Jay Irwin - Page 36

I truly appreciate when a show realizes it doesn't need all the flash, all the bells and whistles, in order to be great. Sometimes a show has such a simple and straightforward story to tell that it just needs to tell it. Such is the case with "The Suit" currently playing at the Seattle Rep. This heartbreaking tale has such simple innate beauty that it needs only some chairs, a few musicians and a trio of gifted actors to convey the tragic allure of itself.

It's one of my all time favorite shows so naturally I'm a little picky about it. I mean, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's "Little Shop of Horrors" is one of those near perfect musicals. Great story, great characters, super fun music, it's got it all. But just as the plant in the show feeds on blood, so does the show, metaphorically speaking of blood as being the grit, funk, soul and attitudes of 1960's doo-wop and B-horror movies. And while there's a ton of talent and great voices on the stage of the current joint production from ACT and The 5th Avenue Theatre, there's also a shocking lack of that "blood" from the production.

We all love to gawk at things different from what we call "normal". The internet is full of such things. Hell, one might even view our love of theater as such as it's a window into the lives of others. And that's the focus of Bernard Pomerance's stirring play, "The Elephant Man", as we view a freak show from all angles. And while STAGEright's production has some outstanding moments, at times it feels a little too ambitious for the company and the space.

Before you start the lynch mob against LungFish Productions for altering Jason Robert Brown's "The Last Five Years" let me assure you that not one word of the original has been changed. It's the intent of the piece as how it's told that director and conceiver Kyle James Traver has reimagined and while I wasn't 100% sold on the new vision, it's still a beautiful piece from some incredible performers.

Sure, it's a story about a monster, but a monster that is looking for love and acceptance and his creator who's looking for power and the redemption they both seek from their mistaken paths to find their goals. Mary Shelley's novel manages all that within a simple gothic romance and David Quicksall's adaptation manages a somewhat gripping stage representation of that tale. Unfortunately while much of the staging of "Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus", currently presented by Book-It Repertory Theatre, offers chilling moments, many other choices within the show detract so much as to pull you from the story and leave it muddled.

Dear Readers, I must warn you against seeing the latest show over at Teatro ZinZanni, "On The Air". After viewing it last night my smile muscles are only now beginning to recover from the perma-grin that this show and its incredible cast stuck on my face. I've been fortunate enough to see a few ZinZanni shows and this was one of the best, if not THE best I have seen.

Get yourself ready for something naughty, witty and all around fun as the Seattle Rep has brought to town David Ives' battle of wills and words, “Venus in Fur”. This ribald evening from two powerhouse performers is rife with Ives' typical meaty dialog will keep you guessing as to who's really in charge.

When my Mom goes to see shows of mine that are on the edgy or weirder side she inevitably comes back with the comment, "That was interesting" afterward. Translation: not my thing and a little too weird. I, on the other hand, like a little weird in my theater especially when it culminates into a good message or "aha!" moment at the end. But while I was on board through Act One with the message and imagery in "Marisol", the inaugural production from newly hatched theater company The Collision Project, Act Two led me into a melange of overdone messages and just became kind of "interesting" for me.

One of the things I love about William Finn's shows is that he draws such rich and flawed characters which makes them all the more real and relatable. This is extremely true in his most popular work, "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee", currently playing at Seattle Musical Theatre, where the kids of the Bee, as well as the adults, work through their own idiosyncrasies. But the lovely thing about the show is that since the subjects are children, they don't deny their flaws but embrace them as a part of themselves and use them to their advantage. And the cast and crew of the SMT production recognize that and never poke fun of the characters but embrace and love them as well and that's what makes this show an absolute joy.

If you know what I mean when I say things such as "Are you telling me cocoanuts migrate?!?" "She's got huge tracks of land!" and "Ni!" then you're my kind of nerd who understands the joy that is "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". And while musical theater nerds are aware, I was surprised to find out how many others didn't know that the genius of Holy Grail was giddily translated into the musical "Monty Python's Spamalot" which ran off with the Tony for best musical in 2005. And now the 5th Avenue Theatre presents an all local production of the smash hit and with the talent and design at their disposal, it's about as close to the Broadway show as you're going to get (without Jews, of course).

A new work is always a risk even from author Charles Waxberg who gave us the amazing "A Shade of Green" a few years back. In this case from Theatre 9/12 we kind of have two works from Waxberg with his new play "The Equation". And while the performances in the piece were admirable, only one of the stories held together (for the most part) while the other left me completely confused.

It's a show that's done by pretty much everyone and their dog. Why? Because Larry Shue's "The Foreigner" is somewhat easy to put up (one set, manageable cast) and it's one of Shue's funnier and smarter pieces. So it's kind of a staple for smaller theaters. But while it is an easily doable show, it's not so easy to get it right. Much of it is spoken in a made up language (that has to make sense) and it's got a dark sharp edge to it that can kill the comedy. Luckily director Brian Yorkey understands that dark edge and his cast currently at Village Theatre completely get the humor of it amounting to a thoroughly solid and engaging production of an oft-produced gem.

The absolutely stirring performances would have been enough. Even if the script for Seattle Rep's world premiere of "A Great Wilderness" were just so-so the ensemble cast knocking ball after ball out of the park would have been enough to make for an amazing evening. But when you add in the fact that this new script from one of the theater world's up and comers, Samuel D. Hunter, amounts to a subtle and gripping thing of beauty, you have an experience at the theater that you won't soon forget.

When any of Steve Martin's plays such as "Picasso at the Lapin Agile", currently playing at Second Story Rep, is done well it can be a riotous evening of surreal fun. But when it misses the mark it's still funny but lacks that certain spark of genius that Martin is known for. And while SSR's production doesn't completely miss the mark it's more sparkly moments are overshadowed by its somewhat scattered and tepid ones.

Before "Rent" put AIDS into the mainstream, before "The Temperamentals" looked at the plight of closeted gay men, there was "The Normal Heart", Larry Kramer's somewhat autobiographical, ground breaking master work which shoved the AIDS crisis and the gay lifestyle front and center at a time when people preferred to think of it as someone else's issue. The current production from Strawberry Theatre Workshop may have a few wrinkles to iron out but the performances from the stellar cast do honor to the iconic work.

I've never particularly been a fan of Shakespeare's histories. To me they amount to a lot of political posturing. But even with all the posturing they usually amount to a story with high stakes for all involved. Unfortunately the pacing and some performances from Seattle Shakespeare Company's current production of "Richard II" are so middle of the road and one note that the show lacked those high stakes and amounted to just so much of that posturing.

Opera has long been considered at the epitome of class and sophistication. Well it's time to give up that idea as 'Jerry Springer: The Opera' has come to town from Balagan Theatre in association with Seattle Theatre Group, and they've taken the highbrow nature of Opera and defecated all over it. And guess what, it's awesome! And before you think this is just some crass parody with a lot of bathroom humor and sex jokes, well it is, but it's also a smart and meaningful show with soaring operatic performers who would (some of whom have) fit right in at Seattle Opera.

The servants are downstairs and the Masters upstairs and the scandals and secrets are flying. It could be another episode of the PBS hit "Downton Abbey" except in this case the scandal is … well, you won't know until the audience shouts it out. As it is with most improv shows at Jet City Improv's "Upside Downton", the audience decides the direction of the story and it's up to the talented folks at Jet City to turn it into a Brit-ish (some of those accents were hilariously off) evening of fun. And while only half of the house seemed to really be clicking the night I saw, it still amounted to a great time.

The discussion on conversion or reparative therapies seems to be growing fast, especially with many states enacting bans on conversion therapy practices on gays. And now the Seattle Rep has commissioned a play on the topic from rising star playwright Samuel D Hunter with his "A Great Wilderness". I got to sit down and discuss the show with Hunter as well as director Braden Abraham to get their in depth look at this upcoming work.

I've never particularly warmed to Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Evita". Like most of his shows it just feels like a lot of flash and very little substance. So I can't really come at this production from the point of view of a fan of the show but I can point out some truly stirring performances within it.