Results tagged “theater”

Intiman's Obi-Wan is John Campion, a veteran performer with a rap role sheet a mile long, and one that includes references to his work with Kevin Kline, Linda Hunt, and F. Murray Abraham. You will understand his Iago like never before. He will speak Shakespeare, but with his own vicious cadence. He will bite off the ends of words, and his body will seem to flood with bile. He will offer mean-spirited putdowns and cough out a fake, social laugh. He will never be likable, but always charismatic as he plots his vengeance.

It hasn't even opened yet, but the Intiman has just announced the Arin Arbus production of Othello is getting eight extra performances, thanks to brisk ticket sales: "Tickets are on sale now for shows on Tuesday, August 4 at 7:30 pm; Wednesday, August 5 at 2 pm and 7:30 pm; Thursday, August 6 at 7:30 pm; Friday, August 7 at 8 pm; Saturday, August 8 at 2 pm and 8 pm; and Sunday, August 9 at 2 pm (closing)." Also, on Tuesdays, admission is $25 for adults (tickets are always $10 for the 25-and-under set). Directed by Arin Arbus, this "terrific" (NY Times) Othello was originally produced in New York and sold out its February run, then came back in April. This plus the $50K from the NEA should keep Intiman's lights on.

Husband and wife theater team Mike Daisey (the monologist) and Jean-Michele Gregory (the director) met and began collaborating together in Seattle before moving to New York eight years ago. We spent an afternoon in their ground floor Brooklyn apartment, talking about the move, about how starting out in Seattle helped their careers, and what they miss about our town.

Terrific. Goddamn terrific, that's what. Intiman's A Thousand Clowns (through June 17, tickets: $40-$55, $10 for 25-and-under) is like if Holden Caulfield grew up, got a job writing for a kids' TV show, and then suddenly quit, desperately angry about having become a "phony." On the one hand, it's as time- and place-stamped as can be--there's the hilarity of dialing the weather lady on the phone, and an impromptu "Guess that New York borough accent" contest--but on the other, these people are such characters, the play sucks you right in. We had no idea three hours had passed at its close.

The hipster spaceman costumes of the soldiers in Titus are your first clue that this isn't a traditional take. So too with the decision to exsanguinate Shakespeare's goriest play--each character “bleeds” red, but it's not stage blood, but rhinestones, thumb tacks, feathers, even gummy worms.

In 1941, two of the time's most loved comedy stars, Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, were united in Penny Serenade, a three-hankie picture in which they played a couple who lose their little daughter.

Many years ago now, Capitol Hill was gay as shit. Maybe you think it's gay now, but it's gay like drinking a weak glass of Tang, rather than emptying a spoonful of the mix directly on your tongue.

Cats was one of Broadway's longest standing musical productions, having debuted there in 1982 and running until September of 2000, although it lives on around the country in a Broadway Across America tour (now at the Paramount through this weekend) and, no doubt, on community stages far and wide.

About halfway in to Will Eno's Tragedy, a tragedy (2 p.m. April 5, $12), we began to suspect the playwright was suffering from insomnia. There's a dark, plastic, wandering nature to the play that signals a mind on the edge of--but kept from--sleep. Depending on how recently you've been afraid of the dark, you'll be right back there, hearing your breath, your heartbeat, and strange noises, and the night will seem like a suffocating cold, black ocean, everything and everyone you know a small flicker that is guttering out.

FROM THE PAGE: This season's Book-It Repertory Theatre production is an adaption of Dinaw Mengestu's The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, which was the 2008 Seattle Reads pick. Tonight, the good Book-It people are hosting their regular forum, From The Page To The Stage, to give Seattleites a free preview of and background for the upcoming production. The show itself opens on April 14.

Pulling off a Merchant at all is not easy. It's a play that pokes its nose into disreputable harbors, taking in the sights in a queasy, sea-voyaging way that keeps you pining for dry land. And it turns around an infamously over-determined character, Shylock, the Jewish loan broker.

Betrayal runs at the Seattle Repertory Theatre through March, 22 most days of the week. Tickets are $40 for adults and $10 if you're too young to get it.

TOWN HALL TWOSOME: We mentioned yesterday that blogging meteorologist Cliff Mass is showing up at Town Hall tonight (7:30 p.m., $5), but it's a tough choice, because Crosscut's Knute Berger and author Tim Egan are appearing to argue over what we think of as Berger's contrarian Bible: Pugetopolis: A Mossback Takes on Growth Addicts, Weather Wimps, and the Myth of Seattle Nice. God knows you should never take Berger seriously, but it should be entertaining. David Brewster will somehow find the time to moderate.

When Seattlest was living in New York City and our then-six-year-old niece came to visit, it made perfect sense to take her to see The Lion King on Broadway. After all, it was a Disney production, based on the cartoon movie by the same name. We joked around with her before the show about how silly it felt to be an adult at a Disney play (even then she liked to goad us sarcastically about such things). But then the lights went low, the music started, and suddenly both us and our little niece were spellbound by the story and the incredible costumes, choreography, and score.

There are a lot of things to love about Annex Theater's production of Blind Spot (currently running each Friday and Saturday, now through Feb. 14). After all, the play is nothing if not imaginative.

Comedy is hard work--our first thought on leaving The Servant of Two Masters (playing at Seattle Shakespeare Company through February 1, tickets $22-$36) was that the cast members must lose about 12 pounds per night. A Cuisinart of one part mustachioed melodrama with one part vaudeville clowning around, this goosed-up production of Carlo Goldoni's commedia play is determined to make you laugh or die trying, and the actors soon erase any conditioned expectation of Shakespearean gravitas.

To say that 14/48--the theater festival created entirely in the space of a weekend--is to the stage what blogging is to the written word would be more than a little insulting to 14/48, but the comparison does hold some water: in each ideas go, in the blink of an eye, from conception to the screen/stage where they fail or touch hearts without the benefit of a final (or second) draft. Local playwright Paul Mullin describes writing for the festival like this:

THE SECRETS OF CHANGE: According to this website, Rikki Ducornet is "a being unchained, transcendent as a mythical angel." That's probably placing the po-mo writer and poet on bit of a pedestal, but it's true--at least in the sense that Ducornet is more than a little "out there." She reads from her book of short, surrealist stories, The One Marvelous Thing, at the Elliott Bay Book Co. tonight.

THINK GLOBALLY: Global development is such a lonely two words. But it doesn't have to be. Think tank Global Washington invites you to drop in at their event Global Connections this afternoon, with guest speaker Adam Smith. It's all about helping Washington’s nonprofits, businesses, academics, and government agencies come together and increase their impact globally. The talky part is 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., and then there's an hour-long reception.

Balagan Theatre's Othello (Thursday-Sunday through December 13, tickets $15/$12) is a sordid plunge into an underworld of violence, jealousy, and rage. Three women sitting next to us nearly jumped out of their seats, crying out involuntarily, during fight scenes.

And that noise is the sound of children laughing. Okay, not children, but 30-somethings and under, drawn to the Seattle Rep's Leo K. theatre by a new play from Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, a playwright so cool and cutting edge he lives in the Mission in San Francisco. And of course having two of Seattle's most talented young-ish actors, Chelsey Rives and Nick Garrison, in lead roles doesn't hurt. Not to mention the scenic design genius of Jennifer Zeyl.

THE SEARCH FOR ALANIS: Is over. She's appearing at the Paramount Theatre tonight for a show that has to be in part an extended post-election celebration. Honestly, we haven't listened to Flavors of Entanglement yet, but come on, who has? Besides, she never responds to our emails. Join the Alanis faithful and boo that one guy from Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. Van Wilder or something.

, in the second week of its run at ACT Theatre (tickets $10-$55; through Nov. 16) may be a winning, even heart-warming, comedy, but it feels about a year too late. The story of a middle-aged, middle-class wife who's bored with her marriage to an easy-going husband and paranoid about her economic future, only to find herself swept up into a dazzling affair with a comfortable rich man feels like a cautionary tale of late 2006.

The Arabian Nights is almost indestructible theatre--you just need to tell the stories, after all, and imagination does the rest--and that's lucky for Balagan Theatre because their production of Mary Zimmerman's play ($15, Thurs-Sun, through November 8) takes awhile getting to its feet.

Every once in a while, we reward someone who writes in with a long, but comprehensible rant comment by giving them their own post. This, readers, is one of those times. Behold, a guest review by someone who really, really like ArtsWest.

TEXAS TEA: For legal reasons we never visit West Seattle, but ArtsWest is putting on the political satire Black Gold, winner of the 2008 Smith Prize for Best New Play, and it sounds like something to see. It opens tonight, so tell us how it is.

The Moon is a Dead World is at the Annex Theatre Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through November 15th, but this weekend is Pay What You Can and a great chance to catch it.

The other night, it was raining, and Seattlest had spent the entire day in our tiny studio apartment with the shades drawn. Next thing we knew, we found ourselves at that back of a particular dark, dank Eastlake bar chatting with our editor for another job about how much we'd love to write a musical. The thing about musical theater, we contended, was that it was cheesy. Granted, we maintained, we love musical theater for all its glittery, flashy, jazz-hands-and-kick-ball-change cheesiness, but we recognize the wider world doesn't see an ounce of reality in Sutton Foster dressed like a flapper, killing the big notes at the end of "Gimme Gimme." Most people can recognize talent like that when they see it, but it doesn't resound with them the way that, say, Angelina Jolie's heaving breast during a close-up action scene would at any summer blockbuster.

WANNA TALK POLITICS?: If too much politics is never enough, Town Hall has got you covered: James Traub will discuss America’s history of evangelizing for democracy, with particular emphasis on Bush's faith-based attempts to spread civic-mindedness. But before Traub kicks things off, Town Hall will have television monitors set up for viewing the Presidential Debate. Traub will even give an analysis of the debate and take a few questions.

Across the country, there are an enormous amount of young couples with two kids. And the younger of those two kids is called "insurance."