Category: News

 Seattle’s 5^th Avenue Theatre and Issaquah’s Village Theatre are among nine companies nationwide to receive grants from the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s National Fund for New Musicals. The funding program supports NAMT member not-for-profit theatres in their collaborations with writers to create, develop and produce new musicals.

The 5th Avenue Theatre received a National Fund grant of $4,000 to support a workshop or reading for Beautiful Poison by Brendan Milburn, Duane Poole and Valeria Vigoda with support from The ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund. Milburn and Vigoda, whose new musical Ernest Shackleton Loves Me recently premiered at Seattle’s Balagan Theatre, are both alumni from NAMT’s 2004 Festival for Striking 12 and 2012 Festival for Sleeping Beauty Wakes. Milburn is also an alumnus from NAMT’s 2011 Festival for Watt?!?,

Village Theatre received the same grant for Jesus in My Bedroom by Melanie Burgess, Tim Symons and Tony and Pulitzer-winner Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal). Yorkey is also a Festival alumnus writer for his musical Making Tracks presented in NAMT’s Festival in 2001.

This is the sixth year of grants awarded from the National Fund of New Musicals, a fund created by NAMT to help support every stage of development for new musicals. To date, the Fund has now awarded 66 grants totaling $269,500.

SPOILER ALERT: There will be nudity on stage! 

Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is being staged at ArtsWest in West Seattle. The show’s profanity, treatment of sexuality, depiction of (gasp!) drugs, and its (gadzooks!) famous nude scene broke new ground in musical theatre when it opened off-Broadway in 1967, and then on Broadway in 1968. Hair features a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragniand music by Galt MacDermot. Several of the songs became anthems in the anti-Vietnam War movement, and are still well-loved the world over. The show’s hits, from “The Age of Aquarius” to the catchy title track, were quickly scooped up by pop artists (and Sesame Street!). Listen to some of our favorites below, then catch this watershed show on stage in West Seattle.

“Sesame Street” recognized a cultural touchstone when they saw one:

 

And Liza Minnelli did, too:

 

Ditto for Nina Simone…

 

…and Three Dog Night.

 

Everyone could feel the dawn of the age of Aquarius:

Musical theatre fans who love (or love to hate) the S&M-tinged mega-hit book Fifty Shades of Grey, all your dreams are coming true. 50 Shades! The Musical, a parody of the erotic novel, is coming to The Moore Theatre this summer, from June 12-14.

The story of 50 Shades! The Musical centers on a ladies book club that decides to read the naughty novel as a group. As they interpret the book, they take the audience through the story with dance numbers and songs like “They Get Nasty”, “I Don’t Make Love”, and “There’s a Hole Inside of Me.”

There is, of course, a disclaimer: “Like the book series, 50 Shades! The Musical, is surely not for those under the age of 18, but does not cross boundaries that would make general audiences squirm.” Check out the trailer below and decide for yourself!

Hip-hop and video projections from Detroit. An auteur from Argentina. Post-modern choreographers, cellists, comedians. All that and more will be presented at the always-exciting performance venue On the Boards during their 2014-15 season.

“If you think of Seattle as a leading place for innovation and creativity,” Artistic Director lane Czaplinski recently told the Seattle Times, “in the high-tech field and the arts, On the Boards is a bold player. We’re able to do stuff that’s unqique for an organization of our size and profile.”

Unique, perhaps, is an understatement. In this coming season, On the Boards will host the Seattle premiere of Detroit arts collective Complex Movements. The company blends hip-hop, video projections, technologies and audience involvement to tap into social justice movements. They’ll stage The Man Who Can Forget Anything, by dancer/choreographer Megan Murphy and filmmaker Greg Lachow. It’s a “familial mash-up of film, music, dance and theatre-delving into memory, real and imagined love, aging, leaps of faith and bouts of vertigo.”

They also host Mariano Pensotti, an auteur from Buenos Aires, who will explore how film influences real life and fiction. They’ll bring post-modern choreographer/dancer Kyle Abraham with a piece set to protest music by jazz great Max Roach. They’ll bring Erin Jorgensen on cello. They’ll present Ahamefule J. Oluo’s pop opera Now I’m Fine and much more. For a look at the complete season ahead at On the Boards, click here.

Photo of Ahamefule J. Oluo’s Now I’m Fine by Bob Peterson.

Megan Hilty will be back on stage with the Seattle Men’s Chorus’s Totally Wicked concerts this weekend, and it’s time for musical theatre fans to get excited. The chorus is honoring Broadway composer extraordinaire Stephen Schwarz, singing numbers from his hits like Godspell, Pippin and Wicked, as well as his lesser-known musicals, and Hilty is a perfect fit as a guest artist. Not only is the big, brassy-voiced singer a Bellevue native, she made her Broadway debut as Glinda in that mega-hit of all mega-hits, Wicked. She also starred in 9 to 5 on Broadway and in the NBC musical drama Smash, but there are many more reasons to love Megan Hilty. Here are a few of them.  

1. She can make you laugh, like she did at the 2013 Tony Awards with Broadway pals Laura Benanti, Neil Patrick Harris and Andrew Rannells. 

 

2. She can make you cry with tearjerker songs, like this duet “For Good” with fellow Wicked alum Stephanie J. Block at the 2013 Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards gala. 

 

3. Do we even need to mention that voice? Here she is singing “Be a Man” in a live studio session for Billboard. 

 

4. When it comes to performing, she’s the total package. Don’t believe us? Watch her singing “Touch My Soul” with her husband Brian Gallagher at Joe’s Pub in New York, and you’ll reconsider. 

 

Catch Hilty on stage at McCaw Hall with the Seattle Men’s Chorus, March 29 and 30!

In preparation for staging Tony Kushner’s award-winning masterwork Angels in America this summer, Intiman Theatre is kicking off its annual theatre festival with a discussion between the playwright and Dan Savage at Town Hall Seattle.

This year’s festival, called The Angels Project, includes not only the staging of the two-part, seven-hour theatre piece, but programs and events to encourage a deeper community dialogue with the issues presented by Angels in America.

On Saturday, May 10th at 2 PM, Intiman will present “A Savage Chat with Tony Kushner,” an interactive community conversation with the Tony Award-winning playwright and internationally syndicated advice columnist, The Stranger Editorial Director and Intiman alum (his play Miracle! was part of the company’s first summer festival in 2012) Dan Savage. It will be interactive in that they’ll be able to answer questions, either in real-time, via video submission (emailed to asktony@intiman.org) or tweeted to @IntimanTheatre using the hashtag #AskTony.

Kushner is best known for Angels in America, though he’s also written the screenplays for Stephen Spielberg’s Munich and was nominated for an Academy Award with Lincoln. He’s received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an Emmy Award and two Tony Awards, among many other accolades. Dan Savage is the author of the internationally syndicated sex column, “Savage Love” and is the co-founder of the It Gets Better Project to help prevent suicide among LGBT youth. Angels in America runs Aug. 12 – Sept. 21, 2014.

Tony Kushner photo by Joan Marcus. Dan Savage photo by LaRae Lobdell. 

Seattle Shakespeare Company has just announced the company’s robust plans for the coming 2014-15 season. It includes an expanded five-play indoor season, kicked off by Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Wooden O, the company’s annual selection of free outdoor shows, will include an all-female cast of Julius Caesar set in contemporary times.

“Many of the projects in this coming year have been in the works for several years,” artistic director George Mount said in a press release. “It was really a matter of timing and getting the right pieces in place.” With the mainstage indoor season, Mount said all the plays will focus around the theme ‘Lead Us Into Temptation.’ “Desires,” he notes, “both playful and sinister, are a factor in each show.”

The Wooden O season, summertimes shows presented for free around the Puget Sound area, will be The Two Gentlemen of Verona directed by David Quicksall and Julius Caesar directed by Vanessa Miller. The Two Gentlemen of Verona will draw its setting from mid-century America. Julius Caesar, with its female cast, will be an enthralling political thriller about the power of Rome.

The mainstage season opens with Beckett’s masterwork, Waiting for Godot. The season will continue with Shakespeare’s sparkling comedy Twelfth Night, followed by Measure for Measure, directed by Desdemona Chiang, Moliere’s Tartuffe and Othello directed by John Langs.

The season particulars:

2014 Wooden O Free Outdoor Season
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
July 10 – Aug. 10, 2014
Performed at park locations throughout King and Snohomish Counties

Julius Caesar
July 10 – Aug. 2, 2014
Performed at park locations throughout King and Snohomish Counties

2014-15 Indoor Season
Waiting for Godot
Sept. 3-21, 2014
Performed at the Falls Theatre at ACT Theatre

Twelfth Night
Oct. 21 – Nov. 16, 2014
Performed at the Center Theatre at Seattle Center

Measure for Measure
Jan. 6 – Feb. 1, 2015
Performed at the Center Theatre at Seattle Center

Tartuffe
March 17 – April 12, 2015
Performed at the Center Theatre at Seattle Center

Othello
April 22-May 10, 2015
Performed at the Center Theatre at Seattle Center 

There’s no question that Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is a comic masterpiece. It’s full of the author’s signature dry wit, and crackles with humor while skewering the restrictive social mores of the Victorian era. But in that grand tradition of drawing room comedy, it can also get just the teensiest bit confusing. Who is in love with whom? What’s the obsession with muffins? Is anyone actually named Earnest?!

The good people at Seattle Shakespeare Company are one step ahead of us. As they prepare to open their production of Earnest later this month, they’ve pulled together some handy infographics and flowcharts to help put these pieces together. One such example (from Cliffs Notes) is below, but there’s so much more to learn! Click here for more Earnest fun facts about muffins, cucumber sandwiches and much more. You won’t be sorry.

Recent hit musicals, classic hit musicals, and a brand new musical that could very well become a hit are all coming to The 5th Avenue Theatre! The company just announced its 2014-2015 season, which is chock-full of wonderful shows including current Broadway fave Kinky Boots and the world premiere musical Something’s Rotten, helmed by Tony-winning The Book of Mormon director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw.

Kinky Boots, which recently won six Tony Awards including Best Musical, was inspired by a true story of a struggling shoe factory owner, the score is by pop music great Cyndi Lauper, with direction and choreography by Jerry Mitchell and a book by four-time Tony winner Harvey Fierstein.  

Something Rotten!, a hilarious tale of two brothers trying to write a hit play in the time of Shakespeare, will be directed by the Tony Award-winning director and choreographer of The Book of Mormon, Casey Nicholaw.

Other season standouts include the holiday hit A Christmas Story, The Musical, which returns home after debuting at The 5th in 2010, and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel, a co-production with Spectrum Dance Theater directed by 5^th Ave’s producing director Bill Berry and choreographed by Spectrum artistic director Donald Byrd.

“With an array of shows ranging from a hotly-anticipated Broadway tour to a hilarious world premiere, not to mention celebrated contemporary classics and one of the immortal musicals from the Golden Age of Broadway,” says Executive Producer and Artistic Director David Armstrong, “we believe that this season truly represents the breadth and depth of what musical theater has to offer.”

Details of the full season are below:

A Chorus Line
September 3-28, 2014

Kinky Boots
October 7-26, 2014

A Christmas Story, The Musical
November 25-December 31, 2014

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel
February 5-March 1, 2015

Jacques Brel is Alive and Well & Living in Paris
March 7-May 17, 2015

Something Rotten!
April 29-May 24, 2015

Grease
July 9-August 2, 2015

With the expansion of Taproot Theatre complete, the company will now offer smaller shows in their smaller venue, the Isaac Studio Theatre, located in the company’s new Kendall Center. The 120-seat space will kick off 2014 with a season of six shows performed by Taproot Theatre’s Touring Company. The season, which is currently underway, will give Taproot audiences a delightful variety of improv, drama and comedy.

The inaugural season includes:

boy meets girl…an improved love story
By Danny Walter and Solomon Davis, Feb. 7, 8 and 15.
A love story, where the audience suggests and directs the plot. Improv at its finest.

Pretty Fire
by Charlayne Woodard, March 6-22.
A one-woman show, tracing the life of the famed African-American actress, who has appeared in such movies as “Unbreakable,” “The Crucible” and “The Million Dollar Hotel.”

Mark of Immediacy
Adapted by Nathan Jeffrey, April 11, 12, 17, 18, 19.
With scripture as their script, three actors bring to life the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Trouble in Fairtalezania and Wild Wes
Directed by Nathan Jeffrey and Solomon Davis, May 5 and 17.
Two family-friendly shows. One about a Fairy Godmother losing her powers; the other about a boy from Texas trying to make friends in his new hometown in the Pacific Northwest.

The Amish Project
Written by Jessica Dickey, July 24 – Aug. 9.
One woman channels a kaleidoscope of voices in reaction to a true life mass shooting in an Amish schoolhouse.

Christmas Touring
Dec 1, 3, 8, and 10.
See two shows (still to be determined) for the price of one as holiday cheer makes its merry home in Taproot’s hallowed halls.