Stage
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Angels in America The messier, more action-packed second half of Tony Kushner’s epic arrives with a whole panel of angels, talking Mormon statues, even worse sickness, and death. Part I’s rather unconvincing flirtation between runaway lover Louis (Quinn Franzen) and closeted Mormon Republican Joe (Ty Boice) has morphed into a full-blown affair, with substantial sexual heat and nudity. Likewise, the AIDS-afflicted Prior gains depth from Adam Standley, who awkwardly stepped in and out of his illness in Millennium Approaches. And the unraveling housewife Harper-abandoned by Joe-finally finds a hard, defiant voice in Alex Highsmith’s performance. The intensity of Perestroika benefits them all; as stakes rise and their characters fall, these performers meet the challenge. Getting a twitchy viewer like me to sit through such a long show, and raptly, is a feat. The tight acting propels the plot forward, with each scene building momentum, so that even Kushner’s metaphysical-intellectual passages are entertaining (thanks also to Marya Sea Kaminski’s well-played Angel). Credit ultimately belongs to director Andrew Russell for this fast-paced, well-oiled production. Otherwise, the four-hour Perestroika could’ve felt like a millennium. (Parts I and II run through Sept. 21.) NICOLE SPRINKLE Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, Seattle Center $25 and up Sunday, August 24, 2014
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Sunday, August 24, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Sunday, August 24, 2014
Groucho Returns Back by popular demand, Frank Ferrante channels the slyly leering Marx Brother in this acclaimed show. Preview Aug. 7, opens Aug. 8. 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat. plus weekend matinees; see acttheatre.org for exact schedule. Ends Aug. 24. ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101 $25-$35 Sunday, August 24, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Sunday, August 24, 2014
Little Shop of Horrors The campy Ashman/Menken musical. 7 p.m. Thurs.-Sat, 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Aug. 24. Islander Middle School Auditorium, 8225 S.E. 72nd St., Mercer Island $13-$17 Sunday, August 24, 2014
Other Desert Cities In Jon Robin Baitz’s play, secrets are revealed among a powerful family. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Sept. 14. Eclectic Theater, 1214 10th Ave., Seattle $18 Sunday, August 24, 2014
Parlor Live Comedy Club See website for schedule. The Parlor Collection, 700 Bellevue Way N.E., Bellevue $15-$30 Sunday, August 24, 2014
Pink Door Cabaret Trapeze performances (6:15-8:45 p.m.) by Bridget Gunning (Sun.) and Tanya Brno (Mon.). Saturdays, go “Behind the Pink Door” (11 p.m.,). See website for full details. The Pink Door, 1919 Post Alley, Seattle $20 cover Sunday, August 24, 2014
The School for Lies David Ives’ update of Moliere’s The Misanthrope. Previews Aug. 7-8, opens Aug. 9. 7:30 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun., plus 7:30 p.m. Mon., Aug. 18. Ends Aug. 24. Center Theatre at the Armory, Seattle Center $15-$25 Sunday, August 24, 2014
Urinetown Back in 2001, Urinetown earned a few Tony Awards; over a decade later, the satire has worn thin. In brief, a 20-year drought leads to the privatization of all restroom endeavors by the mega-corporation “Urine Good Company,” pushing people to pay to pee while imposing powerful penal codes that, if breached, bestow banishment to Urinetown. After the exile of his father, facility attendant Bobby Strong (Frederick Hagreen) starts a revolution. From there, Urinetown mocks both the conventions of musical theater and the heavy-handed, wealth-favoring policies of Rudy Giuliani’s reign over New York City. Its populist plot is akin to the Occupy Movement before there was an Occupy Movement. (This spoof was created by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis; Jake Groshong directs the coproduction between Balagan Theatre and Seattle Musical Theatre.) Despite the intentionally hokey plot and stock characters, the cast does a splendid job in not letting Urinetown dwindle into live-action cartoon. Notably, the banter between Doug Willott’s Officer Lockstock and Ludlam’s Little Sally made me think, “Never has exposition been so witty and endearing.” Still, notwithstanding this fine presentation, it’s hard to care much about these clever stage caricatures who so knowingly comment on their own plight. (8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Aug. 24.) ALYSSA DYKSTERHOUSE Seattle Musical Theatre at Magnuson Park, $5-$35 Sunday, August 24, 2014
Wicked Wiz of Oz A 45-minute mashup of your favorite Oz musicals, part of the “Mimosas With Mama” drag brunch. Narwhal, 1118 E. Pike St., Seattle $15-$20 Sunday, August 24, 2014, 1:30pm
Time Stands Still Donald Margulies’ drama about a a female war photographer. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 & 7 p.m. Sun. Ends Aug. 24. Ethnic Cultural Theater, 3940 Brooklyn Ave. N.E. $9-$20 Sunday, August 24, 2014, 2pm
Time Stands Still Donald Margulies’ drama about a a female war photographer. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 & 7 p.m. Sun. Ends Aug. 24. Ethnic Cultural Theater, 3940 Brooklyn Ave. N.E. $9-$20 Sunday, August 24, 2014, 7pm
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Monday, August 25, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Monday, August 25, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Monday, August 25, 2014
Pink Door Cabaret Trapeze performances (6:15-8:45 p.m.) by Bridget Gunning (Sun.) and Tanya Brno (Mon.). Saturdays, go “Behind the Pink Door” (11 p.m.,). See website for full details. The Pink Door, 1919 Post Alley, Seattle $20 cover Monday, August 25, 2014
I Gelosi STAGEright Theatre presents David Bridel’s play about commedia dell’arte intrigue. Opens Aug. 15. 7:30 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. & Mon. Ends Aug. 30. The Ballard Underground, 2220 N.W. Market St., Seattle $15-$20 Monday, August 25, 2014, 7:30pm
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Comedy Womb This “female-focused but not female-exclusive” show includes a headliner and an open-mike segment, in the Grotto underneath the Rendezvous. JewelBox Theater at the Rendezvous, 2322 Second Ave., Seattle, WA 98121 $5 Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Caught One-Handed Noah Duffy’s solo comedy about growing up gay, fundamentalist, and horny. Opens Aug. 12. 8 p.m. Tues.-Wed. Ends Aug. 27. Annex Theatre, 1110 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98122 $5-$10 Tuesday, August 26, 2014, 8pm
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Angels in America For the first two years of its reconfiguration as a summer theater festival, starting in 2012, Intiman went the traditional route for summer stages: several plays and genres, selling both series and individual tickets, with an a la carte approach that meant if you didn’t like one thing, something else might appeal. This year Intiman is going all in, betting the house-well, it no longer truly has a house-on Tony Kushner. The playwright won a Pulitzer and two Tony awards (among others) for his two-part Broadway extravaganza in 1993-94, subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” (Part I is Millennium Approaches. Part II is Perestroika.) Kushner wrote the famously brainy, sweeping plays in response to, among other things, the AIDS epidemic and the Cold War. But now, with 20 years’ distance, how should we view the twinned works? Are they old history now, too tied to the times and Kushner’s peculiar passions (Mormons among them)? And given the length of both shows, about seven hours in total (with two intermissions each), will audiences have the endurance for such an ambitious revival? Millennium Approaches, if you need reminding, is set back in 1985, with the gay right-wing homophobe Roy Cohn (Charles Leggett), a figure now nearly forgotten, dying of AIDS and haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, if not his conscience. Meanwhile there’s a Greenwich Village couple (Adam Standley and Quinn Franzen) whose relationship will founder because of AIDS; and, married to a closeted gay Republican husband (Ty Boice), is the pill-popping Mormon housewife Harper Pitt (Anne Allgood), into whose paranoid hallucinations we gradually enter. And overseeing both plays is Kushner’s famous, omniscient angel (Marya Sea Kaminski). Andrew Russell directs the whole daunting enterprise. (Part II opens Fri., Sept. 5; both end Sept. 21.) BRIAN MILLER Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, Seattle Center $25 and up Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Comedy Womb This “female-focused but not female-exclusive” show includes a headliner and an open-mike segment, in the Grotto underneath the Rendezvous. JewelBox Theater at the Rendezvous, 2322 Second Ave., Seattle, WA 98121 $5 Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Jay Hollingsworth’s True Story Hollingsworth asks visiting and local comics to actually explain the stories behind their supposedly true stories. 7:30 p.m., last Wednesday of every month. The Parlor Collection, 700 Bellevue Way N.E., Bellevue see website Wednesday, August 27, 2014, 7:30pm
Caught One-Handed Noah Duffy’s solo comedy about growing up gay, fundamentalist, and horny. Opens Aug. 12. 8 p.m. Tues.-Wed. Ends Aug. 27. Annex Theatre, 1110 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98122 $5-$10 Wednesday, August 27, 2014, 8pm
Duos Comedy Showcase Unexpected Productions presents comedians two at a time. Unexpected Productions, 1428 Post Alley, Seattle, WA 98104 $5 Wednesday, August 27, 2014, 8:30pm
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Angels in America For the first two years of its reconfiguration as a summer theater festival, starting in 2012, Intiman went the traditional route for summer stages: several plays and genres, selling both series and individual tickets, with an a la carte approach that meant if you didn’t like one thing, something else might appeal. This year Intiman is going all in, betting the house-well, it no longer truly has a house-on Tony Kushner. The playwright won a Pulitzer and two Tony awards (among others) for his two-part Broadway extravaganza in 1993-94, subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” (Part I is Millennium Approaches. Part II is Perestroika.) Kushner wrote the famously brainy, sweeping plays in response to, among other things, the AIDS epidemic and the Cold War. But now, with 20 years’ distance, how should we view the twinned works? Are they old history now, too tied to the times and Kushner’s peculiar passions (Mormons among them)? And given the length of both shows, about seven hours in total (with two intermissions each), will audiences have the endurance for such an ambitious revival? Millennium Approaches, if you need reminding, is set back in 1985, with the gay right-wing homophobe Roy Cohn (Charles Leggett), a figure now nearly forgotten, dying of AIDS and haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, if not his conscience. Meanwhile there’s a Greenwich Village couple (Adam Standley and Quinn Franzen) whose relationship will founder because of AIDS; and, married to a closeted gay Republican husband (Ty Boice), is the pill-popping Mormon housewife Harper Pitt (Anne Allgood), into whose paranoid hallucinations we gradually enter. And overseeing both plays is Kushner’s famous, omniscient angel (Marya Sea Kaminski). Andrew Russell directs the whole daunting enterprise. (Part II opens Fri., Sept. 5; both end Sept. 21.) BRIAN MILLER Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, Seattle Center $25 and up Thursday, August 28, 2014
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Thursday, August 28, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Thursday, August 28, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Thursday, August 28, 2014
Parlor Live Comedy Club See website for schedule. The Parlor Collection, 700 Bellevue Way N.E., Bellevue $15-$30 Thursday, August 28, 2014
I Gelosi STAGEright Theatre presents David Bridel’s play about commedia dell’arte intrigue. 7:30 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. & Mon. Ends Aug. 30. The Ballard Underground, 2220 N.W. Market St., Seattle $15-$20 Thursday, August 28, 2014, 7:30pm
Balconies With its huge cast and lofty ambitions to lampoon not only the gaming industry, but also celebrity, politics, and religious cults, Scotto Moore’s new comedy almost bites off more than it can chew. On a pair of adjoining condo balconies are two competing bashes: one a costume party to celebrate a new video game called Sparkle Dungeon 5: Assassins of Glitter; the other a U.S. Senate fundraising cocktail event hosted by the candidate’s daughter. Competing agendas are compounded by the fact that much of the would-be senator’s support comes from a shady, controlling, unnamed church. The satire is slow to get underway, and the show is too long; that said, as both playwright and director here, Moore has a gift for setting up a great joke, then riffing on it; and by its conclusion, the farce finally delivers on its promise. Katherine Karaus is warm and winning as Anna-lise, the condo owner whose mother’s political ambitions may be her undoing. Drew Highlands is the nerdy neighbor Cameron, who’s too timid to say hello until the night of their rival parties. The supporting cast is large and variable, one reason Balconies has difficulty maintaining momentum. Rather than editing out the conversational pauses, Moore ought to have edited his own script. (8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. plus Mon., Aug. 11. Ends Aug. 30.) KEVIN PHINNEY Annex Theatre, 1110 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98122 $5-$20 Thursday, August 28, 2014, 8pm
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Black Comedy Peter Shaffer’s one-act is literally titled: it’s set during a power outage. 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. Ends Sept. 20. Erickson Theatre, 1524 Harvard Ave $18-$36 Thursday, August 28, 2014, 8pm
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Angels in America For the first two years of its reconfiguration as a summer theater festival, starting in 2012, Intiman went the traditional route for summer stages: several plays and genres, selling both series and individual tickets, with an a la carte approach that meant if you didn’t like one thing, something else might appeal. This year Intiman is going all in, betting the house-well, it no longer truly has a house-on Tony Kushner. The playwright won a Pulitzer and two Tony awards (among others) for his two-part Broadway extravaganza in 1993-94, subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” (Part I is Millennium Approaches. Part II is Perestroika.) Kushner wrote the famously brainy, sweeping plays in response to, among other things, the AIDS epidemic and the Cold War. But now, with 20 years’ distance, how should we view the twinned works? Are they old history now, too tied to the times and Kushner’s peculiar passions (Mormons among them)? And given the length of both shows, about seven hours in total (with two intermissions each), will audiences have the endurance for such an ambitious revival? Millennium Approaches, if you need reminding, is set back in 1985, with the gay right-wing homophobe Roy Cohn (Charles Leggett), a figure now nearly forgotten, dying of AIDS and haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, if not his conscience. Meanwhile there’s a Greenwich Village couple (Adam Standley and Quinn Franzen) whose relationship will founder because of AIDS; and, married to a closeted gay Republican husband (Ty Boice), is the pill-popping Mormon housewife Harper Pitt (Anne Allgood), into whose paranoid hallucinations we gradually enter. And overseeing both plays is Kushner’s famous, omniscient angel (Marya Sea Kaminski). Andrew Russell directs the whole daunting enterprise. (Part II opens Fri., Sept. 5; both end Sept. 21.) BRIAN MILLER Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, Seattle Center $25 and up Friday, August 29, 2014
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Friday, August 29, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Friday, August 29, 2014
ComedySportz Seattle Comedy Group moves their improv show to the former Empty Space. 8 & 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Atlas Theater, 3509 Fremont Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103 $14 Friday, August 29, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Friday, August 29, 2014
Other Desert Cities In Jon Robin Baitz’s play, secrets are revealed among a powerful family. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Sept. 14. Eclectic Theater, 1214 10th Ave., Seattle $18 Friday, August 29, 2014
Parlor Live Comedy Club See website for schedule. The Parlor Collection, 700 Bellevue Way N.E., Bellevue $15-$30 Friday, August 29, 2014
PROK Open Mike Sign up for this generally zany and enjoyable evening, when professionals are also known to drop by. The People’s Republic Kafe, 1718 12th Ave., Seattle Free Friday, August 29, 2014, 6:30pm
I Gelosi STAGEright Theatre presents David Bridel’s play about commedia dell’arte intrigue. 7:30 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. & Mon. Ends Aug. 30. The Ballard Underground, 2220 N.W. Market St., Seattle $15-$20 Friday, August 29, 2014, 7:30pm
Balconies With its huge cast and lofty ambitions to lampoon not only the gaming industry, but also celebrity, politics, and religious cults, Scotto Moore’s new comedy almost bites off more than it can chew. On a pair of adjoining condo balconies are two competing bashes: one a costume party to celebrate a new video game called Sparkle Dungeon 5: Assassins of Glitter; the other a U.S. Senate fundraising cocktail event hosted by the candidate’s daughter. Competing agendas are compounded by the fact that much of the would-be senator’s support comes from a shady, controlling, unnamed church. The satire is slow to get underway, and the show is too long; that said, as both playwright and director here, Moore has a gift for setting up a great joke, then riffing on it; and by its conclusion, the farce finally delivers on its promise. Katherine Karaus is warm and winning as Anna-lise, the condo owner whose mother’s political ambitions may be her undoing. Drew Highlands is the nerdy neighbor Cameron, who’s too timid to say hello until the night of their rival parties. The supporting cast is large and variable, one reason Balconies has difficulty maintaining momentum. Rather than editing out the conversational pauses, Moore ought to have edited his own script. (8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. plus Mon., Aug. 11. Ends Aug. 30.) KEVIN PHINNEY Annex Theatre, 1110 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98122 $5-$20 Friday, August 29, 2014, 8pm
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Black Comedy Peter Shaffer’s one-act is literally titled: it’s set during a power outage. 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. Ends Sept. 20. Erickson Theatre, 1524 Harvard Ave $18-$36 Friday, August 29, 2014, 8pm
Black Lodge Burlesque Subtitled “Cabaret Inspired by David Lynch,” it also includes comedy, aerial arts, music, and some damn fine prizes. Columbia City Theater, 4916 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98118 $15 (VIP table $100) Friday, August 29, 2014, 8:30pm
House of Ink In this improvised murder mystery, authors get bumped off one by one. 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Ends Oct. 4. $5-$7 Friday, August 29, 2014, 10pm
Black Lodge Burlesque Subtitled “Cabaret Inspired by David Lynch,” it also includes comedy, aerial arts, music, and some damn fine prizes. Columbia City Theater, 4916 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98118 $15 (VIP table $100) Friday, August 29, 2014, 10:30pm
TheatreSports Unexpected Productions’ long-running (since 1983!) improv comedy show, pitting two teams against each other in front of a panel of judges. 10:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Unexpected Productions, 1428 Post Alley, Seattle, WA 98104 $15 Friday, August 29, 2014, 10:30pm
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Angels in America For the first two years of its reconfiguration as a summer theater festival, starting in 2012, Intiman went the traditional route for summer stages: several plays and genres, selling both series and individual tickets, with an a la carte approach that meant if you didn’t like one thing, something else might appeal. This year Intiman is going all in, betting the house-well, it no longer truly has a house-on Tony Kushner. The playwright won a Pulitzer and two Tony awards (among others) for his two-part Broadway extravaganza in 1993-94, subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” (Part I is Millennium Approaches. Part II is Perestroika.) Kushner wrote the famously brainy, sweeping plays in response to, among other things, the AIDS epidemic and the Cold War. But now, with 20 years’ distance, how should we view the twinned works? Are they old history now, too tied to the times and Kushner’s peculiar passions (Mormons among them)? And given the length of both shows, about seven hours in total (with two intermissions each), will audiences have the endurance for such an ambitious revival? Millennium Approaches, if you need reminding, is set back in 1985, with the gay right-wing homophobe Roy Cohn (Charles Leggett), a figure now nearly forgotten, dying of AIDS and haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, if not his conscience. Meanwhile there’s a Greenwich Village couple (Adam Standley and Quinn Franzen) whose relationship will founder because of AIDS; and, married to a closeted gay Republican husband (Ty Boice), is the pill-popping Mormon housewife Harper Pitt (Anne Allgood), into whose paranoid hallucinations we gradually enter. And overseeing both plays is Kushner’s famous, omniscient angel (Marya Sea Kaminski). Andrew Russell directs the whole daunting enterprise. (Part II opens Fri., Sept. 5; both end Sept. 21.) BRIAN MILLER Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, Seattle Center $25 and up Saturday, August 30, 2014
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Saturday, August 30, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Saturday, August 30, 2014
ComedySportz Seattle Comedy Group moves their improv show to the former Empty Space. 8 & 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Atlas Theater, 3509 Fremont Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103 $14 Saturday, August 30, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Saturday, August 30, 2014
Other Desert Cities In Jon Robin Baitz’s play, secrets are revealed among a powerful family. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Sept. 14. Eclectic Theater, 1214 10th Ave., Seattle $18 Saturday, August 30, 2014
Parlor Live Comedy Club See website for schedule. The Parlor Collection, 700 Bellevue Way N.E., Bellevue $15-$30 Saturday, August 30, 2014
Pink Door Cabaret Trapeze performances (6:15-8:45 p.m.) by Bridget Gunning (Sun.) and Tanya Brno (Mon.). Saturdays, go “Behind the Pink Door” (11 p.m.,). See website for full details. The Pink Door, 1919 Post Alley, Seattle $20 cover Saturday, August 30, 2014
The Mollusc Actors from Outsiders Inn Collective read scenes from the 1907 English drawing-room comedy by Greg Berry. Elliott Bay Book Co., 1521 10th Ave., Seattle, WA 98122 $5 Saturday, August 30, 2014, 7 – 8pm
I Gelosi STAGEright Theatre presents David Bridel’s play about commedia dell’arte intrigue. 7:30 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. & Mon. Ends Aug. 30. The Ballard Underground, 2220 N.W. Market St., Seattle $15-$20 Saturday, August 30, 2014, 7:30pm
Balconies With its huge cast and lofty ambitions to lampoon not only the gaming industry, but also celebrity, politics, and religious cults, Scotto Moore’s new comedy almost bites off more than it can chew. On a pair of adjoining condo balconies are two competing bashes: one a costume party to celebrate a new video game called Sparkle Dungeon 5: Assassins of Glitter; the other a U.S. Senate fundraising cocktail event hosted by the candidate’s daughter. Competing agendas are compounded by the fact that much of the would-be senator’s support comes from a shady, controlling, unnamed church. The satire is slow to get underway, and the show is too long; that said, as both playwright and director here, Moore has a gift for setting up a great joke, then riffing on it; and by its conclusion, the farce finally delivers on its promise. Katherine Karaus is warm and winning as Anna-lise, the condo owner whose mother’s political ambitions may be her undoing. Drew Highlands is the nerdy neighbor Cameron, who’s too timid to say hello until the night of their rival parties. The supporting cast is large and variable, one reason Balconies has difficulty maintaining momentum. Rather than editing out the conversational pauses, Moore ought to have edited his own script. (8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. plus Mon., Aug. 11. Ends Aug. 30.) KEVIN PHINNEY Annex Theatre, 1110 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98122 $5-$20 Saturday, August 30, 2014, 8pm
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Black Comedy Peter Shaffer’s one-act is literally titled: it’s set during a power outage. 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. Ends Sept. 20. Erickson Theatre, 1524 Harvard Ave $18-$36 Saturday, August 30, 2014, 8pm
House of Ink In this improvised murder mystery, authors get bumped off one by one. 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Ends Oct. 4. $5-$7 Saturday, August 30, 2014, 10pm
TheatreSports Unexpected Productions’ long-running (since 1983!) improv comedy show, pitting two teams against each other in front of a panel of judges. 10:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Unexpected Productions, 1428 Post Alley, Seattle, WA 98104 $15 Saturday, August 30, 2014, 10:30pm
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Angels in America For the first two years of its reconfiguration as a summer theater festival, starting in 2012, Intiman went the traditional route for summer stages: several plays and genres, selling both series and individual tickets, with an a la carte approach that meant if you didn’t like one thing, something else might appeal. This year Intiman is going all in, betting the house-well, it no longer truly has a house-on Tony Kushner. The playwright won a Pulitzer and two Tony awards (among others) for his two-part Broadway extravaganza in 1993-94, subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” (Part I is Millennium Approaches. Part II is Perestroika.) Kushner wrote the famously brainy, sweeping plays in response to, among other things, the AIDS epidemic and the Cold War. But now, with 20 years’ distance, how should we view the twinned works? Are they old history now, too tied to the times and Kushner’s peculiar passions (Mormons among them)? And given the length of both shows, about seven hours in total (with two intermissions each), will audiences have the endurance for such an ambitious revival? Millennium Approaches, if you need reminding, is set back in 1985, with the gay right-wing homophobe Roy Cohn (Charles Leggett), a figure now nearly forgotten, dying of AIDS and haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, if not his conscience. Meanwhile there’s a Greenwich Village couple (Adam Standley and Quinn Franzen) whose relationship will founder because of AIDS; and, married to a closeted gay Republican husband (Ty Boice), is the pill-popping Mormon housewife Harper Pitt (Anne Allgood), into whose paranoid hallucinations we gradually enter. And overseeing both plays is Kushner’s famous, omniscient angel (Marya Sea Kaminski). Andrew Russell directs the whole daunting enterprise. (Part II opens Fri., Sept. 5; both end Sept. 21.) BRIAN MILLER Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, Seattle Center $25 and up Sunday, August 31, 2014
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Sunday, August 31, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Sunday, August 31, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Sunday, August 31, 2014
Other Desert Cities In Jon Robin Baitz’s play, secrets are revealed among a powerful family. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Sept. 14. Eclectic Theater, 1214 10th Ave., Seattle $18 Sunday, August 31, 2014
Parlor Live Comedy Club See website for schedule. The Parlor Collection, 700 Bellevue Way N.E., Bellevue $15-$30 Sunday, August 31, 2014
Pink Door Cabaret Trapeze performances (6:15-8:45 p.m.) by Bridget Gunning (Sun.) and Tanya Brno (Mon.). Saturdays, go “Behind the Pink Door” (11 p.m.,). See website for full details. The Pink Door, 1919 Post Alley, Seattle $20 cover Sunday, August 31, 2014
Wicked Wiz of Oz A 45-minute mashup of your favorite Oz musicals, part of the “Mimosas With Mama” drag brunch. Narwhal, 1118 E. Pike St., Seattle $15-$20 Sunday, August 31, 2014, 1:30pm
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Monday, September 1, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Monday, September 1, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Monday, September 1, 2014
Pink Door Cabaret Trapeze performances (6:15-8:45 p.m.) by Bridget Gunning (Sun.) and Tanya Brno (Mon.). Saturdays, go “Behind the Pink Door” (11 p.m.,). See website for full details. The Pink Door, 1919 Post Alley, Seattle $20 cover Monday, September 1, 2014
Pagliacci Comedy Night Local and national comics, every first Monday. Beer and wine will be available with ID. 8 p.m., first Monday of every month. Pagliacci Pizza, 426 Broadway Ave. E., Seattle, WA 98102 Free Monday, September 1, 2014, 8pm
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Comedy Womb This “female-focused but not female-exclusive” show includes a headliner and an open-mike segment, in the Grotto underneath the Rendezvous. JewelBox Theater at the Rendezvous, 2322 Second Ave., Seattle, WA 98121 $5 Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Tuesday, September 2, 2014
The Great Soul of Uzbekistan Hear tales from Tashkent as The Seagull Project became the first American theater troupe to perform there, in April. ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101 $10-$15 Tuesday, September 2, 2014, 7pm
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A Chorus Line The opening number of A Chorus Line ripples with imperfection. This is how it is supposed to be, of course. The legendary musical, which opened on Broadway in 1975, offers a view of the unrefined side of musical theater. Framed in a day of auditions, aspiring stage performers desperately vie for a spot in the chorus line. We see the performers on a bare stage missing their steps, falling out of rhythm, fading into the background, and comically overacting to move to the fore. It’s all expertly plotted, of course, since the 5th’s mostly native production relies on the original Michael Bennett choreography. Still, you feel real empathy for these artists struggling under the critical eye of director Zach (the very commanding, stentorian Andrew Palermo). A Chorus Line is and was a radical departure from traditionally polished Broadway fare, since it concentrates on backstage drama. Director David Bennett manages that messy process with aplomb, though some flaws show here. Almost all 17 performers are treated as equals, pretty much requiring that each be a triple threat: able to sing, dance, and act. It’s a nearly impossible standard, but A Chorus Line reminds you, over and over again, that these performers are fallible human beings. (Runs Tues.-Sun.; See 5thavenue.org for schedule. Ends Sept. 28.) MARK BAUMGARTEN 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $29 and up Wednesday, September 3, 2014
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Angels in America For the first two years of its reconfiguration as a summer theater festival, starting in 2012, Intiman went the traditional route for summer stages: several plays and genres, selling both series and individual tickets, with an a la carte approach that meant if you didn’t like one thing, something else might appeal. This year Intiman is going all in, betting the house-well, it no longer truly has a house-on Tony Kushner. The playwright won a Pulitzer and two Tony awards (among others) for his two-part Broadway extravaganza in 1993-94, subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” (Part I is Millennium Approaches. Part II is Perestroika.) Kushner wrote the famously brainy, sweeping plays in response to, among other things, the AIDS epidemic and the Cold War. But now, with 20 years’ distance, how should we view the twinned works? Are they old history now, too tied to the times and Kushner’s peculiar passions (Mormons among them)? And given the length of both shows, about seven hours in total (with two intermissions each), will audiences have the endurance for such an ambitious revival? Millennium Approaches, if you need reminding, is set back in 1985, with the gay right-wing homophobe Roy Cohn (Charles Leggett), a figure now nearly forgotten, dying of AIDS and haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, if not his conscience. Meanwhile there’s a Greenwich Village couple (Adam Standley and Quinn Franzen) whose relationship will founder because of AIDS; and, married to a closeted gay Republican husband (Ty Boice), is the pill-popping Mormon housewife Harper Pitt (Anne Allgood), into whose paranoid hallucinations we gradually enter. And overseeing both plays is Kushner’s famous, omniscient angel (Marya Sea Kaminski). Andrew Russell directs the whole daunting enterprise. (Part II opens Fri., Sept. 5; both end Sept. 21.) BRIAN MILLER Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, Seattle Center $25 and up Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Comedy Womb This “female-focused but not female-exclusive” show includes a headliner and an open-mike segment, in the Grotto underneath the Rendezvous. JewelBox Theater at the Rendezvous, 2322 Second Ave., Seattle, WA 98121 $5 Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Live! Performance! MASH UP! theater simple’s two-night performance omnibus, with Waxie Moon, Jennifer Jasper, and plenty more. 8 p.m. Wed., Sept. 3-Thurs., Sept. 4. ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101 $10-$20 Wednesday, September 3, 2014, 8pm
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Mash Up! Conferences and conventions are usually something we avoid; all those swarms of visitors at the Convention Center with their logoed golf shirts, pleated Dockers, and name-badges-on-lanyards give us the hives. But the Western Arts Alliance is a much different sort of gathering, since it draws the promoters, bookers, and theatrical managers who keep our stages full-chiefly with touring shows-from San Diego to Seattle. So to entertain these jaded backstage types, who’ve seen everything new under the sun, Mash Up! is a two-night cabaret featuring seven acts each evening, and we locals can attend, too. The roster is mostly drawn from Northwest acts, including Jennifer Jasper, who performs colorful monologues based on her feral family upbringing (being one of five girls); Waxie Moon, the indefatigable “boylesque” dancer and choreographer; Doktor Kaboom, who mixes science and stand-up; and something called The Death of Brian: A Zombie Odyssey, about a guy trying to keep the spark alive with his undead wife. Surprise guests are promised on both nights, and the Bullitt Cabaret offers a full bar. All conventions should be this entertaining. BRIAN MILLER ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101 $10-$20 Wednesday, September 3, 2014, 8 – 9pm
Duos Comedy Showcase Unexpected Productions presents comedians two at a time. Unexpected Productions, 1428 Post Alley, Seattle, WA 98104 $5 Wednesday, September 3, 2014, 8:30pm
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A Chorus Line The opening number of A Chorus Line ripples with imperfection. This is how it is supposed to be, of course. The legendary musical, which opened on Broadway in 1975, offers a view of the unrefined side of musical theater. Framed in a day of auditions, aspiring stage performers desperately vie for a spot in the chorus line. We see the performers on a bare stage missing their steps, falling out of rhythm, fading into the background, and comically overacting to move to the fore. It’s all expertly plotted, of course, since the 5th’s mostly native production relies on the original Michael Bennett choreography. Still, you feel real empathy for these artists struggling under the critical eye of director Zach (the very commanding, stentorian Andrew Palermo). A Chorus Line is and was a radical departure from traditionally polished Broadway fare, since it concentrates on backstage drama. Director David Bennett manages that messy process with aplomb, though some flaws show here. Almost all 17 performers are treated as equals, pretty much requiring that each be a triple threat: able to sing, dance, and act. It’s a nearly impossible standard, but A Chorus Line reminds you, over and over again, that these performers are fallible human beings. (Runs Tues.-Sun.; See 5thavenue.org for schedule. Ends Sept. 28.) MARK BAUMGARTEN 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $29 and up Thursday, September 4, 2014
•
Angels in America For the first two years of its reconfiguration as a summer theater festival, starting in 2012, Intiman went the traditional route for summer stages: several plays and genres, selling both series and individual tickets, with an a la carte approach that meant if you didn’t like one thing, something else might appeal. This year Intiman is going all in, betting the house-well, it no longer truly has a house-on Tony Kushner. The playwright won a Pulitzer and two Tony awards (among others) for his two-part Broadway extravaganza in 1993-94, subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” (Part I is Millennium Approaches. Part II is Perestroika.) Kushner wrote the famously brainy, sweeping plays in response to, among other things, the AIDS epidemic and the Cold War. But now, with 20 years’ distance, how should we view the twinned works? Are they old history now, too tied to the times and Kushner’s peculiar passions (Mormons among them)? And given the length of both shows, about seven hours in total (with two intermissions each), will audiences have the endurance for such an ambitious revival? Millennium Approaches, if you need reminding, is set back in 1985, with the gay right-wing homophobe Roy Cohn (Charles Leggett), a figure now nearly forgotten, dying of AIDS and haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, if not his conscience. Meanwhile there’s a Greenwich Village couple (Adam Standley and Quinn Franzen) whose relationship will founder because of AIDS; and, married to a closeted gay Republican husband (Ty Boice), is the pill-popping Mormon housewife Harper Pitt (Anne Allgood), into whose paranoid hallucinations we gradually enter. And overseeing both plays is Kushner’s famous, omniscient angel (Marya Sea Kaminski). Andrew Russell directs the whole daunting enterprise. (Part II opens Fri., Sept. 5; both end Sept. 21.) BRIAN MILLER Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, Seattle Center $25 and up Thursday, September 4, 2014
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Thursday, September 4, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Thursday, September 4, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Thursday, September 4, 2014
Parlor Live Comedy Club See website for schedule. The Parlor Collection, 700 Bellevue Way N.E., Bellevue $15-$30 Thursday, September 4, 2014
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Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett’s 1953 absurdist tragicomedy has two guys (Estragon and Vladimir) waiting for the arrival of a third. Estragon (aka Gogo, played by Darragh Kennan) has a mind and feet that are failing him. He and Vladimir (aka Didi, played by Todd Jefferson Moore) pass several days as painfully as the kidney stones Didi squeezes into a bucket offstage. The line “Nothing to be done” hangs in the air, as does the famous motif of giving birth directly into the grave. Didi and Gogo’s push-me-pull-you dynamics define both the hell and the solace of friendship. Beckett isn’t shy about inflicting the kind of tedium on audiences that his characters have to endure. But he also gives us slick lazzi opportunities, a few tender gestures, and merciful interludes with Pozzo, played past the hilt by the captivating Chris Ensweiler as a wide-eyed, craven psychopath. Despite the lumpy camaraderie of Moore and Kennan, the greatest emotional effects emerge between Didi and the unnamed boy (Alex Silva) Godot sends to postpone the meeting. George Mount directs a Seattle Shakespeare Company production that carries an unapologetic aura of “life’s a stage” theatricality. (7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat. plus weekend matinees; see seattleshakespeare.org. for exact schedule. Ends Sept. 21.) MARGARET FRIEDMAN ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101 $25-$43 Thursday, September 4, 2014, 7:30pm
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Black Comedy Peter Shaffer’s one-act is literally titled: it’s set during a power outage. 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. Ends Sept. 20. Erickson Theatre, 1524 Harvard Ave $18-$36 Thursday, September 4, 2014, 8pm
Live! Performance! MASH UP! theater simple’s two-night performance omnibus, with Waxie Moon, Jennifer Jasper, and plenty more. 8 p.m. Wed., Sept. 3-Thurs., Sept. 4. ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101 $10-$20 Thursday, September 4, 2014, 8pm
•
Mash Up! Conferences and conventions are usually something we avoid; all those swarms of visitors at the Convention Center with their logoed golf shirts, pleated Dockers, and name-badges-on-lanyards give us the hives. But the Western Arts Alliance is a much different sort of gathering, since it draws the promoters, bookers, and theatrical managers who keep our stages full-chiefly with touring shows-from San Diego to Seattle. So to entertain these jaded backstage types, who’ve seen everything new under the sun, Mash Up! is a two-night cabaret featuring seven acts each evening, and we locals can attend, too. The roster is mostly drawn from Northwest acts, including Jennifer Jasper, who performs colorful monologues based on her feral family upbringing (being one of five girls); Waxie Moon, the indefatigable “boylesque” dancer and choreographer; Doktor Kaboom, who mixes science and stand-up; and something called The Death of Brian: A Zombie Odyssey, about a guy trying to keep the spark alive with his undead wife. Surprise guests are promised on both nights, and the Bullitt Cabaret offers a full bar. All conventions should be this entertaining. BRIAN MILLER ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101 $10-$20 Thursday, September 4, 2014, 8 – 9pm
•
A Chorus Line The opening number of A Chorus Line ripples with imperfection. This is how it is supposed to be, of course. The legendary musical, which opened on Broadway in 1975, offers a view of the unrefined side of musical theater. Framed in a day of auditions, aspiring stage performers desperately vie for a spot in the chorus line. We see the performers on a bare stage missing their steps, falling out of rhythm, fading into the background, and comically overacting to move to the fore. It’s all expertly plotted, of course, since the 5th’s mostly native production relies on the original Michael Bennett choreography. Still, you feel real empathy for these artists struggling under the critical eye of director Zach (the very commanding, stentorian Andrew Palermo). A Chorus Line is and was a radical departure from traditionally polished Broadway fare, since it concentrates on backstage drama. Director David Bennett manages that messy process with aplomb, though some flaws show here. Almost all 17 performers are treated as equals, pretty much requiring that each be a triple threat: able to sing, dance, and act. It’s a nearly impossible standard, but A Chorus Line reminds you, over and over again, that these performers are fallible human beings. (Runs Tues.-Sun.; See 5thavenue.org for schedule. Ends Sept. 28.) MARK BAUMGARTEN 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $29 and up Friday, September 5, 2014
•
Angels in America For the first two years of its reconfiguration as a summer theater festival, starting in 2012, Intiman went the traditional route for summer stages: several plays and genres, selling both series and individual tickets, with an a la carte approach that meant if you didn’t like one thing, something else might appeal. This year Intiman is going all in, betting the house-well, it no longer truly has a house-on Tony Kushner. The playwright won a Pulitzer and two Tony awards (among others) for his two-part Broadway extravaganza in 1993-94, subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” (Part I is Millennium Approaches. Part II is Perestroika.) Kushner wrote the famously brainy, sweeping plays in response to, among other things, the AIDS epidemic and the Cold War. But now, with 20 years’ distance, how should we view the twinned works? Are they old history now, too tied to the times and Kushner’s peculiar passions (Mormons among them)? And given the length of both shows, about seven hours in total (with two intermissions each), will audiences have the endurance for such an ambitious revival? Millennium Approaches, if you need reminding, is set back in 1985, with the gay right-wing homophobe Roy Cohn (Charles Leggett), a figure now nearly forgotten, dying of AIDS and haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, if not his conscience. Meanwhile there’s a Greenwich Village couple (Adam Standley and Quinn Franzen) whose relationship will founder because of AIDS; and, married to a closeted gay Republican husband (Ty Boice), is the pill-popping Mormon housewife Harper Pitt (Anne Allgood), into whose paranoid hallucinations we gradually enter. And overseeing both plays is Kushner’s famous, omniscient angel (Marya Sea Kaminski). Andrew Russell directs the whole daunting enterprise. (Part II opens Fri., Sept. 5; both end Sept. 21.) BRIAN MILLER Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, Seattle Center $25 and up Friday, September 5, 2014
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Friday, September 5, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Friday, September 5, 2014
ComedySportz Seattle Comedy Group moves their improv show to the former Empty Space. 8 & 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Atlas Theater, 3509 Fremont Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103 $14 Friday, September 5, 2014
Death and the Maiden In Ariel Dorfman’s play, a former political prisoner confronts her captor. Opens Sept. 5. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Sept. 28. The Ballard Underground, 2220 N.W. Market St., Seattle $14 Friday, September 5, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Friday, September 5, 2014
Other Desert Cities In Jon Robin Baitz’s play, secrets are revealed among a powerful family. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Sept. 14. Eclectic Theater, 1214 10th Ave., Seattle $18 Friday, September 5, 2014
Parlor Live Comedy Club See website for schedule. The Parlor Collection, 700 Bellevue Way N.E., Bellevue $15-$30 Friday, September 5, 2014
The Invisible Hand There are many reasons to go to the theater, but to see something that feels like a film or a TV episode usually isn’t one. That’s the main problem with Ayad Akhtar’s new play about a bright young money guy, Nick (Connor Toms), who has been kidnapped in Karachi by Islamic terrorists. Because his employer doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, Nick offers to earn his ransom by trading on the volatile Pakistani financial markets. Nick’s captors include Dar (the boyish Erwin Galan), Dar’s ambitious supervisor Bashir (the apt Elijah Alexander), and their commander Imam Saleem (William Ontiveros), an older cleric. Though Akhtar’s given each one an affable side as well as a ruthless one, they still come off as cartoonish, probably because they spend so much time in well-coached accents explaining things you would learn in The Economist. Previously a Pulitzer winning for Disgraced, Akhtar has a topical engagement with the world is important enough that audiences can probably forgive some theatrical shortcomings. For fans of shows like Homeland, this didactic, issue-exposing play may hit the spot; others may groan at the exposition. (Runs Tues.-Sun.; see website for exact schedule. Ends Sept. 28.) MARGARET FRIEDMAN ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101 $55 and up Friday, September 5, 2014
PROK Open Mike Sign up for this generally zany and enjoyable evening, when professionals are also known to drop by. The People’s Republic Kafe, 1718 12th Ave., Seattle Free Friday, September 5, 2014, 6:30pm
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Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett’s 1953 absurdist tragicomedy has two guys (Estragon and Vladimir) waiting for the arrival of a third. Estragon (aka Gogo, played by Darragh Kennan) has a mind and feet that are failing him. He and Vladimir (aka Didi, played by Todd Jefferson Moore) pass several days as painfully as the kidney stones Didi squeezes into a bucket offstage. The line “Nothing to be done” hangs in the air, as does the famous motif of giving birth directly into the grave. Didi and Gogo’s push-me-pull-you dynamics define both the hell and the solace of friendship. Beckett isn’t shy about inflicting the kind of tedium on audiences that his characters have to endure. But he also gives us slick lazzi opportunities, a few tender gestures, and merciful interludes with Pozzo, played past the hilt by the captivating Chris Ensweiler as a wide-eyed, craven psychopath. Despite the lumpy camaraderie of Moore and Kennan, the greatest emotional effects emerge between Didi and the unnamed boy (Alex Silva) Godot sends to postpone the meeting. George Mount directs a Seattle Shakespeare Company production that carries an unapologetic aura of “life’s a stage” theatricality. (7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat. plus weekend matinees; see seattleshakespeare.org. for exact schedule. Ends Sept. 21.) MARGARET FRIEDMAN ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101 $25-$43 Friday, September 5, 2014, 7:30pm
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Black Comedy Peter Shaffer’s one-act is literally titled: it’s set during a power outage. 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. Ends Sept. 20. Erickson Theatre, 1524 Harvard Ave $18-$36 Friday, September 5, 2014, 8pm
The Rite of Mars Aleister Crowley’s magickal theatrical ritual reimagined as rock opera. Opens Sept. 5. 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. Ends Sept. 13. Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave., Seattle, WA 98122 $15-$20 Friday, September 5, 2014, 8pm
House of Ink In this improvised murder mystery, authors get bumped off one by one. 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Ends Oct. 4. $5-$7 Friday, September 5, 2014, 10pm
TheatreSports Unexpected Productions’ long-running (since 1983!) improv comedy show, pitting two teams against each other in front of a panel of judges. 10:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Unexpected Productions, 1428 Post Alley, Seattle, WA 98104 $15 Friday, September 5, 2014, 10:30pm
Spin the Bottle The September edition of Annex Theatre’s late-night variety show (N.B.: back on Friday this month) includes “blistering ululations,” “concise yet meaty theater,” “tales of wayward youth,” and much more. Annex Theatre, 1110 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98122 $5-$10 Friday, September 5, 2014, 11pm
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A Chorus Line The opening number of A Chorus Line ripples with imperfection. This is how it is supposed to be, of course. The legendary musical, which opened on Broadway in 1975, offers a view of the unrefined side of musical theater. Framed in a day of auditions, aspiring stage performers desperately vie for a spot in the chorus line. We see the performers on a bare stage missing their steps, falling out of rhythm, fading into the background, and comically overacting to move to the fore. It’s all expertly plotted, of course, since the 5th’s mostly native production relies on the original Michael Bennett choreography. Still, you feel real empathy for these artists struggling under the critical eye of director Zach (the very commanding, stentorian Andrew Palermo). A Chorus Line is and was a radical departure from traditionally polished Broadway fare, since it concentrates on backstage drama. Director David Bennett manages that messy process with aplomb, though some flaws show here. Almost all 17 performers are treated as equals, pretty much requiring that each be a triple threat: able to sing, dance, and act. It’s a nearly impossible standard, but A Chorus Line reminds you, over and over again, that these performers are fallible human beings. (Runs Tues.-Sun.; See 5thavenue.org for schedule. Ends Sept. 28.) MARK BAUMGARTEN 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $29 and up Saturday, September 6, 2014
•
Angels in America For the first two years of its reconfiguration as a summer theater festival, starting in 2012, Intiman went the traditional route for summer stages: several plays and genres, selling both series and individual tickets, with an a la carte approach that meant if you didn’t like one thing, something else might appeal. This year Intiman is going all in, betting the house-well, it no longer truly has a house-on Tony Kushner. The playwright won a Pulitzer and two Tony awards (among others) for his two-part Broadway extravaganza in 1993-94, subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” (Part I is Millennium Approaches. Part II is Perestroika.) Kushner wrote the famously brainy, sweeping plays in response to, among other things, the AIDS epidemic and the Cold War. But now, with 20 years’ distance, how should we view the twinned works? Are they old history now, too tied to the times and Kushner’s peculiar passions (Mormons among them)? And given the length of both shows, about seven hours in total (with two intermissions each), will audiences have the endurance for such an ambitious revival? Millennium Approaches, if you need reminding, is set back in 1985, with the gay right-wing homophobe Roy Cohn (Charles Leggett), a figure now nearly forgotten, dying of AIDS and haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, if not his conscience. Meanwhile there’s a Greenwich Village couple (Adam Standley and Quinn Franzen) whose relationship will founder because of AIDS; and, married to a closeted gay Republican husband (Ty Boice), is the pill-popping Mormon housewife Harper Pitt (Anne Allgood), into whose paranoid hallucinations we gradually enter. And overseeing both plays is Kushner’s famous, omniscient angel (Marya Sea Kaminski). Andrew Russell directs the whole daunting enterprise. (Part II opens Fri., Sept. 5; both end Sept. 21.) BRIAN MILLER Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, Seattle Center $25 and up Saturday, September 6, 2014
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Saturday, September 6, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Saturday, September 6, 2014
ComedySportz Seattle Comedy Group moves their improv show to the former Empty Space. 8 & 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Atlas Theater, 3509 Fremont Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103 $14 Saturday, September 6, 2014
Death and the Maiden In Ariel Dorfman’s play, a former political prisoner confronts her captor. Opens Sept. 5. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Sept. 28. The Ballard Underground, 2220 N.W. Market St., Seattle $14 Saturday, September 6, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Saturday, September 6, 2014
Other Desert Cities In Jon Robin Baitz’s play, secrets are revealed among a powerful family. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Sept. 14. Eclectic Theater, 1214 10th Ave., Seattle $18 Saturday, September 6, 2014
Parlor Live Comedy Club See website for schedule. The Parlor Collection, 700 Bellevue Way N.E., Bellevue $15-$30 Saturday, September 6, 2014
Pink Door Cabaret Trapeze performances (6:15-8:45 p.m.) by Bridget Gunning (Sun.) and Tanya Brno (Mon.). Saturdays, go “Behind the Pink Door” (11 p.m.,). See website for full details. The Pink Door, 1919 Post Alley, Seattle $20 cover Saturday, September 6, 2014
The Invisible Hand There are many reasons to go to the theater, but to see something that feels like a film or a TV episode usually isn’t one. That’s the main problem with Ayad Akhtar’s new play about a bright young money guy, Nick (Connor Toms), who has been kidnapped in Karachi by Islamic terrorists. Because his employer doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, Nick offers to earn his ransom by trading on the volatile Pakistani financial markets. Nick’s captors include Dar (the boyish Erwin Galan), Dar’s ambitious supervisor Bashir (the apt Elijah Alexander), and their commander Imam Saleem (William Ontiveros), an older cleric. Though Akhtar’s given each one an affable side as well as a ruthless one, they still come off as cartoonish, probably because they spend so much time in well-coached accents explaining things you would learn in The Economist. Previously a Pulitzer winning for Disgraced, Akhtar has a topical engagement with the world is important enough that audiences can probably forgive some theatrical shortcomings. For fans of shows like Homeland, this didactic, issue-exposing play may hit the spot; others may groan at the exposition. (Runs Tues.-Sun.; see website for exact schedule. Ends Sept. 28.) MARGARET FRIEDMAN ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101 $55 and up Saturday, September 6, 2014
The Edge Bainbridge Island’s own improv troupe. Bainbridge Performing Arts, 200 Madison Ave. N., Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 $12-$16 Saturday, September 6, 2014, 7:30pm
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Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett’s 1953 absurdist tragicomedy has two guys (Estragon and Vladimir) waiting for the arrival of a third. Estragon (aka Gogo, played by Darragh Kennan) has a mind and feet that are failing him. He and Vladimir (aka Didi, played by Todd Jefferson Moore) pass several days as painfully as the kidney stones Didi squeezes into a bucket offstage. The line “Nothing to be done” hangs in the air, as does the famous motif of giving birth directly into the grave. Didi and Gogo’s push-me-pull-you dynamics define both the hell and the solace of friendship. Beckett isn’t shy about inflicting the kind of tedium on audiences that his characters have to endure. But he also gives us slick lazzi opportunities, a few tender gestures, and merciful interludes with Pozzo, played past the hilt by the captivating Chris Ensweiler as a wide-eyed, craven psychopath. Despite the lumpy camaraderie of Moore and Kennan, the greatest emotional effects emerge between Didi and the unnamed boy (Alex Silva) Godot sends to postpone the meeting. George Mount directs a Seattle Shakespeare Company production that carries an unapologetic aura of “life’s a stage” theatricality. (7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat. plus weekend matinees; see seattleshakespeare.org. for exact schedule. Ends Sept. 21.) MARGARET FRIEDMAN ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101 $25-$43 Saturday, September 6, 2014, 7:30pm
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Black Comedy Peter Shaffer’s one-act is literally titled: it’s set during a power outage. 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. Ends Sept. 20. Erickson Theatre, 1524 Harvard Ave $18-$36 Saturday, September 6, 2014, 8pm
The Rite of Mars Aleister Crowley’s magickal theatrical ritual reimagined as rock opera. Opens Sept. 5. 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. Ends Sept. 13. Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave., Seattle, WA 98122 $15-$20 Saturday, September 6, 2014, 8pm
Butt Kapinski Sending up film noir in this solo improv show. Unexpected Productions, 1428 Post Alley, Seattle, WA 98104 $12-$15 Saturday, September 6, 2014, 8:30pm
House of Ink In this improvised murder mystery, authors get bumped off one by one. 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Ends Oct. 4. $5-$7 Saturday, September 6, 2014, 10pm
TheatreSports Unexpected Productions’ long-running (since 1983!) improv comedy show, pitting two teams against each other in front of a panel of judges. 10:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Unexpected Productions, 1428 Post Alley, Seattle, WA 98104 $15 Saturday, September 6, 2014, 10:30pm
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A Chorus Line The opening number of A Chorus Line ripples with imperfection. This is how it is supposed to be, of course. The legendary musical, which opened on Broadway in 1975, offers a view of the unrefined side of musical theater. Framed in a day of auditions, aspiring stage performers desperately vie for a spot in the chorus line. We see the performers on a bare stage missing their steps, falling out of rhythm, fading into the background, and comically overacting to move to the fore. It’s all expertly plotted, of course, since the 5th’s mostly native production relies on the original Michael Bennett choreography. Still, you feel real empathy for these artists struggling under the critical eye of director Zach (the very commanding, stentorian Andrew Palermo). A Chorus Line is and was a radical departure from traditionally polished Broadway fare, since it concentrates on backstage drama. Director David Bennett manages that messy process with aplomb, though some flaws show here. Almost all 17 performers are treated as equals, pretty much requiring that each be a triple threat: able to sing, dance, and act. It’s a nearly impossible standard, but A Chorus Line reminds you, over and over again, that these performers are fallible human beings. (Runs Tues.-Sun.; See 5thavenue.org for schedule. Ends Sept. 28.) MARK BAUMGARTEN 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $29 and up Sunday, September 7, 2014
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Angels in America For the first two years of its reconfiguration as a summer theater festival, starting in 2012, Intiman went the traditional route for summer stages: several plays and genres, selling both series and individual tickets, with an a la carte approach that meant if you didn’t like one thing, something else might appeal. This year Intiman is going all in, betting the house-well, it no longer truly has a house-on Tony Kushner. The playwright won a Pulitzer and two Tony awards (among others) for his two-part Broadway extravaganza in 1993-94, subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” (Part I is Millennium Approaches. Part II is Perestroika.) Kushner wrote the famously brainy, sweeping plays in response to, among other things, the AIDS epidemic and the Cold War. But now, with 20 years’ distance, how should we view the twinned works? Are they old history now, too tied to the times and Kushner’s peculiar passions (Mormons among them)? And given the length of both shows, about seven hours in total (with two intermissions each), will audiences have the endurance for such an ambitious revival? Millennium Approaches, if you need reminding, is set back in 1985, with the gay right-wing homophobe Roy Cohn (Charles Leggett), a figure now nearly forgotten, dying of AIDS and haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, if not his conscience. Meanwhile there’s a Greenwich Village couple (Adam Standley and Quinn Franzen) whose relationship will founder because of AIDS; and, married to a closeted gay Republican husband (Ty Boice), is the pill-popping Mormon housewife Harper Pitt (Anne Allgood), into whose paranoid hallucinations we gradually enter. And overseeing both plays is Kushner’s famous, omniscient angel (Marya Sea Kaminski). Andrew Russell directs the whole daunting enterprise. (Part II opens Fri., Sept. 5; both end Sept. 21.) BRIAN MILLER Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, Seattle Center $25 and up Sunday, September 7, 2014
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Sunday, September 7, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Sunday, September 7, 2014
Death and the Maiden In Ariel Dorfman’s play, a former political prisoner confronts her captor. Opens Sept. 5. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Sept. 28. The Ballard Underground, 2220 N.W. Market St., Seattle $14 Sunday, September 7, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Sunday, September 7, 2014
Other Desert Cities In Jon Robin Baitz’s play, secrets are revealed among a powerful family. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Sept. 14. Eclectic Theater, 1214 10th Ave., Seattle $18 Sunday, September 7, 2014
Parlor Live Comedy Club See website for schedule. The Parlor Collection, 700 Bellevue Way N.E., Bellevue $15-$30 Sunday, September 7, 2014
Pink Door Cabaret Trapeze performances (6:15-8:45 p.m.) by Bridget Gunning (Sun.) and Tanya Brno (Mon.). Saturdays, go “Behind the Pink Door” (11 p.m.,). See website for full details. The Pink Door, 1919 Post Alley, Seattle $20 cover Sunday, September 7, 2014
The Invisible Hand There are many reasons to go to the theater, but to see something that feels like a film or a TV episode usually isn’t one. That’s the main problem with Ayad Akhtar’s new play about a bright young money guy, Nick (Connor Toms), who has been kidnapped in Karachi by Islamic terrorists. Because his employer doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, Nick offers to earn his ransom by trading on the volatile Pakistani financial markets. Nick’s captors include Dar (the boyish Erwin Galan), Dar’s ambitious supervisor Bashir (the apt Elijah Alexander), and their commander Imam Saleem (William Ontiveros), an older cleric. Though Akhtar’s given each one an affable side as well as a ruthless one, they still come off as cartoonish, probably because they spend so much time in well-coached accents explaining things you would learn in The Economist. Previously a Pulitzer winning for Disgraced, Akhtar has a topical engagement with the world is important enough that audiences can probably forgive some theatrical shortcomings. For fans of shows like Homeland, this didactic, issue-exposing play may hit the spot; others may groan at the exposition. (Runs Tues.-Sun.; see website for exact schedule. Ends Sept. 28.) MARGARET FRIEDMAN ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101 $55 and up Sunday, September 7, 2014
Wicked Wiz of Oz A 45-minute mashup of your favorite Oz musicals, part of the “Mimosas With Mama” drag brunch. Narwhal, 1118 E. Pike St., Seattle $15-$20 Sunday, September 7, 2014, 1:30pm
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Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett’s 1953 absurdist tragicomedy has two guys (Estragon and Vladimir) waiting for the arrival of a third. Estragon (aka Gogo, played by Darragh Kennan) has a mind and feet that are failing him. He and Vladimir (aka Didi, played by Todd Jefferson Moore) pass several days as painfully as the kidney stones Didi squeezes into a bucket offstage. The line “Nothing to be done” hangs in the air, as does the famous motif of giving birth directly into the grave. Didi and Gogo’s push-me-pull-you dynamics define both the hell and the solace of friendship. Beckett isn’t shy about inflicting the kind of tedium on audiences that his characters have to endure. But he also gives us slick lazzi opportunities, a few tender gestures, and merciful interludes with Pozzo, played past the hilt by the captivating Chris Ensweiler as a wide-eyed, craven psychopath. Despite the lumpy camaraderie of Moore and Kennan, the greatest emotional effects emerge between Didi and the unnamed boy (Alex Silva) Godot sends to postpone the meeting. George Mount directs a Seattle Shakespeare Company production that carries an unapologetic aura of “life’s a stage” theatricality. (7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat. plus weekend matinees; see seattleshakespeare.org. for exact schedule. Ends Sept. 21.) MARGARET FRIEDMAN ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101 $25-$43 Sunday, September 7, 2014, 7:30pm
Weird and Awesome With Emmett Montgomery “A monthly parade [every first Sunday] of wonder and awkward sharing hosted and curated by mustache wizard Emmett Montgomery. 7:30 p.m. first Sunday of every month. Annex Theatre, 1110 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98122 $5-$10 Sunday, September 7, 2014, 7:30pm
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Monday, September 8, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Monday, September 8, 2014
Laughs Stand-up and other comedy. See website for complete schedule, including open-mike night. Laughs Comedy Spot, 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA 98034 $10-$20 Monday, September 8, 2014
Pink Door Cabaret Trapeze performances (6:15-8:45 p.m.) by Bridget Gunning (Sun.) and Tanya Brno (Mon.). Saturdays, go “Behind the Pink Door” (11 p.m.,). See website for full details. The Pink Door, 1919 Post Alley, Seattle $20 cover Monday, September 8, 2014
The Language of This World A staged reading of Caitlin Coey’s new play exploring family reunions and secrets. West of Lenin, 203 N. 36th St., Seattle, WA 98103 Free w/admission ($4-$6) Monday, September 8, 2014, 7pm
Sandbox Radio LIVE! New work in a radio-theater format. ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101 $15-$20 Monday, September 8, 2014, 8pm
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A Chorus Line The opening number of A Chorus Line ripples with imperfection. This is how it is supposed to be, of course. The legendary musical, which opened on Broadway in 1975, offers a view of the unrefined side of musical theater. Framed in a day of auditions, aspiring stage performers desperately vie for a spot in the chorus line. We see the performers on a bare stage missing their steps, falling out of rhythm, fading into the background, and comically overacting to move to the fore. It’s all expertly plotted, of course, since the 5th’s mostly native production relies on the original Michael Bennett choreography. Still, you feel real empathy for these artists struggling under the critical eye of director Zach (the very commanding, stentorian Andrew Palermo). A Chorus Line is and was a radical departure from traditionally polished Broadway fare, since it concentrates on backstage drama. Director David Bennett manages that messy process with aplomb, though some flaws show here. Almost all 17 performers are treated as equals, pretty much requiring that each be a triple threat: able to sing, dance, and act. It’s a nearly impossible standard, but A Chorus Line reminds you, over and over again, that these performers are fallible human beings. (Runs Tues.-Sun.; See 5thavenue.org for schedule. Ends Sept. 28.) MARK BAUMGARTEN 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 $29 and up Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Can Can Cabarets Seattle’s center for neo-burlesque presents shows and/or live music nearly every night; see website for full details and ticket prices. Can Can, 94 Pike St., Seattle, WA 98104 see website Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Comedy Underground See website for complete schedule, including their “Monday Madness” open-mike night, 8 p.m. Comedy Underground, 109 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104 $6 Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Comedy Womb This “female-focused but not female-exclusive” show includes a headliner and an open-mike segment, in the Grotto underneath the Rendezvous. JewelBox Theater at the Rendezvous, 2322 Second Ave., Seattle, WA 98121 $5 Tuesday, September 9, 2014
