Noel Coward Would Approve – "Blithe Spirit" at Seattle Rep

The Seance - Anne Allgood center (Nate Watters)

Blithe Spirit
Seattle Rep
Through December 22, 2024
 
With a cast of jesters and fools (really, really good ones), and a director (Allison Narver) with a talent for comedy and farce in particular, you’re bound to have a great time and a lot of laughs attending Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit at Seattle Rep! This is a classic comedy first performed in the 1940s and it remains as relevant today as it was when it debuted. The jokes are timeless and adding in a lot of physical comedy just enhances the fun immensely.
 
Plot summary: Charles and Ruth Condomine (Arlando Smith and Gin Hammond) are newishly married after Charles lost his first wife Elvira (Kirsten Potter) seven years earlier.  Charles is a successful writer and is researching for his next book - about a killer medium! He invites friends Dr. and Mrs. Bradman (Nate Tenenbaum and Sara Waisanen) to a séance with locally famous Madame Arcati (Anne Allgood).  While they are all skeptics, something absolute does happen during the séance. Elvira is summoned but only Charles can see her and hoo-boy does he want her to go away!
 
Add in a wildly funny turn as the housemaid Edith by Sophie Kelly-Hedrick (you have to see it to understand). This ensemble understands the mission. I’m particularly happy to see Kirsten Potter back on the stage and doing what seems totally natural to her; she infuses Elvira with pizzaz and petulance. Anne Allgood is having a great year portraying comic characters and hitting her timing impeccably.

Iconic ‘Mary Poppins’ Now At 5th Avenue

Cast of Mary Poppins with some song letters (Tracy Martin)

Mary Poppins

5^th Avenue Theatre
Through December 29, 2024
 
We really have an astonishing amount of theater talent in this little ‘burb… So much so that there is really almost no need or reason to “bring someone” in from another part of the country. Proof of that was evident on opening night of the iconic musical, Mary Poppins.
 
Mallory Cooney King plays the title character and is practically perfect in every way. On opening night though, it was evident that she was having issues with her lovely voice. So, after the first act, her understudy came to the rescue. In fact, understudy Allison Standley has graced our stages in major roles in similarly iconic musicals like My Fair Lady and She Loves Me. Either one of them could have been cast as the “regular” performer. They’re both that good!
 
Talent also brims in this production with the rest of the cast and ensemble. Erik Ankrim plays George Banks, Nik Hagen plays Robertson Ay, the young butler, Cristin J. Hubbard plays both the Bird Lady and Miss, Andrews – terrifyingly, Bobbi Kotula plays Mrs. Brill, Kayden Oliver plays Neleus the statute, Karen Skrinde plays Miss Corry and Miss Lark’s dog, and Ty Willis as the Bank Chairman (in particular)… Coming up along side them, the adorable opening night children were played by Gia Pellegrini and Liam Kuriatnyk who were note perfect!
 

December Brry Outside, Warm Theater Inside!

The cast of Passengers (Reggie Jackson, Sunam Ellis, Lamar Legend) by Strawshop (Greg Carter)

Plenty to do this month, so curl up with a good show and get outcher calendars!

Ho Ho Ho!, Seattle Men’s Chorus, 12/1-21/24 (Benaroya Hall, Pantages Theater, Everett Civic Auditorium)
SMC serves up everyone’s favorite holiday tradition: seasonal classics, Christmas comedy, a dizzying array of dancing Santas, and the gayest sing-along ever. Songs include “Pink Christmas,” “Joy to the World,” and a new holiday version of “Holding Out for a Hero.”
www.seattlechoruses.org
 
Black Nativity, Intiman Theatre and Hansberry Project, 12/4-29/24 (at Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway)
Langston Hughes’ Gospel Song-Play returns in this newly reimagined production! Celebrate the season with a cast of more than 30 actors, dancers, soaring vocalists, a live band, and a rousing city-wide gospel choir. Audiences will have the chance to sing along  during this holiday musical for families of all backgrounds and beliefs. 

www.intiman.org
 
A Charlie Brown Christmas, Taproot Theatre, 12/5-28/24
Charlie Brown is depressed by the never-ending commercialism surrounding the holidays. Thankfully, Linus is there to help him find the true meaning of Christmas in this musical adaptation of the cartoon classic.
www.taproottheatre.org
 
Fellow Passengers, Strawberry Theatre Workshop, 12/5-23/24 (at 12^th Avenue Arts)
A three-person narrative adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, this play is written and directed by Strawshop Artistic Director Greg Carter. Including every page of the 1843 novel, Passengers playfully engages found objects, clothes, toys, and furniture to restore vitality to the most important story ever written. It was first devised by Rhonda J Soikowski and her cast during Strawshop's inaugural season. Includes original music by Ayako Okano.
www.strawshop.org

Go Spy on ‘Edgar & Annabel’ Before They Escape

 

Zenaida Smith and Dylan Smith in Edgar & Annabel (Ken Holmes)

Edgar and Annabel
Pony World Theatre
At 12^th Avenue Arts
Through November 30, 2024
 
How dark can a play about spies, politics, and karaoke get? Pretty dang dark at times in this engrossing spy play. You know that it’s a spy play because, besides Pony World Theatre saying so, if you come a half hour early you can get some spy training!
 
Pony World has long been a company whose work I know I want to see, in advance. They have a solid theatrical aesthetic and choose shows well. Here, they’ve chosen a play written in 2011 that feels like it could be written (God forbid) about 2025!!
 
We immediately know that Edgar and Annabel are spies. No spoiler, here. The two people who seem to live in the house with the kitchen they are standing in (a one-set moment that works very simply, as Robin Macartney often designs) also don’t seem to know each other. And they suddenly start reading from a script with an eye on a microphone above them.

November Variety on Seattle Area Stages

Chad Goller-Sojourner
Sitting in Circles with Rich White Girls: Memoir of a Bulimic Black Boy 
(courtesy Chad Goller-Sojourner)

As winter begins to wave and run after us, November has plenty to offer area theater-goers! The end of the month is more holiday oriented. Still there’s plenty of intriguing variety to choose from. Get outcher calendars!

Holmes and Watson (Michael Brunk)

Holmes and Watson, SecondStory Repertory, 11/1-17/24
A thrilling intellectual puzzle wrapped in a cloak of mystery, this play picks after the presumed death of Sherlock Holmes at Reichenbach Falls. Dr. Watson finds himself inundated with impostors claiming to be the world's greatest detective. As Watson delves deeper into this perplexing situation, he is drawn into a labyrinth of deceit, where the lines between reality and illusion blur. Is Holmes truly dead? Or has he masterminded an elaborate hoax? Prepare to be challenged, entertained, and utterly captivated by this ingenious reimagining of the classic Sherlock Holmes saga.
www.secondstoryrep.org
 
Merchant of Venice: The Musical, Amaranth Turtle Stages, 11/1-10/24 (at Aspire Repertory Theatre, 11030 8^th Ave NE, Seattle) (staged reading)
A bold reimagining of Shakespeare's controversial play, as a musical. Merchant of Venice: The Musical takes place in 16th-century Venice. Bassanio wishes to woo heiress Portia. Antonio, his friend, wants to help Bassanio impress Portia with a display of wealth. Antonio makes a deal with Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, despite his distrust of the Jewish population. When Antonio is unable to pay back his loan, Shylock decides that it's time to mistreat Antonio in the same way both he and his people have been mistreated for years. Local writers, Daniel Arthur, music, and Anna Tatelman, lyrics and book, collaborate.
https://venice.brownpapertickets.com/
 
The Marriage of Figaro, Theatre33, 11/2-23/24
One of the funniest comedies of all time! A single crazy day in the castle of Count Almaviva, whose household manages to weave a dizzying intrigue with weddings, courts, adoptions, jealousy and reconciliation. Figaro vows to trick the lustful count around, win Suzanne and not lose her dowry. In Russian with English subtitles.
www.theatre33wa.org
 
Triple Fire Sign: Justin Huertas in Concert, Intiman Cabaret, 11/4-5/24 (at Erickson Theatre)
Justin Huertas returns to Seattle with a concert event created exclusively for the Intiman Cabaret. An out and proud Aries Sun/Leo Moon/Leo Rising and therefore doomed to a career creating egocentric performance art, Justin shares a fiery playlist of acoustic bops and bangers to boil the blood—including tunes from his next World Premiere musical! 

www.intiman.org

‘Mrs. Loman Is Leaving’ – Two Plays in Search of Each Other

 

R. Hamilton Wright and Alexandra Tavares (by Rosemary Dai Ross)

Mrs. Loman Is Leaving
ACT Theatre
Through October 27, 2024
 
Humor is very idiosyncratic. There are probably as many funny-bones out there as individual snowflakes. The world premiere play at ACT Theatre, Mrs. Loman Is Leaving, is a comedy lynch-pinned to the drama, Death of a Salesman, played for laughs. It’s a backstage show on opening night of a play that is critical to all of the characters’ lives and they are desperate for good reviews.
 
This play’s title brings to mind the updated treatment of A Doll’s House, with A Doll’s House, Part 2, where playwright Hnath updates a classic play with a sequel. However, that’s not what this play accomplishes.