Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts and Signature Theatre have announced that stage and screen actress Megan Hilty will join Tony Award winner Lea Salonga for the third annual musical theater collaboration: Broadway in the Park (June 16). The show, directed by Signature Theatre’s Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner with music direction by Jon Kalbfleisch, will feature an ensemble of esteemed Signature Theatre talent alongside Hilty and Salonga.
Megan Hilty started her career playing Glinda in the Broadway, National Tour, and Los Angeles companies of Wicked. Shortly after her four-and-a-half-year run in Oz, she originated the role of Doralee in 9 to 5: The Musical. But Hilty is probably best known for playing the triple-threat Ivy Lynn in the musical drama Smash on NBC. Her numerous television credits include Annie, Live!; Sean Saves The World; and playing the iconic Patsy Cline in Patsy & Loretta, earning her a Critic’s Choice Award nomination for Best Actress. Onstage, Hilty received nominations for Tony, Drama Desk, and Drama League Awards for her portrayal of Brooke Ashton in the Roundabout Theater Company’s revival of Noises Off and is currently filming the first season of The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh for Amazon, which is set to air September 2023.
Lea Salonga, nicknamed the “Pride of the Philippines” (BroadwayWorld), first rose to international fame when she originated the role of Kim in Miss Saigon, for which she won an Olivier Award and a Tony Award. She has continued to win over audiences and critics with her roles as Éponine and Fantine in Les Misérables, Erzulie in Once on This Island, and as the singing voice of Disney princesses Jasmine (Aladdin) and Fa Mulan (Mulan and Mulan II).
The cast is rounded out with Signature Theatre performers Phillip Attmore (Signature’s After Midnight; Broadway’s Hello, Dolly!), Austin Colby (Signature’s West Side Story, Simply Sondheim), Felicia Curry (Signature’s The Scottsboro Boys; Broadway’s Into the Woods), Katie Mariko Murray (Signature’s Into the Woods, RENT), Kevin McAllister (Signature’s Ain’t Misbehavin’; Broadway’s Caroline, or Change), Tracy Lynn Olivera (Signature’s Assassins, A Little Night Music), Nova Y. Payton (Signature’s The Color Purple; PBS’ Black Broadway: A Proud History, A Limitless Future), and Bobby Smith (Signature’s She Loves Me, Grand Hotel).
Tickets for Broadway in the Park are on sale now at wolftrap.org.
About Signature Theatre
Signature Theatre is a Tony Award-winning regional theater that broadens and brightens the region’s cultural landscape with its bold productions of challenging new and established works and engaging education and outreach programs. Founded in 1989 by Eric Schaeffer and Donna Migliaccio, and currently under the leadership of Managing Director Maggie Boland and Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner, musical theater is Signature’s “signature,” and the Theatre is renowned for its definitive Sondheim productions, inventive adaptations of overlooked or forgotten works, and investment in fresh new projects. Signature combines Broadway-caliber productions with intimate playing spaces and aims to be a leading force in US musical theater.
Since its inception, the Theatre has produced 60 world premiere works—including 19 new musical commissions. Signature opens its doors to more than 100,000 people annually from the Washington, DC region and beyond and reaches more than 10,000 students every year through its innovative education programs, including the award-winning initiative Signature in the Schools. Signature has won 134 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in the Washington, DC region’s professional theater and has been honored with 482 nominations.
About Wolf Trap
Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, produces and presents a full range of performance and education programs in the Greater Washington area, as well as nationally. Wolf Trap features four performance venues: the outdoor Filene Center, Meadow Stage, and Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods, located at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, and The Barns at Wolf Trap, located down the road from the national park and adjacent to the Center for Education at Wolf Trap. The Filene Center, Meadow Stage, and Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods are operated in partnership with the National Park Service and annually showcase an extensive array of diverse artists, ranging from pop, country, folk, and blues to classical music, dance, and theatre, as well as multimedia presentations, from May through September. The Barns at Wolf Trap is operated by Wolf Trap Foundation year-round, and during the summer months is home to the Grammy-nominated Wolf Trap Opera, one of America’s outstanding professional training programs for early career opera singers. Wolf Trap’s education programs include the nationally acclaimed Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods, a diverse array of arts education classes and grants, and a nationally recognized internship program.
