This Week in Arts: Weekly Roundup (4/29)
It’s another busy week ahead, with unique dance performances around time and place; timely plays examining the very-human impacts of war; and comedies, dramas, musicals, and cabarets to fit any mood.
Ticketing links for most shows can be found on the Performance Calendar page here.
Openings & Short Runs
Dance Dance Evolution
Two dance shows inspired by time and space
This weekend only. In Seattle (Capitol Hill & Georgetown).
These very different productions — in content, mood, and place — consider similarly vast topics of time and space.
MALACARNE’s this is concrete II primarily looks to the past, inside one vast site, to gather meaning for the present. Meanwhile, Space 50, a dance-centered variety show conceived by Diana Cardiff and Sara Jinks, looks into the future, the other-worldly, outer space.
MALACARNE: this is concrete II (4/30-5/1). Tickets ($25) are sold out online, but limited available at the door; show info here.
Diana Cardiff & Sara Jinks: Space 50 (thru 5/2). Tickets are $35.50, here.
See NWT’s feature here.
Reboot Theatre: Cabaret
“Do you go along to get along?”
Runs 4/29-5/14. In Seattle (International District).
Reboot is known for retakes on classic works, with new perspectives or reimagined roles and casting. While maintaining a tradition of largely casting queer and trans actors, Artistic Director and show director Jasmine Joshua notes that their take on Cabaret “is really more of a refocus than it is a reboot. … What I focused on as a director is how privilege intersects with activism. At what point did you notice something was wrong? And what did you do about it?”
On their take’s reflection of the time and place, explains Joshua, “Our Cabaret is not a gender- or color-blind cast. The diversity of our cast is reflective of the diversity of Weimar Berlin, which was a vibrant open society that was crushed by fascism and the homogeneity it demands. So all of those people from all different walks of life were confronted with the seemingly inevitable choice: Do you go along to get along? Do you do something? What does every person, with all their different privileges and varying levels of social capital in the face of White Supremacism, decide to do?”
Tickets are $6.50-$106 (sliding scale available to all), here.
Collateral Damages
Two plays grapple with lasting, human impacts of war
In Tacoma (thru 5/15) and the Seattle Center (thru 5/22).
Playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes has devoted a trilogy to following the journeys of a young soldier named Elliot. In The Happiest Song Plays Last, she concludes that trilogy by sending Elliot back into war — this time, a fictional one, as he serves as a consultant and then actor in a war-set play. Meanwhile, his cousin, Yaz, fights her own battles as an activist on the homefront. Directed by Marilyn Bennett, it opens tonight at Tacoma Little Theatre.
And at Seattle Rep, Valerie Curtis-Newton directs Sylvia Khoury’s play about those left behind when the war moves on. Selling Kabul, which centers on a military interpreter newly in hiding as the Taliban’s rule takes hold, looks at the lasting consequences of taking sides when war ruptures your homeland.
Tacoma Little Theatre: The Happiest Song Plays Last (thru 5/15). Tickets are $27, here.
Seattle Rep: Selling Kabul (thru 5/22). Tickets are $47-$79, here. The Rep offers some pay-what-you-choose tickets to all (any seat, any show); see info here. Streaming access available at a later date.
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Intiman Theatre: Two Mile Hollow @ Broadway Performance Hall (opened 4/28, closing 5/14). In Seattle (Capitol Hill).
Coriolis Dance: The Art of Seafaring @ Yaw Theater (opens 4/29, closing 5/7). In Seattle (Georgetown).
The Changing Scene Theatre Northwest: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)[revised] @ Dukesbay Theater (opens 4/29, closing 5/7). In Tacoma.
Seattle Shakespeare Company: Much Ado About Nothing (opens 4/29, closing 5/22). At the Seattle Center.
Theatre22: Or, @ Seattle Public Theater (opens 4/29, closing 5/22). In Seattle (Green Lake).
ACT Theatre: Sweat (previews 4/29-5/4, opens 5/5, closing 5/22). In Downtown Seattle.
The 5th Avenue Theatre: Afterwords (previews 4/29-5/5, opens 5/6, closing 5/21). In Downtown Seattle.
Closing Soon
Jet City Improv: A Tribe Called Yes @ West of Lenin (closing 4/30). In Seattle (Fremont).
Taproot Theatre: The Spitfire Grill (closing 4/30). In Seattle (Greenwood). See NWT’s Quick Takes review here.
Acts on Stage: Two Trains Running (closing 5/1). In White Center.
Bremerton Community Theatre: Something Rotten! (closing 5/1). In Bremerton.
Can Can Culinary Cabaret: Ooh La La (closing 5/1). In Seattle (Pike Place).
Dacha: Dice – Romeo and Juliet @ Sankofa Theatre (closing 5/1). In Seattle (International District).
The Phoenix Theatre: Mama Won’t Fly (closing 5/1). In Edmonds.
Seattle Rep: Ghosts (closing 5/1). At the Seattle Center (Mercer St. side).
Village Theatre: The Book Club Play (closing 5/1). In Everett. See NWT’s review here.
Washington Ensemble Theatre: Tin Cat Shoes (closing 5/2). In Seattle (Capitol Hill). See NWT contributor Dusty Somers’ review (in the Seattle Times) here.
Continuing Runs
ManeStage Theatre: Anne of Green Gables (closing 5/8). In Puyallup.
Twelfth Night Productions: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee @ Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (closing 5/8). In West Seattle (Delridge).
Sound Theatre Company: Gaslight (Angel Street) @ 12th Avenue Arts (opens 4/23, closing 5/14). In Seattle (Capitol Hill).
Seattle Children’s Theatre: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus: The Musical (closing 5/22). At the Seattle Center.
Cafe Nordo: Down the Rabbit Hole (closing 5/28). In Seattle (Pioneer Square).
Village Theatre: You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (closing 5/22 in Issaquah; runs 5/27-6/19 in Everett). In Issaquah & Everett.
The Roundup is a weekly (ish) feature. Want to plan your show schedule further out? See NWT’s 2022 Shows list, which aims to list just about every theatre show in town. For shows by day and ticketing info, see the Performance Calendar.
Chase D. Anderson is Editor & Producer of NWTheatre.org.