Theater News

Seattle Spotlight: November 2006

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

David Pichette in A Christmas Carol
(© Chris Bennion)
David Pichette in A Christmas Carol
(© Chris Bennion)

It’s no surprise that November brings us a wealth of holiday programming. For example, 5th Avenue Theatre delivers the stage version of White Christmas (November 25-December 12), based on the delightful Irving Berlin movie musical. Broadway veterans Michael Gruber and Christina Saffran Ashford head the cast of this delightful romp.


ACT Theatre presents A Christmas Carol (November 24-December 24), where you’ll be able to see Artistic Director Kurt Beattie alternate with Seattle favorite David Pichette as Scrooge. Other holiday fare includes Voices of Christmas at ArtsWest (November 30-December 24), Miracle on 34th Street at New Everett Theatre Company (November 24-December 10) and It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play at Taproot Theatre Company (November 17-December 30).


For those who like their Christmas lite, there are several comedies to choose from, including A(n Improvised) Christmas Carol at the Market Theater (November 24-December 23); David Sedaris’ The Santaland Diaries at Seattle Public Theater (November 30-December 24); and Tacoma Actors Guild’s The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge (November 30-December 17), in which Scrooge charges Jacob Marley and the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future with kidnapping.

If you’re not quite ready to get in the holiday spirit, you might try the two offerings from Seattle Repertory Theatre: The Great Gatsby, (November 2-December 10), a newly adapted distillation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald book everyone read in high school, and Kathleen Tolan’s Memory House (November 16-December 17), which would interest anyone whose child has to start writing those college application essays. Jeanne Paulsen, a former Tony Award nominee for her Broadway work in The Kentucky Cycle, stars as the often exasperated, pie-baking mom.


Taking a walk on the wild side, Theater Schmeater recreates Rod Serling’s vision with
The Twilight Zone: Live! (November 24-December 16), bringing you two episodes from the TV show, and The Book of Nathan (November 17-December 16), the world premiere of the winner of the 2005 Northwest Playwright Competition. Absurd Reality Theatre presents The House of Yes (November 3-December 2) where looking in the dictionary for “dysfunctional” means seeing a picture the Family Pascal as they ride out a hurricane together.

The month also boasts a number of play readings and one-night-only events, such as Echoes of Another Man at Mirror Stage Company (November 12-November 13), 12 Minutes Max at On the Boards (November 12-November 13), The Sequence at Seattle Dramatists (November 13), and The Exonerated at ReAct (November 19).


Meanwhile, there’s great family fare in the ‘burbs: SecondStory Repertory’s production of Anything Goes (November 2-December 2) and Village Theatre’s revival of the beloved Bye Bye Birdie (November 8-January 21). You can also consider the poignant, funny and heartwarming Bud, Not Buddy at Book-It Repertory Theatre (November 28-December 23) in which a 10-year-old boy journeys to find his father.