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.

"Julia" at On the Boards - TRY to fit it in - Beautiful, hard to describe

Julia
adapted from Miss Julie by August Strindberg, and directed, by Christiane Jatahy
performed by Julia Bernat and Rodrigo dos Santos

(In Portuguese and subtitles)

Tonight 2/13 at 8pm, tomorrow 2/14 at 5pm
http://www.ontheboards.org/performances/julia

This film/stage, screen/live offering is a powerful experience as Jatahy dances on the edges of film versus live, stage versus screen, private versus public, and many other aspects. She has been working on this piece since 2011 with the same actors. This allows tremendous risk and vulnerability from these seasoned performers, and they are asked to take full advantage of that (with a live sex scene, more viceral than most but on-screen!) and a physical intimacy that is almost too much to bear.

You will be glad you saw this. I project that you will remember this piece for a long, long time.

"Success" with a bullet!

A great example of the vivid color combos in How to Succeed (Tracy Martin)

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

The 5^th Avenue Theatre

Through February 21, 2016

This 5^th Avenue production is a Skittles (or older candy: Chiclets) colored musical that tastes as sweet, tart, and happy as it looks! How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a popular musical for high schools and summer camps because it’s so G-rated. Here, the retro feel is on full display, and every moment of fun is amped to a 10!

The story is of a young man reading a book on succeeding in business (fun fact: former Seattle mayor – and musical theater lover – Norm Rice is the narrator of the book sections), and he follows the book to the letter. The book is amazingly prescient and covers every possible situation on your rise to the top. But also, Pierrepont Finch (who adds a J. to the beginning to sound posh-er) is a whiz at thinking on his feet.

Meaty two-hander, "Annapurna," next up for Theatre22

John Q. Smith and Teri Lazzara (Ahren Buhmann)

Annapurna

Theatre9/12 (at 12th Avenue Arts)

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2405204 or call 800-838-3006

2/19/16-3/12/16

The next offering by Theatre22, Annapurna by Sharr White, seems like an actor’s paradise. It’s a two-hander, as they say, two actors who get to throw themselves into meaty, emotional material. It’s about a long-extinct marriage where the ex-wife comes back to nurse her dying ex-husband and rehash their relationship.

Most won’t get the title reference. Annapurna is a mountain in the Himalayas; the play is set in mountains of Colorado; so the mountains are the struggles of the relationship. Very poetic. White wrote the play in 2013-14, and it was done Off-Broadway in 2014. So, it’s very new. White has other plays that have been well received, and you might think of him as “up and coming.”

I spoke to director Julie Beckman about this play. Beckman is an award-winning director (she won the Gypsy Rose Lee Award in 2014 for directing A Small Fire at Sound Theatre Company and was nominated for directing Water By the Spoonful for Theatre22 in 2015). Here’s a taste of how she goes about directing a play.

"Buzzer" doesn't quite work

Andrew Lee Creech and Spencer Hamp in Buzzer (Michelle Bates)

Buzzer

AJ Epstein Productions at ACT Theatre

Through February 21, 2016

A lot could be said about gentrification. There are all kinds of sides to look at: the people who live in a blighted area because they must (no income options, red-lining, etc.); the people who move there early to take advantage of lower costs in anticipation of the boom; the people who move there after most or all the dangerous elements have been displaced. Plays have examined this, somewhat, like Clybourn Park.

Since so often gentrification has happened to areas that start with poor black residents and become majority white, there are powerful stories to be told in play format. Tracey Scott Wilson has written one that defies easy categorization as commentary on gentrification, Buzzer, now onstage at ACT Theatre, co-produced with AJ Epstein Productions. She includes an uncommon trio, and in this production, the trio on stage feel uneasily linked. So, should the play be seen as commentary on gentrification?