Marianna de Fazio News

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.

I remember my first exposure to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic, "Treasure Island". It wasn't the book but rather an animated version they showed occasionally during Saturday morning cartoons and although I haven't seen that one in years I remember loving it for its thrilling swashbuckling adventure and rich characters including a bad guy who wasn't all that bad even though he was a bloodthirsty pirate. Well I'm happy to say all those feelings from childhood came rushing back the other night as I watched Book-It Repertory Theatre's current adaptation. I mean, swarthy pirates, sword fights, and buried treasure. How can you go wrong?

Book-It Repertory Theatre continues its 27th season with the gripping classic Treasure Island. Full of enthralling characters and one of literature's most beloved villains, Treasure Island explores the complex relationship between the morally ambiguous Long John Silver and the young Jim Hawkins. Throughout this thrilling tale, Hawkins learns hard lessons of balancing the lure of adventure with the desire for stability and confronting the dilemma of liking a person, but not their behavior. The most popular pirate story ever written in English, Treasure Island is sure to delight audiences this holiday season!

There are dozens of different ways to tell a story, and budding production team amador/stokes may have used all of them in their vibrant, surreal production "DUELS", currently playing at 12th Avenue Arts.

amador/stokes will present the World Premiere of DUELS by Nick Stokes, running August 18th to September 10th, 2016, playing Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00pm with an Industry Performance on Sunday, August 28th at 8:00pm. Made up of a heady mix of Beckett, magic realism and tragic love story, DUELS will run at The Studio at 12th Ave Arts, 1620 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122.

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.

I'll be honest, there were several elements that gave me trepidation before seeing Seattle Immersive Theatre's current production of “Romeo + Juliet” the other night. The immersive nature of it (seems to be the resurging trend and not always done well), the idea of tromping around an abandoned storefront, and the fact that while I love Shakespeare's “Romeo + Juliet” I've never actually seen a production I truly liked just to name a few. But all my fears were soon dashed as I entered a superbly crafted realm housing the best production of the play I have ever seen and culminating in a theatrical experience I'll remember for years to come.

Sound Theatre Company completes an exciting year with the return of their smash holiday comedy Holiday of Errors to delight Seattle audiences this December. First presented as a world premiere in 2013 to critical and audience acclaim, Sound Theatre Company's remount features most of the original cast to fill the stunning new 12th Avenue Arts Mainstage on Capitol Hill with word-play and Shakespeare.

MAP Theatre will present The Art of Bad Men, a new play by Vincent Delaney from tonight, September 25th to October 17th, 2015, Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays @ 7:30pm.

MAP Theatre will present The Art of Bad Men, a new play by Vincent Delaney from September 25th to October 17th, 2015, Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays @ 7:30pm. Performances will be held at theLAB@Inscape, 815 Seattle Blvd S, Seattle, WA 98134. All tickets are Name-Your-Own-Price available at Brown Paper Tickets.

If I wanted to watch people sniping at each other with no discernible plot or story then I'll watch reality TV. Unfortunately that's what the latest outing from Sound Theatre Company, 'School For Lies', felt like. David Ives' adaptation of Moliere's 'The Misanthrope' felt like such a contrived and one-note exercise in insults that I may have well have been watching the Real Housewives in verse. True the cast commits to the style but the style they've adopted is so forced and flat that I felt beaten over the head with the humor to the point that I didn't care about any of the characters.

Sound Theatre Company will launch into raunch and ruffles this summer with the Seattle premiere of The School for Lies by David Ives, co-directed by Teresa Thuman and Ken Michels. This saucy update of Moliere's The Misanthrope by Tony Award-nominated David Ives (Venus in Fur) stuffs contemporary off-color slang into the classic baroque farce, in which rivals scheme romance to expose a notorious cynic. A few cunning lies set party girl Celimene and acerbic wit Frank up for battle and sex. Misbehavior, gossip, glamour and scandal reign in this clowning burlesque written in rhymed couplets.

Take equal parts Dickens and Shakespeare, add in a healthy spoonful of historical tom-foolery, the zest from a bawdy queen and stir it up til you don't know one play from another and you'll have the latest outing from one of the more impressive small theater companies in town, Sound Theatre Company, with their World Premiere of "Holiday of Errors". And while it may get slightly muddled at times and take just a bit to get started, if you sit back and let the ridiculousness of it wash over you, you're bound to have a good time.

Sound Theatre Company is pleased to announce the full cast and crew of its first-ever holiday production, Holiday of Errors (or Much Ado About Stockings).

Laugh away the winter blues with P.G. Wodehouse's classic characters in Jeeves in Bloom, opening at Taproot Theatre tonight, February 1. Peace. Tranquility. The English countryside. Then Bertie Wooster pays a visit. While ducking romance, fleeing a cleaver-wielding chef and burgling his uncle, Bertie's trail of mischief and mayhem is set right by his unflappable valet, Jeeves. Based on characters created by author P.G. Wodehouse, this confectionary treat is a delightful respite from the daily grind. Associate Artistic Director Karen Lund directs Margaret Raether's adaptation of P.G. Wodehouse's stories. Jeeves in Bloom opens tonight, February 1 and runs through March 2, 2013. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the show below!

Laugh away the winter blues with P.G. Wodehouse's classic characters in Jeeves in Bloom, opening at Taproot Theatre on February 1. Peace. Tranquility. The English countryside. Then Bertie Wooster pays a visit. While ducking romance, fleeing a cleaver-wielding chef and burgling his uncle, Bertie's trail of mischief and mayhem is set right by his unflappable valet, Jeeves. Based on characters created by author P.G. Wodehouse, this confectionary treat is a delightful respite from the daily grind. Associate Artistic Director Karen Lund directs Margaret Raether's adaptation of P.G. Wodehouse's stories. Jeeves in Bloom opens February 1 and runs through March 2, with previews on January 30 and 31.

Manners and tawdry secrets collide at Theater Schmeater with their current production of Noel Coward's "Fallen Angels". And Coward's signature send-up of the upper crust combined with some stunning characterizations and timing from the cast add up to one delightfully funny and slightly naughty evening.