Founded in 1989, Signature Theatre is a nationally known, Tony Award®-winning theater that produces contemporary musicals and plays, reinvents classic musicals, develops new work, and reaches its community through engaging educational and outreach opportunities.  

Musical theater is Signature's "signature," and the Theatre is known regionally and nationally for its musical productions, especially new musicals. Called a “the hottest theater in (and around) D.C. by THE WASHINGTON POST’S chief theater critic, Signature combines large-scale productions with its intimate playing spaces and is a leading force in U.S. musical theater. Signature is home to the largest musical theater development and production program in the United States and has produced 60 world premieres—including 29 new musicals—since its founding, many of which have gone on to achieve regional, national, and international success.

Signature presents more than 500 artistic events annually, including an eight-show subscription season, a popular cabaret series, and readings of new work, and The Signature Show, Signature’s variety show presented recorded and released on YouTube. Signature gives back to the community through education and outreach initiatives that engage Northern Virginia and Washington, DC’s increasingly diverse population. Programs include: SIGNATURE IN THE SCHOOLS, an immersive arts education program for high school students; EDUCATION RESIDENCIES that provide classroom training for schools and teachers; SIGNATURE CONSERVATORY, providing year-long private acting training for teens; OVERTURES and STAGE ONE musical theater training for emerging artists and teens; INSIDE SIGNATURE discussion and interview series events; and a Broadway in the Park concert in partnership with Wolf Trap, and special seminars, workshops, and master classes. Signature also offers discussion nights, Pride Night performances for the LGBTQ community, and serves the current and retired military and their families, first responders, and teachers with free and discounted tickets.

Signature Theatre is located in Arlington County, a 26 square-mile urban county with a population of 237,000, located directly across the Potomac River from Washington, DC and adjacent to the Northern Virginia jurisdictions of Fairfax County and Alexandria City. Home to the Pentagon (the County’s largest employer), the region is Virginia’s most diverse with 23% foreign born residents. The diversity of the region is reflected in the students who speak 104 languages and hail from 116 countries.

Signature serves residents of Arlington, Northern Virginia and the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area. The Theatre provides more than 400 jobs and generates more than $15 million for the local economy. Drawing approximately 100,000 area residents, Signature’s patrons reside in Northern Virginia (68%), suburban Maryland (18%), and the District of Columbia (14%). The rest reside outside the DC metropolitan area (6%) and come from all 50 states and 35 countries across six continents. 

Signature serves approximately 10,000 students annually through its Signature in the Schools and Education Residency programming, including students from Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudon, and Prince William counties in Virginia, and Washington, D.C. 64% of student participants are nonwhite and 37% are low-income.