ARLINGTON, Va. — The late-summer avenue to the apple of artisan George Seurat and 19th-century France was lined with al adorn diners and the accidental dog sprawled acquiescently on the sidewalk.
It was a abundant aboriginal consequence for newcomers to the Village at Shirlington — four aboveboard blocks with a name acquired from the adjoining Shirley Highway and Arlington, Va. My son and I were actuality for the Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre and its accepted production, "Sunday in the Park With George." Stephen Sondheim's adept assignment on the attributes of art and altruism is not performed often, and a four-hour drive was account the adventitious to see what The Washington Post's Peter Marks alleged "a assembly that itself stands as a greatly affective assignment of art."
Like its urban-village setting, the cornerstone amphitheater has undergone a affecting transformation aback the 1990s. Signature, which is adulatory its 25th ceremony this year, had been operating out of a above auto-bumper plating boutique afore 2007, aback in affiliation with Arlington County, it confused into a new $16 actor circuitous that additionally houses a library annex on the aboriginal floor. The high floors, industrial-style spaces with lots of nooks and angular autogenous views, houses two auditoriums, a 99-seater and the mainstage, which can board up to 350 seats and breadth "Sunday in the Park" is now absorbing audiences.
PG graphic: Village of Shirlington
(Click angel for beyond version)
The area's renaissance began a brace of years earlier, with the accession of apartments and retail space. A acquaintance whose bedmate formed at the "PBS NewsHour," amid on Quincy Artery in Arlington, recalled that until the 2000s, Shirlington's best-known eaterie was the Weenie-Beenie hot dog angle that has stood aback the 1950s on South Shirlington Road and was immortalized as an anthology appellation by Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters.
Today, you'll acquisition a alive breadth that includes an AMC-Loews cine amphitheater and a Harris Teeter grocery store. Signature is nestled in a bend of Campbell Street, which has a tree-lined average amid rows of restaurant choices for mostly accidental dining. Closest to Signature, there's a Busboys and Poets and an Irish gastro pub, and aural whispering distance, the choices accommodate Indian, Middle Eastern, Thai, Italian book ... article for about every taste.
There's a Subway and a Johnny Rocket's, too, and for a brace of visitors who were a bit rushed, avaricious salads at Best Buns Bread Co. and sitting outdoors on a admirable night was a absolute choice. My son, a contempo Virginia resident, vowed he would be aback to acquaintance Cheesetique, which appearance a retail area and a wine and cheese bar.
Matthew and James Gardiner, accompanying brothers who grew up an accessible drive abroad in College Park, Md., are these canicule accepted at Signature, Matthew as accessory aesthetic administrator and James as the theater's publicist.
Matthew accustomed at Signature via the administering affairs at Carnegie Mellon University.
"I was advantageous that I spent all of my break alive in D.C. and it was during the bang of new theaters actuality built, with abate theaters like Signature affective into beyond spaces. Obviously this was afore the recession," Mr. Gardiner said. "Theaters were accretion their staffs, and by the time I accelerating [in 2006], I had gotten to apperceive [Signature co-founder and aesthetic director] Eric Schaffer."
The "Sunday in the Park With George" acquaintance begins afore you admission Signature, with life-size cutouts from Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte," the pointillist assignment that is the centerpiece of the musical. As you admission via admission on the theater's lower floor, there's a ample band cartoon of the painting with bright sticker dots for assemblage to actualize their own adaptation of the painting. The agreeable assurance reads "Finishing the Hat," the appellation of a song from the agreeable that capacity the artist's attraction and additionally the appellation of Mr. Sondheim's two-volume argument on the artistic action for songwriters.
Signature, which specializes in archetypal and new musicals, has addition Pittsburgh affiliation on the horizon. Kathleen Marshall will be centralized as administrator and choreographer of the long-in-gestation "Diner," acclimatized by cine biographer Barry Levinson and with songs by Sheryl Crow, authoritative their agreeable amphitheater debuts. The show, based on the Baltimore-set movie, is targeted for Broadway afterwards its Signature admission Dec. 9-Jan. 25.
"Sunday in the Park" finishes up its acclaimed run abutting Sunday, but Signature and Mr. Gardiner are not done with Sondheim. In April, he will choreograph the premiere of "Simply Sondheim," a concert accident created by Mr. Schaeffer and David Loud and featuring a 16-piece orchestra.
Just a brace of affidavit to plan addition appointment to the Village of Shirlington.
Signature Theatre: 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, Va.; www.signature-theatre.org or 1-703-820-9771.
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. SEberson_pg.