Jesse Smith News

Village Theatre closes out their season with the dynamic R&B spectacular Dreamgirls. With an extraordinary cast of vocal talents, slick costumes, and set designs custom built in Issaquah, Dreamgirls continues the theatre's path of raising the bar on production quality with each passing year. Audiences will be transported back to the 1960s as this award-winning musical offers a moving behind-the-scenes look of the entertainment business. 'I am so excited to be doing such an epic show with some of the most amazing people I've ever worked with,' says director, Steve Tomkins. 'The whole audition process was just wonderful, as each person came into the room and blew the roof off. I can't wait for opening night, because this cast is just going to send it through the roof again. They are truly outstanding.'

The thirteenth annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature will focus its lens on today's fractious relationship between gender and power. Taking place in New York City, May 1-7, 2017, the weeklong Festival will use literature and the arts to address how gender both enables and impairs full participation in politics and society.

The thirteenth annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature will focus its lens on today's fractious relationship between gender and power. Taking place in New York City, May 1-7, 2017, the weeklong Festival will use literature and the arts to address how gender both enables and impairs full participation in politics and society.

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.

Are there any taboo subjects for musicals anymore? I mean we've had shows about serial killers and assassins, drug addicts and prisoners, demons and super powered psychotic teens, and even oversexed puppets. So I don't know why anyone should be surprised by the new musical at ACT in conjunction with ArtsWest and Circle X Theatre Co., 'Bad Apples' which takes a look at one of our countries most disgraceful moments, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. This in your face rock musical will definitely not be everyone's cup of tea and especially not for the kids. But if you can get past all the language, sex, and horrific images then what you're left with is a killer show that looks at how easily people in power can justify appalling acts.

Sound Theatre Company continues its tenth anniversary season with Stephen Adly Guirgis' expressionistic courtroom fantasy The Last Days of Judas Iscariot.  The Last Days of Judas Iscariot dramatizes a court case to decide the ultimate fate of Judas Iscariot which utilizes flashbacks, testimonials, and interrogations of such witnesses as Mother Teresa, Caiaphas, Saint Monica, Sigmund Freud, and Satan, among others.  The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a hilarious, poignant, thought-provoking work by Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis. Contains mature language.

Bainbridge Performing Arts presents Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID, directed by Joanna Hardie, with music direction by Josh Anderson, and choreography by Debbie Pierce. Run dates are May 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28 & 29. Check out photos below!

There's no doubt that Jeanine Tesori's music in the musical "Violet", currently playing at ArtsWest, is stirring and powerful but it's the lyrics and book by Brian Crawley that truly pack the punch in the show. But of course they would as the show is rife with hot button topics of that era as well as our own. And while the ensemble manages some of the tightest and most technically proficient performances I've seen I didn't always get from them the importance or danger associated with the stakes of those issues and so didn't always feel the emotional connection to the story.

Spike TV's hit original reality-competition series INK MASTER produced by Original Media, returns for a 'lucky' seventh season, premiering tonight, March 1 at 10 pm ET/PT.

Spike TV's hit original reality-competition series INK MASTER produced by Original Media, returns for a 'lucky' seventh season, premiering Tuesday, March 1 at 10 pm ET/PT.

Rock music, counter-culture, and the sexual revolution take center stage in HAIR, the first and most successful rock musical of all time, at Bainbridge Performing Arts this month. Featuring the iconic numbers Aquarius, Good Morning Starshine, I Believe in Love, Hair, I Got Life, What a Piece of Work Is Man, and Hippie Life, HAIR offers meaningful commentary on the generational divide of the Sixties, lending vitality and insights that remain relevant today. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Rock music, counter-culture, and the sexual revolution take center stage in HAIR, the first and most successful rock musical of all time, at Bainbridge Performing Arts this month. Featuring the iconic numbers Aquarius, Good Morning Starshine, I Believe in Love, Hair, I Got Life, What a Piece of Work Is Man, and Hippie Life, HAIR offers meaningful commentary on the generational divide of the Sixties, lending vitality and insights that remain relevant today. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Rock music, counter-culture, and the sexual revolution take center stage in HAIR, the first and most successful rock musical of all time. Featuring the iconic numbers Aquarius, Good Morning Starshine, I Believe in Love, Hair, I Got Life, What a Piece of Work Is Man, and Hippie Life, HAIR offers meaningful commentary on the generational divide of the Sixties, lending vitality and insights that remain relevant today.

Sound Theatre Company has never shied away from difficult plays and now in conjunction with Brownbox Theatre they've taken on Marcus Gardley's moving civil war fable "… And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi". To be blunt, this play is not going to be for everyone with its deeply poetic nature and complex imagery. And while certain elements of the piece I found confusing or missing the mark; I was able to come away from it with an admiration of its lyric beauty and gripping story.

The 2015 Brooklyn Artists Ball Dance Party will be held tonight, April 15, 2015 from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Brooklyn Museum's Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Pavilion, 1st Floor, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn.

The 2015 Brooklyn Artists Ball Dance Party will be held on Wednesday, April 15, 2015 from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Brooklyn Museum's Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Pavilion, 1st Floor, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn.

As it gears up to celebrate a record-breaking 7th year in the West End, Thriller Live is announcing major changes to the production, including a new opening, new video content and the addition of iconic Michael Jackson songs - Earth Song and HIStory.

Just in time for the raucous celebration that is Halloween, Australian eclectic soul nonet Saskwatch present the gorgeously terrifying visual accompaniment to “Born to Break Your Heart”