Seattle Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 28

BWW Review: Touching MY HEART IS THE DRUM at Village Suffers Pace and Structure
by Jay Irwin - March 18, 2016

One of my favorite events each year is the Village Originals Festival of New Musicals. Each year there's at least one new show that you long to get a full staging. Back in 2014 that show was "My Heart is the Drum" with it's touching story and engaging music. It showed so much potential and I was ...

BWW Review: Powerful PARADE from Sound Theatre Company
by Jay Irwin - March 14, 2016

In any given show you usually have the good guys and the bad guys. The people you identify with as being in the right and those in the wrong. But even when some people are clearly wrong it's possible to see why they react the way they do if the performances are strong enough. Such is the case wit...

BWW Review: Technically Superior VIOLET at ArtsWest Lacks Emotional Connection
by Jay Irwin - March 14, 2016

There's no doubt that Jeanine Tesori's music in the musical "Violet", currently playing at ArtsWest, is stirring and powerful but it's the lyrics and book by Brian Crawley that truly pack the punch in the show. But of course they would as the show is rife with hot button topics of that era as well ...

BWW Review: Killer Talent in 5th Ave/ACT's ASSASSINS
by Jay Irwin - March 11, 2016

Only the incredible Stephen Sondheim could make a musical about Presidential assassins and make it work. It's a dark subject that you think wouldn't be sung about. But Sondheim shows off his storytelling prowess by creating a sort of club or group therapy aspect to the group of killers as they att...

BWW Review: Raw Examination of Social Work in LUNA GALE at Seattle Rep
by Jay Irwin - March 10, 2016

Rebecca Gilman's play "Luna Gale" currently performing at the Seattle Rep has no good guys in it. But then it also has no bad guys in it. Instead of preaching morality or her own agenda what she's done is to present a raw and honest look at people. You may not agree with them, but are they wrong?...

BWW Review: A Week at the Mothership Part 2 – The Biggest Surprise of the Trip
by Jay Irwin - March 10, 2016

OK I'm back and let's just dive right in for the rest of the amazing shows I saw in New York....

BWW Review: A Week at the Mothership Part 1 - Caught Some Amazing Shows Including You-Know-Who
by Jay Irwin - March 10, 2016

Dear Readers, I'm back from the Mothership (New York of course) to let you all in on some of the wonderful and not so wonderful things I saw with a few brief notes on each. And yes that includes my catching the juggernaut of all shows on Broadway right now, 'Hamilton'. Now there are some shows tha...

BWW Review: JERSEY BOYS at The Paramount: For Frankie Valli Fans Only
by Amelia Reynolds - March 10, 2016

Okay, readers. I will be doing my best attempt to review The Paramount's production of 'Jersey Boys' objectively, considering that I am not a fan of Frankie Valli or The Four Seasons. Based on conversations I had with the people in the audience-and conversations I overheard-I seemed to be the only o...

BWW Review: Theater Schmeater's One-Woman Show TECHLANDIA a Tender, Teasing Tribute
by Amelia Reynolds - March 08, 2016

ATTENTION SEATTLE TECHIES: there is a sketch performance for you! ATTENTION NON-TECHIES AND THE TECH BEWILDERED: there is a sketch performance for you too! Come together all who have startup experience and all who believe the tech industry is (as director and writer Bridget Quigg puts it) a bubble w...

BWW Review: AN OAK TREE Comes to Life While SEAGULLs Bemoan It at the Seattle Fringe Festival
by Jay Irwin - February 29, 2016

A play where only half the cast knows the story and a trio of snarky seagulls who are rife with tragedy. These are just a few of the offerings from the 2016 Seattle Fringe Festival performing all over town this weekend and next. Now I wasn't able to catch everything this weekend and next week I'll...

BWW Review: Riveting Twists from Seattle Immersive's ROMEO + JULIET
by Jay Irwin - February 22, 2016

I'll be honest, there were several elements that gave me trepidation before seeing Seattle Immersive Theatre's current production of “Romeo + Juliet” the other night. The immersive nature of it (seems to be the resurging trend and not always done well), the idea of tromping around an abandoned stor...

BWW Review: Solidly Talented Fluff in Seattle Musical Theatre's Fun 9 TO 5
by Jay Irwin - February 22, 2016

There are certain theatrical experiences out there that are your "vegetables". The shows that make you think about your life, choices, and the world around you. And then there are shows like "9 to 5: The Musical" which are basically dessert. Those fun bits of fluff that aren't going to change you...

BWW Review: Multidimensional STAGEright's WEIRD ROMANCE Examines Love Powerfully
by Amelia Reynolds - February 09, 2016

Take two episodes of The Twilight Zone, add psychedelic aesthetics and a musical score and BOOM, you have STAGEright's 'Weird Romance.' Directed by Brendan Mack, this 'two one-act musicals of speculative fiction' somehow made a glam-rock Rod Serling fever dream accessible and intimate....

BWW Review: BUZZER at ACT Feels Overly Self Important
by Jay Irwin - February 06, 2016

It's one thing when a play is meaningful and important, something most plays strive for. It's another thing when a play tries to be meaningful and important. And it's yet another thing when a play insists that it's meaningful and important. Unfortunately Tracey Scott Wilson's play 'Buzzer', curre...

BWW Review: 5th Ave Proves It Knows HOW TO SUCCEED …
by Jay Irwin - February 05, 2016

Dear Reader (It only seems appropriate to start this review off with that), sometimes a show comes along that feels like a no brainer. A show that's fairly bulletproof and if a theater does it well enough with enough pieces in place then it'll be a crowd pleaser. 'How to Succeed in Business Withou...

BWW Review: Don't Speak! Just Go See BULLETS OVER BROADWAY at the Paramount
by Jay Irwin - February 03, 2016

Let me start by saying that I've never seen the original movie of "Bullets Over Broadway" all the way through. I'm just not a Woody Allen fan. So a musical interpretation of it didn't exactly thrill me. So what about the current production turned me around? Was it the story? It's cute but nothi...

BWW Review: SPT's AMADEUS Has Too Few Notes
by Jay Irwin - February 01, 2016

Peter Shaffer's stirring play "Amadeus" can move you to the point of tears, but only when it's done well. It is by no means a bulletproof play. Unfortunately the current production at Seattle Public Theater, while managing a few interesting performances, really just stands out as having an unfocus...

BWW Review: Bleak WAITING FOR LEFTY from Theatre9/12
by Jay Irwin - February 01, 2016

Clifford Odets built a career off of writing dramas that dealt with class inequality and social injustice in the depression era. His first ever produced play, "Waiting for Lefty", certainly falls into that category. And while the current production from Theatre9/12 does manage some stirring perfor...

BWW Review: THE TWELFTH STORY at The Annex Theatre Tells A Few Too Many
by Amelia Reynolds - February 01, 2016

'The Twelfth Story' at The Annex Theatre reminded me of the Rudyard Kipling Just-So Stories that were read to me at bedtime. Directed by Amy Poisson, the cast of 'The Twelfth Story' was as jubilant as spritely camp counselors. As a child, I think I would have liked the story's magic, goblins, twinkl...

BWW Review: Sweet, Romantic and Tragic CONSTELLATIONS at the Seattle Rep
by Jay Irwin - January 28, 2016

Who hasn't wanted a 'do-over' when on a date? Maybe you say the wrong thing, maybe you run into your ex or maybe you trip the waiter, which causes him to knock over a flaming dessert that burns the restaurant to the ground. We've all been there, right? Well according to Nick Payne's beautiful pla...

BWW Review: Adorably Interactive WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE at Seattle Children's Theatre
by Jay Irwin - January 25, 2016

Most of us fell in love with Maurice Sendak's enchanting book "Where the Wild Things Are" when we were kids and still kids today all know of the tale of Max's journey to the island of the Wild Things. But how many kids actually get to join in on the Wild Rumpus? Well now kids in Seattle can with t...

BWW Review: ArtsWest's REALLY REALLY - A Condescending Message Beneath a Gorgeous Exterior
by Amelia Reynolds - January 26, 2016

Behold: the enemy of the theatre, the millennial. They leech, they binge-drink, and despite having no idea what it is they want, they will do anything to find out. Brace yourself for a no-hope critique of millennial culture in 'Really Really' at ArtsWest....

BWW Review: Dark and Edgy IN ARABIA WE'D ALL BE KINGS at Theater Schmeater
by Jay Irwin - January 25, 2016

Stephen Adly Guirgis has made a name for himself for creating glimpses inside the worlds of the rougher and edgier parts of town. Places inhabited by junkies, hookers and criminals like those in his shows 'In Arabia We'd All Be Kings' currently at Theater Schmeater and 'The Motherf**ker with the Ha...

BWW Review: Strawberry Theatre Workshop's THE BIRDS Creeps in Good and Bad Ways
by Jay Irwin - January 23, 2016

First off if you're expecting to see a Tippi Hedren lookalike being chased by animatronic birds in Strawberry Theatre Workshop's current production of "The Birds" then you'll be quite disappointed. This is not an adaptation of Hitchcock's film but of Daphne du Maurier's book. But even though we ne...

BWW Review: Theatrical CRIMES OF THE HEART-less at Village Theatre
by Jay Irwin - January 23, 2016

In Beth Henley's play "Crimes of the Heart", currently playing at Village Theatre, the character of Meg says, "To talk about our lives. It's an important human need." Well an important theatrical need is for the characters in a play to listen to each other and not just wait for their next bit but ...