Jan + Half Feb Theater Openings, Check Out the World Premieres!

 

Montage of Comedy of Errors photos (Giao Nguyen)

Theater is bringing great energy to the new year! I’m partial to world premieres because of the sense of adventure, seeing a show that only has a tempting blurb, and rolling dice hoping that it will be a great experience. Even if it ends up not being your favorite show, you’re still supporting the forward motion of the theater community. Engage your inner adventurer and get outcher calendars!

The Comedy of Errors, Seattle Shakespeare Company, 1/10-28/24

This small ensemble version cleaves right to the heart of this comedy of separated twins. What are the chances there’s a guy walking around town with your face? What are the chances there’s another guy walking around town with your servant’s face? Antipholus and Dromio encounter some trouble when their doppelgangers seem to be on the loose in Ephesus, not realizing that their identical twins with identical names were separated from them in a shipwreck as babies. Performed by a troupe of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) collaborators.

www.seattleshakespeare.org
 
God of Carnage, SecondStory Repertory, 1/12-28/24
A playground altercation between eleven-year-old boys brings together two sets of Brooklyn parents at a home for a meeting to resolve the matter. At first, diplomatic niceties are observed, but as the meeting progresses, and the rum flows, tensions emerge and the gloves come off, leaving the couples with more than just their liberal principles in tatters.
www.secondstoryrep.org
 
Strong Waters, Global Works 1/13/24-2/3/24 (at 12^th Ave Arts) (world premiere)
“Permission to come aboard?” A retired actor and his recently divorced son share a tranquil life in a floating home community - until an unexpected guest arrives, destined to make waves. The past is awakened, and the present enlivened, as three people discover where their hidden hurts, and their hope for healing, collide.
www.globalworksproductions.com

Christmas and a Jane Austin-style play: Great Combination (Taproot Theatre)

Georgiana and Kitty (Robert Wade)

Georgiana & Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley

Taproot Theatre (for tickets)
Through December 30, 2023
 
Taproot Theatre loves period pieces, and period pieces love to be done at Taproot. And add Jane Austin and you’ve got a powerful combination. This holiday season, they have mounted the third and final play of a trilogy of Pride and Prejudice “spin-offs” written by Lauren Gunderson and Margo Melcon.
 
Pride and Prejudice introduced us to the five Bennet sisters who all needed to be married off, as per the cultural demands of the time. Each of them had distinct personalities and views. Gunderson and Melcon created plays based on these sisters, but not on the book. In science fiction, writers often extend the “world” of the first book by writing “spin-offs” incorporating side plots or prequel or sequel-like stories.
 
Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley and The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley were produced at Taproot in 2018 and 2022. Now, the last of the trilogy focuses on the younger Bennet sisters, Lydia the troublemaker (played again with great zest by Kelly Karcher), Kitty, the stalwart independent who has learned a lot from her sisters’ exploits (played with gusto and loyalty by Ays Garcia), and Fitzwilliam Darcy’s (a stern Brian Picheu) sister, Georgiana (a charming Claire Marx) who loves music and is so reticent that she rarely gets to finish a sentence.

December Theater Has Gone to The Gays!

The Gays have taken over holiday shows! They may have let a few other productions escape, it's true, but if you want your holidays to be Gay, this year is all for YOU! Enjoy yourself and have a wonderful holiday season! (Get outcher calendars!)

Fellow Passengers (John Ulman)

Fellow Passengers, Strawberry Theatre Workshop, 12/1-23/23 (at 12^th Avenue Arts)

Told in the narrative style that Book-It Repertory Theatre made famous in Seattle, Passengers is every page of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol performed by just three actors, who bring over fifty characters to the stage. Amy Thone, Galen Joseph Osier and Shermona Mitchell perform the play with live music by keyboardist Ayako Okano.
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/strawberrytheatreworkshop/994206#

War on Christmas

 
Scott Shoemaker’s War on Christmas, Shoes and Pants Productions, 12/1-23/23 (at Theatre Off Jackson)
The all-star variety spectacular, a Yule Tide tradition, returns! Come spend an evening with Scott and a cast of Seattle luminaries as they try to figure out who’s fighting a war on Christmas and what for? A night of comedy, songs, dance numbers, delightful videos, and partial nudity!
Joining Scott are an amazing group of illustrious superstars Ade, Joel Domenico, Mandy Price.  And Major Scales.
https://www.strangertickets.com/events/143357134/scott-shoemakers-war-on-christmas

Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, SecondStory Repertory, 12/1-23/23
A sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice set two years after the novel ends, Miss Bennet continues the story, only this time with bookish middle-sister Mary as its unlikely heroine. Mary is growing tired of her role as dutiful middle sister in the face of her siblings’ romantic escapades. When the family gathers for Christmas at Pemberley, an unexpected guest sparks Mary’s hopes for independence, an intellectual match, and possibly even love.
www.secondstoryrep.org

A Treemendous Holiday (courtesty Seattle Choruses)

A Treemendous Holiday, Seattle Men’s Chorus, 12/1-23/23 (at Benaroya Hall)
It’s time to ho ho ho with Seattle Men’s Chorus. Greater Seattle’s most joyful holiday tradition is a fun-filled celebration of seasonal favorites along with the Pacific Northwest’s gayest sing-a-long.
www.seattlechoruses.org

“A Very Electric Christmas”: Intriguing Light Show, But Know What To Expect

 

A Very Electric Christmas
Seattle Children’s Theatre (for tickets)
Through December 31, 2023
 
Seattle Children’s Theatre has brought an intriguing performance company to town that everyone from 3 (ish) to 93 will enjoy. Lightwire Theater has developed a “light show” that is tourable without a lot of encumbering technology: Dancers who wear neon-style tubing costumes that they can control themselves with battery packs! The battery packs allow them to not have to rely on a whole elaborate computerized performance. There are a lot of background visuals, though, that are controlled in the booth.
 
Lightwire (www.lightwiretheater.com) was a semi-finalist on America’s Got Talent in Season 7, and I remember them! But that was only three minutes of performance and storytelling, and they’ve come to Seattle with A Very Electric Christmas which is claimed to be 60 minutes but was closer to 70 when I saw it.

“White Christmas” is Here to Smile Up Your Holidays

 

Cayman Ilika and Taryn Darr in White Christmas (Mark Kitaoka)

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas
5^th Avenue Theatre (for tickets)

Through December 24, 2023
 
Your Christmas delight on stage is at hand. The 5^th Avenue Theatre has decided to mount White Christmas again, having produced it in 2006 and 2009. The reason is very clear: it’s a chance to sit back, laugh, and relax while a bunch of singers and hoofers sing and dance their tushies off. This talented cast is here to do exactly that for you!
 
The script is aging, although romances never go out of style, but there are jokes a plenty – some good, some groan-worthy, and almost everyone in the cast gets a little cameo and a lot of applause. 
 
David Armstrong and James A. Rocco have co-directed this production all three times, so they know what they’re doing cold and recreate their vision pretty exactly. The sets and costumes are absolutely gorgeous (by Anna Louizos and Carrie Robbins), and the orchestra, led by Matt Perri, has the lush 1940s sound needed for all that Irving Berlin music.

"Beautiful" should Not Be Missed!

 

Jason Kappus and Sarah Rose Davis in Beautiful (Auston James)

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Village Theatre (www.villagetheatre.org)
Issaquah: Through December 23, 2023
Everett: January 6 to January 28, 2024
 
I will absolutely rave about the perfection of Sarah Rose Davis as Carole King and the rest of the cast, in a minute. I promise! But OMG the SET! The set and the lights and projections!!! I’m so in love with Grace Laubacher, set designer, Robert J. Aguilar, lighting designer, and Ahren Buhmann, projection designer, right now.
 
You see, I have a “thing” about sets and set changes – so often there’s too much set, sometimes for no reason, and usually set changes just take time and are noticeable, and often also changed for no reason. This set was a thing of beauty because it changes in a Split Second!
 
That’s important because there are So. Many. Set. Changes. And it’s beautiful or useful. Also, the lighting here comes from the back to light up parts of the set, and the projection changes locations and I don’t know how they do that thing where when the set is moving you can see behind it, but when it stops, it’s a new location that is not see-through! Magic!
 
While I’m talking tech, the costumes by Melanie Taylor Burgess were absolutely spot on and there were Tons of them! Very 1960s and you could see the years change by the costumes in the scenes. There isn’t a credit for wigs, but there were Tons of those, too, also absolutely telling the story through their wearings. I’ll presume that Melanie coordinated/made those, too, and they hit every note.
 
OK. So.
 
Beautiful tells the story of the very early years of Carole King’s life, starting when she is 16 and already devoted to getting into the song-writing business. Douglas McGrath’s book (words spoken not sung) is funny and encompasses all the changes in Carole’s life with swift scenes that move the story along in a very satisfying way. All of the songs that are sung in the musical are either by Carole and her husband Gerry Goffin, or their friends and competitors in song-writing, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. You are likely to know many of them, since they wrote so many classics.
 
The show opens with Carole, played by the sublime Sarah Rose Davis, at a pinnacle of her success when she plays a concert at Carnegie Hall. She has achieved a massive success with her now classic perfect album, Tapestry.