Taproot Theater

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Last Drive to Dodge-Entertaining and Serious at Taproot

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Awe-inspiring Historical Drama

An exceptional production in every way, Last Drive to Dodge, opened last weekend at Taproot’s Jewel Mainstage, directed by the venerable Valerie Curtis-Newton. It was extraordinary in every way, the script by Andrew Lee Creech, the superb acting, the lovely accompanying music, the evocative lighting effects and the history lessons gently woven into the plot. As a joint production of the Hansberry Project and Taproot it was a tribute to a marvelous partnership.

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Art in the Lobby Paper Art by Maggie Ramirez Burns

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Can you believe it was all made with colored paper!

Most of us know about the Japanese craft of Origami, which folds paper intricately to create animals, but few of us know that there is an art form involving cutting paper. I learned of it in 2021 when I visited the National Nordic Museum in Ballard and saw the exhibit “Paper Dialogues: The Dragon and Our Stories.” There I learned that it is a thriving art form in Scandinavia as well as China.

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The Hello Girls-Delightful Musical at Taproot

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“The Times they were a changin’”…And women were doin’ the changin’”

A thoroughly interesting, informative and absolutely delightful musical opened at Taproot Theater this weekend: The Hello Girls, which while entertaining, tells the story of the Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit, colloquially knows as The Hello Girls, during World War I. With music and lyrics by Peter Mills, adapted from a book by Peter Mills and Cara Reichel, under the superb direction of Karen Lund, it depicts changing attitudes towards women at a unique moment of history.

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A Woman of No Important’s Run at Taproot is Extended to March 4.

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Oscar Wilde, acclaimed playwright and poet, wrote A Woman of no Importance in 1892, as a satire of the Victorian upper class and as a social commentary on marriage and the roles of women. It was, however, the least successful of his plays, because of its lack of original subject matter and its occasionally unnecessary lengthiness. Yet there is value to find in all of Wilde’s plays, including a playfulness amongst social critique and themes that are still relevant to this day. With a stellar cast, stage, and music production, Karen Lund – producing artistic director at Taproot Theatre –attempts to bring about “a story that makes us both laugh and think”.

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Singing Out in “A Night With the Russells”

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Covid may have briefly interrupted the Russell family’s run at the Taproot, but proving as indefatigable as their onstage personas, the mother and daughters have dug their heels in and extended the run of their entertaining musical production through October 29. Director Jimmy Shields keeps the 90-minute show running briskly as “A Night With the Russells” has all three women exploring a song catalogue that ranges from their homeland Jamaican gospel to modern Broadway hits. The show is a heartfelt ode to the persistence and strength these three black women have displayed as they continue to make their way through a life of onstage performing.  

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Lincoln and Frederick Douglass Take the Stage

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In 2012, Washington D.C. Ford’s Theatre commissioned playwright Richard Hellesen to create a historical drama; the result is his Necessary Sacrifices, a fanciful play that imagines what might have occurred during the two meetings Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass had in their lives. What really occurred when these two dynamic men met will never be known, but Hellesen gathered historical documents, letters, newspaper quotes and a good deal of Lincoln and Douglass’s written work to present a convincing replica of the fireworks that might have been ignited during their discussions. The Taproot Theatre, employing the immensely talented Lamar Legend as Douglass and Ted Rooney as Lincoln now stages the play’s West Coast Premiere.

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Bright Star Lights Up Taproot Theatre

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The Taproot Theatre has been bringing quality shows to the Greenwood neighborhood for years, but rarely has it produced a blow the doors open, buckle-up energy, Broadway quality show such at it has going on now with Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s Bright Star. The path these two musicians and storywriters took to creating an award winning Broadway musical is quite circuitous. The pair was inspired by the folk song “The Ballad of the Iron Mountain Baby” which narrates the mostly true story of a baby who in 1902 was left for dead when discovered by a William Helms near the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway. In 2013 Martin and Brickell produced a bluegrass album that touched on the themes of this tale. That record went on to form the basis for their musical that hit Broadway in 2016.

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