Theater News

Seattle Spotlight: April 2010

My Kind of Town

A publicity image for On the Town
(© Curt Doughty)
A publicity image for On the Town
(© Curt Doughty)

Starting off Leonard Bernstein celebrations around the area, The 5th Avenue Theatre resurrects On The Town (April 13-May 2), the raucous 24-hour adventures of three sailors – played by Greg McCormick Allen, Matt Owen, and Joe Aaron Reid — in the Big Apple. The choreography is by Bob Richard, and the production features Seattle’s Spectrum Dance Theatre.

ArtsWest mounts Tell Me on a Sunday, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s one-woman tour de force in song. Danielle Barnum stars as fierce young designer Emma, an ordinary English girl who journeys to NYC in search of love. A … My Name Will Always Be Alice is a combination of the 1984 award winning Off-Broadway musical revue A … My Name Is Alice and its 1992 sequel A … My Name Is Still Alice, presented at Redwood Theatre (April 23-May 8). Tacoma Musical Playhouse pits old against new with Flower Drum Song (April 16-May 9).

Seattle Repertory Theatre world premieres Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson’s An Iliad, adapted from Homer’s epic and directed by Peterson (April 9-May 16). Acclaimed local actor Hans Altwies stars. Seattle Shakespeare Company presents Henry V, as newly crowned, King Henry faces his first major challenge against the mighty French army (April 15-May 9). The ten year anniversary of The Vagina Monologues is marked by Stone Soup Theatre (April 2-25) featuring five new monologues, including a transgendered MTF, Native Americans, and “comfort women” of 1940s Japan.

Classic comedy from Dos Fallopia (April 15-18) celebrates Seattle sketch-comedy mavens Lisa Koch and Peggy Platt’s 20 years together, unearthing rare early sketches and songs at the Theatre Off Jackson. Classic Alan Ackbourn style is present at Phoenix Theatre with Taking Steps (April 2-May 2), using a split-stage technique, mistaken identity, misunderstandings, and dysfunctional relationships. Classic farce with Neil Simon’s Rumors comes to Renton Civic Theater (April 9-24).

Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters (in Brian Friel’s witty adaptation) opens at Ghost Light Theatricals (April 2-18) in their new space in Ballard. SecondStory Repertory recreates Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (April 8-May 1). Balagan’s edgy classic is True West by Sam Shepard (April 8-May1), when a scruffy drifter and his screenwriter brother drink themselves into a stupor. 10 years ago, Open Circle premiered Poona the Fuckdog And Other Stories For Children that was too risqué for the theater that commissioned it! Now they’re bringing it back (April 30-May 29).

World premieres include ACT Theatre’s A Glimmer of Hope or Skin or Light (April 22-May 15), an innovative, interactive new work from KT Niehoff and her company, Lingo Dance. Washington Ensemble Theatre world premieres Robopop! an ensemble-generated kaleidoscope of pop that follows one woman’s heroic quest to save the human race in an epic battle of Man vs. Robot (April 9-May 10).

Annex Theatre goes high tech with Scotto Moore’s When I Come to My Senses, I’m Alive! (April 23-May 22), a near-future sci-fi story about a technological provocateur who invents a method for capturing emotions as digital information. Annex’s Late Night production is Evenings with Carlotta (April 30-May 21), improvised and performed by Troy Mink, the perennial hostess of Carlotta’s Late Night Wing-Ding.

It’s tax time as Driftwood Theatre presents Love, Sex and the I.R.S. by William Van Zandt and Jane Milmore (April 9-25), and baseball season as Burien Little Theatre mounts Bleacher Bums (April 16-May 9). Pork Filled Players debuts Pork Fiction, a new sketch comedy inspired by pulps of yesteryear (April 30-May 15).

Seattle Children’s Theatre debuts the classic story musical, The Brementown Musicians by Allison Greagory, music by Hummie Mann, as a band of big-hearted musical misfits use their special gifts to save music itself (April 8-May 16).