Seattlest Jeremy already reviewed Next Stage's Nexus Project--"A dozen original plays by some of our most talented writers is definitely worth your time, and your money"--but we caught a 3-play sampler down at Bumbershoot and had to chime in. Theater at the festival can be hit-or-miss but this year Next Stage and the Unicycle Collective nailed it (both featuring the terrific Marya Sea Kaminski) with 10-minute bits that fit the setting perfectly. The Nexus Project......

Alan Ayckbourn's Intimate Exchanges plays at ACT Theatre through Sept. 14; tickets $10 (student) to $55. Putting on a full production of Alan Ayckbourn's Intimate Exchanges seems like a theatre company's attempt to dodge a bad review. With 16 possible endings (in the full script; ACT's production has a max of four), and two actors playing ten characters, with a reported total of 17 hours of dialogue in the script, well if you've only seen......

It's a hilarious, biting, Wilde-in-Williamsburg social comedy, but Intiman's production of The Little Dog Laughed (through September 13, tickets $10-$48) is also recommended for those 18 and over. That is, adults who won't flinch at a swinging dick or two on stage, or the frankly profane language of these modern times. Until this moment, Douglas Carter Beane's off-Broadway-then-on-Broadway, poison-pen skewering of the capacious Hollywood closet was more likely to play at ACT than the more......

There was a woman, born in 1902, who lived to be 101 years old. She became a dancer, then a film actor. In her early 30s, she directed two of the most acclaimed films in the history of cinema. She was friends with important people. Critics said she was as good as Eisenstein. But then something went wrong--no one would fund her films. So she became a photographer instead. There was a woman, born in......

Edge Theatre Ensemble's production of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and All Her Children at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center runs through Sun., July 20. Tix available online. At some point around the beginning of hour three of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and All Her Children, you're finally overwhelmed. Perhaps it was the hot black box theatre, perhaps it was the uncomfortable seats, but as the play reaches it painful conclusion, despite the occasional weaknesses of......

Who knew Dr. Lion was from India? He's a physician. He's a lion. Duh. We've read Richard Scarry books hundreds of times—both as a wee tot and as a parent—and a subcontinental accent for Busytown's resident physician Dr. Lion never occurred to us. When Auston James' Lion gave Lowly Worm his check-up, we realized it was a perfect detail—and, happily, Seattle Children's Theatre's production of Busytown has perfect details in abundance. That's good, because......

Shrek: For your information, there's a lot more to musicals than people think. Donkey: Example? Shrek: Example? Okay, er... musicals... are... like onions. Donkey: [sniffs onion] They stink? Shrek: Yes...NO! Donkey: Or they make you cry. Shrek: No! Well, sometimes. Donkey: Oh, you leave them out in the sun and they turn brown and start sproutin' little white hairs. Shrek: NO! LAYERS! Onions have layers. Musicals have layers. Onions have layers... you get it.......

In the westerns we read growing up, cowboys were always punching each other right in the solar plexus. A scene in the lonelyhearts drama By the Waters of Babylon did that to the Seattle Rep audience last night, leaving people gasping and in tears. It was a lucky punch, though -- most of the time the play telegraphs exactly what's coming next: quips and tedium. If you go, go for Suzanne Bouchard's outstanding performance as......