Seattle Rep presents Rebecca Gilman's “Luna Gale”

Anne Allgood and Pamela Reed in Luna Gale (Alan Alabastro)

Luna Gale

Seattle Repertory Theatre

Through March 27, 2016

Playwright Rebecca Gilman is an “issues-oriented” writer. She takes on hot-button, current, modern issues and writes plays about them. Her ability to have her characters speak in real-people dialogue is terrific and admirable. That is all on display with Seattle Rep’s mounting of Luna Gale, a Gilman play about the foster-care system with all sides of the dilemma on stage.

There is much to appreciate in the staging. Pamela Reed, as Caroline – the long-time social worker who has seen so much that her instincts kick in when evidence doesn’t, is terrific in the role. Practical, worn down, but also hiding a heart of gold, Reed’s character is able to fill in all kinds of information about how the system works or doesn’t in state programs that have seen all kinds of budget cutting over the last decade.

"Parade" - March for truth and justice!

The cast of Parade (Ken Holmes)

Parade

Sound Theatre Company

(at 12^th Ave Arts)

Through March 26, 2016

Parade is such a cheery name for a musical! However, it is the wry, unsettling, ironic title of a true-life musical story of Southern small-town bigotry and a still-unsolved murder mystery! Written by Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry, this 1998 Tony winner is being presented by Sound Theatre Company and is the first musical mounted at 12^th Avenue Arts.

First, the history: In 1913, Leo Frank (Jeff Orton), a New York Jew who moved and married in Marietta, Georgia, is a town outsider. When 13 year-old Mary Phagan (Delaney Guyer ) is found murdered in the basement of the pencil factory Leo runs, the night watchman is questioned, and Leo. With virtually no evidence and a town full of people willing to lie to convict someone, town prosecutor Hugh Dorsey (Brian Lange) gets a death sentence for Leo’s supposed crime.

After Georgia’s governor, John Slaton (Jordan Jackson) looks into the case and commutes Leo’s sentence from death to life imprisonment and transfers Leo to another prison, a mob breaks in and hangs Leo back in Marietta.

Charming “Brooklyn Bridge” offers community to a lonely girl

Rudy Roushdi and Analiese Emerson Guettinger in Brooklyn Bridge (Chris Bennion)

Brooklyn Bridge

Seattle Children’s Theatre

Through March 20, 2016

An enchanting play is onstage now at Seattle Children’s Theatre, suitable for ages 6 or 7 and up. Brooklyn Bridge, by Melissa James Gibson, focuses on a bright and articulate 5^th grader, Sasha (charmingly played by Analiese Emerson Guettinger) who has a very important research paper due and has struggled to get it onto paper.

The script is full of sparkling dialogue and is meant to address aspects of a lonely latchkey child and the isolation that can create. Sasha is portrayed as a very resourceful child, but in this instance, she must disobey her mother, in order to get the very important paper done by tomorrow. She doesn’t have a pen, at home, and is compelled to leave her apartment, contravening her mother’s instructions, to visit neighbors she doesn’t know to find one.

Have fun working: "9 to 5" at SMT!

Natalie Moe as Roz in 9 to 5 (Jeff Carpenter)

9 to 5

Seattle Musical Theatre

Through March 13, 2016

9 to 5, the musical based on the hugely popular 1980 movie starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, is now performing at Seattle Musical Theatre. Their production is fun, peppy and with a solid tongue-in-cheek atmosphere. There are also several stand-out talents among a solid cast.

The musical had a fairly short run on Broadway in 2009 and came to Seattle on tour in 2010 (with our homegrown talent Ryah Nixon understudying the Doralee role). The songs, including the hit wonder 9 to 5, all written by Dolly Parton, are fun but not significantly successful. The entire effort seems tailor made for regional and high school productions, with a strong feminist message. Young women, in particular, might feel encouraged and supported to reflect on how far we have come from the setting of the movie, a sort of 1970s-ish male-dominated business culture.

March stands for Musicals in Seattle (theater openings)

Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako in My Heart is the Drum (Village Theatre - Mark Kitaoka)

There is Seattle Fringe Festival going on that started at the end of February and continues in March. Multiple solo and small shows, often new material that people are developing, and usually about an hour in length, so you can see more than one in a night. Here’s the link: http://seattlefringefestival.org/about-us/

March seems to “stand for” Musicals, this year! Openings include Assassins at ACT Theatre (co-pro’d with 5^th Avenue), Parade by Sound Theatre Company, EVITA at SecondStory Repertory, My Heart is the Drum at Village Theatre, Violet at ArtsWest, Cotton Patch Gospel at Taproot, and at the end of the month, My Night with Janis Joplin at 5^th Avenue! We surely have turned into a musical theater town when no one was paying attention! Openings below.

Assassins, 5th Ave Theatre and ACT Theatre (at ACT Theatre), 3/3/16-5/15/16

A Stephen Sondheim musical about some of the most notorious figures in American history—the assassins who tried (and in some cases succeeded) to kill the President.

www.acttheatre.org

Violet, ArtsWest, 3/3/16-4/4/15

A disfigured young woman dreams of becoming beautiful. After seeing a faith-healing minister on TV, she embarks on a bus trip across the American south in hopes of finding the minister and healing her face. Along the way, she learns the true meaning of beauty, courage and love. Written by Jeanine Tesori, the 2015 Tony award winning composer of Fun Home. 

www.artswest.org

"Annapurna’s" journey is a worthwhile trek

John Q. Smith and Teri Lazzara in Annapurna (Robert Falk)

Annapurna

Theatre22

Through March 12, 2016

Seattle is having a mini-Sharr White festival. The first production is Annapurna by Theatre22. The next one will be The Other Place at Seattle Public Theater.  Sharr White, from the sharply drawn characters and plot of Annapurna, is a playwright to notice. And this was not the play nominated for a Tony…that’s The Other Place.

Annapurna is a play full of projective references. The title is the name of a real mountain with a storied history of treacherous ascents. The mountain is symbolic of a treacherous relationship between Emma and Ulysses. They were once married. Ulysses was a cowboy poet and professor. They had a child. Something happened twenty years ago to cause Emma to run from their home with their son. Ulysses was too drunk to remember why.

Now, twenty years later, Ulysses is dying of lung cancer and living in the Colorado mountains, alone and reclusive. Suddenly, Emma shows up.