Kelly Rogers Flynt - Page 5

Book-It Repertory Theatre has a winner on its hands. MY ANTONIA sings with triumph as a story we both know by heart and one we long to hear. It deftly deals with the issues of love and loss, class divide, and immigration. Whether a century ago or current day, the story of My Antonia is remarkable for its beauty and authenticity.

Taproot Theatre's production of MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY offers a holiday diversion of wit, charm, and heart. Mary Bennet, the middle sister, steps from the shadows to take command of her own story. With a gathering of family and a visit from a distant cousin, the recipe is ripe for misunderstandings between people who manage to talk so much and say so little. Taproot Theatre has provided a show that should be on everyone's holiday wish list.

ArtsWest gives new life to an old story with its production of JANE EYRE. The musical is presented in an updated chamber version in its West Coast premier. The story is a classic. The lessons of following your heart and forgiveness are universal. But above it all is the music. The glorious music will haunt you, enrapture you, and seep into your very bones. You may come for the story, but it is the music that will make you want to see it again and again.

PARLIAMENT SQUARE by Pony World Theatre pulls at your heart and gut but leaves your intellect unengaged. The show is a feast of tension, activism, and drama with a side of emotional manipulation. The story falls to match the actors or design in terms of inspiration and fizzles from lack of specificity.

Seattle Shakespeare's ARMS & THE MAN visits the past and finds the present. With wit, humor, and richness of production, the show presents a classic tale of a chance encounter that changes everything. From the pithy dialogue to the talented cast, Seattle Shakespeare has chosen well for its second show of the season.

FADE at Seattle Public Theater is a quiet little show that's worth making a lot of noise about. The play by Tanya Saracho is both a witty and scathing examination of classism, racism, and sexism. An immigrant looks to climb the corporate ladder in Hollywood, but the price of success may be more than she bargained for. Identity, heritage, and friendship are all tokens of negotiation.

Skeleton Crew at ArtsWest Theatre is a double punch of grit and heart. The recession is wreaking havoc on the auto industry in Detroit, and the plant workers are caught in the crossfire. When you can't control the forces at work around you, your reactions to the circumstances are all you have left. Stress, uncertainty, power plays, and self-preservation are all in the mix. The small but powerful cast will suck you into their world and leave their pain and worry stirring uncomfortably in your belly. In Skeleton Crew nothing comes easy, but building a good life is worth the fight.

The Phantom is back, and he's here to bring you dreams and nightmares, music and mystery, opulence and wrath. Cameron Mackintosh's production of The Phantom of the Opera at the Paramount Theatre is a masterpiece of spectacle. From heavily adorned costumes to pyrotechnics to shimmering chandeliers, this show sparkles from top to bottom. The Phantom of the Opera has long reigned as one of the jewels in the pantheon of musical theater. The current national tour retains the beauty of the old while incorporating new technical marvels. The sets and costumes are fit for a palace while the staging ensures that the story is not lost among the grandeur. Compelling and mesmerizing, Phantom hits all the high notes.

The Phantom of the Opera has been wowing audiences for decades. The Paramount Theater offered a select few a sneak peek behind the scenes of the production. What we discovered was inspiration, glamour, and magic.

Rules of Charity by Sound Theater Company is a production that is long overdue. Representation matters. We hear that phrase a lot and the effects of that sentiment are slowly making their way into theater. The disabled community seems to be the last group invited to join the party. Sound Theatre Company's 2018 theme of radical inclusion is on display front and center is this provocative play by John Belluso.

The Williams Project latest collaboration with Equinox Studios is the very ambitious production of Blood Wedding. The story by Frederico Garcia Lorca is a twist on doomed lovers who are prevented from marrying by their families. The English version is a translation by Langston Hughes and retains both the fiery passion of the original Spanish and the poetic language of forbidden love. Equinox Studios invites the audience in to witness the story as part of the crowd.

Sweet Land at Taproot Theatre is a sweet treat of a show. Full of humor, wit, challenges, and struggles, the story of Inge Altenberg and Olaf Torvik becomes an everyman's story. The path to the American dream is paved with suspicion and hardship for immigrants both past and present. Their trials and travails parallel the stories of so many others. In the end, we find that their differences are much smaller than our commonalities. Communities can unite or divide. It is up to each person to decide where and with whom they will stand.

Lady Day at Arts West is a study of nuance and subtleties. It is the story of Billie Holiday. Her life and music come to you through song and stories, music and monologues, told in a nightclub setting from Holiday near the end of her life. Just like her life, the show moves through humor, inspiration, tragedy, and triumph.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Arts West is one of the least passive audience experiences I've ever had. The dialogue and lyrics are clever and full of plays on words and popular culture references. Keep your ears perked to catch all of it, and a few might still slip by. But more than just vocabulary practice, Hedwig challenges your perceptions of norms, your comfort zone, and the very size of your heart. It will move you, tear at you, sucker punch you, make you laugh, and hold you in rapture. The show will leave you exhausted but hopeful and infinitely better than when you entered the doors.

Masterpiece, classic, epic, monumental - it's hard to find a word that encapsulates this production of Les Miserables. It is a timeless story of love, courage, and redemption that reminds us of what it means to be human. With moments of pageantry and beautiful stillness, the audience is drawn into another world and time. Yet through it all, the cast keeps you close, in the very palms on their hands devouring every word and syllable like starving children. Les Miz is everything you want in a show. It is all that and a bag of chips.

Wild Horses is a one-woman show that tells the story of one summer of her youth, a summer that changed everything. Summers used to be different. Kids and teens had to find their own ways to fill their time. With seemingly endless hours of opportunity and friends by our side, temptations and adventures awaited. Coming of age stories are always appealing because they are so relatable. The things we felt but didn't dare speak, the confusion and excitement of growing up - we've all been there. Playwright Allison Gregory takes us back to the summers of our youth. Although this story is specific, we know it; we can feel it too.

SMOKED! At Cafe Nordo is an immersion dinner theater experience into the Wild West. From smoking guns to smoked oxtail chili, this show delivers an authentic western feel. From the moment you walk into the door, you are part of the show's atmosphere. With good guys to root for, bad guys to boo and plenty of stiff drinks, Cafe Nordo delivers an evening of fun.

MACBETH at Seattle Repertory Theatre is hauntingly brilliant. Take the classic tale of ambition and lust for power, mix it with an ensemble of seven young women with dark imaginations, and add toxic manipulations and you have a new, gritty adaptation that will leave you speechless. Young adolescent girls are usually portrayed as innocent and hopeful, but here they are desperate, raw, misunderstood, and so easily slip across the line from fantasy to murder. The story of Macbeth has perhaps become too familiar to us. The tales linking masculinity with violence have become to ubiquitous, and we have become numb. This new retelling of Macbeth, adapted by the stupendous (there really is no other word) Erica Schmidt brings us back to the truth of the horrific nature of Macbeth's actions.

Lady Windermere's Fan at Taproot Theatre is a tapestry of tightly woven threads in which all are needed to tell the story. This show, an Oscar Wilde classic, is often produced in such a way that the humor overshadows the heart. Co-directors, Karen Lund and Marianne Savell, have instead chosen to explore the genuine fears and dilemmas that women of society faced in the late nineteenth century. With little power and few choices, these women struggled to uphold the ideals imposed by their society. Lady Windermere reminds us how easily a single decision can forever change the trajectory of a life. When authenticity is the cornerstone of a show, especially one with as strong a script as this, there is no need for a circus of distractions.