-January 6, 2019) with a Tony-winning book by Lee Hall and a score by Elton John and Hall. In Billy Elliot, all that 11-year-old Billy wants to do is dance; initially faced with opposition from society and his father, Billy's passion instead unites the community and changes his life in extraordinary ways.

In the winter, Signature will present the Fats Waller musical Ain’t Misbehavin' (January 23, 2019-March 10, 2019), directed by Calarco and choreographed by Camille A. Brown (Once On This Island). This celebration of the songs of Waller will feature a cast including Nova Y. Payton (Dreamgirls), Kevin McAllister (A Little Night Music) and Awa Sal Secka (Jesus Christ Superstar). Mark G. Meadows will lead the onstage band and serve as musical director.

Next on Signature's docket will be the world premiere play Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity (February 26-April 7, 2019) written by Broadway alum playwright Heather McDonald (An Almost Holy Picture) and directed by Nadia Tass. Holly Twyford (A Little Night Music) and Felicia Curry (The Scottsboro Boys) will star in the new play, which follows three women―an art restorer, her nurse and their military captor―who are trapped in a ravaged museum during a catastrophic hundred-years war. Tasked with restoring a damaged Rembrandt painting, the women find common shreds of humanity as they try to save a small symbol of beauty in their broken world.

In the spring, Signature Theatre Artistic Director and Broadway alum Eric Schaeffer (Follies) will direct Grand Hotel (April 2-May 12, 2019). Inspired by Vicki Baum’s 1929 novel, the musical intertwines the lives of a cast of eccentric characters through a series of fateful encounters. Whirling through the doors of the opulent Grand Hotel are faded ballerina Elizaveta Grushinskaya, the impoverished romantic Baron Felix von Gaigern, fatally ill bookkeeper Otto Kringelein and Flaemmchen, a young secretary who is all too eager to become an American film star. Signature's production will feature Passion star Diaz as Elizaveta Grushinskaya, with Bobby Smith (Titanic) as Otto Kringelein and Nicki Elledge (A Little Night Music) as Flaemmchen.

Next, Signature will present five-time Tony winner George C. Wolfe's Spunk (April 30-June 23, 2019), directed by Timothy Douglas. Based on three short stories by Zora Neale Hurston, Spunk is a musical fable that interweaves three tales of the early 20th-century African-American experience: the fierce determination of a resilient washerwoman, the zoot suit struts of 1940s Harlem and the bittersweet innocence of young married love.

To close the season, Schaeffer will direct the world premiere musical Blackbeard (June 11-July 7) by John Dempsey (The Pirate Queen) and Dana Rowe, the creators of The Witches of Eastwick, Brother Russia and The Fix. In the musical, after learning that he is a wanted man by the British army, Blackbeard and his merry crew of maritime marauders embark on a fantastical journey across the globe to raise an undead pirate army from the depths of the sea.

Additional casting for Signature's 2018-2019 season will be announced at a later date.