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| Diana Huey and Galen Disston in Rock of Ages (Mark Kitaoka) |
A big musical, two different takes on Uncle Vanya, and a lot
more is in store for your February theater-going pleasure. Check out what’s
coming up!
Rock of Ages, 5th
Avenue Theatre, 2/1-24/19 (opens 2/8)
Diana Huey comes
back to town to headline this ‘80s rock ‘n’ roll homage. It’s the story of a small
town girl and a city boy who meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their
Hollywood dreams. Their rocking romance is told through the heart-pounding hits
of Styx, Foreigner, Joan Jett, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister and
more.
The Devil and Sarah
Blackwater, Annex Theatre, 2/1/19-3/2/19 (world premiere)
Singer-songwriter Sarah Blackwater’s rock and roll tour is
rudely interrupted when the Devil comes calling about a debt - the eternal soul
of her partner, Sam. With love as her compass, Sarah goes through hell and back
to discover what’s worth holding on to.
Uncle Vanya, The
Seagull Project, 2/1-17/19 (at ACT Theatre)
Uncle Vanya is the
second major play written by Anton Chekhov and premiered at the Moscow Art
Theatre in 1898. A provincial family is in turmoil, after the esteemed
Professor Serebryakov and his wife, Yelena, arrive to stay at the family estate
after coming to the end of their fiscal rope. The desires of the family begin
to boil under these new circumstances.
It Could Be Any One of Us, Phoenix Theatre, 2/1-24/19
In a windswept country house, a family of artistic failures wrangles over a will. A detective who has never solved a case, a writer whose works have never been published, an artist who’s never shown a painting, a composer whose compositions have never been performed, and a dysfunctional teenager are the prime ingredients for this murder mystery. The victim, however, is not who it should be, and the murderer’s identity changes overnight. Alan Ayckbourn wrote this play with multiple endings. The Phoenix’s production will surprise the audience with a different ending each night, determined by a card game on stage that steers the actors in any given direction.
www.tptedmonds.org
I and You, Penguin
Productions, 2/2-9/19 (at Taproot Theatre)
Housebound because of illness, Caroline hasn’t been to
school in months. Confined to her room, she has only Instagram and Facebook for
company. That is until classmate Toni bursts in – uninvited and armed with
waffle fries, a scruffy copy of Walt Whitman’s poetry, and a school project due
in the next day. An unlikely friendship develops and a seemingly mundane piece
of homework explodes into a journey of discovery about art, connection, and
identity.
140 LBS, STG
Presents, 2/7-17/19 (at Theatre Off Jackson) (world premiere)
Susan Lieu
performs a solo piece. Susan’s mother loses oxygen to her brain during surgery
and the plastic surgeon deliberately does not call 9-1-1 for fourteen minutes.
Five days later, she flatlines. The surgeon is charged with medical negligence
and her family falls apart; no one talks about what happened. Nineteen years
later, on her wedding day, Susan’s mother’s chair sits empty and Susan realizes
she can no longer ignore what she’s always wanted: to know who her mother was.
Sifting through thousands of deposition pages and reaching out to the killer’s
family, Susan uncovers the painful truth of her mother, herself, and the
impossible ideal of Vietnamese feminine beauty.
Aida, Seattle
Musical Theatre, 2/8-24/19
Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida is a timeless love story, featuring an award-winning score
from the seasoned duo. This musical features stylistically eclectic songs from
reggae, gospel, Motown, African, Indian, and Middle Eastern influences, to
Elton John’s characteristic pop style.
Alien/Angel, Cafe
Nordo, 2/8-24/19
Writer/Performer Devin
Bannon bring to life historical TV interviews of the actual Klaus Sperber,
while reimagining the musical acts of his rock alter ego Nomi in nine soaring
numbers. In between the songs, Bannon-as-Klaus tells a moving narrative of his
life as a young, queer German gifted with a soprano vocal range, who moved to
Manhattan in the 1980’s with a generation of youth inspired by Andy Warhol’s
Factory. Klaus tells the tale of his brush with fame and all-too-young death as
one of the first celebrity victims of the AIDS epidemic. Known as the weirdo’s
weirdo, starving artist Klaus was famous for trading his homemade pastries in
exchange for studio time and rehearsal space to create music that became
inspiration for artists like David Bowie and Joey Arias. A four course menu of
pies, savory and sweet, is included in the ticket price.
The Clean House,
As If Theatre Company, 2/8-24/19 (at Kenmore Community Club)
Lane, a doctor, values order in every aspect of her life –
her career, her house, her emotions, her relationships. Her live-in Brazilian
maid, Matilde, finds cleaning makes her sad and yearns to be a stand-up
comedian. Lane’s sister, Virginia, finds solace in cleaning and secretly takes
over Matilde’s duties. When Lane’s surgeon husband falls in love with a
terminally-ill patient, everything is thrown into disarray, and Lane must turn
to the women in her life to help sort out the mess. Blending whimsical humor
with wisdom and compassion, this romantic comedy about love, sex, death – and
finding the perfect joke – proves that shared laughter can heal almost
anything.
www.asiftheatre.com
(Kenmore Community Club: 7304 NE 175th St, Kenmore)
American Junkie,
Book-It Repertory Theatre, 2/14/19-3/10/19 (opens 2/16) (world premiere)
How does a budding musician become a broken-down junkie? With
a brutally honest look at addiction during Seattle’s grunge years, author Tom
Hansen, a pioneer in Seattle’s punk rock scene, charts his path as he goes from
rock bottom to recovery, without self-pity or blame. Hansen balances a raw
story about vulnerability and the pain that inspires self-destruction with
humor and hope.
Raisins in a Glass of
Milk 2019, Live Girls! Theater, 2/14-17/19 (at Taproot Theatre)
Raisins in a Glass of
Milk 2019 is the first in an annual series simply known as Raisins. The Raisins Team will continue
conducting new interviews to weave them into an original play to be produced
every February. Raisins 2019 was
generated from candid interviews of artists of color around the country and then
crafted into six multidimensional women. These women of color will be
confronted with the question: “How can we dismantle white supremacy in the
American theater?” They will walk to the edge of what is civil to find what is
right.
The Passage,
Village Theatre BETA Series Presentation, 2/15-24/19
Monsters lurking. Beasts to fear. And a father in danger. The Passage is an inventive and surprisingly
humorous new musical that is as captivating as it is unflinchingly honest. Do
you have the courage to venture below? After all, it’s just a basement... The
BETA Series is a developmental step that gives musical writers the chance to
see their work fully realized while it is still in progress.
Uncle Vanya,
Theatre9/12, 2/15/19-3/10/19
This iteration of Uncle
Vanya is a modern adaptation by the renowned playwright Annie Baker. The
unusual circumstance of two productions of the same play in the same month may
give audiences a unique opportunity to experience the magic of live theater and
how different each production will likely prove to be.
Fantastic.Z’s 7th
Annual New Works Festival, 2/15-23/19 (at 18th & Union)
It's Only Kickball, Stupid, by Caroline Prugh, is a
bittersweet comedy about that first crush. B-Sides is a staged reading of 5
short LGBTQ plays.
The Woman in Black,
Seattle Repertory Theatre, 2/22/19-3/24/19
In the village of Crythin Gifford, the wind howls across the
moors and fog creeps mysteriously around the town spires. At the edge of the
village's cemetery, young lawyer Arthur Kipps glimpses the figure of a woman,
garbed all in black, and is drawn into Crythin's cursed and haunted history.
Susan Hill's gothic ghost story, The
Woman in Black, comes to spine-tingling life in this cunning stage
adaptation that left London's West End theatregoers enthralled.
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