SEATTLE THEATER REVIEWS

As you may know by now, Dear Readers, one of my pet peeves in any performance is the lack of levels. If you don't vary your emotion, intent and delivery for a character then that character might as well just be reading lines from a book. And while there were a few stand outs in the current product...

MAP Theatre may not be one of the most prolific companies out in Seattle. In fact they tend to do only one or two shows a year. But what we have come to expect from them is certainly more quality than quantity as they invest tremendous amounts of thought and talent into those few shows. Their lat...

When people think of George Bernard Shaw plays they inevitably go to "Pygmalion" or "Arms and the Man" or something like that. But there's one of his out there that does not see enough of the light of day, "Mrs. Warren's Profession". Maybe it's due to the subject matter or maybe not enough people ...

Working through the grief of the loss of a loved one is never easy. Luckily Eleanor Mae (Kevin Kent) is on hand to help us through the grief. To help us cry, to help us process and yes, to help us laugh in the fantastic new show "Eulogy" at West of Lenin. But this is not your ordinary riff on los...

One of my favorite events each year is the Village Originals Festival of New Musicals. Each year there's at least one new show that you long to get a full staging. Back in 2014 that show was "My Heart is the Drum" with it's touching story and engaging music. It showed so much potential and I was ...

In any given show you usually have the good guys and the bad guys. The people you identify with as being in the right and those in the wrong. But even when some people are clearly wrong it's possible to see why they react the way they do if the performances are strong enough. Such is the case wit...

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 ...

Only the incredible Stephen Sondheim could make a musical about Presidential assassins and make it work. It's a dark subject that you think wouldn't be sung about. But Sondheim shows off his storytelling prowess by creating a sort of club or group therapy aspect to the group of killers as they att...

Rebecca Gilman's play "Luna Gale" currently performing at the Seattle Rep has no good guys in it. But then it also has no bad guys in it. Instead of preaching morality or her own agenda what she's done is to present a raw and honest look at people. You may not agree with them, but are they wrong?...

OK I'm back and let's just dive right in for the rest of the amazing shows I saw in New York....

Dear Readers, I'm back from the Mothership (New York of course) to let you all in on some of the wonderful and not so wonderful things I saw with a few brief notes on each. And yes that includes my catching the juggernaut of all shows on Broadway right now, 'Hamilton'. Now there are some shows tha...

Okay, readers. I will be doing my best attempt to review The Paramount's production of 'Jersey Boys' objectively, considering that I am not a fan of Frankie Valli or The Four Seasons. Based on conversations I had with the people in the audience-and conversations I overheard-I seemed to be the only o...

ATTENTION SEATTLE TECHIES: there is a sketch performance for you! ATTENTION NON-TECHIES AND THE TECH BEWILDERED: there is a sketch performance for you too! Come together all who have startup experience and all who believe the tech industry is (as director and writer Bridget Quigg puts it) a bubble w...

A play where only half the cast knows the story and a trio of snarky seagulls who are rife with tragedy. These are just a few of the offerings from the 2016 Seattle Fringe Festival performing all over town this weekend and next. Now I wasn't able to catch everything this weekend and next week I'll...

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 ...

There are certain theatrical experiences out there that are your "vegetables". The shows that make you think about your life, choices, and the world around you. And then there are shows like "9 to 5: The Musical" which are basically dessert. Those fun bits of fluff that aren't going to change you...

Take two episodes of The Twilight Zone, add psychedelic aesthetics and a musical score and BOOM, you have STAGEright's 'Weird Romance.' Directed by Brendan Mack, this 'two one-act musicals of speculative fiction' somehow made a glam-rock Rod Serling fever dream accessible and intimate....

It's one thing when a play is meaningful and important, something most plays strive for. It's another thing when a play tries to be meaningful and important. And it's yet another thing when a play insists that it's meaningful and important. Unfortunately Tracey Scott Wilson's play 'Buzzer', curre...

Dear Reader (It only seems appropriate to start this review off with that), sometimes a show comes along that feels like a no brainer. A show that's fairly bulletproof and if a theater does it well enough with enough pieces in place then it'll be a crowd pleaser. 'How to Succeed in Business Withou...

Let me start by saying that I've never seen the original movie of "Bullets Over Broadway" all the way through. I'm just not a Woody Allen fan. So a musical interpretation of it didn't exactly thrill me. So what about the current production turned me around? Was it the story? It's cute but nothi...

Peter Shaffer's stirring play "Amadeus" can move you to the point of tears, but only when it's done well. It is by no means a bulletproof play. Unfortunately the current production at Seattle Public Theater, while managing a few interesting performances, really just stands out as having an unfocus...

Clifford Odets built a career off of writing dramas that dealt with class inequality and social injustice in the depression era. His first ever produced play, "Waiting for Lefty", certainly falls into that category. And while the current production from Theatre9/12 does manage some stirring perfor...

'The Twelfth Story' at The Annex Theatre reminded me of the Rudyard Kipling Just-So Stories that were read to me at bedtime. Directed by Amy Poisson, the cast of 'The Twelfth Story' was as jubilant as spritely camp counselors. As a child, I think I would have liked the story's magic, goblins, twinkl...

Who hasn't wanted a 'do-over' when on a date? Maybe you say the wrong thing, maybe you run into your ex or maybe you trip the waiter, which causes him to knock over a flaming dessert that burns the restaurant to the ground. We've all been there, right? Well according to Nick Payne's beautiful pla...

Most of us fell in love with Maurice Sendak's enchanting book "Where the Wild Things Are" when we were kids and still kids today all know of the tale of Max's journey to the island of the Wild Things. But how many kids actually get to join in on the Wild Rumpus? Well now kids in Seattle can with t...