Theater News

Seattle Spotlight: May 2011

Nice Guys

Billie Wildrick and Brandon O'Neill
in Guys and Dolls
(© Curt Doughty)
Billie Wildrick and Brandon O’Neill
in Guys and Dolls
(© Curt Doughty)

A truly exciting line-up appears in diverse theatrical venues this month. An easy bet on fun is 5th Avenue Theatre’s mounting of Guys & Dolls (May 14-June 3) with an all-star mostly Seattle cast including Brandon O’Neill as Sky, Katherine Strohmaier as Sarah, Billie Wildrick as Adelaide, Clayton Corzatte as Arvide, Todd Buonopane as Nicely Nicely, and Daniel C. Levine as Nathan.

Tacoma Musical Playhouse gives a big hello to Hello Dolly (May 6-29). Village Theatre intrigues with role-swapping Jesus and Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar with Michael Lee and Aaron Finley sharing the roles (May 11-July 31). Touring show Mary Poppins spoons some sugar at the Paramount Theatre (May 12-29) with Steffanie Leigh heading the cast in the title role.

Book It Repertory takes on Jane Austen’s novels for a fourth outing with Sense and Sensibility (May 25-June 26). Kjerstine Anderson and Jessica Martin star. George Bernard Shaw’s delightful classic, Arms and the Man, comes to Seattle Public Theater (May 20-June 12) as heroism, militarism, the foibles of middle-class pretensions, and romance run amok. Woman seeking opens residence hotel doors to The Ladies of the Corridor by Dorothy Parker (May 6-22). In this 1953 play, recently widowed Lulu Ames hopes to make up for a suffocating marriage by beginning an affair with a younger man.

Taproot Theatre explores camping with Brownie Points by Janece Shaffer (May 18-June 18) as a late night storm outside provokes raging arguments between camping Brownie moms inside the cabin. Reversing Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic, Reservoir Dogs, Theater Schmeater presents Reservoir Dolls by Erika Anne Soerensen (May 20-June 18), gender-bendingly packed with gun-toting gals with killer smiles and serious intentions. Macha Monkey un-Greek-ifies the classic Elektra (May 27-June 8) with a reprise of the adaptation by Desiree Prewitt and Kristina Sutherland. Kate Jaeger and Erin Stewart portray 1999-era mother Clytemnestra, an often drunk socialite, and Elektra, her obsessive-compulsive, revenge-thirsty daughter.

Annex brings puppets to a mid-week offering, The Great Puppet Happiness Machine (May 3-18), where a group of puppets discover that one of their own is suddenly and shockingly sad. Will they suggest therapy? Songs about kittens? And Annex’s late-nite offering, Women in Peril (May 6-20) feeds the movies of Judith Light, Tori Spelling, and Meredith Baxter-Birney into a gender-bending blender and whips up a delicious satirical souffle of the infamously exploitative television-for-women genre.

Satori Group presents Fabulous Prizes by local playwright Neil Ferron (May 6-30) as father and son restauranteurs stuff 28 years of their lives in a basement apartment. Pork-Filled Players adds to their list of parodies with Workin’ Swine to Five (May 6-21) exploring the quirks of the daily grind, as well as online addictions, Jane Austen acolytes, and plenty of kickass stage combat!

Gianni Truzzi stars in Attic Theatre’s production of To Kill a Mockingbird (May 13-22), based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Harper Lee. Eclectic Theater Company is presenting the world premiere of The Familiar by Rosemary Poole-Carter (May 26-June 18), subtitled “a Summer Ghost Story.”

Children can find Annie at Studio East (May 20-June 12). SecondStory Repertory enchants with A Year With Frog and Toad (May 6-22). Fantastic international acts are imported for Giant Magnet’s 25th International Children’s Festival (May 10-14) from China, Tasmania, India, Ecuador, and other locales. Thistle Theater debuts the new puppet play, Quest for Planet X (the space musical) (May 13-29). Silly robots on a recycling space station, an Evil Queen, and intergalactic music create an out-of-this world puppetry experience!