Pleasing Show For All the Holidays

Cast of Holiday Inn (Mark Kitaoka)

Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn

5th Avenue Theatre

Through December 31, 2017

Ah, Lorna Luft! We are so happy you are gracing our local stage and bringing a lot of joy with you! You make Holiday Inn so much fun!

If you have never seen the 1942 oldy-but-goodie movie, Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Virginia Dale and Marjorie Reynolds, you probably know nothing about the new musical on stage at the 5th Avenue Theatre except the holiday-themed name. Jim Hardy, Ted Hanover and Lila Dixon (Eric Ankrim, Matt Owen, and Taryn Darr) are a song-and-dance trio working to make it big. Jim and Lila are engaged, but they have completely different goals.

Jim wants a quiet life in the country and Lila still has stars in her eyes. Jim finds an old farmhouse in Connecticut and snaps it up, but just then, they have a great six week offer. Lila wants to go and promises to come to Connecticut after, so they part. (This is a bit different from the movie, so if you know the movie, know that the musical won’t track exactly.) We’re not surprised that Lila doesn’t ever move there.

Heartfelt Play With Song Bites Off Too Much Story

Cast members in A Civil War Christmas (Robert Wade)

A Civil War Christmas – An American Musical Celebration

Taproot Theatre

Through December 27, 2017

An endearing and hard-working cast brings to life a tapestry of stories set around Christmas Eve, 1864. Figures of note in the Civil War are present, including President Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, General Ulysses Grant of the Union Army, General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate Army, and a whole host of then-notable and some completely unknown and fictitious characters.

The stories, chosen and interwoven by playwright Paula Vogel, are meant to acknowledge many issues present at that time of divided national interests. Slaves are being freed, North and South are still at war and full of enmity for one another, and Lincoln is under increasing threat of attack. There is much darkness, and the struggle for peace and for human connection is a difficult one to win.

An ensemble cast of 13 plays multiple roles. There are, I hear, 60 scenes, which is a lot of scenes. This is apparently less than the published version, and was cut by permission. Still, the tumultuous tales don’t blend easily and following their paths takes a lot of attention from audience members.

December Shows to Lift the Gloom

Cast of The Secret and Impossible League of the Noosphere in The Baltimore Plot (Roberta Christensen)

December brings gifts of world premieres, and options of holiday cheer and a few options that can provide some relief from holidays, if you choose.

A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration, Taproot Theatre, 12/1-30/17

It’s a bitterly cold Christmas Eve on the banks of the Potomac River where the lives of abolitionists, assassins, soldiers, enslaved and free are woven together in an American tapestry. In their darkest hour, when peace seems impossible, the promise of Christmas breaks through despair in this musical celebration of compassion and hope by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel.

www.taproottheatre.org

Zinzanni Still Rocks the Tent in Marymoor

Ms. Ariana Savalas as Madame Zinzanni (Michael Doucett)

Teatro Zinzanni

Marymoor Park

Through April 29, 2018

Teatro Zinzanni has moved, for at least six months, to Marymoor Park. The spiegeltent is set up, the doors are open, and the merriment is ongoing. If you have been to the Seattle location, be reassured that everything is exactly the same as you remember, except the parking is MUCH easier (though a bit pricey at $15/car).

This time, the story encompassing the night’s antics is that a food critic has come to evaluate the menu and the cast is in a tizzy to please her. Madame Zinzanni, an incandescent Ariana Savalas, commands the staff to make Ms. Pleasant’s visit an outstanding one.

Most Madame Zinzannis are outstanding talents, but Savalas brings the usual singing talent, an appropriate imperiousness, and also an amazing whistle! I haven’t heard such beautiful whistling to a song in a very long time! It’s a special treat!

Village Theatre’s recent production of "Into the Woods" deserves recognition

Christine Marie Brown, Trey Ellett, (Eric Polani Jensen peaking through) and Mari Nelson in the beautiful Witch costume (Mark Kitaoka)

Into the Woods

Village Theatre

Through November 19, 2017

If you have never seen the movie of Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim or the stage play, you may not know that Sondheim took five different fairy tales, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, the Baker and his Wife (a version of Thumbelina, of sort), Rapunzel, and Jack and the Beanstalk and wove them together so that they all know each other and live in the same small village.

So, Red visits the Baker and Wife to get food for Grandma, next doorish to Jack and his Mother, and they live in Cinderella’s village with her Stepmother and StepSisters and the same Prince, who is brother to the Prince who falls in love with Rapunzel – and then he throws in a Witch and some curses needing lifting. It’s pretty ingenious, but then – he’s SONDHEIM!

Stop the Presses: Newsies Takes Over Village!

Cast of Newsies (Mark Kitaoka)

Disney’s Newsies

Village Theatre

Issaquah through December 28, 2017

Everett: January 5-28, 2018

There is a pack of muscular male singers and dancers taking over the stage at Village Theatre! They are demanding that audiences pay more attention and stop reducing it, in an effort to make a living! If audiences do not pay more, they may well strike! And we really do not want that because they are extremely effective at what they do.

A robust, energetic and rousing production of the musical, Newsies, which details the Newsboy Strike of 1899 against Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst’s newspapers, brings Issaquah audiences to their feet. The very large cast is called upon to dance huge numbers in sync, including a major tap number at the top of the second act.

Strong Women Take Over "Coriolanus"

Nike Imoru in Coriolanus (John Ulman)

Coriolanus – Fight Like a Bitch

Rebel Kat Productions

(at 12th Avenue Arts)

Through November 18, 2017

Coriolanus is said to be a real general in Rome around the 5th Century. Caius Marcius attacked the Volscians of the city of Corioli viciously, and won. For that win, he was awarded the name “Coriolanus”. Some time later, during a grain shortage in Rome, Coriolanus advocated for a policy that would harshly affect the plebeians and the populace caused him to be put on trial and he was thrown out of Rome.

November Theater Openings - Plenty of Entertainment

Leads in Holiday Inn at 5th Avenue Theatre (Mark Kitaoka)

You can tell it is holiday season when theatrical productions starting having a lot of holiday content in them. There is lots of music to be had this month and a couple of very-much anticipated dramas that hit the local boards. Check these out:

The Inappropriate Suitor, Ghost Light Theatricals, 11/3-18/17

Ghost Light presents a classic “us against the world” love story about a wild boarding school girl and a city boy, and the strange and oppressive world around them. Inspired by German Expressionism, boarding school gothic, and Medieval super-science, The Inappropriate Suitor is a show that will appeal to fans of melodrama, old New York, Tim Burton, doppelgangers, and ice skating.

www.ghostlighttheatricals.org

Teatro Zinzanni, 11/1/17-4/29/17 (official opening 11/9/17) (at Marymoor Park)

It's opening night of the new Teatro ZinZanni, and the staff anxiously awaits the arrival of a world-renowned restaurant critic.  They are trying to put their best foot forward, without stepping on each other's toes! Getting swept up in the madness is the magical Maître d', who has staffed his restaurant with mechanical waitresses, chefs that defy gravity, and an amorous busboy who has finally met his match. With an aim to impress, the crew literally bends over backwards to give this critic the experience of a lifetime.

https://zinzanni.com/seattle/

“The Government Inspector” Hits the Funnybone and Misses the Commentary

A moment from The Government Inspector (John Ulman)

The Government Inspector

Seattle Shakespeare Company

Through November 19, 2017

There was a ton of laughing by the audience at the opening night of The Government Inspector at Seattle Shakespeare Company. I laughed some myself. Just, unfortunately, not nearly enough or maybe even too much.

Nikolai Gogol wrote this now-classic play in 1836. It is an ironic and subversive play (for the powers-that-be of Imperial Russia of the time) pointing out the rampant greed, governmental abuses, political corruption, and commenting on the public’s essential stupidity.