Yep, "Are You There God? It's Me Karen Carpenter" is just about as fun as it sounds!

Abbey Roads (and EmilyRose Frasca and Shermona Mitchelll) in Are You There God? It's Me Karen Carpenter (Leanna Karg and Bob Snell)

Are You There God? It’s Me, Karen Carpenter

STAGEright (at Richard Hugo House)

Through June 27, 2015

The mash-up of the Judy Blume book, Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret, and Carpenter songs is an irresistible draw! And ticket sales show that and are going fast! Just the title lets you know you’re likely to have a lot of laughs.

Certainly, Are You There God? It's Me Karen Carpenter could also be a train wreck, but thankfully it’s not. It really is just about as much fun as it sounds like it should be. The kick ass cast, headed by talented EmilyRose Frasca as Margaret, she of many musical performances on stages around town, sings Carpenter songs and dresses in silly costumes and sillier wigs, and performs a story in front of a screen where Barbie dolls mimic all the action in front of you.

Triumphant staging of “Slaughterhouse-Five” will return “So it goes” to your vocabulary!

Poster for Slaughterhouse-Five at Book-It Repertory Theatre

Slaughterhouse-Five

Book-It Repertory Theatre

Through July 3, 2015

Kurt Vonnegut’s anti-war opus, Slaughterhouse-Five, is a wildly inventive, irreverent (mostly) and fantastical story of a hapless fellow named Billy Pilgrim. The last name hints at the character’s search for a fulfilling life, like the Pilgrims coming to America.

It’s a complicated and far-flung text that has been taken on by Book-It Repertory Theatre in a massive and fully-realized adaptation. The intrepid adaptor (and director), Josh Aaseng, took on this project and decided on a practical, yet ingenious, way to portray the character. He broke the character into a young man, a middle aged man, and an older man.

The key to the success of that decision is: Billy Pilgrim is unstuck from time. In fact, he is essentially in several different “times” at once. How can you portray that on stage without having an actor dash chaotically from one scene to another (not to mention change costuming dozens of times)? Make him into three parts.

The odd story of Centerstage and Federal Way - what would You do?

From For All That at Centerstage (Michelle Smith-Lewis)

Suddenly, at the end of May, people began hearing a plea to save Centerstage Theatre in Federal Way because their renegotiation to manage their Federal Way-owned facility had abruptly been halted by the City-side. The message was to let the City of Federal Way know how important Centerstage was to the community and to encourage the City to start negotiations again, OR Centerstage, if unsuccessful, would have to immediately close.

Many hundreds of people, including me, and numerous Seattle folks, used a simple email link to tell the City of Federal Way just that. Centerstage is a unique company in a very un-arts-filled area of the county with a high level of sophisticated theatrical endeavors.

But many sophisticated theater companies in the Seattle area survive un-homed and tweak their budgets accordingly. So, was there more to the story? 

"Never the Sinner" - a tepid history play in a hot theater (bring a fan)

The cast of Never the Sinner (Shannon Miller)

Never the Sinner

LungFish Productions

At TPS4

Through June 20, 2015

The trial of Leopold and Loeb, in Chicago in 1924, was referred to as the Trial of the Century, at that time. The famed lawyer, Clarence Darrow was their defense attorney. So, Chicago was breathless at that time to hear every tiny detail from the trial. It had scandal, murder, and rich people!

Nathan Leopold, Jr. (with an anomalous name – Jews were expressly forbidden the habit of naming “juniors”), age 19, and Richard Loeb, age 18, were wealthy young men. Loeb was the charismatic, mercurial one, who was bored with life and obsessed with crime – one might say he would have been diagnosed in later years as a sociopath.

Leopold was the constrained and clearly homosexual of the two, an obsessively intelligent young man with a voracious appetite for detail. He knew at least some of 15 languages and was already, at his young age, a noted ornithologist!

"4 Dogs and a Bone": Movie Industry docu-drama fun to laugh at

Cast of Four Dogs and a Bone (Dave Hastings)

Four Dogs and a Bone

Theater Schmeater

Through June 27, 2015

Fame and money in the movies are the bones fought over in John Patrick Shanley’s play, Four Dogs and a Bone. Theater Schmeater is presenting a solidly acted and funny production of this scathing, behind-the-scenes slugfest.

It’s not Shanley’s finest play, and he is said to have written it “in a white hot fury in six days,” which doesn’t bode that well for great writing. But he is a master of fun dialogue and character development. This play is for watching four people with competing interests tear each other up to see who is standing less scathed at the end!

On a bare, flexible set (thankfully, most scene changes are short) by Kasia Rozanska, the play introduces producer Bradley (Paul Custodio), first-time movie actress Brenda (Brenda Joyner), 6-time movie actress Collette (Elinor Gunn) and first-time screenplay writer Victor (Ray Tagavilla). Bradley doesn’t know anything about movies or art, but says he knows money. Brenda doesn’t know anything about acting (!) but knows how to act like she’s acting. Collette knows enough to be wary of Brenda, and they both know enough to try to get each other’s role reduced screen time. Victor doesn’t know about screenplay development, but he knows to watch out for scheming, sex-using actresses.

What's opening in June?

Robert Bergin, Erik Gratton and Todd Jefferson Moore in Slaughterhouse-Five at Book-It Repertory Theatre
(John Ulman)

As we begin June, theatrical offerings that open this month have little in common. That’s great, since no two experiences will be alike! A couple of events are shorts fests, which proliferate as the weather gets warmer, making our attention spans that much shorter. Remember, if you don’t like one short, wait a few minutes and there will be another!

Sandbox One-Act Play Festival or SOAPfest, June 3-7, 2015, at West of Lenin.

Three interesting plays by three veteran local theater artists: Las Cruces, by Vincent Delaney, transports us to the New Mexico desert, not far from casinos and the spaceport, where Sheridan is camped out, hiding in a gutted trailer. Chosen Less, by Phillip Lienau, reveals a chance meeting on the street where two men learn the hard way that leaving is not the same as escaping. Why Do We Keep Broken Things, by Carl Sander, where five inhabitants of Seattle collide in a kinetic collage of civics, sex, and estranged friendship amidst Occupy Seattle.

http://soapfest.org

"Cabaret": Solid production (not much sex appeal)

Brian Earp and Billie Wildrick in Cabaret (Mark Kitaoka)

Cabaret

Village Theatre

Issaquah: Through  July 3, 2015

Everett: July 10-August 2, 2015

Village Theatre is mounting a classic musical, Cabaret, by Joe Masteroff, and music writing team of Kander and Ebb. You probably know a good many of the songs, though perhaps not the context, unless you’ve seen the movie from 1972 starring Liza Minelli. Songs include: Willkommen, Don’t Tell Mama, and Cabaret.

The story focuses on a pre-war Berlin, where the Nazi Party is beginning to gain power, yet clubs with gay performers and employees were still flourishing openly, and Jews were being harassed, yet their businesses not completely destroyed. Cliff Bradshaw (Brian Earp), an American writer, visits Berlin and gets drawn in to one such club, the Kit Kat, where he meets British performer Sally Bowles (Billie Wildrick).

Exquisite theatrical (and almost secret) performance by Akropolis Performance Lab

Joseph Lavy as Dr. Glas in The Glas Nocturne (credit Joe Patrick Kane)

The Glas Nocturne
Akropolis Performance Lab
through May 31, 2015 or quite possibly beyond

I can't tell you where the performance is. I can tell you how to arrange to see it, though.

And you really should do everything you can to see Akropolis Performance Lab's production of The Glas Nocturne. If you appreciate a true theatrical experience, that is.

They are allowing up to 10 (TEN) people per performance. That's tiny. It's in a tiny performance space, and they even will provide a bit of food to help you feel comfortable. The show times are a bit random, as well, and the performance runs about 90 minutes, but you might want to stay after and chat with them for a bit.

Joseph Lavy performs essentially a solo show with a "Greek chorus" (that actually sings), along with Zhenya Lavy as piano player of several nocturnes that accompany moments of the play.

Sally "Talley's Folly" is our delight

Rebecca Olson and Mike Dooly in Tally's Folly (Paul Bestock)

Tally’s Folly

Seattle PublicTheater

Through May 31

Is Lanford Wilson’s 1980 play, Talley’s Folly still relevant? The answer, as demonstrated by Seattle Public Theater’s current production, is a resounding “Yes!”

While this is a love story and they hardly become irrelevant, the tension here is that a New York Jew is wooing a southern belle with a rampantly anti-North, anti-Semitic and anti-liberal family. These days, politics is certainly enough to break up couples and families!

Even as Wilson has his main character, Matt Friedman (Mike Dooly) start the entire production by breaking the fourth wall and talking directly to the audience (“Once upon a time…”), the play maintains a realistic enough content that you forget that he was once audience-aware. And Dooly, as the force-of-nature Friedman, tirelessly pursues his object of affection.