This Week in Arts: Weekly Roundup (5/17)
Another busy week brings a couple of don’t-miss shows that close this weekend, a lot of excellent dance options, loads of musicals, and plenty of choices for everyone. Here’s what’s on this week.
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ACT Theatre
NWTheatre Awards: Best-Loved Shows of 2022
All around the Sound, theatre and dance companies treated viewers to a lot of great performances in 2022. Here’s what stood out to NWTheatre as the most powerful, most memorable, most spectacular of the year.
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We’ll Have a Gay Ol’ Time!
Make your yuletide gay with these glittery, queer Christmas shows.
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The Christmas Carols, One and All
At least nine versions are taking shape throughout the region. How to decide? Here, theatres give the scoop on what fun twists to expect at each — and why they’re like candy coal or a boozy trio.
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Sweat Now. Process Afterwords.
Two big productions on now, paint two American portraits, intimate and recognizable, in details both banal and destabilizing. Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama runs through 5/22 at ACT Theatre; and a world-premiere musical at The 5th runs through 5/21.
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The Thrust: In This Weekend’s Shows, Be Careful What You Wish For
Three shows this weekend explore the deepest desires of their characters. Not all goes according to plan.
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Solo Fest: Dare to Claim the Stage
This weekend, Sharon Nyree Williams brings ‘Dare to Claim the Sky’ to ACT Theatre, alongside work from three other solo performers; and On the Boards features five dancers and seven durational works in its own solo fest later this month.
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Two ‘Social Justice Scrooges’ Stay Up Past Christmas
Two versions of ‘A Christmas Carol’ — one new and one classic — seek to highlight the social-justice message at the heart of the original. ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol’ plays at Harlequin in Olympia through 12/31; and ‘A Christmas Carol’ plays at ACT Theatre in Seattle through 12/28.
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‘Yen’, on Now at ACT, Is Tender, Crass and Mesmerizing
‘Yen’ is vulgar. Its characters are often unlikeable, even repulsive. But its unexpected glimpses of tenderness, unabashed lack of nuance, and strong direction and performances make this year’s Kenan Fellowship in Directing showcase a highly recommended trip. It runs through September 29.
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In ‘People of the Book’, Soapy Characters Drift to a Mesmerizing Finale
In Yussef El Guindi’s latest, an adrift and too-convenient show is saved by an exceptional performance in its final moments. ‘People of the Book’ runs through September 29.
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‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ Can’t Quite Match the Magic of the Book
The stage adaptation of Joan Didion’s best-selling memoir of grief, on now through August 11 at ACT Theatre, is a beautifully performed, communal catharsis over the inevitability of death. But its attempt at universality leaves it a flattened version of the original.
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Haunting Production of ‘Pass Over’ Brings the Block to the Round at ACT, Under a Noticeable White Gaze
It’s a beautiful, multi-layered production of a potent, multi-layered script, artfully packed into an efficient 80-minute performance. So why was the overall result so unsatisfying?
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5 Questions with Theatre-Makers Mary Ewald & John Kazanjian
Mary Ewald and John Kazanjian, spouses and long-term collaborators behind the New City Theater, have teamed up with ACTLab to produce two short works running through June 30. Ewald and Kazanjian talked with NWTheatre about their current show at ACT, and about the fascinating arc of New City Theater.
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Our Modern Dystopias, pt. 1: ‘Urinetown’
In ‘Urinetown’ (ACT/5th Avenue, extended thru 6/2) and ‘Language Rooms’ (Pony World, thru 5/4), two very different shows grapple with similar themes, showing not-too-far-off modern dystopias in which the bounds of truth and loyalty are tested. Each does so with varying levels of success.
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