Theater News

Arena Stage Announces Early Casting for Select 2017-18 Shows

Britney Coleman, Donna McKechnie, Harriett D. Foy, and more will soon be seen at the Mead Center for American Theater.

| Washington, DC |

July 25, 2017

Britney Coleman, who recently made her Broadway debut in Sunset Boulevard, will play Babe in Arena Stage's new production of The Pajama Game. — Britney Coleman, who recently made her Broadway debut in *Sunset Boulevard*, will play Babe in Arena Stage's new production of *The Pajama Game*.
(© David Gordon)

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announced select casting for some of the shows in its 2017-18 season, thus offering an early peek at the actors who will grace its stage in the coming months.

In The Pajama Game, Britney Coleman, who recently made her Broadway debut in Sunset Boulevard, will play Babe; Tony winner Donna McKechnie, the original Cassie in A Chorus Line, will play Mabel; and Edward Gero, currently playing the late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia in The Originalist at Arena Stage, will play Hasler. Director Alan Paul's production of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross's musical will run from October 27-December 24.

Harriett D. Foy (Amélie) will play Nina Simone in Nina Simone: Four Women, running from November 10-December 24. Directed by Timothy Douglas, Christina Ham's play "reveals how Nina Simone helped define the sound of the civil rights movement."

Kalani Queypo (TV's Jamestown) will play John Ridge in Sovereignty, Kathryn Nagle's new play making its world premiere in a run from January 12-February 18, 2018. Directed by Molly Smith, the drama "tells the story of a young Cherokee lawyer fighting to restore her Nation's jurisdiction."

Bowman Wright will play Martin Luther King Jr., for a third time at Arena Stage in director Kyle Donnelly's production of Robert Schenkkan's The Great Society, making its Washington, D.C., premiere in a run from February 2-March 11, 2018. Wright previously played King in Arena Stage productions of Schenkkan's All the Way and Katori Hall's The Mountaintop.

Ryun Yu will play Gordon Hirabayashi in Jeanne Sakata's solo drama Hold These Truths, which is described as "the true story of Hirabayashi, the American son of Japanese immigrants who defied an unjust court order when America placed its own citizens in internment camps during World War II." Yu has been traveling the country with the show; his Washington, D.C., stop will take place from February 23-April 8, 2018, in a production directed by Jessica Kubzansky.

For tickets to The Pajama Game, click here.

For tickets to Nina Simone: Four Women, click here.

For tickets to Sovereignty, click here.

For tickets to The Great Society, click here.

For tickets to Hold These Truths, click here.