SEATTLE THEATER REVIEWS

Strengthen up those smiling and laughing muscles because the insanity of one of my favorite holiday show alternatives is back with "Ham for the Holidays: Fear the Bacon" over at ACT. And let me tell you, they have upped their game and outdone themselves. My cheeks are still aching from all the lau...

When the musical adaptation of "A Christmas Story" first came to the 5th Avenue Theatre back in 2010 for the pre-Broadway Premiere I was dubious at best. And my fears turned out to be well founded as the musical felt scattered and lacked the emotional core that the original story and movie had. Lu...

What in the name of Theodor Geisel were they thinking? Not since that deplorable live action film version have I seen a worse retelling of the classic Dr. Seuss tale as 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical' currently playing at the Paramount....

ACT and Director John Langs completely nailed it again and then some. I saw the production last year of ACT's Seattle tradition of "A Christmas Carol" and found myself struck by how well they conveyed this classic tale. And as much as I enjoyed it last year there was something even more magical an...

Romantics the world over have loved the works of Jane Austen for centuries with her tales of loves lost and then found. And one of her best beloved is now on stage from Book-It Repertory Theatre with "Pride and Prejudice". And not only is it a wonderful adaptation filled with superb performances b...

Theater Schmeater may have moved to new digs but they still know what we all love and that's their long running series of "The Twilight Zone: Live!" And not only are they still bringing the thrills, suspense, and laughs but even some very touching and sigh-able moments with a holiday flair. I don'...

I'm just going to stop you right here, Dear Reader. If you haven't already gone out and got your tickets for the Seattle Rep's production of Robert Schenkkan's "All the Way" then just stop reading this and go take care of that. I'll wait. Done? OK, now we can continue to talk about this juggerna...

If you need a break from the bitter cold outside then step on in to Seattle Children's Theatre for the new musical version of "Dick Whittington and His Cat". Whether you're 4 or 40 this rollicking romp will warm your heart and have you beaming with joy from the sheer charm of it all....

Those hilarious sketch comedy boys of The Habit are back with "The Habit 14". And if you like to laugh and aren't afraid of a little blue humor then you really should bring yourself down to The Bathhouse Theatre for the latest antics of one of the best and consistently awesome comedy troupes in to...

We've had quite a few things come from The Seattle Beckett Fest and possibly the most "interesting" has come from UMO with their "Fail Better" over at ACT. And by "interesting" I mean it in my Mom's sense of the word as in "I have no idea what just happened, didn't care for it, but I'm trying to be...

It felt like they were trying to shove a ten-pound show into an 8-pound bag. Sometimes a show is just too big even for Village's usually ample stage. Such was the case with "Mary Poppins" over at Village Theatre. Yes, the talent was all there to support it but the technical wizardry felt at its w...

If you're going to turn a highly personal story into a play then make sure that you have something fresh to say about the subject matter or at least that the elements of the play are relatable to the audience. Unfortunately, Arouet's world premiere of Doug DeVita's "The Fierce Urgency of Now" had n...

You're having a nightmare where you're taking a literature class examining "Moby Dick", it's discussion day and you haven't read the book. That's what it felt like watching Pony World Theatre Company's new production of "Or, The Whale". If there were correlations between the play and the Melville ...

How many times have we all seen "Twelfth Night"? It is one of Shakespeare's most accessible and arguably one of his best plays and therefore one of his most often trotted out pieces. Even Seattle Shakespeare Company admits this current production is the fifth time they've done it in their 24 year ...

One of the most exciting and promising new musicals to come out of New York in the last few years for me has to be 'Dogfight'. This adaptation of the little known film from up and coming composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and writer Peter Duchan showed off that musical theater still has quite a v...

Sometimes a fun night is just a dead lock. Such is the case when you take three of Seattle's most gifted and seasoned actors and put them in the off kilter world of a Christopher Durang play as has happed over at ACT with their current production of "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike". I have to...

Let me start by saying that "The Rocky Horror Show", on its own, is not a very good show. What makes the show fun and worthwhile is the audience participation. So when that is lacking, as it was at the recent Seattle Musical Theatre production I saw, it only serves to spotlight how mediocre a show...

As you know, Dear Readers, I have no love for the constant turning of movies into Broadway shows but I'm afraid that it's a trend that is not going away any time soon and sometimes results in some good shows (a certain blonde lawyer springs to mind). And the latest of those movie to stage conversio...

"The Vaudevillians" is not an act that you'd expect to see at the Seattle Rep but then they've never really played it safe. But catching an act that I remember seeing at Balagan's "Smorgasbord" nights back when they were in the basement of the noodle house now strutting around the stage at the Rep ...

A shooting of a black teen in the racially charged south causes unrest in a small town. Sounds like the latest headline of today doesn't it? Well that shows how far we haven't come as shown in the attitudes expressed in "Slip/Shot", currently playing at Seattle Public Theatre, which is set in the ...

I'm all for taking classic stories and turning them on their head as long as you have something interesting to say about them. A new twist on the mythology can be quite fun. And Copious Love's "Alice in Wonderland" musical retelling, "Alice's Anthem", certainly has that with their dark and macabre...

To launch their 25th season Book-It Repertory Theatre has dusted off one of their earlier gems. And in doing so have given us a charming and lovely bit of Ireland heritage to take home with us....

What would you do if a human sized, English speaking lizard walked up to you on the beach? How about two of them? Well get ready for that experience as Theater Schmeater explores two different sides of evolution in Edward Albee's "Seascape". And while it takes a bit of time for the show to evolve...

I'm quite pleased to announce that Seattle, at this moment in time, has an abundance of incredible shows to choose from. OK, well, two of them but they're both stunners. You've already heard me droning on about the other 'can't miss' show recently and now comes along a very different but equally i...

It's never been one of my favorite shows to begin with. I mean I enjoy "In the Heights" for what it is, I was excited about it when it first came out since it was fresh and new and not based on a movie, but it's never been one of those shows that I get all giddy about when one of its songs comes on...