“Love Never Dies” is the usual dying sequel

Gustav and Christine in Love Never Dies (Joan Marcus)

Love Never Dies

Paramount Theatre

Through May 13, 2018

Andrew Lloyd Webber hit the goldmine with his musical about The Phantom of the Opera. It came out and then seemed to go everywhere and get produced in every place. Some years later, after not having anything remotely like a hit for some time, it seems like he wanted to take advantage of that magic by creating a sequel. Love Never Dies was an attempt to prolong the 20 minutes of fame that Phantom brought. Created in 2010, it has recently been touring the U.S. and came to the Paramount last week.

The cast list looked good, with a host of opera-based singers. A few of those singers didn’t quite live up to the challenge of even this most boring of musicals. Gardar Thor Cortes starred as The Phantom with a hefty resume, but his acting was wooden and overblown. It would seem clear that the only reason Christine would still love him is due to some kind of magic and not really because he was such a lovable person.

“Shakespeare in Love” at Seattle Shakespeare Co.

Chiara Motley in Shakespeare in Love (John Ulman)

Shakespeare in Love

Seattle Shakespeare Company

(at Cornish Playhouse)

Through June 3, 2018

The movie, Shakespeare in Love, is a delicious, funny Elizabethan slice-of-life, if you imagine what it might have been like to be a relatively poor playwright toiling away as fast as possible to create pages of script while not even knowing what play you’re writing. Will Shakespeare is the playwright and he’s writing a play on the fly that is tentatively called Romeo and Ethel the Pirate’s Daughter. The delightful movie by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard has been adapted by Lee Hall into a stage play that retains huge chunks of the movie script.

Funny family themes feel “Familiar” at Seattle Rep

A moment from Familiar (Navid Baraty)

Familiar

Seattle Repertory Theatre (with the Guthrie Theater)

Through May 27, 2018

There is something very familiar about the brand new (2015), incisively-written, Zimbabwean family wedding play, Familiar, now at the Seattle Rep. Clearly, it’s not the Zimbabwean portion, since that is not a culture we’ve seen on stage here in Seattle. That is a refreshing aspect, even as the accents present a challenge for audience members not so used to the musical cadence of “Zim”-inflected English.

What is familiar about the story are the many ways families fight, disagree, have secrets, and display their love and affection for one another when all is said and done. If you have heard that this story is about a Zimbabwe-American woman (Shá Cage) marrying a “white” American man, you might think you’re about to see strain about race. However, the Chinyaramwira family of Minnesota does not, apparently, have any qualms about Chris (Quinn Franzen) joining their family. 

It’s May, It’s May Theater Openings!

Broken Bone Bathtub (Zack DeZon)

So eclectic a month of offerings that there can’t be a single person who wouldn’t love some production on this list! On your mark, get set, go get tickets!

Pilgrims, Forward Flux Prods., 5/1-19/18 (at West of Lenin)

On a ship to colonize a newly discovered planet, a soldier and a teenage girl find themselves quarantined together in a cabin and are forced to explore their own traumatic pasts and roles in a dying society.

www.forwardflux.com

Crewmates, Annex Theatre, 5/1-16/18 (Tue/Wed nights) (world premiere)

A sensitive American-Muslim man from a conservative family starts a romance with an inspiring atheist Asian-American woman who was adopted by liberal white parents. Their relationship grows lovingly, but the invasive supernatural world just cannot handle all this fluffy saccharine goodness. Agendas play out against each other as djinn and angel alike struggle to accept the ever-changing narrative of human sexuality and morality. Even the Heavens are not immune to the power of the human condition.

www.annextheatre.org

Shakespeare in Love, Seattle Shakespeare Co., 5/2/18-6/3/18 (at Cornish Playhouse)

(Based on the movie.) Young Will Shakespeare is in dire need of inspiration. His next play is on deadline and the only thing he’s come up with is the title: Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter. Then he meets Viola, a smart and beautiful woman who desperately wants to perform on the stage, even though it’s forbidden. Will is smitten and gets inspired to write the greatest love story the world has known.

www.seattleshakespeare.org

Magical "ASL Midsummer Night’s Dream" is a Massive and Beautiful Effort

ASL Midsummer Night's Dream (Ken Holmes)

ASL Midsummer Night’s Dream

Sound Theatre Company

(at 12th Avenue Arts)

Through May 12, 2018

Our city owes Sound Theatre Company a huge THANK YOU for taking on and mastering this special effort to translate Shakespeare into ASL and make an inclusive ASL+spoken event! If you know anyone from 6 to 96 who is hearing impaired or deaf and has had a hard time seeing only-spoken theatrical events, you MUST tell them to come to this show! It is completely magical in every sense.

Co-directed by theatrical master Howie Seago, who worked through the translation of ancient English poetry to ASL with co-director Teresa Thuman, the production has equal numbers of hearing and deaf actors and every word is both signed and spoken. Deaf audience members are prioritized for the best-sighted seats and the sound design (by Michael Owcharuk) deliberately uses very loud bass hum to allow deaf audience members to feel it, as well.

What is clear from the ASL beginning, not every moment of the play is for you, majority hearing audience member. Aspects of the play are meant for those who sign, especially the beginning, which is a sort of choreo/ASL moment of story-telling. It sets the tone and the stage for what is to come.

Star-kissed “Kate” at The 5th Avenue

Scene-stealer Robin Hurder in Kiss Me Kate (Tracy Martin)

Kiss Me Kate

5th Avenue Theatre

Through April 29, 2018

The story goes that a Broadway producer, thinking back on his memories of the great acting couple of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne and their feuding ways while performing Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, decided that the headstrong couple mimicked the headstrong couple in Shakespeare’s famous play. Couldn’t that make a fun and funny musical? He asked writing couple Bella and Samuel Spewack to come up with a script (the “book”) and they asked Cole Porter to compose and Kiss Me Kate was born.

If you look too closely at that script, there are moments that really don’t work, but the songs are glorious and the aspects of slap-stick farce are numerous and funny. So, just don’t look too hard! It’s more fun that way.

The current production at The 5th Avenue Theatre is a joyous and raucous affair, gleefully helmed by Alan Paul, who ekes out every funny moment he can, both from the book and the score, and the dazzling choreography of Michele Lynch and a nimble cast. Paul, working with music director Joel Fram, puts new spins on classic songs like I Hate Men (with saucy Cayman Ilika wielding a wicked banana!), clearly meaning to slow songs down for emphasis, mostly on the jokes.