Signature Theatre Announces Its 2024-25 Season

Artistic director Matthew Gardiner and managing director Maggie Boland have announced Signature Theatre’s 2024-25 season. The 35th season highlights Signature’s commitment to produce new works and reimagined classics and includes five musicals and two plays, four of which are DC premieres.

To kick off the season, associate artistic director Ethan Heard will direct the Washington, DC, premiere of Soft Power, running August 6-September 15 in the MAX Theatre. Featuring book and lyrics by Tony Award-winner David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) and music and additional lyrics by Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home), Soft Power takes place after the 2016 election, when a Chinese American playwright is attacked by an unknown assailant. He hallucinates a Golden Age musical comedy about a Chinese theater producer and Hillary Clinton falling in love.

Next up, Taylor Reynolds (Studio Theatre’s Fat Ham) will direct the Washington, DC, premiere of playwright Eboni Booth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Primary Trust, running September 10-October 20 in the ARK Theatre. Wally’s Tiki Bar serves the sweetest mai tais in town, and Kenneth never misses a happy hour with his best friend, but when a job loss upends Kenneth’s static existence, he must discover the courage to open a new door and change his life, even if it means facing the past and letting go.

Artistic director Matthew Gardiner will direct Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning musical comedy A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum October 29-January 12 in the MAX Theatre. Based on the work of Roman playwright Plautus and featuring a book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, the musical features mistaken identities, wily ruses, madcap chases, and a love story in ancient Rome.

Gardiner will also direct the regional premiere of playwright Max Wolf Friedlich’s Job January 28-March 16 in the ARK Theatre. In this psychological thriller, a young woman whose screaming breakdown at work has gone viral must receive an evaluation from a crisis therapist before she can return to her job at a well-known tech firm.

In the spring, Signature presents revivals of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights (February 11, 2025-May 4, 2025) and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (April 15, 2025-June 22, 2025). Featuring a book by playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes (Water by the Spoonful) about a neighborhood on the brink of gentrification, In the Heights is directed by James Vásquez. Associate artistic director Ethan Heard will direct the cult classic rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which features a book by John Cameron Mitchell and a score by Stephen Trask.

The season will close with the Washington, DC, premiere of the new musical The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical (June 3, 2025-July 13, 2025) with music and lyrics by Joe Iconis (Be More Chill), book by Iconis and Gregory S. Moss (Indian Summer), and direction by Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley (Come from Away). About the infamous author Hunter S. Thompson, the musical takes place from the 1940s to 2005, as Thompson invents Gonzo journalism, attempts to take down a corrupt president, and quests for equality for his fellow weirdos.

Signature’s Cabaret Series includes Summertime: Awa Sal Secka Sings Ladies of Jazz (July 23-August 4), I’ll Take You There: Stax Record Co. (November 12-24), and You’ve Got a Friend: Women Pop Songwriters (July 2-13, 2025).

Signature will also present special events, including the Signature Seminar: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a five-part behind-the-scenes seminar with the cast and creative team of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, running March 27, 2025-April 14, 2025.

Click here for more details about the season.