Katy Tabb News

I am aware, Dear Readers, that for some the ABBA jukebox musical “Mamma Mia” is not for them. Maybe they aren’t fans of ABBA or maybe they just don’t like fun but whatever the case, I can unabashedly state that I am NOT one of them.  

Afterwords is the 24th new musical produced by The 5th Avenue Theatre and features music and lyrics by Zoe Sarnak and a book by Emily Kazmarek, with direction by Adrienne Campbell-Holt, choreography by Ebony Williams, and music supervision by Matt Perri.

The illustrious Triple Door transforms into 1890s Prague in Bohemia, a story about love, classical music, art nouveau, green fairies and absinthe. Presented by Opal Peachey and Mark Siano, this musical combines live orchestral music from composers Antonín Dvořák and Frédéric Chopin, with original musical works by Mark Siano and Dayton Allemann.

Imagination Stage has revived their Helen Hayes Award-winning 2012 production of 'The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe' for the 2019 holiday season. With stunning sets and engaging musical elements, it's not hard to see why this production is a local favorite. The show takes a well-known tale and retells with the fun creativity of a children's production, but with the sensibilities that play to adults' nostalgia.

Olney Theatre Center launches the 2019-2020 season on the Mainstage with Kander and Ebb's CABARET directed by Alan Paul (August 28 - October 6, 2019). Broadway veteran Alexandra Silber, who played Guinevere in Paul's 2019 Helen Hayes Award-winning production of Camelot, and Tzeitel in the acclaimed Bart Sher revival of Fiddler on the Roof, will star as Sally Bowles, the flamboyant showgirl carried away by the glitz and debauchery of Weimar Berlin. Invited press night is Saturday, August 31 at 8:00pm.

We are pleased to announce the winners for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Seattle Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Nominations were reader-submitted and voted on by you - the local theatergoers!

It's the last week to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Seattle Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

There's just two weeks left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Seattle Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

There's just two weeks left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Seattle Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

There's just one month left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Seattle Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

There's just one month left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Seattle Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

Sweet Land at Taproot Theatre is a sweet treat of a show. Full of humor, wit, challenges, and struggles, the story of Inge Altenberg and Olaf Torvik becomes an everyman's story. The path to the American dream is paved with suspicion and hardship for immigrants both past and present. Their trials and travails parallel the stories of so many others. In the end, we find that their differences are much smaller than our commonalities. Communities can unite or divide. It is up to each person to decide where and with whom they will stand.

For the centenary of America's favorite musical son Leonard Bernstein, two of his much-loved works

Village Theatre is excited to present ZM, a new Broadway-style musical comedy with music & lyrics by Mark Hollmann and book & lyrics by Greg Kotis - the creators of the Tony Award-winning show, Urinetown. ZM will run at Village Theatre's First Stage Theatre in Issaquah from June 1-10, 2018.

Rehearsals are in full swing for The 5th Avenue Theatre's production of Kiss Me, Kate, which begins performances next Friday, April 6.

I was speaking with a friend the other day about the current show from Showtunes Theatre Company, "The Boys from Syracuse". He's a somewhat new, fledgling musical theater geek and I said, that it was filled with great Rodgers and Hart songs many of which are standards now. I went through a few and got nothing but blank stares. And that, Dear Readers, is why Showtunes is so important. We need someone to keep bringing us these underdone, and often times older shows such as "The Boys from Syracuse" so established geeks like me can sit there and … well … geek out, and for a place for newbies to come and be exposed to these grand old shows so they might actually learn what a "standard" is.

The winners of the 2017 Gypsy Rose Lee Awards are announced by the Seattle critics circle, Seattle Theater Writers!

How do you get people to give a damn about classical music? Make it fun, lively, and add plenty of drinks and a whole lot of sex appeal.

Dear Readers, it's been quite a year and, hopefully, we've come through it unscathed. God knows we've needed some shows to help us escape and others to make us think. But through it all we've had several shows that have proven to shine as some of the best of the year. Out of all the shows I was fortunate enough to see this year, I've selected a few that stood out. Here are those stand outs, a few honorable mentions and a few special mentions about which I just couldn't help myself but to mention in their own special way.

From the award winning artistic duo who created Seattle Vice comes a new cabaret about love, classical music, art nouveau, and absinthe. Bohemia is a new musical set in 1890s Prague that combines the music of Dvo? k and Chopin, with art by Alphonse Mucha. Historic artists like Sarah Bernhardt, George Sand, and interweave with green fairies, aerial numbers, dance, burlesque, classical piano battles, comedy, and original songs.