On the Horizon: Women’s Work

Stadium Fillers

Smokin’-hot summer-concert alert: Multiple Grammy winner and recent Kennedy Center Honoree Billy Joel (photograph above) takes the stage at Nationals Park on July 26 for his first solo show at the stadium. Indie-darling band (and Oscar nominee for Her) Arcade Fire follows on Joel’s heels with a stop at the Verizon Center August 17.

More DC on TV

The success of Homeland and Scandal has inspired a flurry of series with female Washington characters whose off-hours feature more intrigue than their day jobs. NBC has greenlighted a pilot for State of Affairs, starring Katherine Heigl as a CIA attaché who informs the President on global incidents while trying to untangle her complicated personal life. Téa Leoni, meanwhile, plays the title role in Madam Secretary, a pilot for CBS in which a “maverick” Secretary of State juggles international diplomacy, office politics, and, yes, a complicated family life.

Designs on Tysons

This spring, the area’s inaugural Saint Laurent store is set to open in Tysons Galleria, adding one more chichi name to the mall’s top designer boutiques—which include Chanel and Versace—and coming on the (high) heels of Washington’s first Prada store, slated to open this spring in the same place.

Direct from San Francisco

Tadich Grill—at 165, one of the oldest continuously serving restaurants in the US—is set to debut its first sister restaurant in the former TenPenh space in DC’s Penn Quarter. Local guests can expect the San Francisco seafood grill’s mahogany-paneled interior, servers in white coats, and abundant specialties, such as crab Louie, mesquite-grilled fish, and Bloody Marys made from a Tadich family recipe. 

Women’s Voices

A dearth of plays by female dramatists has spurred Washington theaters to action. In the fall of 2015, 44 local companies will stage world premieres by women playwrights. Among the offerings in the Women’s Voices Theatre Festival—the brainchild of Signature Theatre’s Eric Schaeffer and Arena Stage’s Molly Smith—are plays by Yaël Farber and Heidi Thomas.

La Vida Local

Hoping to try all the restaurants popping up on DC’s Capitol Riverfront this summer? Make your last stop Vida Fitness’s 30,000-square-foot health club, planned for the Twelve12 development at 1212 Fourth Street, Southeast. The new Vida—one of six in DC—will include a rooftop pool for “Penthouse” members.

FLOTUS Memoirs of Record

Literary agent Andrew Wylie estimates that Michelle Obama may command as much as $12 million for her memoir, or more than half the $20 million advance Wylie guesses President Obama’s would bring. Reported advances for recent First Ladies’ autobiographies: My Turn by Nancy Reagan, $2 million; A Memoir by Barbara Bush, $2.2 million; Living History by Hillary Clinton, $8 million; Spoken From the Heart by Laura Bush, $1.6 million.

Photograph of Joel by Paul Martinka/Newscom; Photograph of Heigl by DVS iPhoto/Newscom; Photograph of Tadich courtesy of Tadich Grill; Photograph of VIDA courtesy of Bulldog Public Relations; Photograph of Obama by Chuck Kennedy/White House.

This article appears in the March 2014 issue of Washingtonian.