FRIDAY
STAGE
IN FLAGRANTE GOTHICTO
A governess (Annette Toutonghi, above) and her master struggle with their overheated passions in a comedy referencing all things gothicriffing on Jane Eyre, wrestling with Wuthering Heights, and generally giving a good-hearted sock in the jaw to the melodrama that Hollywood found in stuff like Rebecca. Co-written by Jillian Armenante (the former Annex actor now on CBS’s Judging Amy), Flagrante was a big hit at L.A.’s Circle X Theatre and will be executed here by director Allison Narver; a cast that includes the luscious Bhama Roget; choreographer Nick Harrison; set designer Gary Smoot, who conceived the inflatable cacti in Texarkana; and the list goes on. Previews begin 7:30 p.m. Fri., June 13. Empty Space Theatre, 3509 Fremont Ave. N., 206-547-7500. STEVE WIECKING
SATURDAY
SALSA
EL GRAN COMBO
In New York they play Madison Square Garden. But you, Seattle salsa-head, get to enjoy them in relative intimacy, with plenty of room to show off your much-practiced maneuvers. The official “ambassadors” of Puerto Rican music (so declared by the commonwealth), this four-decade-old orquesta is known on the home island as much for their infighting and intra-band feuding as for their powerful, percussion-driven, meat-and-potatoes salsa. No tinny synthesizers and sissy singers here; 75-year-old musical director and pianist Rafael Ithier keeps it real with an acoustic sound that’s tight, but not slick, and strong, no-nonsense tenors, Jerry Rivas and Charlie Aponte. Seattle doesn’t get a visit from this kind of Afro-Caribbean royalty very often; make it an official salsa date. 7:30 p.m. Sat., June 14. $30 adv./$40 door. Northgate Theater, Northgate Mall, 206-682- 8338. MARK D. FEFER
SUNDAY
SIFF
LEGEND OF SURIYOTHAI
Francis Ford Coppolawho lent a friendly producer’s handpresents this historical epic directed by a Thai prince, and why not? It boasts a Coppola-esque megalomaniacal reach, and its story is more vast and confusing than Apocalypse Now. It’s got a cast of thousands (plus 160 warrior elephants), and the royal palaces where the potentates royally screw one another over are the real thing. At first you’ll feel lost as two dynasties slug it out amid smallpox outbreaks, but eventually the story becomes comprehensible: Heroic 16th-century princess Suriyothai and her childhood best friend, Piren, unite to thwart a usurping concubine-turned-queen and wicked Burmese invaders. The battle scenes are cool, and while you can tell the prince has watched the classic movie epics, you don’t feel like you’ve seen this one before. 9:30 p.m. Sun., June 15. Cinerama, 2100 Fourth Ave., 206-324-9997. TIM APPELO
TUESDAY
STAGE
MAMMA MIA!
Remember the Great White of the Great White Way that was The Producers tour? Prepare to meet its mate: a musical behemoth utilizing, according to its press kit, “the storytelling magic of the songs of ABBA.” It’s a show that manages to find a place for “Dancing Queen” in a plot contemplating “the fabric of family in the relationship between a mother and her soon-to-be-wed daughter.” Don’t askthe thing is unstoppable, its wildly successful West End and Broadway runs furthered by a tour that devours every city it hits. People are, apparently, loving it, and, hey, The Producers lived up to the hype, didn’t it? Opens 8 p.m. Tues., June 17. Ends Sun., June 29. $31-$67. Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., 206-292-ARTS. STEVE WIECKING
EVERYDAY
VISUAL ARTS
EXPERIMENTS IN LIGHT
Digitally manipulated photography is generally a snooze. From skyscrapers turned into flowers to rivers flowing through living rooms, ubiquity has made special effects humdrum. But Jon Meyer is unlike the typical Photoshop surrealist; instead of arbitrarily flouting the laws of physics, he’s imposing his own set of parallel laws. His images of interior spaces look weird but plausibledigitally stitched together from ordinary photographs, they are then disoriented by flattened dogs, walls placed where floors should be, and ghostly images layered on top of each other. A wall becomes a trapezoid, with its outcropping featuresshelves, clocks, TVsflattened in the direction of a new, impossible horizon. Poised between clarity and confusion, the images compel extended staring in search of a resolution that can never be found. And the stiff drinks at ToST make good company with the pleasurable disorientation. 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Tues.-Sat., 5 p.m.-midnight Sun.-Mon. ToST, 513 N. 36th St., 206-547-0240. DAVID STOESZ
