Theater News

Seattle Spotlight: June 2008

Well and Good

Promotional art for All's Well That Ends Well
Promotional art for All’s Well That Ends Well

Season-ender All’s Well That Ends Well caps off Seattle Shakespeare Company (June 3-29). Theater Schmeater reprises its very successful 2007 production of Adventures in Mating by Joseph Scrimshaw (June 27-August 9). Renton Civic Theatre says I Do I Do (June 13-29) with the score by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt. SecondStory Repertory wants to keep you coming back, as it offers up Same Time Next Year (June 6-28). Down in Olympia, Harlequin Productions scares up Rocky Horror Picture Show (June 5-July 6). And the tour of Avenue Q is coming to the Paramount June 10-22. The 2004 Tony Award winner for best musical, best score, and best book is a hilarious show (with puppets) about trying to make it in NYC with big dreams and a tiny bank account.

A number of events are scheduled to coincide with the Pride Festival, with themes to warm the hearts of our city’s large GLBT population. ACT sings with a mainstage production, A Marvelous Party: The Noel Coward Celebration (June13-July13) with words and music by Noel Coward, devised by David Ira Goldstein, Carl Danielsen, Mark Anders, and Patricia Wilcox and directed by Goldstein, which pays tribute to the extraordinary career of Noel Coward, one of the wittiest and most elegant performers of the 20th Century. Late nights, Pinkaboo! The Closeted American Songbook, ACT’s Central Heating Lab offering (June 20-July 12), is a performance curated by Wade Madsen and presented in a cabaret setting. Zanna, Don’t! (Balagan Theatre, June 20-July 6), with book, music and lyrics by Tim Acito, magically appears at Contemporary Classics; it’s a hip fairy tale about a matchmaking fairy in a world where it’s normal to be gay and taboo to be straight. Washington Ensemble Theatre is presenting its second annual QTET: Queer Teen Ensemble Theatre (June 27-30) recruiting local teens to write and perform an original piece about their lives. Finally, Two Hours Traffic presents Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (Balagan Theatre, June 25-28), featuring local favorites Lily Armani and Patty O’Furniture in Charles Busch’s camp comedy about girl-guzzling undead divas catfighting their way through history, from biblical times, to old Hollywood, to modern day Vegas.

For people who want to learn about the bleeding edge of improvisation, the International Festival of Improv is provided by Unexpected Productions (Market Theatre, June 1-22). Our American Theater Company, having produced only readings so far, is set to open their first full production, Jon Robin Baitz’s Three Hotels (Theatre Off Jackson, June 12-28), which explores our connections to multinational corporations. Circus Tracks by Sarah Hammond (Live Girls! Theater, June 6-28) is the quirky comedy where fish swim in the sand, children are tigers, god speaks in tattoos, and life has a rewind button.

Godfrey Hamilton’s Road Movie winds its way back to Seattle, performed by Mark Pinkosh (Balagan Theatre, June 5-15). Edmonds’ Driftwood Players offers Fred Carmichael’s Exit the Body (Wade James Theatre, June 13-29), a gentle farce about mystery writer Lillian Seymour finding a dead body in the closet of her vacation retreat.

Driftwood is also offering The Ugly Duckling (Wade James Theatre, June 22-30) by A. A. Milne (of Winnie-the-Pooh fame), who penned a hilarious twist on a childhood favorite, touted as “animal-free and vegan-friendly.” Children can also trek down to Tacoma Children’s Musical Theater to see Pinocchio (Tacoma Musical Playhouse, June 7-15) grow into a real boy.