1930s "Midsummer" Musical Is Most Fun When It's Shakespeare's Script

The "mechanicals" from A Midsummer Night's Dream (Chris Bennion)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Seattle Shakespeare Company

(at Cornish Playhouse)

Through May 21, 2017

Did you know that Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the most performed play in the world? It’s a comedy and it’s Shakespeare and apparently that’s the golden ticket. Seattle Shakespeare Company is mounting it again, as we can certainly bet that they will continue to do, every four or five years. There’s always a new way to try, and audiences love to come.

This year’s production is in the style of a 1930s movie musical. There’s singing and dancing, the Busby Berkeley kind – they even use lighted props!! (thanks to the ideas of choreographer Crystal Dawn Munkers who also plays Hippolyta). There are a few head scratchy types of decisions by director/Theseus George Mount, like the entire play being performed “back stage” of a theater. “It’s a play within a play, see.” That and some other ideas don’t help, but then mostly they don’t hurt that much either.

Mount and his actors have a very firm grasp of the comedic elements, which are a joy. MJ Sieber, last year’s Gypsy Rose Lee Award nominee for a similar comedic master turn in A Winter’s Tale, also a Seattle Shakes production, is wonderful as Bottom, the simple man turned into a donkey by magic. Most of the common folk in the play-within-a-play (now –within-a-play!) are great fun. Steven Davis, a soon-to-be graduate of Cornish, is quite hilarious as Starveling, the Moon.

Cherdonna Plays House Until She Doesn't - And It's Kinda Great

Cherdonna's Doll's House (Jeff Carpenter)

Cherdonna’s Doll’s House

Washington Ensemble Theatre

Through May 15, 2017

Cherdonna Shinatra is a unique presence on the Seattle arts scene. She is the creation of performer Jody Kuehner who was awarded one of The Stranger’s Genius Awards in 2015. She might be described as a clown dancer. Her lithe body is ready to contort into many a dance move as her performance entity enlarges and amplifies her feelings.

She has teamed up with Washington Ensemble Theatre and Ali Mohamed el-Gasseir to create a unique experience of the Henrik Ibsen play, A Doll’s House. There are so many aspects of this evening that are intriguing and beguiling, at least from the beginning on toward the end.

May Stage Flowers a'Bloomin'

Rehearsal photo for Skin by Deaf Spotlight (Patty Liang)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Seattle Shakespeare Co., 5/3/17-5/21/17 (at Cornish Playhouse)

This version of the classic “who loves who” comedy is placed in the realm of 1930s movie musicals about show business. George Mount says, “They're called backstage musicals. They’re movies about people on Broadway putting on plays. So we're going to do a play, based on the movie genre.” A band of local tradespeople gets mixed into the madness when one member is transformed into a donkey. The fairy Puck, who initiated the foolery, sorts it all out in time for a grand wedding and a nutty comic skit.

www.seattleshakespeare.org

Skin, Deaf Spotlight, 5/4-7/17, 5/12-13/17 (at 12th Avenue Arts)

Deaf Spotlight is pleased to this story, which follows four Deaf Queer women who are struggling to make sense of violence, sex, love and friendship amidst a changing landscape, Seattle’s Capitol Hill. This will be performed in ASL and subtitled English.

http://www.strangertickets.com/events/43115125/skin-a-theatrical-production-in-asl

“Love” is not all there is

Here Lies Love (Navid Baraty)

Here Lies Love

Seattle Repertory Theatre

Through June 18, 2017

So many “why?” questions… The huge, immersive production of Here Lies Love at Seattle Repertory Theatre has the company investing tens of thousands of dollars (maybe hundreds?). Why? What makes this idea, this musical so worth the money? The company has invested months in the making of it, remaking their largest theatrical space into a “nightclub” atmosphere with a movable light-up stage. Why?

There are many ways to construct a nightclub. Why have they built something that limits their usual 800+ seats to less than 300? Why must the stage move? That must have cost an enormous amount more. It shrinks the allowable dance floor by a lot!

They must believe in what they’re doing. That also has to mean that doing so is worth all of it. The experience of attending Here Lies Love is different, somewhat, if you’re sitting in the balcony above or the sides of the nightclub or on the floor where you have to stand for most of the 90-plus minute show. If you’re standing, perhaps wanting to dance the night away, you might get to dance a bit, but for most of that time, you’re watching a fairly standard musical theater production with set songs – many of them power ballads, not terribly danceable to.

The stereotype of the delicate Asian flower - "Nadeshiko"

Mi Kang and Maile Wong in Nadeshiko (John Cornicello)

Nadeshiko

Sound Theatre Company

Through May 16, 2017

An ambitious, vigorously mounted production from Sound Theatre Company seeks to weave together Japanese societal-cultural after-effects of World War II with a family’s modern descendants. Adventurous local writer Keiko Green uses some unconventional theatrical devices in Nadeshiko, along with traditional storytelling.

The main character in the play is a 20-something young woman, Risa (Maile Wong), who is struggling with formulating her path in life, and affording it. Taking a cue from her cousin, Sue (Mi Kang), our first introduction to her is as a hired sex object to a “White Haired Man” (Greg Lyle-Newton). When she accidentally runs away with money after not completing the task, she comes back a bit later to offer an apology (but no money because she says she needs it).

Excellent Production (by The Horse in Motion) Can’t Overcome Script Flaws

Wellesley Girl (Colby Wood)

Wellesley Girl

The Horse in Motion

(at 18th & Union)

Through April 29, 2017

The Horse in Motion is probably a small theater company you have never or rarely heard of. It was started as a collective of UW theater grads a few years back and has produced ensemble-created shows in particular. Their mission is to “expand the traditional conception of theatre.” If you attended their staging of Attempts on Her Life at the University Heights Center, that was a promising debut.

Sometimes, though, ya just have to do a “regular” kind of theatrical production. Their choice, now on stage, is a brand new play (2016) by Brendan Pelsue, who has a very solid East Coast playwrighting background. He was brought out by the company to work on tweaks to his new play, Wellesley Girl.

I’m going to flip my usual pattern of writing “about the show” and then “about the production” for this review, and I’m going to use first-person much more than usual. Sometimes, I see productions that are well done, but the play is perhaps not as good as the production. That’s the case here. This production is excellent!

Discover the “Unseen” at Taproot

Most of the cast of Evidence of Things Unseen (Erik Stuhaug)

Evidence of Things Unseen

Taproot Theatre

Through April 29, 2017

These days, a lot of attention is beginning to be paid to people with “unseen disabilities” and maybe, to some extent, that might be any one of us. We have tendencies to look at people and judge what we see, for better or ill. Have you ever seen someone use a disabled auto tag for parking and then seem to walk quickly and easily away from the vehicle? But perhaps you saw them take the only 100 comfortable (maybe pain-free) steps of their day. We don’t know. We can’t tell.

We all carry baggage and stories around with us, most of which are unseen. The world premiere play at Taproot Theatre, Evidence of Things Unseen by local playwright Katie Forgette, cracks open the secrets of a small family for us to discover.

Sisters Abigail (Christine Marie Brown) and Jane (Jenny Vaughn Hall) have been dealing with the death of their mother in very different ways. Abigail has been pushed away from her religious background and Jane has been pushed toward it. Their relationship has become rocky from those shifts. Since this issue is one of the key issues of the play, it seems that it becomes part of the unseen “things” that we would never know by looking at these sisters.

"A Proper Place" - Pleasing musical if you don't mind the problematic themes

The cast of A Proper Place (Mark Kitaoka)

A Proper Place

Village Theatre

Issaquah: Through April 23, 2017, Everett: April 28-May 21, 2017

If you don’t think about the substance of the brand new musical, A Proper Place, making its world premiere at Village Theatre, you can enjoy the peppy songs and (as usual) impeccable cast and have a pretty good time.

The story is based on J.M. Barrie’s 1902 play, The Admirable Crichton. Barrie wrote the much more famous Peter Pan books and plays. An upper crust British family goes on a cruise in their pleasure boat with a skeleton servant crew. They’re blown off course and land on an island with little hope of rescue.

None of the wealthy family knows a thing about survival, so they depend on their butler and a scullery maid/turned resourceful ladies’ maid to manage shelter and food and everything else. How the butler and maid know how to survive is an open question, but again, if you don’t look at it very hard, it’s just a stereotype and can be fun.

Sleek production might not be enough

Dry Powder (Jenny Graham)

Dry Powder

Seattle Repertory Theatre

Through April 15, 2017

A handsomely mounted and handsomely directed (by Marya Sea Kaminski) and acted production at Seattle Repertory ought to mean that the brisk 95 minute play, Dry Powder, is a no-brainer to put on the calendar. Indeed, it’s even somewhat funny, though it’s about high-flying executives of a company that invests in businesses to make a profit – and only a profit, which may mean taking a company over and gutting its operations and staff and remaking it overseas.

The dialogue is fast-paced, full of economic jargon, enough so that the program gives you language to understand before you watch the play. You learn, if you didn’t know, that “dry powder” is the amount of unspent capital the company has left to invest in another business.

Theater in April - Time for World Premieres?

Nadeshiko (John Cornicello)

If it’s April, it must be World Premiere Month? Well, in Seattle it is! There is a ton of original work debuting this month, along with more musicals in unusual places. Spring open your calendar and get your tickets!

The Fog Machine Play, Copious Love Prods., 4/1-22/17 (at Slate Theater)

Local theater guy Brendan Mack purchased a fog machine for a production in 2013 but never actually used it. Then he decided to write a series of short plays about a fog machine. While The Fog Machine Play explores the various uses of theatrical fog, it also explores what it is like to produce fringe theatre in this day and age. This show will truly be “unforgettable.”

www.copiouslove.org

Here Lies Love, Seattle Repertory Theatre, 4/7/17-5/28/17

Seattle Rep transforms into a wild dance party, where techno beats spin and tell the story of the People's Power Revolution in the Philippines. Follow the meteoric rise and dramatic fall of the controversial First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos.

www.seattlerep.org

"26 Miles" a rewarding journey of personal discovery

Klara Cerris and Alma Villegas in 26 Miles (Michael Brunk)

26 Miles

Latino Theatre Projects

(at West of Lenin)

Through April 8, 2017

In 2015, Theatre22 produced a play by Quiara Alegria Hudes, Water By the Spoonful, which garnered 10 Gypsy Rose Lee nominations and three wins. It had also won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize. Director-nominee Julie Beckman directed a super production of that play and has returned to Hudes at a different company for her 26 Miles, produced by Latino Theatre Projects.

So, this production was much anticipated, and does not disappoint. Hudes’ style here is different from Water By the Spoonful, but still smart, thoughtful, and very true to life. This play is very personal to Hudes. It reflects her own life growing up in Philadelphia. It is set in 1986 with a 15 year-old girl protagonist. That’s one of the small differences that “fictionalizes” the play, since Hudes was born in 1977, not 1971.

ACT Theatre's "Tribes" explores deaf culture

Joshua Castille and Lindsay W. Evans in Tribes (photo by Chris Bennion)

Tribes

ACT Theatre

Through March 26, 2017

Deaf culture gets a hearing (oh, oof) in ACT Theatre’s newest play, Tribes, by Nina Raine. The production is a solid one, with all six actors taking strong positions as well-constructed characters with vivid points of view.

Directed in the round by John Langs, a busy but effective homey set by Shawn Ketchum Johnson greets the audience as the home of Christopher and Beth (Frank Corrado and Anne Allgood) who still live with their three adult children, Daniel, Ruth, and Billy (Adam Standley, Kjerstine Rose Anderson, and Joshua Castille).

Solo show focuses on Black and American experiences

(photo by Dave Hastings)

Yankee Pickney

Written and performed by Jehan Osanyin

Theater Schmeater

Through April 1, 2017

A “yankee pickney” is translated, in this solo show by Jehan Osanyin, as “Americanized child.” Osanyin occasionally translates Jamaican patois to help the audience understand. Yankee Pickney is performing at Theater Schmeater, and it is a brisk 70 minute heart-opening walk through Osanyin’s life.

Solo biographical productions are hard to write about because when you see it, you should gain the information as you watch and not have someone tell you all the “spoilers” in a review. Osanyin’s story is unique and interesting. You are entirely encouraged to attend and hear her story.

Osanyin understands theatrical presentation and how to play with it. She begins by offering tea to her audience and takes time to help everyone become comfortable. Once she starts the story, she palpably creates “her home” on stage – with her goldendoodle at her side – and explores “kinds” of blackness.

Showtunes tackles The Unsinkable Molly Brown - this weekend

(photo by Chris Bennion)

March 11 (8:00pm) and March 12 (2:00pm), Showtunes Theatre Company is taking on The Unsinkable Molly Brown for their next musical presentation. If you aren't familiar with their style, you are missing out on the fun.

The company mostly mounts musicals that will not likely be produced on a local stage, either because it might have great music but not a really great story, or it just has too large a cast for a company to afford. This is a great opportunity to see this classic musical in a concert style.

The actors carry their scripts and they use minimal props and costumes, though they present the entire script and musical numbers. It's an intriguing way to experience musicals that are part of our rich musical theater canon, but rarely receive a full production.

Brandon Ivie, Village’s New Musical Whisperer

Cubamor (Sam Freeman)

To an extent, this is a “Where is he now?” interview! In 2009, Brandon Ivie was kind of a kid wonder in theatrical circles when he was first profiled in SGN.

He started his own theater company, Contemporary Classics, as a senior in high school, focusing on new musicals. Once graduated from UW, he landed a job as assistant to David Armstrong, Executive Producer/Artistic Director at The 5th Avenue Theatre. He calls that "the best first job out of college ever."

Ivie has already worked on a number Broadway shows – some of which premiered at 5^th Ave, like Shrek, Memphis and Catch Me If You Can, and helped launch the Broadway production of ex-Village Theatre associate Brian Yorkey's next to normal, which won a Tony Award. He worked on multiple productions of A Christmas Story across the country. He helmed an Off-Broadway production of Jasper in Deadland and reprised it at 5th Ave.

He’s been working for several years with friend and protegee Justin Huertas on Huertas’ Lizard Boy, which premiered at Seattle Repertory and has had several backing presentations in New York City to try to get it produced Off-Broadway.

A whole life in half the time - Bright Half Life

Tracy Michelle Hughes and Rhonda J. Soikowski in Bright Half Life (MJ Sieber)

Bright Half Life

New Century Theatre Company and The Hansberry Project

Through March 11, 2017

How does one get at the interior of a romantic relationship on stage? In the case of Bright Half Life, now presented by New Century Theatre Company and The Hansberry Project, playwright Tanya Barfield chose to throw ordinary women in ordinary moments together into a mixed-up time machine of a stew. Directed by HATLO, actors Tracy Michelle Hughes and Rhonda J. Soikowski portray a lesbian relationship that bounces (sometimes literally) from future to past to present to past in a seemingly random fashion.

The audience can’t just sit and let this play wash over them for a moment. You must come ready to engage.  In scenes that might last two sentences before a change of time and place, you can witness the first meeting of this couple, their awkward supervisor-employee attraction, their acceptance of their connection, and all the way through having children and growing older.

"Well" - meta-theatrically funny and a hard play to get right

Sarah Rudinoff and Barbara Dirickson in Well (Alan Alabastro)

Well

Seattle Repertory Theatre

Through March 5, 2017

Playwright Lisa Kron wants to explore illness and recovery. Some people recover from illnesses and others can’t. Kron wants to know if a reason can be found for who does which, and maybe why. In this kooky meta-theatrical play, Well, that breaks the fourth and fifth and sixth walls, Kron – who appears in the play as herself (but actually played by talented Seattle actor Sarah Rudinoff) – Kron explains all this to the audience at the beginning of the show.

Kron tells of her mother’s history of being sick with a mysterious disease that her mother attributes to “allergies.” And yet, even though mom has been debilitated, she’s been able to move them to a struggling integrated neighborhood and been active enough as a civic leader to help the neighborhood heal. Kron wants to link the healing of the neighborhood to the lack of healing of her mother.

“But,” Kron says, “this play is absolutely not about my mother!” Kron says she’s just using her personal life to examine the larger question.

“Three Americans” – An excellent snapshot of modern life

Cynthia Jones in Three Americans (Tiffany Diamond)

Three Americans

West of Lenin

Through March 4, 2017

A trio of monologues have been mounted by the folks at West of Lenin specifically to address, in some fashion, the new administration. Director Anita Montgomery and producer AJ Epstein asked three playwrights if they had material to contribute to the effort. The evening they have produced is a stunning example of range and response in a very “now” fashion.

Three Americans: Voices of Hope includes pieces by Yussef El Guindi, Regina Taylor and Mashuq Mushtaq Deen.  The Birds Flew In is an El Guindi monologue from an immigrant mother of a soldier. Taylor writes about an African American woman describing how important voting has been in her life in Déjà vu. Deen, in Draw the Circle, gives us a portrait of a woman in love with a trans man and the challenges she’s faced with him.

Stay outa the rain with March 2017 Theater Openings

Scott Shoemaker as Ms. Pak-Man (Doug McLaughlin)

Seattle Fringe Festival has changed its annual timing to March and has a robust line-up that may cause you to binge on short shows like candy! Other offerings include glimpses into inner city friendships, the struggle of a deaf boy in a hearing world, musical delights, and local writing. Get out your calendars. It’s time to schedule March plays!

Milk Like Sugar, ArtsWest, 3/2-25/17

On Annie's sixteenth birthday, her friends have decided to help her celebrate with a brand new tattoo. While there, one offhandedly reveals she’s pregnant. This humorous yet probing script peers into teens, friendships, inner city unhappiness, and choices that can last a lifetime.

www.artswest.org

Ms. Pak-Man: On My Last Heart!, Scott Shoemaker, 3/2-4/17 and 3/9-11/17 (at Rebar)

This original production is the third installment of the successful Ms. Pak-Man series. Watch this world-renowned video game superstar of the 1980s pop power pills while she shares scandalous songs and stories about her life and loves—glitches and all. She sings! She dances! She drinks! She might black out! There’s a chance she won’t remember the show, but you will!

http://www.strangertickets.com/events/40249902/ms-pak-man-on-my-last-heart

Valentine's plus Poetry = Lovers' Play

Alyssa Kay and Katherine Jett in When Love Speaks (John Ulman)

When Love Speaks

Thalia’s Umbrella

(at Taproot Theatre)

Through February 25, 2017

"Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?" Well? Should I? Don’t I get an answer? If you have ever read any poetry and felt like maybe someone should be there answering “Yes” or “No,” then you are thinking like David Wright. Wright was reading a lot of poetry and decided that some of it, particularly the love poetry, sounded like it should be conversations and scenes. So, he put dozens of poets together in piles of potential dialogue, with a large portion of Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Ben Jonson, and made a lovers’ play.

First presented in 1992 by Seattle Shakespeare Company, When Love Speaks is being remounted in a pleasant and amusing fashion by Thalia’s Umbrella at Taproot Theatre’s small new space. Four talented actors and a cute Dionysian helper become visitors to an island resort – the kind where love might be born, but lust is also sometimes disguised as love.

Christine Marie Brown and Terry Edward Moore start out by appearing as the most in-love couple ever, only to have Moore suddenly become quite the temporary lover. Katherine Jett, the most shy and abashed and funny, is perhaps hopelessly in love with Alyssa Kay, who doesn’t mind, but seems to be looking for someone a little assertive.

Wacky and ominous, "Scary Mary's" vigorous production is well worth visiting

Corinne Magin as Scary Mary (Joe Iano)

Scary Mary and the Nightmares Nine

Annex Theatre

Through March 4, 2017

A vigorous, inventive and visually stimulating show has just opened at Annex Theatre. Director Eddie DeHais and their team of enthusiastic actors and technicians are pulling out all the stops they can for Scary Mary and the Nightmares Nine, a new play by Amy Escobar.

A relatively large cast of eleven never seems to overpower the small stage, in part due to expert positioning by DeHais. The nightmares referred to are created by an ensemble of five (Kai Curtis, Emily Pike, Kelly Johnson, Sarah Winsor and Raymond Williams) who wield a variety of puppets created by expert puppeteers Ben Burris and Zane Exactly. They are a series of scares that might haunt any of us, and are representative of those felt by people struggling with depression.

It’s not the Marx Brothers, but "Room Service" is still a fun farce

The cast of Room Service (Erik Stuhaug)

Room Service

Taproot Theatre

Through March 4, 2017

If you know who the Marx Brothers were, you might also know the movie they made called Room Service. It was based on a 1937 Broadway play and then they put their own improvisational, wacky spin on it.

Room Service is a farce. Taproot director Karen Lund is one of the best directors in town for farces in particular. She has a very clear sense of comic timing. Farce is not easy to get right. The main joy in farces is the quick movements of people coming in and going out of doors! That’s right, missing each other by parts of seconds! That is the height of silliness in farces. 

The Seagull Project's "The Cherry Orchard" reflects turmoil in society

The cast of The Cherry Orchard (Chris Bennion)

The Cherry Orchard

The Seagull Project

(at ACT Theatre)

Through February 19, 2017

Chekhov’s best-known play, The Cherry Orchard, mixes up all the levels of Russian society inside the failing estate of the Gayevs. Servants consort with their bosses in previously unheard-of cheekiness. Businessmen like Lopakhin are more wealthy than the aristocracy, yet have risen from progenitors who were serfs. Aristocracy can’t raise money, yet haven’t figured out their way of life is unsustainable. Life in Russia is in economic turmoil that results in creating a new society that few can reckon with!

The production of this play by The Seagull Project is more suited to these times, with an administration that seems in love with Russia, and has created the beginnings of what could be unknown turmoil, than anyone might have predicted when they began planning the production! There are many pleasing aspects to the play, with some wonderful actors working at the top of their game. There is also a directing choice that tilts the production over in its insistence.

Madame Ranevskaya (Julie Briskman) is returning to her indebted estate after living in Paris. She returns penniless, having no skill of understanding or keeping track of money. Her brother, Gayev (Peter Crook), is having no luck saving the estate, either, and both of them are waiting for a rich aunt to send money, though she doesn’t like them very much.

Powerful women play historical kings at Seattle Shakespeare Co.

Some of the cast of Bring Down the House (John Ulman)

Bring Down the House

Seattle Shakespeare Company

Through March 12, 2017

A great gathering of women is happening in the Armory Theatre where Seattle Shakespeare Company has joined with upstart crow collective to present a massive two-part Shakespearian epic! Why is it a gathering of women? Because all the actors in this play are women, most playing male roles!

Bring Down the House is actually an adaptation of Shakespeare’s trilogy about Henry VI (Henry VI, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3). It’s created in two parts which you can choose to see either separately or both in one day. Throne of Treachery opened last week and Crusade of Chaos opens Friday, February 3. Director Rosa Joshi and upstart member Kate Wisniewski (who plays Queen Margaret) pared down these three long plays into a fairly nimble two-parter which speeds along at a break-neck pace.

While the plays are “historical,” they are not necessarily always accurate, and clearly depend on theatricalities and tensions. Given that, it is still a good way to learn about the period of The War of the Roses (1455-87), a period of turmoil over who deserved the English crown.

February Theater Openings in Seattle

Room Service at Taproot Theatre (Erik Stuhaug)

February continues 2017’s eclectic offerings on Seattle stages from classic comedy or musical to new work. Take a look at what’s opening next month.

Room Service, Taproot Theatre, 2/1/17-3/4/17

Madcap mishaps and little lies take on lives of their own as a theatrical troupe chases their dream of Broadway. Or Off-Broadway. Make that Off-Off-Broadway. This hit comedy inspired a Marx Brothers classic film!

www.taproottheatre.org

Storyville Rising, Seattle Immersive Theatre, 2/2/17-2/25/17 (21+)

Seattle Immersive Theatre teams up with System D Artists to present Storyville Rising, a fully-immersive theater/cabaret experience which recreates Storyville, the infamous “red-light” district in New Orleans, from 1897-1917. This production is an exploration of sex, race, power and privilege in Reconstruction-era America, told through theater, historical narrative, live music, transgressive burlesque and cabaret. Original text, as well as transcripts and interviews, tell the story of the habitués of Storyville and the forces of “polite society” that sought to shut it down.

www.seattleimmersivetheatre.org

When Love Speaks, Thalias Umbrella, 2/9/17-2/25/17 (at Taproot Theatre)

When Love Speaks is a sizzling hot verse play by David Wright, with an assist from his buddies Will Shakespeare, Mighty Chris Marlowe, "The Benster" Jonson, Queen Elizabeth (the First, of course), and many other wanton wordsmiths. Four people meet at a resort at the edge of the world. They fall in and out of love, woo and argue . . . all while speaking some of the best (and some of the worst!) love poetry ever written.

www.thaliasumbrella.org

The Pajama Game, 5^th Avenue Theatre, 2/9/17-3/5/17 (open 2/16)

Seattle sweetheart Billie Wildrick stars as Katherine "Babe" Williams in this Broadway hit making its 5th Avenue debut. A labor furor over a 7 ½ cent pay raise at a pajama plant complicates the course of true love for Sid Sorokin, the new factory superintendent, and Babe Williams, the feisty firebrand heading the Union Grievance Committee. The show that defined Fosse style with seductive dance numbers like “Steam Heat” and “Hernando’s Hideaway,” this critically acclaimed musical won three Tony Awards including Best Choreography and Best Musical when it opened in 1954.

www.5thavenue.org

Well, Seattle Repertory Theatre, 2/10/17-3/5/17 (open 2/14)

Sarah Rudinoff stars as playwright Lisa Kron in her not-an-autobiography about not-her-mother. Why do some people stay sick while others become well? And where do we find the road to recovery? Kron takes us on a surprising and complicated journey exploring these questions in this acclaimed comedy – which is not about her mom.

www.seattlerep.org

The Last Romance, Phoenix Theatre, 2/10/17-3/5/17

Joe DiPietro’s play about an ordinary day in Ralph’s life when he decides to take a different direction on a walk. Meeting an elegant but distant Carol, Ralph tries to regain happiness he thought he lost when his wife passed away. Heartwarming comedy.

www.phoenixtheatreedmonds.org

Scary Mary and the Nightmares Nine, Annex Theatre, 2/10/17-3/4/17

Playwright Amy Escobar debuts a new work. When a drop of Mary’s blood falls down to the center of the Earth, something Evil and Ancient wakes up in the shadows, and now the Hellish Horrors of the Dark have a taste for her. Mary must go on an epic quest through nine different nightmares to make a potion to put The Slither back to sleep and save her soul from its nasty gnashing teeth. A fairy tale that creeps, crawls, and catapults its way through the bizarre landscape of the imagination as Mary fights for her very life amidst the ever-encroaching darkness.

www.annextheatre.org

Waning, Annex Theatre, 2/14/17-3/1/17 (Tue/Wed)

Kamaria Hallums-Harris also debuts a new work. At 17, Luna is coming to terms with the harsh reality of what it means to be a young, black, queer woman in America. It’s hard to find the words to claim her identity and to claim her right to love and be loved. Dance, discovery, and dark truths show that the words on the pages of history books are nothing compared to weight of reality.

www.annextheatre.org

Bright Half Life, New Century Theatre Company and Hansberry Project, 2/15/17-3/11/17

Time stops when you meet the love of your life. Vicky and Erica are catapulted through a lifetime of love and heartbreak as they navigate an ever-shifting present. Through courtship, children, marriage, conflict, and the whisper of mortality, this kaleidoscopic journey is a depiction of the fortitude and courage it takes to fight for love.

www.wearenctc.org

Little Women, Seattle Musical Theatre, 2/17/17-3/20/17

Louisa May Alcott’s timeless, captivating story is brought to life in this exhilarating musical filled with beautiful music, dancing and heart. Follow the adventures of sisters Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy March as they grow up in Civil War America and deftly handle challenges, heartache, everlasting love and fight for their dreams as they deal with issues still relevant today.

www.seattlemusicaltheatre.org

Into the West, Seattle Children’s Theatre, 2/23/17-3/19/17 (ages 9+)

From the coast of  Ireland comes the spellbinding tale of two siblings and a white horse called Tir Na n'Og. Ally and Fin are children of Travelers living with their Pa, when the mysterious, otherworldly horse comes to them from the sea, filling their lives (and tiny flat) with and trouble. Soon police are at the door to take Tir Na n'Og away, but not even the law can keep these children from their magnificent horse. Fearless as cowboys, Ally and Fin escape into the west in this lively, suspenseful drama about love, loss and bravery, where they learn that the greatest journeys in life take us beyond all imagination and into our hearts.

www.sct.org

Defying Expectations - a Showtunes Cabaret, Showtunes! Theatre Company, 2/25, 26, 27/17 (at ACT Theatre)

A talented cast of six singers  interpret songs and stories of people overcoming the lines in society that divide us. In addition, the cast will be challenged to defy their own personal expectations as performers. Hear your favorite show tunes in a fresh way by Seattle's top professional talent. (At press time, cast unknown.)

http://www.acttheatre.org/Tickets/OnStage/DefyingExpectations?date=2%2f25%2f2017

Sing Out Louise Theatricals presented "Mack and Mabel"

Mack and Mabel (Michael Brunk)

David-Edward Hughes love musicals and has for many years. 17 years ago, among other theatrical activities, he helped found Showtunes! Theatre Company. Their presentations are a model of concert stagings, with minimal sets and costumes, actors using scripts, and maximal singing talent. The opportunity afforded was also to present musicals that may well never be chosen to be fully staged, but still have an opportunity to experience them.

Hughes has now created a new company in a very similar model: Sing Out Louise Theatricals http://soltheatricals.org/ and produced his inaugural production. With the help of Secondstory Repertory in Redmond, they created a wonderful experience.

He chose Mack and Mabel, a lesser known musical by Jerry Herman of Hello Dolly fame. In his materials for the show, he detailed his years long desire to direct this musical and how unique it is: written in a happy musical style that turns darker in the second act, telling a true story of film producer Mack Sennet and his making a star out of Mabel Normand.

The Award Goes To....the 2016 Gypsy Rose Lee Award Winners

Sarah Rose Davis and Eric Ankrim in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Mark Kitaoka)

The "large theater" productions of ACT Theatre's The Royale and The 5th Avenue Theatre's How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying take top honors, and the "small theater" productions of ArtsWest's Death of a Salesman and Washington Ensemble Theatre's The Things Are Against Us take top honors for most category wins!​

Seattle Theater Writers, Seattle's only critics’ circle, presents the 6th ​a​nnual Gypsy Rose Lee Awards, theater awards devoted to recognizing excellence across the economic spectrum of professional Seattle theaters. Our aim in developing the awards is to entice the general public ​to consider seeing excellent theatrical events at myriad venues they may never have entered before.

The 2016 Gypsy Rose Lee Award ​Winner​s are (​bolded ​by category, in alpha order by name):

Excellence in Production of a Play:

Math, Genius and Trust on stage at Strawshop

Charles Leggett and Anastasia Higham in Proof (John Ulman)

Proof

Strawberry Theatre Workshop

Through February 18, 2017

David Auburn’s play, Proof, first produced in 2000 and turned into a movie with Gwyneth Paltrow in 2005, is a layered onion-like family drama that delves into mental illness, genius, love and family relations. Its current production at Strawberry Theatre Workshop includes four strong actors and some evocative scene-change effects that ultimately allow you plenty to think about after an enjoyable visit getting to know Robert and his two daughters Catherine and Claire.

The word “proof” is a brilliant choice for a title because the play revolves around mathematical proofs (the formulas that higher math creates to prove a theory is actually real), and there is also a mystery that needs proving true, and also Catherine fears that she will prove to be mentally ill, herself.

The 2016 Gypsy Rose Lee Award Nominees Are!

The Royale (Dawn Schaefer)

Seattle Theater Writers, Seattle’s only critics circle, announces the Sixth Annual Nominations of the 2016 Gypsy Rose Lee Awards!

Spanning 28 theater companies and 59 productions, from the largest and most prominent to small, humble and innovative, the Gypsy Rose Lee Awards honor as much professional theater as we reviewers can cram into our year. 

Well known large companies such as Seattle Repertory Theatre with 6 nominations and ACT Theatre with 15 nominations and Seattle Shakespeare Company with 8 nominations contrast favorably with small companies such as Sound Theatre Company with 14 nominations, ArtsWest with 14 nominations and Theatre22 with 13 nominations. Musical theater companies The 5th Avenue Theatre and Village Theatre inevitably share 15 and 12 nominations apiece as the top musical providers in our area. 

The curious play at Ghost Light Theatricals

Beth Pollack and Kevin Lin (Joe Iano)

The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence

Ghost Light Theatricals

Through February 4, 2017

To a large extent, Madeleine George’s Pulitzer finalist play, The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, seems to suggest that artificial intelligence could be somewhat seductive as a partner, but it’s not as fulfilling as messy real life. To get around to that conclusion, you might have to mull it over for a few days after you see the production at Ghost Light Theatricals.

Let’s start by saying that Ghost Light’s production is nicely directed by Steven Sterne, who brings out sensitive portrayals by the two playing sensitive characters, Beth Pollack and Kevin Lin, and an appropriately off-putting one by Brent Griffith. This is a well-balanced trio of actors.