It's Drama City Out There
Welcome to Intimania! The Intiman had its annual Gala last Saturday (more on that after the jump). On Sunday, Intiman's leadership, Bartlett Sher and Laura Penn, were in New York to collect Intiman's 2006 Regional Theater Tony. [Seattle Times, Seattle P-I] The Sher-directed Awake and Sing! took the Tony for best play revival. His Richard III opens at the Intiman this Friday.
Speaking of Shakespeare, the very funny, poignant Much Ado About Nothing continues at the Seattle Center.
At ACT, Wine in the Wilderness will run through July 9. The story of what happens when a painter's model talks back, it's also part of an effort by ACT to have African-American voices, specifically, do some talking back of their own.
Over at Theater Schmeater, the world premiere of Kuwait opens this Friday. Written after the first Gulf War, the play centers on the interaction between an embedded reporter who's slipped into the combat zone for the "real" story and the Marine who provides her with a genuine experience with military force.
Off the scripted path, improv takes on reality shows with Reality World Season 2. Six challengers improvise against each other as they compete for the the Reality World Season 2 Championship Belt. The audience (aka "America") votes their least favorite contestants off. Every Thursday and Friday night at 8pm through the end of July.
Back to the Intiman's 15 minutes, it's not a real Gala unless the bar is hosted, as we discovered they know. The evening kicked off with a cocktail hour, then incredibly nice guy Adam Guettel and friends (Anna Bergman, Laura Griffith, Matthew Morrison, John Procaccino) took the stage, and after that an agreeably soused audience bid generously during a live auction.
Guettel rendered the evening uniquely memorable by creating a cabaret-style presentation of Light in the Piazzas Through Time, beginning with his reading from the Elizabeth Spencer novella, and including excerpts from the 1962 movie and his Tony-winning musical.
Backed by Adam Ben-David on piano, Page Smith on cello, and Kyung Sun Chee on violin (and Guettel himself on guitar), the singers gave stirring renditions of eight songs from the musical. Laura Griffith and Matthew Morrison were Clara and Fabrizio, the young lovers, and Anna Bergman and John Procaccino were Clara's parents, Margaret and Roy. Guettel joined in to sing a duet, as Signor Nacarelli, with Bergman. Maybe it was having the composer sitting right there, but the singing was uniformly terrific.
