Nova Y.Payton: Last News

The royally enjoyable cast of Signature Theatre’s The Color Purple (★★★★★) forges a chain of love with no weak links in Timothy Douglas’ knockout staging of the musical based on Alice Walker’s novel and the acclaimed 1985 motion picture.The show marks a milestone for Signature, which, according to artistic director Matthew Gardiner, had developed plans a decade ago for a take on the musical, fresh off a two-year Broadway run of the original Tony-winning production.But those plans were scuttled due to John Doyle’s 2015 Broadway revival starring powerhouses Cynthia Erivo, Jennifer Hudson, and Danielle Brooks.Eventually that production made its way to D.C. in the modified form of a Broadway touring company which, frankly, left a lot of the meat of this turbulent, decades-spanning drama still on the bone.

The Italian embassy got dressed up Monday night, April 3, to celebrate Signature Theatre’s 2023 Sondheim Award honoree, theater legend, and homegrown D.C. icon, Chita Rivera.

Black Broadway: A Proud History, A Limitless Future is the latest program produced for PBS by the American Pops Orchestra and its founding Music Director Luke Frazier, this time also featuring members of the Howard University and Morgan State University choirs as performed and recorded last October at Howard’s Cramton Auditorium.The program focuses on iconic songs made famous on Broadway by Black artists, and among the many standout performances, Payton gets to shine twice, including closing the show with “And I’m Telling You” from Dreamgirls.Earlier in the program, she sings “I’m Here,” the anthem she sang every night last fall as Miss Celie in Signature’s phenomenal The Color Purple, which earned her one of two nominations as Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical at this year’s Helen Hayes Awards, set for May 22 at the Anthem.Her second nomination came from her starring turn in Grace, a world premiere presented last year at Ford’s Theatre.After winning a 2012 Helen Hayes Award her first time at bat, when she played Motormouth Maybelle in Signature’s Hairspray, Payton had racked up five more nominations prior to this year, but is still waiting to scoop up a much-deserved second trophy. Here’s hoping Mars might serve as a kind of good luck charm for her this year.Wednesday, March 1.

Unbreakable pays tribute to key LGBTQ+ figures throughout 20th-century America, honoring “the perseverance and power of people who would not be defeated and could not be broken,” to quote the official release.Next weekend, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington presents the East Coast premiere of the epic choral work from Andrew Lippa, which comes nearly a decade after his I Am Harvey Milk, another epic choral work that paid tribute to the titular trailblazing LGBTQ politician and gay martyr from San Francisco, originally commissioned by a collective of seven gay choruses from all over the U.S. (Lippa is also known for his Tony-nominated and Drama Desk Award-winning work as a musical composer and lyricist for The Addams Family and The Wild Party.)In addition to the full chorus, the Unbreakable premiere will feature two lauded soprano soloists, the Helen Hayes Award-winning vocal dynamo Nova Y.

Grace (★★★★☆), the audience was on their feet, ready to bathe the performer in a juicy, well-earned moment of gratitude.Had Payton launched into an immediate reprise, nobody would have minded. “Again?” is a really good song, among several composed by Nolan Williams, Jr., who also directs the fine eight-piece orchestra, and has got this ensemble cast’s vocals all the way together — save for a straggler or two.Director-choreographer Robert Barry Fleming has likewise fit the cast together firmly in their excellent portrayal of a large extended Black family in Philadelphia gathered for the memorial of their dear, deceased matriarch, Gran’Me.Preparing a picnic in the garden behind the family’s restaurant, Minton’s Place, a one-hundred-year tradition in the community and in their family, the Minton cousins and siblings and aunties comprise a lot of moving parts.Backgrounded by a recently dedicated mural that rises stories above the garden, family members are in and out of the kitchen, up and down steep staircases, carrying food, serving food, eating, singing about, dancing with, and arguing about food.All the movement and prop business looks effortless, as the cast weaves around Jason Ardizzone-West’s spare but expressive set.