Village Theatre’s "In the Heights" hits the heights for dancing and excitement

(from top left in circle)
Naomi Morgan, Iris Elton, Jennifer Paz and Tanesha Rass in In the Heights (Mark Kitaoka)

In the Heights

Village Theatre

Issaquah: through October 26, 2014

Everett: October 31 – November 23, 2014

(printed in Seattle Gay News)

Did you know that In the Heights is a dance musical?! It is! It’s also a rap musical, and a hip hop musical, and a heartwarming story of the residents of Washington Heights, New York City, bonding through song, and an electrical blackout.

Did you know that the cast of Village Theatre’s production of In the Heights is insanely good? It is! Village has brought back some ex-Seattle residents along with a few guest visitors that ratchet up the talent on stage to unbelievable…heights. (Yup, I said it.)

This musical is so much fun. The music reflects the Latin influences of Washington Heights and even though people are struggling and low-income, they still have self-esteem and drive and dreams of making it. We meet corner-store proprietor Usnavi, who wants to leave the Heights and open a store in the Dominican Republic, home of his deceased parents. In the meantime, he takes care of his father’s store and his cousin, Sonny, and his adopted grandmother nearby.

The other story is about Nina, the smart girl who managed to get a scholarship to Stanford University, but has had to drop out after working two jobs and losing the scholarship due to dropping grades. Her family owns a car transportation service and a young worker, Benny, consoles her about having to disappoint her parents.

15 plus companies help create city-wide Beckett Fest - Best known play "Waiting for Godot"

Darragh Kennan and Todd Jefferson Moore in Waiting for Godot (John Ulman)

Waiting for Godot
Seattle Shakespeare Company
(At ACT Theatre's Central Heating Lab)
Through September 21

From the brains of George Mount, artistic director of Seattle Shakespeare Company, and then A.J. Epstein proprietor of West of Lenin and a few other theater practitioners, sometime back in 2013 or 2014, there came a decision to have a citywide festival celebrating Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. Having thus decreed it, they bustled about making it so with fundraising and recruiting other companies to choose pieces of Beckett's writings and create productions. There are over 15 companies participating in the festival!

Beckett (1906-1989) was a practitioner of the "theater of the absurd" and prized minimalism. He grew to adulthood in Dublin and then taught in France and spent most of his life between the two countries. He often wrote in French and then made his own translations.

The festival has a website: www.seattlebeckettfest.org that includes a list of productions and companies and links to help you find them and buy tickets. There is also a Facebook page: www.facebook.com/seattlebeckettfest.

Life=Play and other events
A few events have already taken place. West of Lenin produced an evening of four short pieces, entitled Life=Play. Act Without Words, Part 1 starred Ray Tagavilla in a kind of humorous mime play where a man tumbles onto stage and the stage itself directs him to try to grab a vial of water hung from the ceiling, and mysteriously provides boxes for him to climb on to reach the vial. Ultimately, though, the vial is pulled too high to reach.

Dorfman’s “Death and the Maiden” demonstrates the personal devastation of many dictatorships

Fernando Luna (front), Frank Lawler and Tonya Andrews in Death and the Maiden (Michael Brunk)

There is another September 11^th, one we have little affinity for, but one that cements that particular date in history to particularly important historic activities, 1973: the Chilean coup of democratically-elected President Salvadore Allende by General Pinochet. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this was a U.S.-backed coup. Pinochet’s dictatorship included 17 years of tortures and human rights abuses.

Argentina has had a long series of dictators and coup attempts, often followed by disappearances and deaths of dissidents, students, journalists, and many other “normal” citizens, numbered in the tens of thousands. Ariel Dorfman, playwright and native-Argentinian, has written a play about the results of torture set in a South American country that is unnamed.

Death and the Maiden  is being produced by Latino Theatre Projects through September 28^th. Tickets here (at the Ballard Underground).

Dorfman has said, “Twenty years ago, when Death and the Maiden, the play that tells this story, opened in London at the Royal Court Upstairs, the country where that woman, Paulina, awaited a constantly delayed justice, was my own Chile or the Argentina where I was born. Or South Africa. Or Hungary. Or China…. Today, as the same play is revived in London's West End, its main drama is echoed in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Iraq, Thailand, Zimbabwe and now Libya.”

The message of this searing drama is that it happened, and happens, everywhere, and for those who go through the abductions and tortures, rapes and beatings, if they do not die, they have little to no recourse for justice or reconciliation. Dorfman’s play uses the small to write large.

Death and the Maiden  focuses on a mid-level political appointee to a new government (Gerardo Escobar – Frank Lawler) and his wife. Paulina (Tonya Andrews) has become a recluse, protected by Gerardo from too much agitation. Gerardo has been offered a prestigious appointment to a government taking over from a recent dictatorship. Trust in the government is close to non-existent, but Gerardo would be investigating crimes of the dictatorship with an eye toward justice and reconciliation.

Did she? Sound Theatre's production leaves it up to you.

Caitlin Frances and Peggy Gannon in Blood Relations (Ken Holmes)

Blood Relations

Sound Theatre Company

Through September 27, 2014

“Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.” That rhyme and variations has been around since shortly after the murders of the parents of a real Lizzie Borden in 1892. But Ms. Borden was acquitted in a trial. Shouldn’t that be the end of the story?

Apparently not, because there are whole scholarly books out on the subject and Harvard Law School has tried her again and again, only to have their juries acquit her, too. Plays have been written and recently a rock musical was presented by Village Theatre at their summer festival.

Another play, Blood Relations, is now on stage by SoundTheatre Company at the black box stage behind Cornish Playhouse. Written by Sharon Pollock, a Canadian playwright I had not heard of, this play is content to not quite answer the question, either.

Part 2 of "Angels of America" more lively than Part 1

Timothy McCuen Piggee and Adam Standley in Angels in America (Chris Bennion)

Angels in America
Intiman Theatre
through September 21, 2014

(as printed in Seattle Gay News)

Perestroika is a Russian word for 'restructuring.' In Part 2 of Angels in America, it is a harbinger of change to come. In large and small ways, the characters in the play and the society in which they live are restructuring. 

One of the ways politics in the 1980s and '90s were restructuring was due, at least in part, to the activism that AIDS forced on the LGBT population. Gay people had to become vocal or die. President Reagan had to be forced to acknowledge the epidemic and to put financial resources to work to combat it. While Angels is focused on the late 1980s, we sit in 2014 in a very different landscape, where same-sex marriage is very close to becoming the law of the entire United States. Laws are very much restructured. 

Angels in America is a seminal play in the documentation of the AIDS crisis in the mid '80s. It reminds us how terribly painful AIDS was at first, before the possibility of 'managing' the disease. It reminds us how stigmatizing AIDS was as America focused on homosexuality and not the disease. 

Although Part 2 is actually longer in length, it moves faster. But it would be hard to imagine making the marathon that Intiman is encouraging, seeing Part 1 in the afternoon and then Part 2 after a dinner break! That is six and a half hours of just performance, plus breaks. (Those actors are working hard!) 

5th Ave's " A Chorus Line" a singular sensation

The company of A Chorus Line (Mark Kitaoka)

A Chorus Line
The 5th Avenue Theatre
through September 28, 2014

A Chorus Line opened at the 5th Avenue Theatre last night with a powerhouse cast, a brilliant orchestra, and an overall terrific presentation. They have taken the time and effort to secure the "bible" of the Michael Bennett original choreography, as lovingly translated through original cast member Kerry Casserly. So, it all feels very "original."

If you've never seen the show, this is a great time to go see it on stage. You can feel the energy from the very beginning, with all the dance hopefuls massed on stage, going through their choreographic auditions and singing, "I Hope I Get It." If you have a young person who aspires to a Broadway career, this is a very instructive musical, even though it's supposed to be 1975. If you think much has changed in the audition process, you'd be very mistaken.

Each of the auditioners gets to tell a story, some of which become songs. The original musical was even developed with the help of real actors, a number of whom became originators of their roles on Broadway.

Rose Cano shines light on homeless with her play (her company eSe Teatro presents “Don Quixote and Sancho Panza: Homeless in Seattle” at ACT Theatre’s Central Heating Lab)

Rose Cano in a humorous moment pretending to be Don Quixote (courtesy Rose Cano)

Rose Cano has spent 19 years as a medical translator for patients at Harborview. She’s heard a lot of stories. Some of the stories from the emergency room and from homeless shelters formed the basis of the characters in the play Don Quixote and Sancho Panza: Homeless in Seattle she and her company eSe Teatro will present from September 10 to September 28 at ACT Theatre’s Central Heating Lab.

Rose, busy with (besides a full time job) running her theater company, directing, developing community, talks about the development of the play. She says it is her first multi-character play and “it’s my first fully produced full length play. I’ve done a few one person shows and written two bilingual musicals.

“2011 is when I got the idea. Working at Harborview in the emergency department, I saw a number of homeless Latinos on the weekends. We see highway accidents, violent crimes, jail inmates and indigent people. Based on some of the men – we see mostly men in the ER – some were gentlemen and some succumbed to the street. And I started to think about how they keep their dignity on the street.

25000 is a big number in James Lapan's solo show

James Lapan in his solo show 25,000 Posts (John Ulman)

James Lapan can teach you how to properly dig a post hole if you want to put up your own “For Sale” sign at your house. He’s a very thorough teacher, and while he teaches you, he tells you all kinds of other interesting tidbits about himself and his life. He says, about his show 25,000 Posts, “It’s 39 monologues about life love and real estate.”

In May, 2014, he has a two week stand at West of Lenin performing this show and he is remounting it at the Penthouse Theatre on UW Campus from September 12-14 (tickets at brownpapertickets.com - Jim says it’s basically by donation and no one will be turned away for lack of funds!).

I asked Jim about his playwriting experience. He says, “I tend to write a play every eight to ten years. I (recently) contributed to The Betty Plays, a collection of four short plays for Betty Campbell to play. (Note: Betty Campbell is a long-time Seattle actor who is getting to an age where standing and acting is a problem and four playwrights contributed to a special work where she specifically could act sitting down!) Mine was adapted from a news story about an 83 year old woman who had to land a plane when her pilot husband had a cardiac incident.

“(The seeds of this play came out of writing for a) 14/48 production in 2012. The theme was “how did this happen” and I wrote a play called “Short Sales” with a cartoon-like storytelling about how someone could end up with a house in a short sale situation. It was less fictional than I expected my writing to be.

Keep On Tapping: Greg McCormick Allen in "A Chorus Line" – Show #23 at the 5th Avenue Theatre

Greg McCormick Allen in A Chorus Line (Tracy Martin)

How you arrive at where your life is at can be quite surprising journey. Greg McCormick Allen says, “From what I’ve been told, I was taking drum lessons when I was 2 ½.  I’m not sure why I was taking drum lessons, but apparently, I really liked making noise but not sitting still. One day I heard a noise and wandered down the hall and there was a tap class going on. I indicated (to my mother that) I would like that. I’ve pretty much been doing it ever since!”

Greg is appearing in A Chorus Line at the 5^th Avenue Theatre and it’s his 23^rd show in that theater. It’s a pretty impressive number, and is mounting quickly. Almost every 5^th Ave show seems to have a role for Greg somewhere in it. At least lately! Not that the 5^th Ave is the only place you’ll see Greg. He’s also prepping to perform as Bert in Village Theatre’s Mary Poppins. Most people think that role is perfect for Greg at the perfect time in his life!

But back to his journey. Greg says, “My mom was from Texas and my father from Oregon and they adopted me when I was a couple of weeks old in Tacoma. They are not at all artistic. I’m not sure why they wanted to put me in all these lessons.” Well, we’re glad they did!

Intiman is all in with Angels in America

Adam Standley and Timothy McCuen Piggee in Angels (Chris Bennion)

(as printed in Seattle Gay News)

ANGELS IN AMERICA (Parts 1 and 2)
Intiman Theatre
Through September 21, 2014

Some people consider Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner one of the great plays of the 20th Century. Some consider it one of the great plays about Gay characters ever. 

This is a sprawling play, spanning six plus hours, generally done in two parts (Part 1, Millenium Approaches and Part 2, Perestroika), that delves deeply into philosophical ideas of the meaning of life, love and whether angels are real, and that encapsulates the 1980s in the time of AIDS and Gay rights clashing and clanging for attention. 

Part of its genius is that it's incredibly funny; at the very same moments it's terribly tragic. The kind of laugh-and-cry-at-the-same-time moments where the characters themselves are reacting or where the audience finds relief in the humor while recognizing the pain. 

Farcical fun at Strawshop

Black Comedy (courtesy Strawberry Theatre Workshop)

Black Comedy

Strawberry Theatre Workshop

Through September 20, 2014

Black Comedy is an hour long one-joke play taken to extremes. Written by Peter Shaffer, known for some very serious plays (Equus, Amadeus) in 1965, its major conceit uses theater lighting to create a trick: when characters flip the house light switch to the “on” position, the stage is dark, and when there is no light in their stage house, lights are fully up on stage. You can say that the play hopes to illuminate what people do in the dark, if you’d like. Really though, it’s an opportunity for stage actors to pratfall their hearts out!

Strawberry Theatre Workshop is doing the play and it is pretty clear that the actors are having a grand old time. A very accomplished troupe is providing the laughs under the direction of Kelly Kitchens. This short play of a very long joke takes place in the living room of Brindsley Miller (Richard Nguyen Sloniker) who is going to meet his fiancee’s (Brenda Joyner) father (Michael Patten) in a moment. Brin is an artist and he’s also expecting the great – and rich – Georg Bamberger, who could turn him into a very in-vogue artist if he likes what he sees.

To gussy up the place, Brin has borrowed furniture from his neighbor (Rob Burgess) hoping the neighbor will stay away just long enough not to notice. Alas, the farce couldn’t continue without dashing those hopes. To make matters even worse, there is a power outage in the building and no one has any candles. A distraught neighbor (Emily Chisholm) comes in for safety, and the electrician (MJ Sieber) is mistaken for Bamberger. As if that wasn’t enough confusion, Brin has an ex-girlfriend (Allison Strickland) who shows up at the wrong time wanting to rekindle romance.

Seattle Musical Theater Starts New Season Liberated From Ugly Past

The cast of Man of La Mancha rehearsing at Seattle Musical Theatre (Photo: Roy Arauz)

(As printed in Seattle Gay News)

Seattle Musical Theatre is launching their 37^th season in a few weeks. They’re starting with Man of La Mancha and the lead role of Cervantes/Don Quixote is being played by Jeff Church. In many ways, that signifies enormous change for the somewhere-between-high-school-and-community-and-professional theater company.

SMT, renamed from the long-known CLO (Civic Light Opera), has been a very important presence in the Seattle musical community. Many of our veteran musical theater performers got their first out-of-school productions at this company. Many performers who went on to gain their Equity cards and perform at Village Theatre and the 5^th Avenue Theatre trod the boards at SMT first.

SMT has had a lot of struggles over the years, but last year’s credibility fiasco nearly succeeded in destroying the company altogether. Some of you who love musical theater might know what happened, but it is worth discussing what happened because the aftermath has produced some very very good changes. However, they are by no means out of the woods financially, so it’s important that you know you should definitely now start supporting this company. That’s especially true if you felt like you should stop supporting it last year.

Coming Up: Dream Role for Actor Jeff Church as Don Quixote at Seattle Musical Theatre

Don Quixote (Jeff Church) pledges his loyalty to Aldonza (Cherisse Martinelli) (Photo: Jeff Carpenter)

Jeff Church is finally getting to perform a dream role as Cervantes/Don Quixote in Seattle Musical Theatre’s production of Man of La Mancha (September 12-28^th tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/404659) . He’s been performing in Seattle for some years, at Village Theatre and the 5^th Avenue, and started his Seattle career performing at Civic Light Opera.

Jeff says about Man of La Mancha, “I did the show years ago in Wichita (Kansas) as Pedro, one of the muleteers. (With Cervantes/Don Quixote) you’re playing two characters in a show within a show. The clarity of each character is really important: finding the comedy in Don Quixote without making fun of him. There is a lot of comedy in his madness, (but) know that it’s a serious story he’s telling. I love the language, as well.

“(I’m performing with) a bigger voice than I use most of the time. Working with John Allman, music director, a person I trust to tell me what he’s hearing, is really great. The songs are such big baritone songs, but you don’t really get a chance to perform them until you’re at the right age for the role. It’s amazing to finally get the chance to do that. I’m 52 and I’m the perfect age.

“It’s a show many people know and being true to the story is hard, because people want a fresh take or a new version. It doesn’t need to be new, it just needs to be true.”

Exiting Managing Director Charlotte Tiencken addresses bringing new audience to Theater

Charlotte Tiencken, Myra Platt & Jane Jones accepting the Governor’s Arts Award (photo courtesy of Book-It Repertory Theatre)

We have a few unsung arts heroes in our community that join boards, serve on commissions, and support multiple artistic efforts in quiet and prolific ways. One of those is Charlotte Tiencken, and she is leaving us! She’s not just leaving her post as Managing Director of Book-It Repertory Theatre, but her bio says she also has, “taught at Seattle Pacific University, the University of Washington, The Evergreen State College, and the University of Puget Sound. She has been an adjunct faculty member at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. for ten years. Charlotte is past president of the Board of Arts Northwest. She has served on the Board of the Pat Graney Dance Company, on granting panels for the Washington State Arts Commission and 4 Culture, and was president of the Board of Theatre Puget Sound. Her most recent directing credits include Into the Woods for Vashon Drama Dock, Eugene Onegin for Vashon Opera, and Rashomon for Seattle Pacific University.”

That is just part of the effort she has poured into the Pacific Northwest artistic community over the past twenty years! She has been at Book-It for seven years. She is moving to Charleston, South Carolina to teach arts management at the College of Charleston. They will be very lucky to have her, because there is no doubt that she will busy herself becoming invaluable there, too.

Charlotte and I had a conversation, recently, discussing her tenure at Book-It. She describes some of what she found when she got there and found a much smaller (than present) organization with a high turnover in staffing and an unclear future plan. “When I took over in 2007 the budget was half what it is now. I asked, ‘What do you want?’ And we determined a direction. Part of that vision was being sustainable, having staff that was committed and not going anywhere.

Sparkly – if long – comedy, “Balconies” bubbles at Annex

Katherine Karaus, Drew Highlands, Evelyn DeHais in Balconies (photo Dangerpants Photography)

Balconies

Written by Scotto Moore

Annex Theatre

Through August 30, 2014

Opposites attract premises, particularly the conservative/liberal variety could be kind of eye-rolling, but at the hands of playwright Scotto Moore, it turns out to be a whole lot more fun than hackneyed. His newest work, Balconies, at Annex Theatre, has many of his signature elements: fast-paced dialogue, high tech speak, agile plot devices.

Instead of a just-ahead-of-its-time future fantasy (Moore’s previous works), this play stays rooted in 2014, but makes fun of a Scientology-type cult and lets the geeks win. Characters who, at first glance, seem stereotypically boring turn out to be a whole lot quirkier than their book-cover.

Cameron (Drew Highlands) is having a best-launch-ever party in his condo for Sparkle Dungeon 5. (I would love for that game to become a reality!) He’s invited dozens of geek friends in costume. But just next condo over, Annalise (Katherine Karaus) is hosting a fund-raiser for her politician mother (Laura Hanson), politicians including the Chief of Police, and a key funder, Lonso (Jason Sharp), a creepy world-thought-dominator.

"Time Stands Still" at ReAct Theatre

Brian Pucheu and Maria Knox in Time Stands Still (Photo David Hsieh)

Time Stands Still

Starring Maria Knox, Brian Pucheu, John Bianchi and Mona Leach

ReAct Theatre

Through August 24, 2014

Two war correspondents, a writer and photographer, are forced by injury to come home, heal, and figure out if that life is still theirs. Donald Margulies has written an absorbing play, with interesting characters, in Time Stands Still. Of course time doesn’t stand still for anyone, but James and Sarah stand in a moment of transition. ReACT Theatre is producing this play at the Ethnic Cultural Theater in the U. District.

If casting is 75% of the effort, director David Hsieh cast well. Each of the four players here is well positioned to perform each role. While opening night turned out to be “first audience,” and therefore, the timing and rhythm of performing to others wasn’t settled in, I’m certain that each will deepen into “the pocket” in short order.

Next Week: 2014 Village Originals’ Festival of New Musicals

The 2013 developmental production of Watt?!? (starring Hugh Hastings - front) during Festival of New Musicals (photo by Sam Freeman)

The annual musical development party is almost here. Village Theatre’s robust Festival of New Musicals is a well-established, nationally and internationally known, incubator of musicals, many of which move on to more development. Often, one of the festival’s musicals makes it to Village’s next Main Stage season. Once in a while, excitingly, one makes it to Broadway! Two were next to normal and Million Dollar Quartet. That hope fuels everyone’s ambitions.

The format, now, is five draft musical “readings” (unmemorized, but rehearsed, with music stands and zero to rudimentary costuming) and one musical that gets a “developmental” production, with full staging and memorization, though only a two weekend run.

The developmental production this year had its debut last summer as a reading: The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes is created by book and lyrics writer Christopher Dimond and composer Michael Kooman. This is a delightful story that will tickle the funnybone of musical theater lovers, with some inside jokes. Why? Well, the press release says, “Howard Barnes is a perfectly average American guy; he likes baseball and grilling things. That is, until he wakes up to discover that his life has become a musical.” It’s actually not so fun to have your life be a musical and Howard has to go on a quest to find the person who knows how to escape from Musical Land.

MUST SEE IN A HURRY! Go to ACTTHEATRE.ORG for HOLD THESE TRUTHS tickets!

Joel de la Fuente in Hold These Truths (photo by Lia Chang)

Hold These Truths
starring Joel de la Fuente
ACT Theatre
through August 3, 2014

If you see this post and it is still August 1st, 2nd or 3rd, stop reading this and go get your tickets to this beautiful piece of theater, Hold These Truths, right now. I'll wait.

This powerful 90 minute solo performance is everything that makes theater unique, important, amazing. Actor-turned-playwright Jeanne Sakata was so moved by her subject that she became a writer to tell the story. She does a masterful job, with the help of consummate theater practitioners director Lisa Rothe and actor Joel de la Fuente.

It is a unique opportunity to experience this production in Gordon Hirabayashi's home neighborhood which makes it even more powerful, I would think, than anywhere else. "Opening night" included dozens of Gordon's family members in the audience, which made it that much more amazing to be in the room.

Gordon Hirabayashi was a Seattle native who refused to relocate to an internment camp and refused, again, to be drafted in the Armed Services because it meant signing a pledge that he would not swear allegiance to the Japanese Emperor. Though he was not a lawyer, and not even that great a student (by this account), somehow he figured out what few Japanese-Americans seemed ready to agitate for: the internment was anti-Constitutional and so was asking only Japanese-American potential soldiers to sign a loyalty pledge.

“Clue” on a Grand Scale! The Schmee's "Attack of the Killer Murder...of Death!"

Ashley Bagwell behind Allie Pratt in Attack of the Killer Murder of ...Death (photo D Hastings)

Attack of the Killer Murder … of Death

Written by Wayne Rawley

Theater Schmeater 

Through August 16, 2014

There is a ton to like about Theater Schmeater’s opening show in its spankin’ new space. Wayne Rawley’s Attack of the Killer Murder…of Death! is generally funny, though not hysterical every moment. What it is, though, is a great opportunity to hear spot-on dialogue from uniquely specific characters who break out of stereotype to become their own special beings.

Every single member of this large cast pulls his/her weight in solid, fully realized characters. There is so much going on on this stage that it can be hard to focus on the dialogue fully, and you do want to try to do that, because the dialogue is so smart and well-crafted. Like in real life, though, the characters don’t just stop and wait for others to speak; they are constantly interacting with each other, sometimes in hysterical ways.

The basic plot is a bunch of people on an island making a B-movie (or who knows how far down the alphabet you might go on this one). It’s a horror movie, but there are horrors when filming stops. The power keeps going out, props won’t work and then the leading diva does her death scene for the movie…and doesn’t get up!

“Seminar” at Theatre9/12 warns you “Never take a writing class!”

From left: Samantha Camp, Randall Brammer, Jeff Berryman, Michael LoSasso (photo by Michael Brunk)

Seminar

Theatre9/12 

Through August 3, 2014

Theresa Rebeck’s play, Seminar, now being presented by Theatre9/12, seems like a two hour exhortation to never take a writing seminar! You’ll meet people who are either uninteresting or socially awkward or competitive or all three. At least, the initial impression of the writers in her play, all of whom have found $5,000 in New York dollars to attend a select writing seminar, points to those personality traits.

Who killed “Jane Eyre the Musical”? Major Underscore in the Drawing Room with a Piano

Art Anderson and Jessica Spencer  in Jane Eyre at Taproot Theatre (photo by Erik Stuhaug)

Jane Eyre the Musical

Taproot Theatre

Starring Jessica Spencer, Art Anderson

Through August 16, 2014

The rather unfortunate musical, Jane Eyre, is being presented by Taproot Theatre, currently. It is a rare misfire for the company, though I can understand reasons why this company would really like the content (in a moment). An able cast still cannot succeed in making this musical more than palatable, unless your particular enjoyments include dour, unpleasant and almost hopeless circumstances.

If you know the Charlotte Bronte book, the basic story is included, though it experiences more like the greatest moments hits than an adaptation that works to include the feeling and scope of the novel. This is not inventive writing. In fact, it misses from the very beginning scene.

Jane comes out as an adult to begin telling us about her very unfortunate and difficult childhood. Here is a major opportunity to show us that she ultimately triumphs in the end (this should not be a spoiler). Here a song could be that says something like, “I thought it was hopeless, I had no reason to believe that a good life lay before me, yet here I am today to tell you that, but for the grace of God, I am happy and …” etc. Instead, the unidentified-aged Jane immediately plunges us into her childhood starting with a rousing song of, “Beat the liar out of that nine year old.”

Summer Reading: “The Greenlake Play Series” (by and for people who visit Greenlake)

A group of eight playwrights have crafted a themed short-play event and are presenting is as a free reading at the Bathhouse, Sunday July 27^th at 2pm. The shorts have all been generated with settings at Greenlake and at least one idea came from making a story out of bits overheard from people running past.

The eight plays are:

Spider in the Mouth by Kevin Bordi

Glamour Shot by Rebecca Demarest

Open Water by Emily Golden

Blood Brothers by Melanie Hampton

The Diagnosis by Courtney Kessler

The Path by Jerry Kraft

Puppy Love by J.D. Panzer

Buckets by J. Michael Tumblin

Nathan Jeffrey and J. Michael Tumblin direct four pieces each, with actors including Ryan Childers, Tom Dewey, Olivia Hartshorn, Bill Johns, Caitlin Macy-Beckwith, Jenny Vaughn, and members of the Seattle Public Theatre Youth Program: Jake Gordon, Tess Sevetson, and Olivia Sterne.

The new Zinzanni show is electric!

The Zinzanni cast (photo Mike Hipple)

When Sparks Fly

Teatro Zinzanni

Through September 21, 2014

There is something electric going on at Teatro Zinzanni. Their new show, When Sparks Fly, is fun and fresh. It is definitely going to give a lift to those who have been to the amazing spiegeltent before. In fact, it’s magic!

The theme feels a bit like fusion from Rocky Horror Picture Show and Franken-lite. The Master (Voronin) conjures up a love for himself while the rest of his ensemble find love themselves. But first, as you get seated, The Accordion Player (Sergey Krutikov) serenades you, sometimes with violinist Tom Dziekonski. They make beautiful music together, and the sound is sent through the p.a. system, so you can sit anywhere in the tent and hear them.

Of course, anyone who has never gone to any of their shows will find themselves amazed and delighted. I’ve hoped that returnees could find just as good a time, going for fourth or fifth times. This iteration does have more of a surprising and delightful feel to it. Part of that is the inclusion of illusions that are definitely top-notch skull scratchers.

"We Will Rock You" to Sleep Occasionally

Cast of We Will Rock You (photo Paul Kolnick)

We Will Rock You
5th Avenue Theatre
through July 13, 2014

The musical revue, We Will Rock You, now at the 5th Avenue Theatre, is supposed to use the iconic songs from Queen to bring a story to life. Throwing all the kitsch and hackneyed jokes into a story in the (near?) future where because all of life is lived on the internet there is no more live music (wtf?), a Dreamer finds himself seeing visions of gates and a Rock hanging in the air, and his very existence threatens the entire accomplishment of the domination of GlobalSoft, the ruling corporation.

Would it surprise you to find that the gates are to Graceland? The King is Elvis? The Rock hanging in the air is really "Rock and roll" ... a vision? And all of the Bohemians who want Rhapsody find their way there from following a vee-dee-oh-tap-ee?

There are moments that are actually funny, but most of them try so very hard that they fail. Efforts to inject even more topical references (twerking is supposed to be funny?) hit so hard on the funny bone, they hurt. The book of this musical is terrible. Flat out terrible.

Personal stories of the Piano Man. Victor Janusz stars in “Hands Solo” at ACT.

Victor Janusz (photo Jimmy Malecki)

Hands Solo: Pianoman

Starring Victor Janusz

ACT Theatre 

July 10-20, 2014

Victor Janusz is combining two of his favorite things: music and acting. He’s developed a memoir, Hands Solo: Pianoman, for the stage that performs from July 10-20 at ACT Theatre. He is one of the hardest working men around town, performing as a cabaret act and a solo pianist at Salty’s On Alki, among other gigs.

The roughly 80 minute show will give you a chronological look at his life through music that means something deep and particular to each age. Victor explains, “I want people to realize that the guy or gal behind the piano is investing his or her lifetime of relationships and stories into each song played.”

Some of the song selections and stories sound hilarious. The press release says, “Wonder about his surreal nine-year stint at Nordstrom playing for mannequins ("Mannequin Blues"); And revel in the tale of his 'command-performance' for then-Presidential Candidate Obama ("Living In A Blue State ") – where he exchanges business cards with the future President and causes a nervous breakdown among his Secret Service detail.” Others focus on his difficulties accepting himself as a gay man.

Time for the Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival! Indulge in all things outdoors and a lotta Shakespeare, July 12 and 13!

July 12 and 13 - ALL DAY! Volunteer Park! Free! (donations always accepted)

Website for more info: http://www.greenstage.org/sotf

Full calendar at that site.

Libby Barnard (Desdemona), Johnny Patchamatla (Othello), Martyn Krouse (Iago) in Othello (photo by Ken Holmes)

Two theater "spaces" busy all day.

July 12 (in order):
Much Ado About Nothing - Last Leaf Productions
Julius Caesar - Wooden O
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf - Theater Schmeater
Love's Labours Lost - Greenstage

AND
Teatro Minestrone's Around the World in 8 Stories - 14/48 Projects
Richard III - Last Leaf Productions
The Lost Folio - Jet City Improv

July 13:
Midsummer Night's Dream - Young Shakespeare Workshop
Othello - Greenstage
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf - Theater Schmeater
Two Gentlemen of Verona - Wooden O

AND
Teatro Minestrone's Around the World in 8 Stories - 14/48 Projects
Much Ado About Nothing - Shakespeare Northwest
The Lost Folio - Jet City Improv

"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.

Opera trivia is the subplot for an aria about love and loss in Theatre22's "The Lisbon Traviata"

Daniel Christensen and Eric Mulholland in Lisbon Traviata (photo Robert Falk)

The Lisbon Traviata
by Terrence McNally
directed by Gerald B. Browning
starring Daniel Christensen, Eric Mulholland, Sean P. O'Bannon, Kyle James Traver
Theatre22
(at Richard Hugo House)
through June 28

A relationship hitting the very last skids is dressed in operatic clothing in Theatre22's latest production of The Lisbon Traviata by Terrence McNally. Gay men living in 1985 in New York in the shadow of the growing AIDS crisis try to find love or save love.

The cast of four tackle this sometimes humorous, sometimes way-over-the-top fanboy opera arcanity, sometimes soapy relationship script with credibility. Gerald B. Browning has a clear vision as a director and manages the flow of the action with believability and also creates a terrific visual design with huge Maria Callas wall portraits setting the post-modern scene.

The two actors with the most to do are Daniel Christensen as Stephen and his best friend and fellow opera geek Mendy (Eric Mulholland). Much of Act One is their great friendship, full of their history and that of all their friends, and their incredible attachment to Maria Callas, the great opera diva who died before her time in 1977. Even audience members of this play who heard her perform vouch for her greatness.

Stephen and Mendy spend a lot of time debating which of Callas' performances are best on record as they compare her La Traviata of London with that of a Lisbon performance. But their obsession with Callas is how we learn of Stephen's deteriorating relationship with Mike (Sean P. O'Bannon) and that Mike is seeing a new man, Paul (Kyle James Traver).

ACT's The Price makes good sense to see

Charles Leggett and Peter Silbert and Peter Lohnes in The Price
Photo: Chris Bennion 

The Price
by Arthur Miller
directed by Victor Pappas
starring Anne Allgood, Charles Leggett, Peter Lohnes, Peter Silbert
ACT Theatre
through June 22

Arthur Miller's play The Price is now on ACT Theatre's main stage with four top-notch actors. The play is now a period piece dated 1967, but with a timeless theme: family relationships.

Victor Franz (Charles Leggett), a New York cop, is finally forced to sell the family furniture due to imminent destruction of the building by new owners. A lifetime of "stuff" has been sitting untouched in the sixteen years of Victor's father's passing. He has invited a furniture appraiser (Peter Silbert) to give him a price. Victor wants it all gone and does not wish to sell off only the good pieces to Solomon.

Victor's other dilemma, as he discusses it with his wife Esther (Anne Allgood), is whether to split to proceeds with his unavailable brother, Walter (Peter Lohnes). Walter has refused to answer any phone calls or messages and Esther, who is more concerned about money than Victor is, thinks Victor should just keep all the money he gets for the furniture. Walter is a successful and prosperous doctor and doesn't need it.

Sound Theatre's "A Small Fire" is a little jewel in a jewelbox

Teri Lazzara and Sara Coates in A Small Fire (photo by Ken Holmes)

A Small Fire
by Adam Bock
directed by Julie Beckman
starring Teri Lazzara, Gordon Carpenter, Sara Coates, Ray Tagavilla
Sound Theatre Company
(at New City Theater, 18th and Union)
through June 21

Sound Theatre Company's season is set to examine the language of love and hate, they say, and their first production, A Small Fire, exhibits both in a searing exploration of family relationships during the height of illness.

The play by Adam Bock creates a brusk, non-nonsense woman (Teri Lazarra) whose feelings are so deeply buried that she doesn't have time to find them. She treats people with a no-nonsense air and a hurried manner that makes them feel like they're in her way. Her daughter (Sara Coates) has a lifetime of hurt from her mother's truth-hurts unboundaried comments, especially about her fiance. Her daughter even thinks that her father (Gordon Carpenter) should leave her mother and be happier without being berated by this demanding woman.

It remains for a co-worker, Billy (Ray Tagavilla) to demonstrate to us how much care is covered up by her brusk manner, as he details how she showed her belief in him by watching over him, yelling at him, and having others make him stick to his work or keep him from straying off the straight and narrow.

The Phoenix Theatre knows comedy and does it well

Christine Mosere and Melanie Calderwood in Kimberly Akimbo 

Kimberly Akimbo
by David Lindsay-Abaire
Directed by Eric Lewis
Starring Melanie Calderwood, Jay Jenkins, Christine Mosere, Carissa Meisner Smit, and Woody Lotts
The Phoenix Theatre
through June 22

If you haven't been out to Edmonds lately, there are two theater companies there and both are well worth paying attention to. Driftwood Players is one, and The Phoenix Theatre is the other. The Phoenix Theatre grew out of the ashes of Edge of the World Theatre which probably felt like the edge of the world if you attended their ramshackled and unamenitied performances. Melanie Calderwood and her crew fixed up the space, painted, made a cute lobby, and turned it into a little piece of escapism.

The Phoenix tends to focus on comedies, and they do them well. But just because they are funny does not make the comedies bland or without societal commentary. Their latest offering is Kimberly Akimbo by David Lindsay-Abaire. The biggest surprise in this play is that the main character, 16 year old Kimberly, suffers from progeria, a condition where a child ages so rapidly that he/she physically appears to be aged and often dies by age 16.

Lindsay-Abaire does not just give Kimberly this condition, he also makes her mother somewhat neglectful, narcissistic, and think she's dying of cancer, and her father an alcoholic, he also adds an aunt that has been in and out of jails and homeless! That description would, by itself, sound more like a tragedy. But if you give it a chance, it's a bittersweet comic take on resourcefulness and family resilience.

The cast does a lovely job of bringing the play to life, centered by the sweet and patient performance of Melanie Calderwood. She is note-perfect as a 16 year-old trapped in an 80ish year old body. She understands her condition, tolerates her parents - mostly, and is marvelously entranced by maybe finally getting a boyfriend. Calderwood is a frequent performer in her theater and I have yet to see her fail to bring each character fully to life.