“Professional theater is back in downtown Tacoma.” That’s the buzz on the street and in the theater community in the South Sound. Indeed, the four downtown theaters, namely Theater on the Square, the Rialto, Pantages, and Tacoma Armory are all facilities that can support the pros. The acoustics are superb, and the seating is ample. […]

strong>See ART in the original French, then in Translation

Sponsored by Tacoma Arts Live (formerly the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts) Theater on the Square will open ART by Yasmina Reza, using Christopher Hampton’s English translation. The English version will open exactly one week after Rue du Hazard’s French production opens in Kirkland. It makes for a great experience for theatre goers to see the show in the original French and then in translation.

“The Drowsy Chaperone” is a clever slice of theater that was first developed in 1998 by  Bob Martin and Don McKellar with music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison. It is part homage and part farcical send-up of the great Broadway shows in the first 1/3 of the 20th Century. It had its own Broadway opening in 2006, and opened […]

When you say, “Agnes of God” most people will remember the 1985 movie, starring Jane Fonda and Anne Bancroft, with Meg Tilly in the titular role. Less known is that the movie derives from a play produced in 1979, later opening on Broadway in 1982. The stellar Broadway cast included Geraldine Page and Elizabeth Ashley, […]

The Changing Scene Theatre Northwest presents the kinds of shows one will not see anywhere else in the local theatre scene. Nowhere on TCTN’s yearly slate of shows will one find “My Fair Lady,” or “Oliver.” That’s a good thing because (with all due respect to Ms. Doolittle and young Master Twist) new is good, and different […]

“Bent,” a 1979 play by Martin Sherman, is a powerful piece of writing about the treatment of the gay community during the rise to power of the Third Reich. The Changing Scene Theatre Northwest opened this show this weekend on the Dukesbay stage. Over the course of two hours, the audience is run through a […]

This is all to Director Blake York’s credit…or blame, depending on your perspective. Mr. York saw “The Pillowman” on stage in Chicago and brought it home to Chris Serface, Managing Artistic Director at Tacoma Little Theatre. Mr. Serface greenlighted the project and “The Pillowman” opened on the TLT stage this weekend. It is 144 minutes […]

In 1970, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice knocked theater, religion, and rock music together on their heads. When they created “Jesus Christ: Superstar,” they took what is reported about the last week of the life of Christ, bent it to their will, and added a rock and roll soundtrack. That would have been enough, […]

Tacoma’s Dukesbay Theater states, as its mission, “to promote independent theater in Tacoma and to give voice to artists of all ethnicities.” It is the function that sets this small operation apart from her larger sister theaters in the South Sound. A worthier task they could not have, and an admirable and serious goal it […]

An evening with Sinatra at the Tacoma Musical Playhouse The Tacoma Musical Playhouse saw a crowded lobby and a full house on the opening night of “My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra.” Complete with themed cocktails, the ambiance of the theater recalled a classy evening of jazz in 1960’s Chicago or New York. […]