WATCH THE TOUR DE FRANCE: The Cascade Bicycle Club presents its annual Cyclefest. There's something for everyone--races for those who like to watch, a bike decorating station for those who like to do, and a lot of people in spandex for those who like to drool. After the sun goes down, watch the 17th stage of the Tour de France (that's the part where they race up the Alps. The Alps!) on a big screen.......

We laughed ourselves silly during the buoyant slapstick farce that is The Miser (through April 6, tickets $20-$34), which was not really our plan. We'd meant to be stern with the Seattle Shakespeare Company--Moliere isn't Shakespeare. It's an obvious bait and switch. But a number of things came together: the contemporary, sharp-as-a-tack translation by David Chambers, Todd Jefferson Moore in the role he was born to mug, and the Mel-Brooksian direction of Robert Currier. (Oddly,......

That's David Quicksall as Brutus and Hana Lass as Cassius, above, in director Gregg Loughridge's quirky, stripped-down take on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It "doesn't always work," says the P-I, "but the actors stand out." Which sounds like code for "enh." We thought it was anything but "enh," and not just because an actor told us we looked thinner in front of the whole audience. (The show features a lot of interactions with the audience,......

Updates of Shakespeare tend to make us yawn at best, or at worst, make someone douse the theater with an accelerant and post a "Smoking Area" sign on the way out. But Seattle Shakespeare Company's martial-arts cult take on Julius Caesar (as detailed in the P-I) may just find that rare middle ground where it doesn't blow or suck. We're turning the concept over in our heads, and it seem like it could work. Director......

Seattle Shakespeare Company's Pericles is awash in contradiction. It's the rarely performed Shakespeare play that Shakespeare may not have written. It's a comedy about a singularly painful life. It's fueled by strong performances -- Reginald André Jackson's Pericles is every minute compelling -- but marred by a directorial misstep that plagues the whole production. We don't recommend it as anyone's first Shakespeare play, but if you have never seen Pericles before, this production is a......

It's Seattle Shakespeare Company's version of the wandering prince Pericles on Friday night for MvB, followed Saturday night by Britain's accordion-driven, Brechtian street opera trio with neo-castrati Martyn Jacques, the Tiger Lilies at the Moore, ladies and gentlemen. Having been invited down to San Francisco for a friend’s bachelorette bacchanalia with only one directive ("Bring a wig"), Courtney is hoping she doesn’t end up in the clink this weekend. While laughing at Charles for attending......

The School for Scandal @ Seattle Shakespeare Company Through July 1 // Seattle Center House // Tickets $28 adults/$22 seniors/$18 students The Seattle Shakespeare Company is breaking out and kicking it up a notch with Sheridan's School for Scandal. It's not Shakespeare but it's funny and sharp-tongued, and the creative team (including Albert Clementi, sets; Heidi Ganser, costumes; Tim Wratten, lighting; M. Elizabeth Heller, sound) have come up with a production that just about knocks......

The Comedy of Errors is another Shakespeare play featuring mistaken identities. The Seattle Shakespeare Company's production sets the mistakes in Louisiana, with bananas and pirates and a terrific set with so much overgrowth you think Max is about to make an entrance. There's much singing of ballads and sea shanties, and it feels like the patter was punched up by Simpsons writers. It was also sold out the day we went, so they may......

With the Seattle Shakespeare Company's productions, it seems as if they're always hit or miss. Their current season has contained some of each, and the current play, The Winter's Tale, is a mixed bag. In this case, the set design and art direction is plain ol' lovely, while the acting leaves a bit to be desired. As a whole, the play is a rumination on the varied potential of love. The first half concerns......

Laugh-out-loud funny, immediate, with stabs of poignancy, the Seattle Shakespeare Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing (now through June 24, Thursdays - Sundays, at the Seattle Center House) seduced us with a remarkably strong, appealing cast. Thanks to the shrewd direction of the Children’s Theatre’s Rita Giomi, Shakespeare's comedy was dust-free, lucid, and vigorous in its attack on vain displays of male honor. Look, we're not the only ones who were smitten by the......

Sunday afternoon, after watching George Mason ensure that we'd lose our NCAA tournament pool for the 17th straight year, we joined some middle-aged ladies, high school kids, elderly couples, and 20-something drama enthusiasts at the Seattle Shakespeare Company's excellent production of Cyrano de Bergerac. If you're a fan of Steve Martin or Janeane Garofalo, you know the basic story--an eloquent, soulful, but straight-up freaky lookin' person finds a smokin' hot but skin-deep avatar to express......

In between obsessively checking their progress in various NCAA tournament pools, here's how Seattlest types will spend their weekends. David S. will be watching college basketball. And planning this year's family camping trip. Editor Dan will spend all weekend working on his Enemies List, but he may take a break at dusk on Saturday to drive down to Green Lake and run over rabbits with his car. Matt Silvie may or may not make it......

Seattlest has read or seen a great deal of Shakespeare's plays, in one form or another. But somehow, Richard III had escaped our purview, even though there have been some interesting interpretations of the work. So when we saw that the Seattle Shakespeare Company was doing their own production, we figured it was about time for us to see this history play---in the round, no less. Like their previous production of Romeo and Juliet, the......

Romeo and Juliet is one of those tales everybody knows, whether or not they've read it, seen it performed live, or watched one of the many film adaptations. So Seattlest kinda knew what to expect when we descended deep into the bowels of Center House for the play's opening night performance by the Seattle Shakespeare Company. We got the standard star-crossed lovers stuff, but director John Langs included a few modern updates, some of which......