I had the pleasure last week of interviewing the delightful James Judy from the cast of the Newsies National Tour. Judy is playing the role of Snyder, a despicable low-life running a so-called “refuge” for wayward boys. He also understudies the role of publishing...
My Heart is the Drum, currently filling houses at Issaquah’s Village Theatre, is the penultimate show of their 2015-2016 season. It has a big heart and big problems, but also a fervent and hugely talented cast. They present this original musical (seen here first at...
Despite the seemingly dour and depressing title, Eulogy, Kevin Kent’s most recent non-Teatro Zinzanni related performance (also written by La Kent, with a double dose of it changes every show improve thrown in) is a master class in comedy with a delicious dollop of...
David-Edward Hughes: Tell me ALL about you! Ok maybe not ALL but fill our readership in. Greg Brisendine: I’m 50 years old and my background in the arts is relatively new. About 15 years ago, a friend invited me to a Poetry Slam. I had never heard of performance...
This past week, I had the chance to chat with the warm and vivacious Randy Johnson, the creator/director of A Night With Janis Joplin, which is in previews at the 5th Avenue, and opens Thursday night. Randy specializes in these kind of shows, which bring our musical...
This week, an interview with one of the alternating star attractions in the enduringly popular Teatro Zinzanni production at their Spiegeltent in Lower Queen Anne, the zaftig and zesty, Miss Christine Deaver! David-Edward Hughes: I'd call you reigning queen of Teatro...
An original East coaster from Bethlehem, PA, Bobbi Kotula chose to come live in Seattle but took the hard way here. She married a man who wanted to live here, so she moved with him. She later let him go but couldn't do the same to Seattle. Two decades plus later, she...
Parade is a historically based musical produced in 1998 on Broadway. It's a Tony Award winner for composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown and librettist Alfred Uhry. It also has 7 other nominations, including Best Musical, plus 6 Drama Desk Awards. A national tour of the...
I make no bones about the fact that I adore Anne Allgood. I’ve been a fan ever since I sat at the audition table when she was brand new to town, auditioning for Showtunes Theatre’s very first show, Anyone Can Whistle. She wasn’t cast, but it had nothing to do with her...
Though once a staple of the American Musical theatre canon, the musically rich, lyrically lithe, and satirically sassy Finian’s Rainbow has all but vanished from the schedules of theatres, even those like the 5th Avenue that take pride in bringing back “lost musicals”...
Actress Kendra Kassebaum is perhaps best known for her long stint as Galinda/Glinda in the smash musical Wicked. But one past project that has remained near and dear to her heart is the dark-hued Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman musical Assassins, which she appeared in...
Theatre and cabaret favorite, and film-maker, Angie Louise is a whirling dervish of the Seattle entertainment scene. Whether you recall her at the 5th Avenue as a wicked Fraulein Kost in Cabaret, or know her from her edgy Weimar-era inspired band The Love Markets, or...