Charming "Becky" shows off a great Dietz script

Veronica Tuttell and Jake Friang in Becky's New Car (Ted Jaquith)

Becky's New Car
Phoenix Theatre
Through May 1, 2016

Becky's New Car is a terrific script by Steven Dietz, a prolific playwright who spend half of each year here, so we can call him "local!" Part of its joy is that it showcases the life of a middle-aged woman. How many scripts can you think of, off hand, that have the main character be a woman, much less middle aged!? You can enjoy the play at Phoenix Theatre in Edmonds, a little theater that knows its comedy.

Becky doesn't have a terrible life, it's fairly ordinary. She's got a demanding but fairly ordinary job in a car dealership. She's got a loving, fairly ordinary husband who, less-ordinarily, pays attention to little things she likes and listens to her. She has a young adult son who lives at home, still, and so poses a fairly ordinary problem.

She also doesn't think of herself as a person who would do unusual things, like fall into an affair. Yet, here she is, meeting a rich widower, letting the rich widower mistake her for a widow, and somehow she's sitting in a car, driving to a party, wondering how she got here.

Café Nordo: To Savor Tomorrow – A gastrosongical delight!

The cast of To Savor Tomorrow (Bruce Clayton Tom)

Café Nordo: To Savor Tomorrow

Through June 5, 2016

Challenging noshes, creative cocktails, some singing and dancing, and a clichéd-to-laugh-at storyline are on available for an affordable price as Café Nordo reprises and revises one of its earlier ventures, To Savor Tomorrow.

It’s 1962. This James Bond knock-off flies you overseas on a transcontinental flight from Asia to Seattle, just in time for the World’s Fair. We meet several spies loading aboard as flight crew. Chinese spies Jiang Ping (Sara Porkalob) and her henchman (Richard Sloniker) are bar crew. Russian spy Svetlana Romanova (Opal Peachey) is a stewardess (no “flight attendants” yet). CIA agent Bob (Mark Siano) is a supposed pilot. They are all trying to get their hands on Professor Peter Proudhurst’s briefcase.

The professor (Evan Mosher) is educating passengers about new technology, genetically alterned grain, that will enable crops to feed thousands of more people as they become resistant to pesticides. Of course, in 2016, we have many opinions about whether that development by Monsanto and others made for better crops or much worse ones. The spies look at the seed technology in the briefcase as either a terror to avoid or a way to destroy America from within!

Episodes of BRASS - nuggets of good stuff amid a bit of chaos

Fatal Footsteps (Dave Hastings)

BRASS: Fatal Footlights

Theater Schmeater

Through April 30, 2016

There is a media conglomerate building, called BRASS. The brainchild of writers John Longenbaugh and Louis Broome, it includes radio and podcast episodes (via KIXI 880AM), stage presentations like the episode Fatal Footlights, now appearing at Theater Schmeater, and film. Their website is www.battlegroundproductions.org.

The stage presentation at The Schmee has some charming elements, including a lot of fun stage jokes. An example, the narrator, George Bernard Shaw (Matthew Middleton), questions what the audience would think of such a bare set without various pieces of furniture and even a door, and then instructs the audience to imagine them.

Let us not forget Tray’s “brownsville song” (Seattle Rep)

brownsville song (b-side for tray) (Chris Bennion)

brownsville song (b-side for tray)

Seattle Repertory Theatre

Through April 24, 2016

The 21^st century internet has made most of us much more aware of the tragedies occurring routinely in poor neighborhoods, riddled with gangs, and poorly policed. While it’s not “fun” to go see a sad story about a murder of a bright young man with a compelling future, Kimber Lee’s play, brownsville song (b-side for tray), layers in a beguiling central character, Tray (played adorably by Chinaza Uche) and a perhaps-cliché’d difficult family life to tell the story.

Lee’s play wants to shed light on the multitudes of young people killed each year in hard-to-police neighborhoods. Her subtitle, referencing the lesser side of records, the “b” side, reflects the desire to bring attention to people that don’t make the news and don’t get attended to. Lee started with a real person, Tray Franklin, who lived and died (in 2012) in Brownsville, a community in New York City. In an article in the program, Claire Koleske says that Franklin’s name wasn’t even included in news articles about his death.

I imagine those saying, “Another young man was gunned down in Brownsville today.” It’s a collective shrug. So, I admire Lee’s impulse to help us meet this aspiring boxer who dreamed of attending college.

Abba and Ryan are fun to watch, maybe in a comedy

Kiki Abba and Brandon Ryan in Belleville (Shane Regan)

Belleville

MAP Theatre

Through April 16, 2016

A loving couple, transplanted to Paris for the husband’s great job working with Doctors Without Borders, can have issues even after a long relationship spanning years. Maybe it’s because they’re in a foreign country, but slightly bigger cracks are developing between Abby (Kiki Abba) and Zack (Brandon Ryan) than they are used to.

The oh-so-very-American and “regular” couple at the heart of the beguiling Belleville, now staging by MAP Theatre, feels very accessible. The couple are cute and loving; their hassles seem on the edges of their relationship and not too threatening; maybe a good conversation will fix stuff.

We’re All Going to “The Other Place”

Amy Thone, Ray Gonzales and Jocelyn Maher in The Other Place (John Ulman)

The Other Place

Seattle Public Theater

Through April 17, 2016

Have you started forgetting things you used to dependably know? Names? Words? While scientists say that this phenomenon, which often starts in early 40s, is a normal part of aging, we also might start wondering if something more sinister is happening in our brains.

In The Other Place, now staging at Seattle Public Theater, Juliana (Amy Thone), a brain scientist, is pretty convinced that she could have brain cancer – a terrifying idea. What is clear is that the ground is shifting under her feet and her brain is not working the way it should.

Playwright Sharr White seems to like to embed mysteries in his plays. We recently were treated to another of his 90 minute one-acts, Annapurna, by Theatre22, which also had a mystery drive its action forward. In some respects, that play, with a singular mystery, was easier to understand than this play. This play seems to have several mysteries to unravel.

New Plays Bloom in April - Theater Openings

Marissa Ryder in South Pacific at Seattle Musical Theatre (Nataworry Photos)

There are an astonishing amount of world premieres this month (seven), all locally written! Seattle seems to be in love with new plays as the buds bloom. April openings are listed below in date order.

The Hat, Bitter Single Guy Productions and Gay City Arts, 4/1-9/16

World Premiere. The romantic comedy, by local playwright Greg Brisendine, is about a group of gay men as they navigate dating and love in the world of Grindr, open relationships, and the intersection of relationship and friendship.

https://www.strangertickets.com/events/31895016/the-hat

To Savor Tomorrow, Cafe Nordo, 4/7/16-6/5/16

Café Nordo takes flight with To Savor Tomorrow, an immersive comedy that parodies the 007 spy genre, set in the airplane lounge of a swank 1960’s Boeing Stratocruiser with craft-cocktails and retro-modernist cuisine woven into the experience. Food scientist Peter Proudhurst is transporting laboratory secrets. Professor Proudhurst's briefcase contains the revolutionary and potentially devastating secrets of modern convenience food and the controversial "Green Revolution." (Meal included)

http://www.cafenordo.com/now-playing

Real African story loses the beat: My Heart is the Drum

Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako in My Heart is the Drum (Mark Kitaoka)

My Heart is the Drum

Village Theatre

Issaquah: Through April 24, 2016

Everett: April 29-May 27, 2016

There are many aspects of the production My Heart is the Drum at Village Theatre to really like. The technical elements are gorgeous. The set (Carey Wongas) and costumes (Karen Ann Ledger) are vibrant and beautiful. The music feels authentically and pulsatingly Ghanaian. The cast is winning, with Gypsy Rose Lee award-winner Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako in the lead.

Sonia Dawkins’ choreography is quite wonderful. And there is a tiny dancer, Lydia Delane Olson, who is a revelation at such a young age.

It is a world premiere, which means that it has never had a full production before – only workshops from which point the writers, composer Phillip Palmer, lyricist Stacey Luftig and librettist Jennie Redling, would continue to make changes. The creatives are all clearly earnest and well-researched in their efforts. One can almost tell, via the staging, just how much they want to tell a good story.

Smokin’ performance of "Mrs. Warren's Profession" at Seattle Shakes

Emily Chisholm and Bobbi Kotula in Mrs. Warren's Profession (John Ulman)

Mrs. Warren’s Profession

Seattle Shakespeare Company

Through April 10, 2016

Take a bracing drag of cigar smoke and listen up: The GB Shaw production of Mrs. Warren’s Profession at Seattle Shakespeare Company is a cogent, smoking hot production!

The taut six-person cast, ably helmed by Victor Pappas, vigorously presents the story of a young woman, brought up with every advantage, finding out that her mother is actually a successful brothel owner. Raised by nannies and sent to boarding schools, Vivie Warren (briskly and independently played by Emily Chisholm) doesn’t really know her mother well, and is tired of the secrecy of her mother’s background.

Now that Vivie is grown and finished with university, she intends to make a new life for herself in actuarial work. Vivie eschews romance and art and leisure and loves to work. She thinks that will conflict with her mother’s ideals for her, and in some ways she is correct. But Kitty Warren (empathetically played by force-of-nature Bobbi Kotula) is more complex than that, finally revealing most of her background to her daughter.

Seattle Rep presents Rebecca Gilman's “Luna Gale”

Anne Allgood and Pamela Reed in Luna Gale (Alan Alabastro)

Luna Gale

Seattle Repertory Theatre

Through March 27, 2016

Playwright Rebecca Gilman is an “issues-oriented” writer. She takes on hot-button, current, modern issues and writes plays about them. Her ability to have her characters speak in real-people dialogue is terrific and admirable. That is all on display with Seattle Rep’s mounting of Luna Gale, a Gilman play about the foster-care system with all sides of the dilemma on stage.

There is much to appreciate in the staging. Pamela Reed, as Caroline – the long-time social worker who has seen so much that her instincts kick in when evidence doesn’t, is terrific in the role. Practical, worn down, but also hiding a heart of gold, Reed’s character is able to fill in all kinds of information about how the system works or doesn’t in state programs that have seen all kinds of budget cutting over the last decade.

"Parade" - March for truth and justice!

The cast of Parade (Ken Holmes)

Parade

Sound Theatre Company

(at 12^th Ave Arts)

Through March 26, 2016

Parade is such a cheery name for a musical! However, it is the wry, unsettling, ironic title of a true-life musical story of Southern small-town bigotry and a still-unsolved murder mystery! Written by Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry, this 1998 Tony winner is being presented by Sound Theatre Company and is the first musical mounted at 12^th Avenue Arts.

First, the history: In 1913, Leo Frank (Jeff Orton), a New York Jew who moved and married in Marietta, Georgia, is a town outsider. When 13 year-old Mary Phagan (Delaney Guyer ) is found murdered in the basement of the pencil factory Leo runs, the night watchman is questioned, and Leo. With virtually no evidence and a town full of people willing to lie to convict someone, town prosecutor Hugh Dorsey (Brian Lange) gets a death sentence for Leo’s supposed crime.

After Georgia’s governor, John Slaton (Jordan Jackson) looks into the case and commutes Leo’s sentence from death to life imprisonment and transfers Leo to another prison, a mob breaks in and hangs Leo back in Marietta.

Charming “Brooklyn Bridge” offers community to a lonely girl

Rudy Roushdi and Analiese Emerson Guettinger in Brooklyn Bridge (Chris Bennion)

Brooklyn Bridge

Seattle Children’s Theatre

Through March 20, 2016

An enchanting play is onstage now at Seattle Children’s Theatre, suitable for ages 6 or 7 and up. Brooklyn Bridge, by Melissa James Gibson, focuses on a bright and articulate 5^th grader, Sasha (charmingly played by Analiese Emerson Guettinger) who has a very important research paper due and has struggled to get it onto paper.

The script is full of sparkling dialogue and is meant to address aspects of a lonely latchkey child and the isolation that can create. Sasha is portrayed as a very resourceful child, but in this instance, she must disobey her mother, in order to get the very important paper done by tomorrow. She doesn’t have a pen, at home, and is compelled to leave her apartment, contravening her mother’s instructions, to visit neighbors she doesn’t know to find one.

Have fun working: "9 to 5" at SMT!

Natalie Moe as Roz in 9 to 5 (Jeff Carpenter)

9 to 5

Seattle Musical Theatre

Through March 13, 2016

9 to 5, the musical based on the hugely popular 1980 movie starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, is now performing at Seattle Musical Theatre. Their production is fun, peppy and with a solid tongue-in-cheek atmosphere. There are also several stand-out talents among a solid cast.

The musical had a fairly short run on Broadway in 2009 and came to Seattle on tour in 2010 (with our homegrown talent Ryah Nixon understudying the Doralee role). The songs, including the hit wonder 9 to 5, all written by Dolly Parton, are fun but not significantly successful. The entire effort seems tailor made for regional and high school productions, with a strong feminist message. Young women, in particular, might feel encouraged and supported to reflect on how far we have come from the setting of the movie, a sort of 1970s-ish male-dominated business culture.

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?

"Silent Sky" twinkles brightly!

Hana Lass and Candace Vance in Silent Sky (John Ulman)

Silent Sky

Taproot Theatre

Through February 27, 2016

Talented and prolific playwright, Lauren Gunderson, loves science and scientists. She also loves to reveal the accomplishments of real women whom most of us have never heard about. Gunderson has been produced before in Seattle. Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight, and Exit, Pursued By a Bear, and The Taming were all produced at ArtsWest. Now, her play, Silent Sky, is at Taproot Theatre with a terrific cast.

Gunderson’s fascination with scientific women is a boon to us all. She not only informs us that they exist, she brings them to life, with hopes, fears, lust, ambition, brilliance, and the willingness to break the societal bonds that tried to keep them from their accomplishments. So, we meet Henrietta Leavitt.

Leavitt was an astronomer who fought all her life to achieve what she did, and volunteered for years at Harvard College Observatory just to be close to their telescope and to work in her field. She lived a fairly short life, dying at 53, as many did at the time, from cancer. But by that point, she had discovered so much about stars that her discoveries allowed other scientists, including Edward Hubble, to determine that the Milky Way was one of billions of galaxies, rather than the only one.

A marvelous cast in Schmeater’s "In Arabia"

Jacquelyn Miedema and Ayo Tushinde in In Arabia We'd All Be Kings (D Hastings)

In Arabia We’d All Be Kings

Theater Schmeater

Through February 13, 2016

Theater Schmeater is performing an early Stephen Adly Guirgis play, In Arabia We’d All Be Kings. Guirgis is now an exciting and accomplished playwright and we have two ongoing productions in Seattle to choose from (The Motherfucker with the Hat is at Washington Ensemble Theatre).

This play is more “episodic” and jerky, with scenes that tell a story when strung together, but with a lot of holes and plotlines left out. Still it has compelling characters, some really funny moments, even within a rather gritty, down-and-out subject area. Several characters swirl around a run-down bar (circa 1990s) that is gentrifying and displacing its old clientele for more profit and an upscale crowd. Guirgis seems to want to ask, “What happens to those people who used to populate the lower-class bar?”

Director Julia Griffin has collected a group of talented actor to create this gritty atmosphere and even tiny roles are a joy to watch. Drew Hobson is probably what might be called the lead, Lenny, a big, threatening, recently-paroled low-life who wants life to be the same as he left it six years earlier. That includes his girlfriend, Daisy (Elena Flory-Barnes), who doesn’t want to tell him she’s more with bar owner Jake (Brandon Felker) than with Lenny. Hobson gives the best performance I’ve seen from him, and embodies the character fully.

February Theater Openings!

Ecce Faustus cast members (Annie Paladino)

This month brings company-devised works on classics, a couple of world premieres, farce and other comic material. There should be something sweet to see for just about everyone.

Buzzer, ACT Theatre co-production with AJ Epstein Presents, 2/2-21/16

Jackson went to all the right schools, has the perfect job, an amazing girlfriend, and they've just moved into a high-end, newly remodeled apartment building in his old neighborhood. Except Jackson's old hood is being completely overhauled into a place that's barely recognizable and going home again has its drawbacks.

http://www.acttheatre.org/Tickets/OnStage/Buzzer#Tickets

Do It for Umma, Annex Theatre, 2/2-17/16 (Tue/Wed)

A surreal comic detective story. The ghost of Hannah's recently deceased mother returns to haunt the Korean convenience store she once ran with an iron fist, shaming, cajoling, and needling her daughter into avenging her extremely suspicious death. New play by (local) Seayoung Yim.

http://www.annextheatre.org/2016-season/off-night/do-it-for-umma/

Good actors in pleasant Village show

Brenda Joyner, Sydney Andrews and Rhonda J. Soikowski in Crimes of the Heart (Mark Kitaoka)

Crimes of the Heart

Village Theatre

Issaquah: Through February 28, 2016

Everett: March 4-27, 2016

It’s easy to see why women actors love playing the characters in Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart. Strong actors are cast in the Village Theatre production, now on stage in Issaquah. The women get to have all kinds of emotion and demonstrate their familial bonds and struggles. Subject matter is a full plate of difficult situations, and most actors love to really dig in and chow down on a role.

The play is a slice of life in 1974 Mississippi, but it’s not “normal” life, by any means. Three sisters are in turmoil. Lennie (Rhonda J. Soikowski) has called Meg (Brenda Joyner) back from her failing music career in Los Angeles to tell her that their youngest sister, Babe (Sydney Andrews), has shot – but not killed – her lawyer husband, and has been arrested! Babe won’t say why she did it, except to say that she didn’t care for his looks.

Find out who "The Motherfucker with the Hat" is at Washington Ensemble Theatre

Erwin Galan and Anna Lamadrid in The Motherfucker with the Hat (photo Chris Bennion)

The Motherfucker with a Hat

Washington Ensemble Theatre

Through February 1, 2016

Maybe you shouldn’t trust an addict… When, in recovery, do you think you could start trying to trust an addict? Do we ever really know what someone is thinking or feeling? These questions, and a focus on humans relating in general, are the kind raised by Stephen Adly Guirgis’ play, The Motherfucker with the Hat. It’s being produced by Washington Ensemble Theatre at 12^th Avenue Arts. While the language is blunt and crass, with lots of “fucks,” the fundamentals of love and trust and relationship are really at stake.

Jackie (Erwin Galan) is a recovering addict with a girlfriend who waited for him while he was in the joint, Veronica (Anna Lamadrid), a jerky, narcissistic sponsor, Ralph (Ali Mohamed al-Gasseir), and a cousin who used to adore him, Julio (Moises Castro). He’s proud of himself, having gotten out of jail and found a job. He wants to celebrate with Veronica, until he sees a man’s hat on the table, and instantly decides she’s been cheating on him. Just who is the motherfucker with the hat?

Drum Roll, Please! The 2015 Gypsy Rose Lee Award Winners Are...

Sam Hagen and Emily Chisholm, Gypsy Winners 
for The Flick by New Century Theatre Company (photo John Ulman)

Broadway-bound new musical, Come From Away, presented by Seattle Repertory Theatre, wins four Gypsys, tying with another new musical, Lizard Boy, also produced by Seattle Repertory Theatre and also with four Gypsys, a company that has been known for years as a powerhouse dramatic non-musical play playhouse!

Every single actor in the trio of Lizard Boy won in his/her category! Writer/composer/performer (and big Gypsy winner, this year, for Composing and Lead Actor - Male) Justin Huertas, with the rest of the team, is back at work refining Lizard Boy for future efforts, which many guess could easily mean an Off-Broadway mounting.

Jeffrey Herrmann, Managing Director of Seattle Repertory Theatre, said that Seattle should definitely expect more musicals from the Rep in the future. He suggested they will be a "Seattle Rep" type of musical, though exactly what niche the musicals will fill isn't yet clear.

Other standouts on the Larger Theaters side were The Flick at New Century Theatre Company and Slaughterhouse-Five at Book-It Repertory Theatre (5 and 3 awards respectively), and in Smaller Theaters, Water By the Spoonful by Theatre22 and The Art of Bad Men by MAP Theatre (3 and 2 awards respectively)!

The 2015 Gypsy Rose Lee Award Winners are:

Excellence in Production of a Play

(Larger Theaters):

The Flick - New Century Theatre Company

(Smaller Theaters):

Water By The Spoonful - Theatre22

Excellence in Production of a Musical

Come From Away - Seattle Repertory Theatre

Excellence in Direction of a Play

(Larger Theaters):

Josh Aaseng - Slaughterhouse-Five (Book-It Repertory Theatre)

(Smaller Theaters):

Kelly Kitchens - The Art of Bad Men (MAP Theatre)

Excellence in Direction of a Musical

TIE!!

Eric Ankrim - American Idiot (ArtsWest)

Christopher Ashley - Come From Away (Seattle Repertory Theatre)

Excellence in Performance in a Play as a Lead Actor (Male)

(Larger Theaters):

Robert Bergin/Erik Gratton/Todd Jefferson Moore - Slaughterhouse-Five (Book-It Repertory Theatre)

(Smaller Theaters):

Tyler Trerise - My Mañana Comes (ArtsWest)

Excellence in Performance in a Musical as a Lead Actor (Male)

Justin Huertas - Lizard Boy (Seattle Repertory Theatre)

Excellence in Performance in a Play as a Lead Actor (Female)

(Larger Theaters):

Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako - Little Bee (Book-It Repertory Theatre)

(Smaller Theaters):

Kathy Hsieh - Chinglish (ArtsWest)

Excellence in Performance in a Musical as a Lead Actor (Female)

EmilyRose Frasca - Are You There, God? It's Me, Karen Carpenter (STAGEright Theatre)

Excellence in Performance of a Play as a Supporting Actor (Male) - any non-lead

(Larger Theaters):

Sam Hagen - The Flick (New Century Theatre Company)

(Smaller Theaters):

G. Valmont Thomas - Water By The Spoonful (Theatre22)

Excellence in Performance of a Musical as a Supporting Actor (Male)

William A. Williams - Lizard Boy (Seattle Repertory Theatre)

Excellence in Performance of a Play as a Supporting Actor (Female)

(Larger Theaters):

Emily Chisholm - The Flick (New Century Theatre Company)

(Smaller Theaters):

Rose Cano - Water By The Spoonful (Theatre22)

Excellence in Performance of a Musical as a Supporting Actor (Female) - any non-lead

Kirsten deLohr Helland - Lizard Boy (Seattle Repertory Theatre)

Excellence in Performance as an Ensemble

(Larger Theaters):

Come From Away - Seattle Repertory Theatre (Eric Ankrim, Petrina Bromley, Jenn Colella, Joel Hatch, Rodney Hicks, Kendra Kassebaum, Chad Kimball, Lee MacDougall, Caesar Samayoa, Q Smith, Astrid Van Wieren, Sharon Wheatley)

(Smaller Theaters):

The Art of Bad Men - MAP Theatre (Grace Carmack, Peggy Gannon, Ben McFadden, Ben Burris, Brandon Ryan, Sean Schroeder)

Excellence in Set Design

(Larger Theaters):

Andrea Bryn Bush - The Flick (New Century Theatre Company)

(Smaller Theaters):

Paul Thomas - Dump Site (Seattle Immersive Theatre)

Excellence in Costume Design

(Larger Theaters):

Deb Trout - Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (ACT Theatre)

(Smaller Theaters):

Ali Rose Panzarella - 99 Ways To Fuck A Swan (Washington Ensemble Theatre)

Excellence in Lighting Design

(Larger Theaters):

Andrew D. Smith - The Flick (New Century Theatre Company)

(Smaller Theaters):

Lindsay Smith - Mud (New City Theater)

Excellence in Sound Design

(Larger Theaters):

Evan Mosher and Robertson Witmer - The Flick (New Century Theatre Company)

(Smaller Theaters):

Evan Mosher and Andre Nelson - Slowgirl (Seattle Public Theater)

Excellence in Musical Direction

Ian Eisendrath - Come From Away (Seattle Repertory Theatre)

Excellence in Choreography or Movement

Trina Mills, Shadou Mintrone and Gabe Corey - American Idiot (ArtsWest)

Excellence in Local Playwriting

Josh Aaseng - Slaughterhouse-Five (Book-It Repertory Theatre)

Excellence in Local Composing

Justin Huertas - Lizard Boy (Seattle Repertory Theatre)

Congratulations to the winners! Go to www.facebook.com/SeattleTheaterWriters to “like” them and see reviews during the year, and watch for the 2016 nominees next January!

"Disgraced" at Seattle Rep: Powerful, provoking, maybe painful production – the effects of racism, within and without

The cast of Disgraced (Liz Lauren)

Disgraced

Seattle Repertory Theatre

Through February 6, 2016

I can totally see what the Pulitzer judges would appreciate in the searing script by Ayad Akhtar, Disgraced. The play not only punches through racism, religion, art, and fear-of-others, it breaks open taboos everywhere it turns. Now, Seattle gets to experience it in an air-tight production at Seattle Repertory Theatre that barely lets anyone breathe after the first 20 minutes until the end.

The play is by no means flawless. In fact, the drive toward the ending demonstrates the youth of the playwright in playwriting – it’s his very first play. To my mind, the ending becomes “undeserved” in terms of the development of the characters and what we have learned about them. But it is undeniably brave and strong.

Ghostlight Theatricals presents a fascinating history of the King of Comics

Rick Espaillat as Jack Kirby in King Kirby (photo Omar Willey)

King Kirby

Ghostlight Theatricals

Through January 23, 2016

Michael Chabon wrote a fictional book about a couple of young Jewish men in New York who created many of the iconic comic characters of our age, in a novel called The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Book-It Repertory Theatre adapted it a couple of years ago for our local stages. It was a great story.

Chabon credited a lot of his inspiration “to the work of the late Jack Kirby, the King of Comics.” Kirby, born Jacob Kurtzberg, established dozens of comic book characters, beginning with Captain America. Now, Ghostlight Theatricals is presenting a new play about Kirby, King Kirby, in their Ballard Underground space. It’s written by cartoonist Fred van Lente with playwright Crystal Skillman.

And the Nominees Are... Seattle Theater Writers announce the slate of nominees for the 2015 Gypsy Rose Lee Awards!

One of two big musicals, Come From Away, nominated for Gypsys! (photo by Chris Bennion)

It’s always an exciting time to reflect on the past year’s glorious presentations! Seattle Theater Writers, the local critics circle, compiles an annual slate of nominees (and next week, winners) of Gypsy Rose Lee Awards. Gypsy Rose Lee was born in Seattle and spent a number of formative years here. She became an expert businesswoman and was one of the first women to achieve a large amount of power in her industry.

The critics circle comes together over several rounds of nominating and a final meeting where all the wrangling, give and take, and decision-making is done, and the slate reflects diverse opinions coalescing into agreement. So, drum roll, please!

The 2015 Gypsy Rose Lee Award Nominations are (in alpha order):

Excellence in Production of a Play

(Larger Theaters): Best of Enemies - Taproot Theatre Company

Orpheus Descending - Intiman Theatre Festival/The Williams Project

Our Town - Strawberry Theatre Workshop

Slaughterhouse-Five - Book-It Repertory Theatre

The Flick - New Century Theatre Company

(Smaller Theaters): Chinglish - ArtsWest

Dance Like A Man - Pratidhwani

The Secretaries - Theater Schmeater

The Tall Girls - Washington Ensemble Theatre

Water By The Spoonful - Theatre22

Excellence in Production of a Musical

American Idiot - ArtsWest

Come From Away - Seattle Repertory Theatre

Into the Woods - STAGEright Theatre

Lizard Boy - Seattle Repertory Theatre

The Great America Trailer Park Musical - STAGEright Theatre