Patty Bonnell

18th & Union is back from summer vacation. We're welcoming back our good friend Ricky Coates, formerly based in Seattle. Ricky and his performing partner Sadie Bowman offer two combustible mixtures of science and musical comedy. And, we'll host a new production of Jeffrey Hatcher's Three Viewings, a play that shows that even in mourning we can have a sense of humor.

In order to remove a curse on her family in Seattle, Mathilde must return a stolen manuscript at the same time that its dead author seeks it. That author is 19th-century composer Richard Wagner, intent on safeguarding his legacy. The handwritten manuscript, now worth millions, is an unknown last scene for his famous 'Ring' operas. Determined to thwart Wagner is the cunning dwarf Alberich, the villain of 'The Ring,' who long ago escaped his creator's grasp.

Red Rover Theatre Company presents the world premiere of 'Das Ende' (German for 'The End'), a full-length play by Duane Kelly. 

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.

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!?

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.

Slice of life plays, like "Puny Humans" currently playing at Annex Theatre, are difficult at best especially when focusing on one specific sub-culture such as Comic-Con attendees. You need something new to say about your subjects, you need to make your subjects empathetic and you need an over-arching reason for us to be looking at this particular slice of life. Unfortunately writers Bret Fetzer and Keiko Green fail at all three of those elements making their 2 hour and 45 minute show (yeah, you heard me) drone on.