Natascia Diaz and Michael Pemberton Reunite for a Two-Night Cabaret at Spooky Action Theater
Spooky Action Theater is turning its black box into an underground cabaret this December for a two-night concert built around one of the more enduring creative friendships in American theater. From Hell's Kitchen to the District: 25 Years of Friendship & Music brings together three-time Helen Hayes Award winner Natascia Diaz and actor-songwriter Michael Pemberton for an evening drawn from Pemberton's catalog of rock, folk, and musical theater songs, with the set list made up of Diaz's own favorites.
The two met doing Stephen Sondheim's Saturday Night at Second Stage in New York, where Diaz fell for Pemberton's songwriting. She went on to perform his work at Joe's Pub, the Zipper, and Signature Theatre, and a quarter century later the collaboration is still going. Spooky Action audiences already know Pemberton as the composer of Professor Woland's Black Magic Rock Show, his first full-length rock musical, which won multiple Helen Hayes Awards for the company. The concert may include a few numbers from that show, along with an early taste of Father Lear, the new musical he has written with Andrea Pemberton, which Spooky Action and Avant Bard Theatre will co-produce in spring 2027.
Diaz is a familiar presence on Washington stages, with turns as Fosca in Passion at Signature Theatre and in Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at MetroStage, and most recently as Julia in Somewhere Over the Border at Mosaic Theater. Her Broadway credits include Man of La Mancha, Seussical, and Cabaret, and she appears in the Broadway documentary Every Little Step. Her portrayal of Anita in West Side Story earned her Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Award and the Kevin Kline Award, and her concert work has taken her to Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, 54 Below, and Strathmore.
Pemberton's career spans more than 30 years, with over 50 television and film roles and stage work across the country and on Broadway. He began writing songs in earnest after moving to New York in 1994, drawing on the people and stories he encountered there. The Michael Pemberton Band, formed in the late '90s, played many of the city's leading indie rooms, including The Bitter End, The Bottom Line, and CBGB's Gallery. His song "Rollercoaster/Carousel" was recorded and released by Sara Ramirez and performed in a TED Talk filmed at Town Hall.
Performances are Tuesday, Dec 8 and Wednesday, Dec 9 at 7:30 pm at Spooky Action's home in the Universalist National Memorial Church, 1810 16th Street NW. All tickets are general admission. Riser seats are $45, and cabaret table seats, at four to a table, are $75 and include a free beverage of the patron's choice.