Exquisite “Gentleman” will murder your funny bone

Kristen Beth Williams and Kevin Massey in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder (Joan Marcus)

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder

The 5^th Avenue Theater

Through July 31, 2016

The Tony Award winning best musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, just opened at The 5th Avenue Theater with the national tour. If you’ve been wondering why it got such smashing reviews on Broadway, what earned it a Tony, well, it is absolutely a barrel of fun and well worth checking out.

It’s got the new-fangled device of having one actor play all the people who get killed. Possibly a good budget support, but the one actor has got to be on his game. John Rapson is absolutely up to the daunting task, though some of his costume changes must be magic. His turn for clowning is an opportunity to study a master. His timing is perfect.

Wait, what? One guy gets killed 9 times? Starting over: Montague Navarro (Kevin Massey) has just lost his mother and an old friend arrives who helps him find evidence that he is a far-down-the-line heir to an enormous Dysquith fortune. Indeed, he has a birth certificate with that name in the middle. But there are 9 people in his way. It’s not long before the idea of helping them die pops into his fertile brain.

Things You Can Do omits actual advice

Things You Can Do (Roberta Christensen)

Things You Can Do

Live Girls! Theater

(at ACTLab)

Through July 31, 2016

Things You Can Do is a world premiere play by Kristen Palmer, a playwright with a solid list of produced plays who is also the artistic director of a theater for young people in Connecticut. The play includes three intelligent women, an intelligent girl, and a street-smart guy. Live Girls! Theater has been working on the script for quite a while, starting with public readings in 2013.

The big theme in the play is glacial ice, permafrost, and climate change. The small theme is whether you can do much about the big issues in life when your individual life is pretty much falling apart. Stevie (Hannah Ruwe) is a scientist, writing her PhD thesis on permafrost. But something has driven her to leave her school and suddenly appear back in her small Virginia town, even before she’s called her mother to say she’s back.

It’s ‘60s Time again at Twister Beach

Gabriella Scherrer in Twister Beach (John Cornicello)

Twister Beach

Marxiano Prods. and Café Nordo

Through July 30, 2016

I had this imaginary scene in my head: Mark Siano and Opal Peachey were sitting around saying, “Hey, we have this giant hammer head shark costume and this giant whale costume… Let’s write a mini-musical called Twister Beach for Café Nordo!” Turns out I had it backward. They actually decided to make enormous costumes of a hammer head shark and a whale for their new musical dinner extravaganza!

If you have any wish to see an enormously silly conversation about killing people between a hammer head shark and a whale, while eating great and interesting food and watching various Frankie and Annette types cavort in bathing suits while preparing for a talent show, then Twister Beach is exactly what the diner ordered!

Big Fish might not be your catch

Chelsea LeValley and Chris Ensweiler in Big Fish. Photo by Erik Stuhaug

Big Fish

Taproot Theatre

Through August 13, 2016

Taproot Theatre almost always has a summer musical. They are, pretty dependably, “feel good” musicals with a heart-warming center. Such a feel-good, heart-warming musical is on tap now. Big Fish is by reliable composer, Andrew Lippa, with book (script) by John August. It’s based on the novel by Daniel Wallace and the movie of the same name, also written by John August.

The musical did get to Broadway in 2013, but didn’t last very long. It’s much more suited to being in a small, more unassuming performance house. In that sense, Taproot is perfect for it.

Everyday folks are the focus of "The Aliens" - ReAct Theatre

Cast of The Aliens (David Hsieh)

The Aliens

ReAct Theatre

(at West of Lenin)

Through July 24, 2016

Now that Seattle theaters have produced three of Annie Baker’s plays (Seattle Rep: Circle Mirror Transformation, New Century Theatre Company: The Flick, and now ReAct Theatre: The Aliens), we have a solid experience set to her style. Most important in her plays is the storytelling importance of silence.

Silence on stage is particularly difficult. An audience sits waiting for “something,” and silence is often not considered “something.” So, an important item to bring to an Annie Baker play is patience and a sense of noticing. Of all three productions, here, The Aliens is most in need of noticing.

Must of what can be discovered in the play is done in silence; either silent communication or in an action of a character that reveals a lot of inner thought. The three men in The Aliens do a lot of onstage thinking or contemplating.

July means Free Theater in the Park and so much more!

Sara Porkalob and her real grandma, Maria Porkalob, Sr. aka "The Dragon Lady" (Joe Iano)

July means Free Theater – in the parks, of course. Go to http://greenstage.org/sotf/ to see the whole schedule including children’s shows for the annual Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival, July 9 and 10 all over Volunteer Park. That weekend explodes with eight (8!) other shows, so unless you’re a clone, you’re going to miss something. Get out those calendars!

The Aliens, ReAct, 7/1-24/16 (at West of Lenin)

In the back of a Vermont coffee shop, a pair of society's misfits spend their days singing songs, writing novels and lamenting past loves. When a young barista asks them to leave, the duo initiate him in the ways of the world, the writings of Bukowski, and the true worth of life. A 2010 Obie Award-winning play by Annie Baker.

https://reactaliens.brownpapertickets.com/

Big Fish, Taproot Theatre, 7/6/16-8/13/16

Edward Bloom has never been much of a dad, but as fantasy wages war with reality his tall tales of mermaids and giants may make his son a better man. Let yourself be reeled in by this adventurous and romantic musical as a son fishes for the answer to the looming question: Is Edward Bloom a lunatic, a liar or a living legend? Taproot’s summer musical.

www.taproottheatre.org