MetroStage at the Lyceum Presents

Still Unforgettable: A Birthday Salute to

Nat King Cole

Celebrating Nat King Cole’s Birthday with Greg Watkins

Accompanied by special musical guest Ayana Reed, and jon Ozment, piano, Percy White, bass, and Greg Holloway, drums

Monday March 30 at 7pm

The Lyceum

Tickets $30

Performing beloved pieces from Nat King Cole’s legendary catalogue of songs. A tribute during Mr. Cole’s birthday month, Greg will be accompanied by a special musical guest, with piano, bass, and drums. They will be performing songs that include Smile, Route 66, Mona Lisa, Orange Colored Sky, L.O.V.E., and many more. An ode of appreciation for this icon who helped change the world through the power of his music and his advocacy.

QUOTES from his performance of Nat King Cole at the Arts Club, Feb 2025 “Amazing show! Encore!…Loved it, Bravo…It was perfect in every way…Greg is a dream performer and personality…Greg Watkins is a star!”

Bio

Greg Watkins is a born and bred Washingtonian, educator, and a well-respected and exceptionally versatile artist: singer, pianist, musical director, composer and arranger, actor, and voice talent. A graduate of The Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Howard University (B.M. Music Education), and American University (M.Ed., Policy & Leadership).

A true Renaissance man, Greg Watkins has appeared as an actor in countless regional, professional productions and staged readings including Jubilee (Arena Stage/Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Opera), Aida, Desperate Measures (Constellation Theatre Company), Rock of Ages (Workhouse Arts Center), Sister Act (Arts Centric), Black Nativity (Theater Alliance), Thunder Knocking on the Door (Creative Cauldron), King Lear and Gospel at Colonus (WSC Avant Bard), Secret Hour (Prologue Theater), Montgomery (Monumental Theater Company/Kennedy Center), The Migration: Reflections of Jacob Lawrence (Step Afrika!/Arena Stage), and Beyond the Mask (PBS Documentary). He received a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Musical for Legally Blonde, Keegan Theatre 2020.

As a musical director, Mr. Watkins has worked locally and nationally on many productions including The Poet Warriors (2010 Capital Fringe Best Musical Award). Additionally, he has worked in tandem with prolific Broadway & Sundance Film Composer Kathryn Bostic and Tony Award Winner Phylicia Rashad as co-music arranger and musical director for the nationally acclaimed staged reading of Christina Ham’s Four Little Girls, produced by Project1 Voice and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He has guest conducted with the Cathedral Choral Society where he now sits in his second term as a member of the Board of Trustees. His talents as a singer and pianist have taken him from the White House, John F. Kennedy Center, Washington National Cathedral, and Warner Theater to international soil including Germany, Russia, Italy, China, Antigua and Barbuda, and Colombia.

Mr. Watkins has appeared in several operas, including Steven M. Allen’s The Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadows for which he sang the original leading baritone role of quintessential novelist and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and garnered media attention in the PBS Documentary, "Beyond the Mask," chronicling the life of Mr. Dunbar. Mr. Watkins sang opposite internationally renowned mezzo soprano Denyce Graves, who sang the role of Matilda Dunbar (Paul Laurence Dunbar’s mother). Other opera credits include Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors (King Balthazar), Tony Small’s Qadar (Omani), and Marc Blitzstein’s Regina (Jazz) where he sang opposite Broadway diva Patti LuPone. Mr. Watkins has appeared on Season 6.2 of the hit television series “House of Cards” and received his first Helen Hayes Nomination for Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical (The Gospel at Colonus, Avant Bard, 2018).

Mr. Watkins has opened concerts for the world’s greatest storyteller in Gospel music Evangelist Dorothy Norwood, six-time Stellar Award Winner Byron Cage, and Grammy Award Winners Natalie Cole and Take 6. At the age of 16, as a young jazz pianist, Mr. Watkins was invited to the Canadian Embassy to privately perform for the late Oscar Peterson. A few years later, he was invited to do the same for Congressman John Conyers, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, and Broadway conductor Linda Twine. As a pianist and musical director, he has worked with many acclaimed artists including Debbie Allen, Linda Eder, Lynda Gravatt, Kim Burrell, Yolanda Adams, Clay Aiken, Brian McKnight, Jennifer Holiday, Hinton Battle, Wendy Raquel Robinson, and DC’s own Step Afrika! He has performed on numerous occasions for The Capital City Chapter of The Links Incorporated and is well-celebrated as an artist by The Society Incorporated. Mr. Watkins can be heard as a featured soloist on Patrick Lundy & the Ministers of Music’s hit song "Take It to the Lord in Prayer" and the Stellar Award nominated choir’s album, "MAJESTY: A LIVE Recording of Anthems, Hymns and Spirituals." In 2015, he joined forces with the Washington National Opera and the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program in narrating the Appomattox Preview, an artistic preface to Phillip Glass’ opera, Appomattox.

Mr. Watkins is the recipient of the Dr. Quincy Jones Award from the Raney Moss Group Foundation (2019), as well as the ASCAP Foundation/Cherry Lane Foundation/Music Alive Award in Honor of Dr. Quincy Jones (2008) for his outstanding work in production, composition, performance, and musical direction. He was also the recipient of the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts' Emerging Artist Award (2015) for his exemplary work with children, his service to the community, and his many accomplishments as a rising performing artist.

Mr. Watkins is excited to further develop his work on Nat King Cole for this MetroStage performance, after a sold-out Valentine's Cabaret produced by Alliance for New Music Theatre and the Arts Club of Washington in 2025, a year when he also starred in an acclaimed production of Play On! at Signature Theatre as The Duke.

QUOTES from Greg’s performances “Greg Watkins projects plenty of charisma as Duke, the composer at the heart of Harlem’s nightlife, but he also hints at a touch of vulnerability silencing the room with his haunting “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart.”~TheaterMania (Play On!, Signature Theatre)

“Greg Watkins is delightfully pompous as Callahan, Elle’s “hands-on” professor, his voice gorgeously rich (and just slightly evil) in Blood in the Water.”~DC Theatre Scene (Legally Blonde, Keegan Theatre)

“Greg Watkins, as Radames' father and Chief Minister Zoser, delivers another one of the production's standout performances. His big song, "Another Pyramid." is a definite highlight.”~Broadway World (Aida, Constellation Theatre Company)