Hearing performances of the Messiah has long been a major musical highlight for me during the holiday season. Last year I even joined the sing-along Messiah they put together in Wedgewood and had a ball! I had no idea that the story of Handel’s composing of the work and its first performances in London had such dramatic intrigue behind it. Taproot Theatre’s season closer, Joyful Noise, brings alive the story of the birth of this classic piece.
“We don’t have the right to expect happiness.” Nor should you, if you’re going to see Richard Eyre’s adaptation of
A Book for the Time Being is a 422 page novel by Ruth Ozeki published in 2013. In the 2 hours and 40 minutes runtime of this play, Book-It packs in a lot in on topics such as: online and physical bullying, loneliness, depression, suicide across generations, Buddhism, dementia, environmental pollution, animal familiars, and (in passing) quantum physics! It was indeed a Herculean task to bring this unwieldy novel to the stage. Chiang and Ferri pull it off with aplomb.
Director Desdemona Chiang is a genius.
In a world filled with noxious cough-inducing air pollution, the gut-wrenching smell of garbage dumps and DNA-altering toxic waste (i.e. New Jersey), who could possibly save us from ourselves? Who will save New Jersey? The Toxic Avenger will.
The STAGEright Theatre production is Sophia Federighi’s professional directorial debut and is a hilarious, animated and madcap adaptation of the 1984 cult film of the same name. The off-Broadway musical adaptation, originally written by Joe DiPietro and its music by David Bryan, has been produced throughout the country and has won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical.
How much are we willing to sacrifice for those we love? That’s the question Euripides’s rarely performed Alcestis asks us to consider. The Irrational Robot Bureau’s production, directed and adapted by Adrian D. Cameron, presents the thought-provoking story of a queen who has sworn to die for her husband in a far more entertaining and accessible way than most versions of ancient Greek tragedies you’re likely to see.
Families-Who would do Without Them
Although Brown Soul Production’s mission statement is to develop and produce new works by female writers of color, Miss Fortune Has Green Eyes, by Alma Davenport, which opened at Theatre 4, in Seattle Center, this past weekend, has universal appeal, as it deals with the family dysfunction caused by substance abuse.
Extremely important play, with a highly flawed structure.
Georg Büchner the author of the plays Woyzeck, Danton’s Death, Leonce & Lena and the novella Lenz, is one of the most influential authors of German Literature, but perhaps the least prolific, due to his untimely death at the age of 23. Unfortunately the play, Woyzeck, which made his international reputation, was left unfinished at the time of his death in 1837. When it was produced in 1913, it burst onto the world stage and ushered in German Expressionism. Stage One Theatre at North Seattle College has just opened an interesting production of this strangely appealing but flawed play.
The Royale Packs a Profound Punch ACT’s production of The Royale, the story of a black boxer from the Jim
OK, so I spent an evening in Issaquah taking in Village Theatre’s production of “Pump Boys and Dinettes.” At the
Seattle Shakespeare has chosen The Winter’s Tale to launch their 26th season. Believed to be the second to last script the Bard ever penned, the unusual play is filled with intriguing points and counterpoints as a devastating tragedy is ultimately averted in the later acts. The work has been described as a tragicomedy and presents many challenges for any acting troupe. Fortunately, the company has gathered some of Seattle’s most talented actors and technicians to present an earnest and remarkably thoughtful show.
