Signature Theatre will try to top its own record-breaking year with a 2026-2027 season featuring a world premiere musical, two Stephen Sondheim productions and the Shirlington theater’s first co-production with Shakespeare Theatre Company.
The lineup, unveiled Tuesday by Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner and Managing Director Maggie Boland, follows a 2025 in which Signature broke sales records alongside fellow Arlington stage Synetic, amid turmoil at the Kennedy Center across the river. The Kennedy Center is set to close for two years of renovations starting in July.
Signature, located at 4200 Campbell Avenue, also led all D.C.-area theaters in Helen Hayes Award nominations earlier this year.
Signature’s 37th season includes seven mainstage productions, a three-show cabaret series and a limited run of “Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares.”
The full season:
- Merrily We Roll Along — Aug. 25 to Nov. 1, 2026 (MAX Theatre)
- All the World’s a Stage — Oct. 20 to Dec. 20, 2026 (ARK Theatre)
- The Secret Garden — Dec. 8, 2026 to Feb. 21, 2027 (MAX Theatre)
- The Monsters — Feb. 2 to March 21, 2027 (ARK Theatre)
- A Mountain for Elodie — March 23 to April 25, 2027 (MAX Theatre)
- Latin History for Morons — April 27 to June 13, 2027 (ARK Theatre)
- Follies — May 18 to June 20, 2027 (Harman Hall, with Shakespeare Theatre Company)
- Urinetown — June 1 to Aug. 8, 2027 (MAX Theatre)
The season opens and closes with Sondheim. Gardiner will direct and choreograph “Merrily We Roll Along” in the MAX Theatre this fall and direct “Follies” at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Harman Hall in spring 2027. Both productions will be music-directed by Jon Kalbfleisch. Signature has now staged 37 Sondheim musicals over its history.
The “Follies” co-production — featuring a cast of 32 and a 14-piece orchestra — is a first for the two D.C.-area companies. “It’s a joy to collaborate with our neighbors just over the river,” Shakespeare Theatre Company Artistic Director Simon Godwin said in a statement.
The season’s world premiere — Signature’s 62nd — is “A Mountain for Elodie,” a solo musical written and performed by Benjamin Scheuer, the singer-songwriter behind “The Lion.” The slate also includes the regional premiere of Adam Gwon’s musical “All the World’s a Stage” and the D.C. premiere of Ngozi Anyanwu’s play “The Monsters.” John Leguizamo’s “Latin History for Morons” will be performed by Emmy and Drama Desk nominee Brian Quijada.
The cabaret series brings Nova Y. Payton to Signature for “Respect: Aretha Franklin” in August, followed by Tracy Lynn Olivera’s “Something Wonderful: Broadway’s Leading Ladies” in September. A third cabaret, “Bad Reputation: Women Who Rock,” runs in summer 2027 with songs from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Joan Jett. Tony winner Laura Benanti will also play a limited run of her one-woman comedy “Nobody Cares” at the end of April 2027.
Subscription packages start at $211 for three shows and are on sale now at SigTheatre.org. Individual tickets won’t go on sale until midsummer; “Follies” seats are only available through Shakespeare Theatre Company.
A video announcement of the new season is below.
