Review: COMPANY at The Paramount Theatre
by Jay Irwin - July 24, 2024
I’m about to commit a musical theater geek sin, Dear Readers, so get the torches and pitchforks ready. I don’t care for Stephen Sondheim’s show, “Company”. I appreciate it for what it is, but I think it rambles, and ultimately says not very much at all. Then along comes the revival of the show with ...
Review: SISTER ACT at Taproot Theatre
by Jay Irwin - July 14, 2024
Dear Readers, the musical version of the hit 1992, Whoopi Goldberg comedy “Sister Act” has never been one of my favorites. On paper it should work with an Alan Menken score and fabulous source material were it not for those lackluster Glenn Slater lyrics. He writes passable songs but nothing that tr...
Review: CLUE at The 5th Avenue Theatre
by Jay Irwin - July 11, 2024
Dear Readers, chances are you played that classic board game “Clue” as a kid. That game of weapons and rooms and attempting to decipher who the killer is. And if so, then you also may have seen the classic 80’s comedy movie based on that game with a litany of comedy heavy hitters playing those iconi...
Review: GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY at The Paramount
by Jay Irwin - June 26, 2024
Dear Readers, I will admit that “Girl From the North Country”, currently playing at The Paramount, is a tough one to get into. It’s not a happy little romp and not structured like your typical musical. But if you can get past the bleak and let those voices wash over you, it’s a tragically beautiful ...
Review: 53% OF at Center Theatre At Seattle Center
by Shelley Dean - June 18, 2024
Are you a good person? Does anyone truly know if they are? Countless factors go into deciding such a weighted answer, for a lot of people, politics plays a large role. 53% Of is a direct work of art that attempts to answer that question, paying special attention to that factor. The show, wittingly d...
Review: SPRING AWAKENING at The 5th Avenue Theatre
by Jay Irwin - June 15, 2024
Dear Readers, I should start by saying that “Spring Awakening”, the musical from Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater based on the 1891 play by Frank Wedekind, has never been one of my favorites. But that first national tour and especially the 2012 local production from Balagan Theatre gave me a better app...
Review: DOLLY! at The Can Can
by Jay Irwin - June 14, 2024
Dear Readers, as you know, I’ve often extolled the fabulousness of the shows at The Can Can. Director Chris Pink and the cast and crew repeatedly bring the goods. And I’ve often commented on how one show after another may be one of my new favorites of theirs. Well, Dear Readers, they’ve done it agai...
Review: VENUS & THE VIXENS: GAMES OF LOVE at Emerald City Trapeze Arts
by Shelley Dean - June 11, 2024
We’ve all probably heard the story of Cupid and Psyche, a forbidden love that faces a greater-than-average amount of challenges, but in this day and age, is it really more than average? The new musical extravaganza, Venus & the Vixens: Games of Love, rockingly conceived, written, and directed by Mar...
Review: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE PRECARIOUS POSITION at Taproot Theatre
by Jay Irwin - May 19, 2024
First off, Dear Readers, “Sherlock Holmes and the Precarious Position” currently playing at Taproot Theatre, is not a Holmes story from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s a silly little lark with Holmesian characters by Margaret Raether. The program even says, “Based on the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doy...