"Kav and Clay" is a special event! It's a five-hour event and that shouldn't stop you for a minute!

Frank Boyd, Opal Peachey, David Goldstein in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (photo by John Ulman)

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Book-It Repertory Theatre

Through July 13, 2014

Adapted by Jeff Schwager

Directed by Myra Platt

Starring Frank Boyd, David Goldstein, Opal Peachey

One of the most amazing aspects of the history of comic books is who the major creators of this quintessential “American” art form turn out to be: New York-based Jews! Similar to the confounding aspect of American musical theater, replete with Jews and gays or Jewish gays, comic books were mainly conceived of and developed by Jewish men. Did they inject something into the water there?

Michael Chabon wrote The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,  a sprawling history of two fictional cousins, Joe Kavalier, a Polish escapee from Nazi occupation in 1939, who comes to stay with Sammy Clay (nee Clayman), a comic book lover who aspires to emulate Superman’s creators success. It turns out Joe can really draw, and Sammy can really create great stories, in a match made in buddy-story-heaven.

Turning his far-ranging book into a Book-It style production was gutsy and overwhelming. Deciding to give it a four hour run time was almost inexplicable. Would audiences accept an epic evening of theater that includes two intermissions and a meal break? The answer is, “YES!” Virtually all the reviews and word of mouth, so far, have been positive and encouraging.

Successful debut for Seattle Mainstreet Festival of New Musicals

Some of the cast of Pride and Prejudice in performance (courtesy Seattle/Mainstreet Musicals)

The week of June 18-23, a very new event pushed its new green shoots from the fertile ground of Seattle’s musical theater community and with the indomitable Billie Wildrick at the helm, Seattle’s “chapter” of the Mainstreet Festival of New Musicals became a reality.  

The idea of Mainstreet Musicals, as stated on their reflections page, is to allow draft musicals to be performed in readings all over the country to get exposure and get a chance to move forward to becoming fully produced. Launched in 2010, they evaluate musicals as submitted to them for eventual inclusion in these nationwide festivals. They choose three musicals to be produced as concert readings (the performers use scripts and music stands with a pianist and your imagination).

Thirteen localities chose to produce this year’s festival, one being Seattle. Seattle chose to do the three musicals provided, Under Fire, Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice and Merton of the Movies. In addition, they spiced up the events by adding a late nite cabaret and another local draft musical focused event, Pitch Sessions.

Hurry, before "Passing Strange" passes away

Andrew Creech as Youth (photo Martin Christoffel)

Passing Strange

Starring LeRoy Bell, Andrew Creech

Sidecountry Theatre  

(at ACT Central Heating Lab)

Through 6/29/14

You still have this weekend to catch the entertaining and groovy musical, Passing Strange. Written as an autobiography and originally starring Stew, the Seattle version of a black man’s journey to manhood stars local celebrity and amiable rocker, LeRoy Bell.

Though it’s a story about rock and roll, most of the musical composition don’t get that loud (no earplugs needed). Bell tells the story through narration about his youth (Youth is played by Andrew Creech) in a boring lower middle class Los Angeles neighborhood straining to be someone unique. Through minimal staging, dance, and storytelling techniques, a quartet of talented actors (DeSean Halley, Yesenia Iglesias, J Reese, Shontina Vernon) morph from teenage church friends to European footloose, drug-inspired young adults, as Youth tries to find himself and “the real.”

Raucous “The Hunchback of Seville” fits the WET audience taste to a “V”

Maria Knox and Samie Detzer (photo by Cassandra Bell)

The Hunchback of Seville

Washington Ensemble Theatre

By Charise Castro Smith

Directed by Jen Wineman

Starring Samie Detzer, Libby Barnard, Rose Cano, Maria Knox

Through June 30, 2014

Washington Ensemble Theatre doesn’t do plays most other companies would do very often. Their tastes run to bizarre, outlandish, boundary-stretching, unconventional, fantastical, and other such adjectives that denote unusual theater choices. Their world-premiere presentation of The Hunchback of Seville by Charise Castro Smith fits them very well (the “V” in the header).

Castro Smith and director Jen Wineman brought their baby to WET via the outreach that former Ensemble member and Yale graduate Michael Place enabled. They brought their project as a team and agreed that they would both come and be resident during a development process that resulted in Castro Smith being present for a month of rehearsals. Devin Bannon, an Ensemble member, says that is “unprecedented” in their history of developing scripts.

Gorgeous, Gorgeous, Gorgeous voices in “Porgy and Bess” and some diction problems

Alicia Hall Moran and Kingsley Leggs in Porgy and Bess (photo by Michael J. Lutch)

The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess

Starring Alicia Hall Moran, Nathaniel Stampley, Alvin Crawford, Kingsley Leggs

The 5^th Avenue Theatre

Through June 29

The touring production of Porgy and Bess is at The 5^th Avenue Theatre now and if you have never, like me, seen it before, you owe yourself a trip to see this production. The singers are, without fail, completely gorgeous to listen to. Every song and every singer.

The only thing I’d suggest is to prepare by looking online for song lyrics because whether it is the singers’ diction (not that likely), the bounce in the 5^th Avenue, a sound mixing issue, an over-loud orchestra – which also sounds great, but needn’t be quite that loud, it will be hard to understand some of the songs and some of the singers. However, there is no issue with understanding what the story is. That comes in loud and clear, too.

CTP addresses two current theater discussions: Original voices and Women with “Starling”

Cast of "Starling" (photo Danielle Barnum)

Next up for Confrontational TheaterProject: Starling by Julia Nardin and Samm Murphy. This relatively new company started out with two guys who wanted to put on a particular play. Beau Prichard and Baron Von Oldenburg did Proof in 2012. Beau says, “It sold out and worked the way we wanted and Baron suggested we just keep going. He gave the company the money to continue. I made a short list of projects I wanted to do, (but first) found three local playwrights who had one acts they wanted to have done and called it Lifelines and produced that in 2012, as well.”

Asked where the name of the company came from, Beau says, “(We think) the productions should tackle something important and give the audience something to digest. They should be talking about it on the way home and even have it come up several days later as they continue to think about what it brought up for them.

“We wanted a strong word and the dictionary definition (says ‘confrontation’) can be a debate or discussion. It doesn’t have to be a fight, which is what the word often means to people: conflict, direct antagonism. That’s not what we mean. We mean open discourse about a difficult topic. You know people will have different ideas, but there can be a way to talk about all of them.