At first glance, Singin’ in the Rain at Village Theatre and King Charles III at Seattle Rep might seem to have next to nothing in common. One is a screen to stage transfer of a most beloved 1952 MGM musical satire of Hollywood ushering in talking pictures, while the other is an audacious, Masterpiece Theatre sort of drama, imagining the turnover at the top when Queen Elizabeth finally breathes her last.
With the abundance of theatre in Seattle this season, I was late catching two really special shows that both close this weekend. Smaller companies tend to have a harder time building audiences, even in spaces with smaller seating capacity. But if you like intimate musicals, the Reboot Theatre and Second Story Rep have some dandy fare on stage right now!
I first met Jamie Torcellini in my junior year at the United States International University School of Performing and Visual Arts. He was a diminutive young Gene Kelly type who had grown up in San Diego’s Jr. Theatre program. We acted together in a main-stage production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, where he was anything but type-cast as the Courtesan peddler Marcus Lycus, and I was (at age 20) the venerable and dotty Erronius.
Teatro ZinZanni’s Welcome to Wonderland is as wacky, winsome, and yes, wonderful as can be. With a zesty and quick-footed cast led by sultry chanteuse Lady Rizo and Kevin Kent, it would take being clinically depressed to have less than a grand time in ZinZanni’s always enticing Spiegeltent.
Reboot Theatre, known best for their all female 1776, is about to open a new musical, and although their Artistic Director Jasmine Joshua has been a familiar face in Seattle for awhile, we wanted a sit-down to talk to her about herself, her company and newest project.
Beautiful–The Carole King Musical may have won only 2 of the 7 Tony award nominations it garnered in 2014 but it provides everyone from confirmed theatre subscribers to sometimes jaded critics with a show to root for and embrace, because, well, it is beautiful.
Oh what a few years on Broadway in the smash hit Disney musical can do. Don Darryl Rivera is an impish, butterball of a comic actor/singer, popular in the Puget Sound for much of the last decade returns to Seattle after 2.5 years (with no end in sight) of playing Iago in the smash Aladdin, to steal every minute he is onstage in the 5th Avenue’s impressive Man of La Mancha.
If you weren’t one of the lucky ones who got to see the amazing Emmy, Tony, Oscar, and Grammy winning talents of Rita Moreno at Edmonds Center, the night the big storm of the century predicted here didn’t hit, you didn’t have the guts of the nearly full house at Edmonds Center for the Arts, nor have such a grand time.
Matt Wolfe has been a professional actor for over twenty years, and part of the Seattle theatre community since 2003. He has done outstanding work for Showtunes, and was happy to talk about their very original take on Shenandoah running next weekend, with Matt directing.
A venerable and important play, an acclaimed playwright, a proven director, a capable cast, and more leads one to expect Seattle Repertory Theatre’s production of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun to be a must-see of the current season.
When the 5th asked Don Darryl to play the role of Don Quixote’s traveling companion in the 5th’s 2016-2017 season opener Man of La Mancha, he got the ok from the House of Mouse. In the midst of rehearsals, this delightful performer talked to Jetspace about his amazing journey from Seattle to Broadway and (briefly) back.
A mainstay on the South End, actress/singer/dancer Alexandria Henderson has set her sights on Seattle and Eastside companies recently. Having seen her work, I’d say she has the chops to become the next big musical talent to watch for. Henderson was featured ensemble...