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.

October Cornucopia on Seattle Area Stages

 

Jenny Hall stars in What The Constitution Means To Me at Harlequin Productions

This month on Seattle area stages, there are some spooks for the holiday, and a rather large amount of brand-new works! For those who mourn Book-It Repertory Theatre, Jane Jones and Kevin McKeon are mounting a new Book-It style play on Vashon! The offerings are so varied that there must be something for everyone! Get out yer calendars!
 
Wild Man Of The Wynoochee, Key City Public Theatre, 10/3-27/24 (world premiere)
In the wilds of the Pacific Northwest, a nature-loving hermit accused of the murder of his nephew fights for his way of life and the safety of his loved ones after finding himself the target of the largest manhunt of its time. Musical written by Jessica Welsh and Linda Dowdell. (Inspired by true events)
www.keycitypublictheatre.org
 
Tartuffe, Born Again, Phoenix Theatre, 10/4-27/24
This modern adaptation of Moliere’s classic play casts Tartuffe as a deposed televangelist who bilks Orgon and his family of their money and property and nearly compromises Orgon's wife. In a religious television studio in Baton Rouge, a southern family in the 1980s begin to recognize a taker in their midst in the form of televangelist, Tartuffe. Mayhem ensues as they recognize the danger, rise up, and remove the culprit.
www.tptedmonds.org

Get Tappy at SecondStory Repertory!

 

A sparkly cast photo by Colin Madison

Come On, Get Tappy!
SecondStory Repertory
With Outrage Onstage
Through September 15, 2024
 
SecondStory Repertory is well worth hiking out to Redmond to see their productions. They create pretty sophisticated productions and have a great track record especially for musicals. Their latest musical is a world premiere, co-produced by Outrage Onstage, and the title, Come On, Get Tappy! gives you a pretty good idea of what it might feel like to attend.
 
I anticipated some kind of take-off of the famous song sung by Judy Garland, Come On, Get Happy. And tap dancing, and probably something fairly silly, and at least a little laughter.
 
It’s all that and a bit more. We’re introduced to the Tappy McCrackin Variety Show, starring 10-year-old Tappy, who is an adorable creature when the camera is rolling and a royal brat when it’s not. It feels “old timey” and the music is also kind of classic ‘50s feeling much of the time.
 
However, Tappy is almost turning 11, and there is some kind of rule that each Tappy only stars on the show for one year. Even though that’s a well-known established fact, these little girls who star for one year have real trouble transitioning from recognizable star back to “real life” at the end of their year.
 
The technical aspects of the show are (as usual) really well done. It’s a tiny theater seating about 75? or so audience members. It’s very intimate, yet they are creative in managing lots of characters on stage and making their sets and effects look clean and “expensive.”