Pie Month! “Waitress” at 5th Ave - the Perfect Sweetness!

Tori Gresham, Kerstin Anderson, and Porscha Shaw in Waitress (Tracy Martin)

Waitress
5^th Avenue Theatre
Through March 30, 2025
 
On Pie Day, 3/14/25, a strong and sweet LOCAL production of Waitress opened at the 5^th Avenue. I joke - Pi Day (based on pi = 3.14) was the perfect day to open. The 5^th Avenue was able to snag one of the first regional rights to perform this charming musical and they’ve turned out a hit!
 
Director Lisa Shriver is back again after her triumphant direction, last season, of Beautiful at Village Theatre. Here, her pacing, smart collaboration with adroit set designer Julia Hayes Welch (a complicated set design moved swiftly and efficiently from scene to scene), and her work with the top-notch local cast combined to a light-as-whipped-cream flair.
 
We meet Jenna, a local waitress in a small town, and her waitstaff cohorts Becky and Dawn, the diner cook, Cal, and assorted townsfolk. She’s unhappily married to abusive Earl, feels trapped and scared, but makes amazing pies every morning. Can a pie contest help her win enough money to get out?
 
Kerstin Anderson fully immerses herself in Jenna. Her voice is sublime and sure. Her quirky character comes out and when she meets gynecologist Dr. Pomatter (wonderfully sweet and funny Adam Standley) and finds out she’s pregnant, and accidentally starts an affair with him, she shows a spunk that allows us to like this woman more than feel sorry for her.

Guest Review: "Clue The Musical" at Driftwood

Nicole Roundy, Doug Harkness, Royce Napolitino in "Clue, The Musical" 
at Driftwood Theatre (photo Dale Sutton)

CLUE, THE MUSICAL

Driftwood Theatre

Through April 6, 2025

Guest Reviewer Kelly Rogers Flynt

As the characters from the classic board game come to life and break out of the box and onto the stage with Edmonds Driftwood Players, they invite the audience to play detective and unravel the mystery of who, how, and where Mr. Boddy is murdered. Through music, dance, and witty dialogue, clues and hints are revealed and bring you closer to the answer. Entertaining, engaging, and marvelously fun, the musical delivers immersive theater to the whole audience.

The show proceeds as if the game were being played by the audience, including the sound effect of rolling dice between each move. The killer, the weapon, and the room are selected by random audience members and placed in a giant "confidentail" envelope on the side of the stage. The cast then adjusts the show to fit those results. Mr. Boddy, acting as narrator, gives you hints of motives and opportunities of the characters. Some are clear, some with a caveat, but all bring you closer to solving the mystery.

Lion or Lamb? Lots to See Onstage in March

Cast of A Raisin in the Sun at Taproot Theatre (Robert Wade)

Classic plays, many musicals, world premiere! So many great choices. Get out yer calendars!
 
Mother Russia (or Periods of Collapse), Seattle Rep, 3/6/25-4/13/25 (world premiere)
Playwright Lauren Yee brings us a comic view of the fall of the Soviet Union! Evgeny and Dmitri are just two average guys who dream of joining the KGB—but when the fall of the Soviet Union puts hiring on hold, they find jobs surveilling a former pop star instead. As they bumble their way through the assignment, both spy work and life under capitalism prove harder than they thought. When old systems and strongmen fall away, and we let the free market decide—freedom might not taste as good as we thought it would.
www.seattlerep.org
 
Is This a Room, Harlequin Productions, 3/7-23/25
A true story, still unfolding. June 3, 2017. A 25-year-old former Air Force linguist named Reality Winner is surprised at her home by the FBI, interrogated, and then charged with leaking evidence of Russian interference in U.S. elections. Reality subsequently received a record-breaking sentence. The verbatim FBI transcript of her interrogation is the heart of Is This a Room, conceived as a play by Obie Award-winner Tina Satter, in which an extraordinary human drama unfolds between the complex and witty Reality, and the agents who question her. As Reality’s autonomy shrinks before her eyes, a simmering real-life thriller emerges, asking what it is to have honor in this American moment, and how the personal can reverberate globally.
www.harlequinproductions.org

What does "Mother Russia" tell us about ourselves?: An interview with Lauren Yee

(photo Beowulf Sheehan)

Mother Russia (or Periods of Collapse)

By Lauren Yee

Seattle Rep

March 6 to April 6, 2025

World Premiere

Nationally known playwright Lauren Yee has a tight connection with Seattle, as she and the Seattle Rep get ready for the March world premiere of her latest play, Mother Russia (or Periods of Collapse). Not only have two of her  works premiered here first, but also years back, she would periodically visit Seattle to hang out with acclaimed director Desdemona Chiang, using her house as a kind of developmental Hedgebrook.

Prior to Mother Russia, our city has been privileged to have major productions of Yee's Cambodian Rock Band, The Great Leap, King of the Yees, and Ching Chong Chinaman. She has won some amazing playwrighting awards and now also contributes writing for shows on Apple+ and Netflix.

Before her burgeoning success, a 22-year-old Yee mused about what her future looked like. "[I imagined that] by day I'd work at an arts nonprofit, probably a theater, in development or marketing," she said. "In the evenings, I'd write and maybe I'd have a show at a small theater... I think about what I have achieved, and what I've been lucky enough to enjoy has far outpaced what I imagined when I was coming into this world professionally."

As for Mother Russia's plot: Two men find jobs surveilling a former pop star in 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union. As they bumble their way through the assignment, spy work and life under capitalism prove harder than they thought. It sounds like it will have a great deal of humor in it.

Feb Seattle Area Theater - Lots of Feels

 

Cast of Crave at Intiman (Joe Moore)

You have some very cool options this month to choose from. WET’s founding company members reprise one of their first productions, Crave, 20 years later. Several productions might help soothe your anxieties about the political crisis. Learn to hula hoop at SCT…and more! Get out yer calendars!
 
Covenant, ArtsWest, 2/6/25-3/2/25
When a struggling guitarist returns to his small Georgia town a blues star, rumors begin swirling that he may have made a deal with the devil to attain his musical genius. Before long, however, it becomes clear he's not the only one with a secret. A mythic and suspenseful new play that delivers one devilish twist after another, York Walker's Covenant explores the power of belief and the thin line between rumor and truth.
www.artswest.org
 
The Last Five Years, ACT Theatre and 5^th Avenue Theatre, 2/8/25-3/16/25 (at ACT)
This modern musical takes a devastatingly honest look at one couple’s journey falling in and out of love. Through clever storytelling and sharp lyrics, writer Jason Robert Brown’s cult favorite gives us a raw and intimate window into two souls and two perspectives of one relationship. Jamie’s songs start at the beginning of the relationship and Cathy’s songs start from the end moving back to the beginning with only one song in the middle overlapping.
www.acttheatre.org
 
Crave, Intiman Theatre, 2/11/25-3/2/25 (at Erickson Theatre)
Love, loss, sex and desire play across the stage in this poetic and deeply personal play from legendary playwright Sarah Kane. Two decades ago, Washington Ensemble Theatre (WET) chose to perform this play as one of their early productions. It was said to be a notable play. Intiman is bringing together many of the original WET artists for a career retrospective and celebration, including Roger Bennington, Marc Kennison (Waxie Moon), and Marya Sea Kaminski. Intiman Artistic Director Jennifer Zeyl, will once again design the set. Four fragmented and fractured characters strive to find peace and connection in a lonely world. This is a unique opportunity to see a production with this unique local history.
www.intiman.org
 
The Hula Hoopin’ Queen, Seattle Children’s Theatre, 2/12/25-3/23/25
Three Harlem girls vie for the crown of The Hula Hoopin’ Queen, encouraged and mentored by the community elders in playwright Gloria Bond Cunie’s spirited adaptation of Thelma Lynn Godin’s book. A sweet, funny, and energetic slice-of-life reminder of the essential loops that bind our communities. (Ages 5+, 60 minutes no intermission)
www.sct.org

A New Year, Many New Theater Options in January!

Danila Bim hanging around Teatro Zinzanni (FillingTheFramePhotography)

From comedies. circe options, and quite a number of world premieres, January is looking exciting for theater-land! Pick your favorite(s) and get out yer calendars!

Sizzle, Teatro Zinzanni, Now-March 2025 (at Emerald City Trapeze Arts)
Teatro ZinZanni invites you to its new Center Ring at Emerald City Trapeze Arts for SIZZLE! Starring belter, provocateur, consummate chanteuse, and Cornish College of the Arts alum Rizo returns as Teatro ZinZanni’s Madame, the owner of the circus. The cast of performers is new for Seattle. They include: physical comedian Joel Baker, trapeze artists Oliver Parkinson and Cassie Cutler of Duo 19, hair hang artist Danila Bim, rope artist and Seattle native Ezra Weill, champion juggler Spencer Androli, and award-winning aerial pole artist Charlee Shae.
www.zinzanni.com/seattle
 
The Girl Who Swallowed A Cactus, Seattle Children’s Theatre, 1/9-26/25
School is out for the summer; the weather is hot and the boredom is heavy. 8-year-old Sheila and her pack of pals aren’t going to let the summer heat wear them down. When their fantastical junkyard fort draws the attention of a walking, talking, surprisingly well-dressed coyote, the adventurers suddenly find themselves deep in the desert, facing The Council of Howls, The Sting Brigade, The Death Cactus and much more. (This is a live, digital production (with some interaction) on Zoom! Ages 7+, 55 minutes no intermission)
www.sct.org
 
Rip! A Winkle In Time, Global Works, 1/10/25-2/8/25 (at 12^th Avenue Arts) (world premiere)
Local playwright Claire Zaslove introduces Randall Irving Parson, or Rip for short, who, in 1897, pursues his gold rush dream only to have a ghostly encounter that leaves him asleep in a snowbank. With global warming afoot, Rip finally thaws out and finds himself in a world that staggers the imagination. Puppets, bad guys, environmental concern - perfect for all ages.
www.globalworksproductions.com