Tags: StageThrust , Image
As always, check the Calendar of Events (pp. 50-51 in the current issue, "Taxi Cab Confessions”) for even more theater listings — and for photos and a preview of The 39 Steps, visit "Stage Thrust."
The 39 Steps
"A little bit of James Bond, a little bit of Masterpiece Theatre, and a lot of Monty Python" — that's how director William Marlowe describes this farcical Hitchcock spoof performed by just four actors (who'll change props and costumes in full view of the audience). Thurs-Sat at 7:30 pm; Sun at 2 pm. Tickets: $15-$21. Visit interplayers.com or call 455-PLAY.
Buddy
Buddy Holly's music is full of exuberance — and Brian Gunn's performance does it proud — but it gains even more when it appears in context: his early defiance of record producers, his last night with Maria Elena, etc. The musical continues at Spokane Civic Theatre on Thurs-Sat at 7:30 pm and Sun at 2 pm. Tickets: $28 (top); $10, student rush.
Liza canceled
She's ill. She won't be here on Friday night after all. If you didn't order online or by phone, call (800) 325-SEAT for refunds.
How I Became a Pirate
The kid wants to be a pirate, but he also wants Mommy. This musical version, produced by Spokane Children's Theatre, will mimic the look of Melissa Long's picture book. Performances this Sat-Sun, Oct. 16-17, at both 1 pm and 4 pm at a new location for SCT: the Masonic Center, 1108 W. Riverside Ave. Tickets: $12; $10, kids. Continues through Oct. 24.
Once Upon a Mattress
Rick Hornor directs the musical that pits the winning Princess Winnifred versus the aggravating Queen Aggravaine at Whitworth's Cowles Auditorium on Fri-Sat at 8 pm and Sun at 2 pm; final performances the following weekend, on Oct 22-23. Tickets: $6-$8. Call 777-3707.
Blue Door improv comedy
The all-ages Friday night shows continue at 8 pm, with the more adult-themed Saturday shows at 9 pm — all for the price of a movie. There's just something electric about knowing that a half-dozen quick-witted folks are making up the comedy right in front of your eyes.
The Laramie Project
Twelve years ago this month, Matthew Shepard was tortured and murdered for being gay. North Idaho College's free production will be performed inside Boswell Hall on Oct. 21-23 and Oct. 28-30 at 7:30 pm. Call (208) 769-3220.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Few plays are better about urging all of us to face up to the truth. (It's not comforting, but it's bracing.) Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor drunkenly screamed at each other in the movie — but during this readers theater production at Lake City Playhouse, you can hear all the yelling from up close. Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm; $10. Call (208) 667-1323.
Tags: StageThrust , Image
What to see in local theater this weekend:
20 actors. 13 plays (each about 10 minutes long). 12 playwrights. 8 directors. Two hours of your time. Zero dollars of your money. “Hit and Run IV” at Auntie’s on Saturday at 2 pm. Lots of bizarre premises and surreal situations. You’ll laugh a lot. It’s free. 838-0206 or here.
Pirates at Soccer Practice: Little Jeremy Jacob is playing in his sandbox when a gang of pirates suddenly appear. They’re in need of a good digger to help them dig up a treasure chest. Sounds good to J.J. — as long as the nice pirates get him home in time for soccer practice. So off he goes on a grand adventure — though the pirates’ carelessness about bedtime stories and sharks proves a little disconcerting. Maybe J.J. would be better off staying with his parents after all.
The Spokane Children’s Theatre production’s costumes and staging will aim at recreating several of David Shannon’s illustrations for Melinda Long’s 2003 book. Director Buddy Todd has been busy corralling all the buccaneers who serve Captain Braid Beard (Dennis Craig) in a chaotic musical number (“The Storm”), and Jeremy Jacob (Carter Martin) will sing “Pirates Never Tuck You In” while teetering atop a mountain of sleeping marauders.
Spokane Children’s Theatre presents How I Became a Pirate • Sat-Sun, Oct. 9-10, at 1 pm; Sat, Oct. 16 and Oct. 23, at 1 pm and 4 pm; Sun, Oct. 17, at 1 pm and 4 pm; Sun, Oct. 24, at 1 pm • Tickets: $12; $10, children • Spokane Masonic Center, Commandery Room • 1108 W. Riverside Ave. • Visit: spokanechildrenstheatre.org • Call: 328-4886 or (800) 325-SEAT
[ photo: Dennis Craig as Captain Braid Beard and Carter Martin as Jeremy Jacob in SCT’s How I Became a Pirate, running Oct. 9-24 at the Masonic Center in downtown Spokane ] ---
It’s like watching the birth of rock ‘n’ roll. Brian Gunn is exceptional as the guy in horn-rims, and Yvonne Johnson directs so that you’ll feel like standing up next to the screaming bobby-soxers. Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story continues through Oct. 24 at Spokane Civic Theatre; it’s on this weekend Fri-Sat 7:30 pm, Sun 2 pm. Students can get in for as little as ten bucks.
Just three more chances for you to bone up on the singing version of Argentine political history from 75 years ago: It’s called Evita. (You may have heard of it.) She keeps telling us not to cry. We cry, anyway. Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm; closes on Sun at 2 pm. Lake City Playhouse in CdA.
Improv comedy at the Blue Door: It’s all made up on the spot, and when these quick-witted folks get in their groove, it can be very, very funny. All-ages shows on Fridays at 8 pm; a show with a more adult sensibility explodes onto the stage on Saturday nights at 9 pm. All in the funky Garland District, and all for about the price of a movie. Blue Door Theatre, 815 W. Garland Ave., 747-7045 or here.
This show is gonna wash Spokane right out of its hair after tomorrow night: Even if you’re not a Gleek and only want to see South Pacific as a historical curiosity .. .. this is as good a production as you will ever see in your lifetime. At the INB Center tonight at 8 pm, and Sat. at 2 pm and 8 pm. Preview is here. Giant-ass review is here. The basics are here.
Also coming up:
Friday, Oct. 15: Liza Minnelli at the INB Center and WWE Raw at the Arena, both at 8 pm — however are we supposed to decide? Because some of us, you know, are capable of appreciating the beauty of men in bikini briefs who break bottles over one another’s heads and .. .. wait, they did that in Cabaret, too. Anyway, it’s the Great American Songbook versus the Choke-Hold — and both make us squirm with delight.
Two Zags in Romeo and Juliet! Steven Gray as Tybalt and Kelly Olynyk as Abraham in G-Prep principal Kevin Connell’s production, in the Magnuson Theater at GU (east end of College Hall, formerly aka the Admin Bldg.) on Fri 22 Oct at 7:30 pm; Sat 23 Oct at 2 and 7:30; Thurs 28 Oct at 10 am and 7:30 pm; Fri 29 Oct. at 10 am; Sat 30 Oct at 8 pm; and on Halloween at 2 pm. Write kconnell@gprep.com.
Tags: StageThrust
(South Pacific is at the INB Center through Saturday, Oct. 9. See our preview here.)
OVERVIEW: This is a major American musical brought into the here and now. David Pittsinger’s regal dignity and operatic voice don’t seem out of place: Emile is a creature apart, after all. Michael Yeargan’s sets, Donald Holder’s lighting, Scott Lehrer’s sound -- so this is what it can be like; this is what wins Tonys. Bart Sher’s restrained, understated direction. We’ve all seen poor South Pacifics; this one makes up for all of them. This is how it should be done. (If you don’t read anything else, read (7:45) on Pittsinger’s voice and (10:12-10:14) on Bart Sher’s emotional wallop of a directing choice near the end.)
7:31 pm, Wednesday night at the INB Center -- The overture fires up, and while it may not be as completely thrilling as advertised, you can hear the richness and the difference: a full horn section, doubled flutes, lush strings. (My daughter, 14 next week, leans over to say that the tropical set reminds her of The Jungle Book.)
7:34 pm -- Emile’s kids are cute in sailor suits for “Dites Moi.” That ocean behind them looks real. Even the butler is black: first hint of the show’s race-consciousness.
7:36 -- Jokes over hicks from the sticks, not “stick” -- corny but still fun. Kristie Kerwin as Nurse Nellie Forbush isn’t overdoing it: She may be complaining about all the mud now, but you can tell that there are white gloves and country clubs in her Arkansas past.
7:39 -- “A Cockeyed Optimist.” Music underscores the conversation before the break-out-into-song moment, making it less obviously artificial and hokey. To all those who discount musicals for their artificiality: An orchestra of this size (26 musicians? 29?) allows for underscoring, as in a movie -- and we don’t jump all over that as obviously phony. We just accept it; it’s part of movies. ---
As Emile, David Pittsinger has great dignity onstage: thrust chest, big strides like Mufasa in Lion King, regal. Kerwin isn’t swirling about like Gidget -- it’s all in the signing and the acting, not the blocking or in exaggerated gestures.
7:42 -- Emile leans in for a kiss that never connects: the first of many restrained-passion moments, and all the sexier for it. “Twin Soliloquies”: Pittsinger’s operatic voice fits Emile, who’s refined, reserved, and very French. He teaches Nellie how to swirl her cognac. The two lovers are back to back, then face to face -- Bart Sher opts for simple blocking, letting the crescendo wash over you. That’s where the emotion is. Pittsinger’s a treat -- the only person ever to sing a role on Broadway and at the Met Opera on the same day -- and he filled in for Paolo Szot on Broadway in this role, on and off, for three months.
7:45, “Some Enchanted Evening” -- Pittsinger’s voice is like brandy cascading over chocolate and macadamia nuts; you just want to crawl inside his baritone and take a nice, long soak in it. Kerwin, fully across the stage, smiles and puts her hand to her throat: Our response is in her joy. Everyone dreams of that moment, when The One came into view, and you just knew --
7:48 -- Lingering hand-holds; they’ll become a motif. Emile reveals his secret from the past. SP has its little Sound of Music moment, with Emile as Captain von Trapp, conducting his little chorus of not six Austrian kids but two Polynesians.
7:51 -- Bloody Mary (Jodi Kimura) learns how to yell “stingy bastard!”
7:53 -- An entire plane slides on, along with Billis’s laundry, where you can get your skivvies cleaned for a nickel. Comic business with shrunken heads and grass skirts. I’d forgotten that Billis groin-centered desire provides the set-up for Mary’s more ethereal siren song beckoning everyone to Bali Ha’i. (Would I have noticed how the black Seabees are physically segregated from the rest if reviews hadn’t mentioned it? I don’t know. Race isn’t central to my life; I’m white.)
7:56 -- “Nothin’ Like a Dame.” Choreography is strenuous, athletic, almost violent in places. These guys need to get their ya-ya’s out; they are seriously horny. Sailors are cartwheeling, being held upside-down, doing helicopter arms, mocking the come-hither gestures of women. Billis (Timothy Gulan), center stage, cups his hands over imaginary ta-ta’s, then jerks his elbows back violently. The sailor caps of two guys being given noogies conveniently become breasts to fondle. The number ends with sailors sprawled all over in the moonlight -- atop airplane wings, on sand dunes. They’re exhausted, spent, post-coital.
8:03 -- Lt. Joe Cable (Anderson Davis) shows up in his aviator jacket. (I interviewed him for half an hour by cell phone while he walked the streets of Pittsburgh, then was able to use only two quotes from him, because of space limitations.)
8:05 -- “Bali Ha’i.” You can hear the harp and strings. Kimura doesn’t make it alluring or romantic; in a show filled with stellar voices, hers pales by comparison, and the song suffers. She gives Mary a limp, though, which is an interesting choice. She tries to lure Cable with supplicating arms, but he sits, contemplative, smoking. And then comes the postcard moment for Holder’s lighting: the dual-volcano island, which we can barely make out -- it’s been swathed in low-lying clouds -- emerges; it looms. A remarkable effect. Billis tries to lure Cable with visions of coconut-liquor-fueled sex party over on the island,
“where everybody gets to know each other .. really well.”
8:15 -- Slats come down for a front-of-curtain scene: Cable nixes Billis’s launch idea. Soon Nellie is being asked to spy on Emile.
8:23 -- Joe and Nellie for “My Girl Back Home,” the number that was restored to the show and moved from Act Two to here. Joe may be a little more worldly than her. (Davis and I discussed the backstory he concocted for Cable -- but he wouldn’t divulge the name of the girl back in Philadelphia. He wanted, he said, to keep that a secret.)
8:28 -- You shoulda seen the delighted, open-mouthed stare of my teenage daughter when two of the Seabees emerged from makeshift showers, clutching towels to their private parts but butt-naked for all to see as they scampered offstage.
8:29 -- Towel-swipes for “I’m Gonna Wash That Man ..” Costumer Catherine Zuber, also a Tony-winner, has the women’s chorus in bathing attire in reds and russets and rust colors, but Nellie in turquoise (I think; I’m color-deficient) -- but interesting that Emile will soon stride on in plantation owner’s hat, Indiana Jones pants and boots .. and a maroon (or thereabouts) shirt, as if he, too, were to be kept visually separate from Nellie at this point. The girls do the jitterbug as Nellie showers; some smoke cigarettes, some cavort, some suggest a quick sexual position. Towel-throw, laughter, big finish!
8:39 -- reprise of “Some Enchanted Evening.” The billboard moment: Emile embraces her from behind and croons as she turns her face up and around to gaze at him longingly. Overcoming differences, that’s the theme -- we all face differences of age, race, culture, politics, birthplace .. in a sense, Emile’s and Nellie’s struggle is our struggle, too. Not to get sappy, but .. oh, what the hell, I’ll just get sappy.
8:41 -- More than an hour into the show, and at last they kiss. And kiss again. Swimsuited gals giggle in background. The dramatic impetus for “A Wonderful Guy” handled here much more convincingly than I remember seeing it before: Nellie’s been found out: everybody knows that she was just exulting about washing him right out of her hair. So Kerwin (who was in Spamalot on Broadway and was in the San Francisco world premiere and on the cast recording of a certain Irving Berlin tuner that Spokane audiences are anticipating this upcoming White Christmas) becomes self-assertive: the energy of “A Wonderful Guy” comes out of her embarrassment and her passion. She may be as corny as Kansas, but she (and we) have learned: To really love someone, you have lose much of your self-concern and truly make it other-concern, at least for that one special someone. (Sappy again, I know. I’ll stop now.) Kerwin sings much of “Wonderful Guy” simply, just seated. Explodes for the high note near the end. Finds Emile’s hat, left behind, impulsively decides to dance with it. Shakes a leg, literally, then the other. Turns cartwheels, climbs to top of shower contraption. Thrilling finish.
8:46 -- Emile in Capt. Brackett’s office; gives his answer about the spy mission; is challenged by Cable.
8:48 -- Slats, lowered, mask swirling dry-ice fog as a “boat” conveys Billis and Cable to Bali Ha’i; the latter is lured in by seductive native girls. Liat (Sumie Maeda) suddenly, quietly appears. They each have a little French. Davis, when I talked to him, mocked this moment as “Hello.” “Hello.” “Let’s have sex.” (Which they simulate, right away.) Shirts off; sex. Bloody Mary watches in the shadows, pleased.
8:53 -- “Younger Than Springtime.” Davis says this is on page one of the tenor songbook. They sold it with playfulness -- tugging on his shirt -- melting into persuasive passion. Sher goes for push-pull-push blocking here: two young people who keep thrusting themselves like slingshots at each other.
For the Act One Finale on Emile’s terrace, Nellie and the plantation owner waltz after his fancy party. Still restrained. It looks like we’re headed for a rom-com ending here: “Cockeyed Optimist” is even briefly reprised. Nellie and Emile harmonize. He even, uncharateristically and comically, spoofs her “Wash That Man Right Out” routine with a towel of his own. But then the revelations about his wife and family. Ominous underscoring as the two of them argue. She talks fast, just wants to get out of there, finally hurries off. Pittsinger full-front and center-stage for “Never let her go!” -- ironic/romantic crescendo. End of Act One, 9:06.
Act Two, 9:24 pm -- Cast members scurry about in full view as they “prepare” for the often-mentioned Thanksgiving variety show. During the Entr’acte, a solo clarinet hints at the “Younger Than Springtime” melody, and is answered by wah-wah trumpets. Tap-dancing female chorus members, festooned with turkey feathers -- doing their routine as if they don’t exactly know it, which is not easy. Yet another impressive feature of Lehrer’s sound design: at the mic, Nellie sounded as if she were actually speaking on one of those vintage ‘40s-era, scratchy public-address systems. (Brought back memories for this boomer.)
9:33 — Billis warns Emile not to deliver the flowers to Nellie just yet — she’s been cheerful all week, so don’t go ruining her fun now, fella. Cable,meanwhile, has come down with malaria.
9:35 — I’m not quite sure what to make of “Happy Talk.” At least it’s not as creepy as it often is, with Mom pimping out her own daughter. Here, as Mary, Kimura a kind of schadenfreude: sadness over her daughter’s prospect of happiness? But I’d be eager to know what others thought of how this number was performed. The lovers nuzzle and hold hands; Mary looks on from the shadows. Brief reprise by Davis of “Younger Than Springtime” was exceptionally good: alone, distraught, bereft of his girl, preparations bustling all around him.
9:42 — Nice touch to have Capt. Brackett (played by an understudy, Christopher Carl) break down for a tearful moment while delivering his otherwise jocular, by-the-numbers speech at the mic during the “Thanksgiving Follies”: He’s aware that the young men he’s talking to are about to go off into battle. “Honey Bun” not overdone: Nellie is kicky and fun; Billis in his coconut-shell bra doesn’t camp it up for laughs. It’s joy in the context of war: sexual desire the way it should be, lovemaking as if there’s no tomorrow. The sexual banter, the guy burying his face goofily in the matron’s bosom -- it’s not just funny. It’s fun tinged with the prospect of death. When Nellie finds out who sent her flowers, it’s under a cloudy gray sky that was so beautiful, I just wanted to pause the play and stare at it for awhile.
Cable sets up “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” with his remark that people are always saying that racial differences don’t matter to them — and then “everybody does their damnedest to prove it.” He scoffs at Nellie’s blatant bigotry, walks away from her. The song itself is directed right at three black sailors and two white ones, on the makeshift stage, with Cable’s back to us. Watch how subtle the blocking of the three black sailors is in this sequence.
9:55 — “This Nearly Was Mine.” Pittsinger sings it for both of them — Emile and Cable both, face front, both worried over lost loves. And with a big orchestra, during “This Nearly,” you can have the clarinet play just a couple of measures, just a hint, of “Some Enchanted Evening” — just to emphasize what Emile thinks he has lost.
9:57 — Big ovation for Pittsinger at the end of “This Nearly Was Mine.”
10:05 — War office. Crackly radio message from Emile. (No spoilers here.) He advises that “two black men” will act as guides for himself and Cable, hiding them “up in the hills” on the Jap-occupied island.
10:10 — As Nellie, sad, wanders out on a lonely beach, “A Wonderful Guy” is in the underscoring, reminding us of what she thinks she may have lost. Now she sings “Some Enchanted Evening,” accompanied in part by a solo violin. (Part of what you can do with a big orchestra.) A scene of consolation (again, no spoilers) is handled too quickly and is oddly underemphasized.
10:12 — War preparations underway; the attack on the Japanese is accelerating. Much scurrying — amazing what a director can do with 20 people and some large props to create a sense of thousands mustering for battle. (We’re supposed to think that, out where we are sitting, ten thousand men are assembling on the beach for a coordinated attack against the Japs.) Earlier, there was the comic business about Billis inadvertently creating a diversion that enabled Emile and Cable to land behind enemy lines, unseen; now, he’s showing his good side by pleading that a search party be sent out to rescue them.
10:14 — And then the evening’s most moving moment, which is all down to Sher’s direction. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, as Billis and Capt. Brackett are debating downstage, a squad of soldiers, in full combat gear, begin a slow, synchronized march right at us; they’re flanked by several women in their dress uniforms. Drumbeat, heel down; drumbeat, feet together; drumbeat, next step. This is what Davis meant in his phone interview with me about having respect for the men and women who fought in World War II.
Because as the assembled troops execute an about face, Sher reprises a snippet of the show’s good-times song: “A hundred and one pounds of fun,/ That’s my little Honey Bun!/ Get a load of Honey Bun tonight./ .. .. I am caught and I don’t wanna run./ ‘Cause I’m havin’ so much fun with my Honey Bun!” But it’s sung softly, almost like an ironic dirge of some kind, and then you realize it, then you know: They’re marching off to die. This is their memory of what it was like to laugh with friends and then, just like that, to be gone. It made me cry, then and now: the sacrifices that so many people made, just to win our freedom.
Years ago, I saw Bart Sher’s production at the Intiman in Seattle of a late and obscure Shakespeare play, Cymbeline. And it was a mockery of the play, a tasteless stew infected with way too many director’s “concepts,” an insult to the play — and if he’d been in the room, I’d have slapped him. I love that play, and he pissed all over it. BUT. But .. .. Bart Sher redeemed himself, in my eyes, entirely, with that one directorial decision to have the soldiers softly singing “Honey Bun” as they marched off to fight for a better world. Thrilling.
Segue to final scene. The talk in reviews was of how moving the final hand-holding was. Pittsinger had been directed to thrust out his hand, below table level, in an aggressive salesman’s gesture, as if to make sure that everyone in the house sees it. But that italicized the moment way too much for me. (And as a final carp: spotlights on opening night here were intrusive. In a show with such delicate and fine lighting, it seemed odd to have wavering, look-this-way, now-look-that-way lights constantly reminding us that we’re watching a show.)
But .. but .. unless you are a little kid, you will never in your lifetime see a production of South Pacific as good as this one. (And except for Pittsinger and the design elements, this is, presumably, a slight step down from what they saw on Broadway.)
Photos: David Pittsinger as Emile de Becque; photo by Joan Marcus
Anderson Davis and Sumi Maeda as Lt. Joel Cable and Liat; photo by Peter Coombs
Tags: theater , StageThrust , Image
You spent all summer at the lake; now you need some cultcha. How about trying one of the following plays and live performances? They're like 3D movies except that, you know, they're actually in 3D.
Get in at the birth of rock 'n' roll in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (at Spokane Civic Theatre through Oct. 24 — this week, Thurs-Sat at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2 pm). (See photos and reviews of Buddy here and here.)
Politics is "the art of the possible." That's what Juan Peron thought, anyway, and he was dictator of Argentina (even if he did almost lose his nerve before his wife Eva told him to man up). Lake City Playhouse's production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita (Thurs-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm), amid all the pretty tunes, actually adds to your knowledge of world history (so you can get all smug with the history buffs and musical-theater Gleeks). (See photos and reviews of Evita here and here.)
Thirteen ways of looking at a 10-minute play: That's what's coming up in "Hit and Run IV," a two-hour, one-after-another festival of 13 short (and often comedic and absurd) plays, performed by a whole slew of local actors at Auntie's Bookstore (Main Ave. and Washington St.) on Saturday, Oct. 9, at 2 pm. Three of the playlets (which range in length from 7-12 minutes) take place inside a snowglobe, inside a closet, and inside a living hell. (This mini-play festival will be an Inlander Pick in our Oct. 7 issue.) Tickets are set at actors' favorite price: free.
Bali Ha'i is calling. The national tour of South Pacific opens in Spokane next Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 7:30 pm at the INB Center and continues through Saturday, Oct. 9. (See our preview here, and check out the tour's official website.)
Tags: theater , StageThrust
It's like Opening Day of baseball season: By tomorrow, three local theaters will have opened their first shows of the year. So crack open some Cracker Jack and root, root, root for the home actors.
First, plug a quarter into the jukebox and select F-11. You just might hear "Johnny B. Goode" or "Why Do Fools Fall in Love." In other words, Buddy is a jukebox musical, and if you go to The Buddy Holly Story (at the Civic on Friday-Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2 pm, and continuing through Oct. 24), you're going to hear '50s songs sung by a lot more people than just Buddy Holly and the Crickets.
The father of the bride: He gets no respect. As it was for Spencer Tracy and Steve Martin, so it is for Reed McColm as Max Frobisher (in Interplayers' Together Again for the Next Time on Friday-Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2 pm). Max is running out of money, has to deal with a harridan of an ex-wife, a perfect-hostess-type current wife, and five unruly adult children from his not-so-chipper Brady Bunch of a blended family.
If Princess Diana had been Hispanic, born 42 years earlier, and could sing, she'd have been Eva Peron. So think of Evita as having yet another connection to the '80s: not just all rock-musical-y, but focused on a beautiful and quasi-ambitious blonde who died too young. Alyssa Day sings the hell out of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," so catch it at CdA's Lake City Playhouse on Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 pm or Sunday at 2 pm.
And if trapeze artists are the handsome leading men of the circus world — they get the flashy roles, but they're subject to great falls — then contemporary circus is a kind of theater. Cirque du Soleil: Alegria leaps and tumbles at Spokane Arena, with seven more performances through Sunday.
Tags: this weekend in theater , StageThrust
Date night? Your significant other might go for a serious musical in CdA or a rom-com in Spokane.
Andrew Lloyd Webber visits Coeur d'Alene! He's holed up in his suite at the Resort, though. Fortunately, Abbey Crawford and Carolyn Jess (director and musical director) will be available to direct the cast of Evita through their harmonizing paces. If you have to be seductive and twist arms in order to get to the top — so you can aid the masses of poor people — but then you find out, once you're at the top, that you've distanced yourself from all the people who once loved you, what do you do? You sing, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina." Evita croons and tangos at Lake City Playhouse, 1320 E. Garden Ave. in CdA, with opening night on Friday at 7:30 pm; also on Saturday at 7:30 pm and on Sunday at 2 pm. Call (208) 667-1323. Look for our review next week.
Three sisters, two brothers, several in-laws and step-parents ... and a wedding. A blended family tries to welcome the new son- (or brother-)in-law. It's one big emotional mess — but Reed McColm's Together Again for the Next Time is also very funny at times. Somewhere around the brother-sister teasing, or the ridicule of the Spokane airport, or the removal of stains from tuxedo pants with Wite-Out, you realize that the 11 people onstage have problems a lot like yours. Only even more laughable. At Interplayers, Friday-Saturday at 7:30 pm, along with a 2 pm matinee on Saturday. Tickets: $15-$21; $10, students. Review here.
Tags: theater , StageThrust
Fall's over. It's raining. Time to get some culture. Thing is, though, this weekend some of the drama's in a theater — or else in a barn. Or even a library.
If everybody would just stop asking the in-laws and the grandparents for their opinions, weddings would turn out perfect. And yet everyone keeps asking Grandpa what he thinks. In the new comedy by Interplayers Artistic Director Reed McColm — Together Again for the Next Time — one dysfunctional family is blended with the dysfunctions of another family ... well, it's kind of like a dysfunctional milkshake. And the top has flown off the blender, and things are about to get messy.
Together Again Too (the cutesy alternate title for the play) is like one of those old-fashioned stage comedies: lightly satiric and grounded in pop culture, with the old coot bossing around his granddaughters and the mother of the bride stewing over the wedding arrangements. Best of all, it's performed by a relatively large cast of 11. (No brooding three-character drama here for saving on actors' salaries.)
Together Again for the Next Time opens tonight at 7:30 pm at Interplayers, with performances on Friday at 8 pm and on Saturday at 2 pm and 8 pm. Visit interplayers.com or call 455-PLAY. The show continues through Sept. 25.
Watch out for the vampires out near Stateline. They're wearing boots and spurs. The Cowboy Supper Shows at the Rockin' B Ranch continue on Friday-Saturday, with doors opening at 5:30 pm. At 6:10 pm, dodge the bloodsuckers during "Twilight at Spokane Bridge — a Cowboy Vampire Melodrama." Dinner's at 7 pm, followed by the mainstage celebration of Western movie music, "How the West Was Sung," from 8-9 pm. $35 gets you both shows and several slabs of meat. Visit rockinbranch.com or call 891-9016.
Two actors wandered into a lecture hall ... and emerged with lessons learned and priorities straight. CdA Summer Theater has assigned Roger Welch and Jack Bannon a reading of Tuesdays with Morrie, Friday-Saturday at 7 pm inside North Idaho College's Molstead Library. It's in the Todd Lecture Hall, actually, and there's seating for only 75 student-spectators. Tickets: $25. Call (208) 769-7780.
Tags: theater , this weekend in theater , StageThrust
Well, a couple of them, anyway. Up near the Canadian border, at the Cutter Theater in Metaline Falls, you can catch the sequel to Nunsense months before Spokane Civic Theatre presents its version of the original show next February (which is backwards, but the Little Sisters of Hoboken won't mind). Nunsense II plays up north on Friday-Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2 pm. Tickets: $12.
Early next week, you can also spend one of your Tuesdays with Morrie. Literally. Next Tuesday night, local favorites Roger Welch and Jack Bannon will perform a readers theater version of Mitch Albom's bestseller, in which a sportswriter learns life-lessons from his dying mentor. Performances, in the library's lecture hall at North Idaho College, are limited to 75 playgoers. Tickets: $25. Shows (all at 7 pm) on Tuesday, Sept. 7, and on Friday-Saturday, Sept. 10-11. Tuesdays with Morrie is brought to you by CdA Summer Theatre. [photo: Morrie Schwartz and Mitch Albom]
Tags: theater , StageThrust
Theater — it's like reality TV, only it's really real. (Sometimes the actors fall into your lap.)
Soccer moms face off against emo kids from the next housing tract over in "Block Party," the Friday-night improv comedy show with a suburban theme at the Blue Door in the Garland District. And even though "Safari" shows continue on Saturdays at 9 pm, tomorrow night at 8 pm is your last chance to enjoy the "Block Party" ruckus. Just $7, and the shows are different every night!
She'll pirouette smack-dab into a larger-than-life clay figure in The Golem and the Ballerina, a new play by Christopher Lamb — he also directed, choreographed and will play the principal dancer — to be performed at the Company Ballet School, on Argonne Rd. at Empire Ave. (just three blocks north of Trent) on Saturday night at 7:30 pm and on Sunday afternoon at 2 pm. Just $6.50 to see hordes of dancers in a confined space.
Rancid Crabtree and 100-year-old Ed will fend off ghosts and aliens from outer space (that is, if Ed can stay awake) at the Rockin' B Ranch this Saturday out at Stateline (I-90 and Exit 299). Doors at 5:30 pm, dinner at 6:30, show at 7:30. For $35, you get three kinds of meat and taters and corn on the cob and a pre-show and lemonade that comes out of barrels in the rafters.
Tags: this weekend in theater , StageThrust