This announcement follows the announcement of the first major revival of SIDE SHOW, directed by Bill Condon (Chicago, Dreamgirls), will premiere at the Kennedy Center only a few months earlier in June 2014.
IF/THEN, the new musical from the entire creative team behind NEXT TO NORMAL, starring Idina Menzel (Rent, Wicked), will premiere in November 2013 at DC's National Theatre ahead of a spring Broadway opening.
Lastly, Arena Stage will be having the pre-Broadway premiere of THE VELOCITY OF AUTUMN starring Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella.
Having lived in DC for the past few years, this is the most "pre-Broadway" or big name productions I have seen or heard of. The only major production to come from DC recently was last year's FOLLIES (starring Bernadette Peters) at the Kennedy Center.
This begs the question of whether or not DC is becoming the new IT theatre town, in the vein of Chicago or Seattle? As someone hoping to pursue a career in theatre in DC, I hope this is the case, but I have to assume that these premieres are more than just coincidence.
I don't particularly have any answers, but I'd love to hear if any of my readers have any thoughts?
I've always kind of thought of D.C. as a theatre "IT" town. Of course, you must take into account that I've only been REALLY interested in theatre in about the past 10 years or so. But I can see what you mean about the sudden influx of out of town tryouts for big shows.
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