Seattle Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 3

Review: HOW TO WRITE A NEW BOOK FOR THE BIBLE at Taproot Theatre
by Shelley Dean - March 31, 2024

You may need to bring your own tissues for this one. Taproot Theatre Company has opened its production of Bill Cain’s play, How to Write a New Book for the Bible. The 4-person cast, artfully directed by Bretteney Beverly, tells the harrowing and heart-wrenching story beautifully. ...

Review: THE MOORS at Seattle Public Theater
by Jay Irwin - March 23, 2024

We’ve had a recent spate of the murderous, dark comedies, Dear Reader. First there was “Blood Countess” from MAP Theatre and then the 5th Avenue gave us “Something’s Afoot” and is soon to give us “Clue”. And now Seattle Public Theater has joined in with Jen Silverman’s “The Moors”. And like the othe...

Review: THE BED TRICK at the Center Theatre At Seattle Center
by Shelley Dean - March 24, 2024

Best friends, betrayals, love, and lust - Keiko Green’s new work, The Bed Trick, has it all. Seattle Shakespeare's first new commissioned work is set to be a complete hit. Skillfully directed by Makaela Milburn, the dorm window blinds have opened at the Center Theatre at Seattle Center....

Review: PLAY/WRITE at Planet M Records
by Erica Miner - March 22, 2024

What did our critic think of PLAY/WRITE at Planet M Records? There is much to unpack here in the way of unique sounds, colors and vibrations...

Review: STEW at ACT Theatre
by Jay Irwin - March 22, 2024

I like to think, Dear Reader, that I don’t need to have the meaning/plot/message of a show spoon fed to me. But sometimes, as with Zora Howard’s “Stew” currently playing at ACT, I could use a bit of clarity. I’m not saying the show was completely confusing, not by a long shot, just a few elements in...

Review: THE FANTASTICKS at Village Theatre
by Jay Irwin - March 16, 2024

Pop quiz, Dear Readers. What is the world’s longest running musical? No, it’s not “Phantom”, that’s the longest running Broadway musical. But if we include Off-Broadway we get the longest run of 42 years and 17,162 performances with Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s “The Fantasticks”. And while the cur...

Review: NOIR at The Can Can
by Jay Irwin - March 11, 2024

Dear Readers, I cannot imagine a time when anyone, let alone me, would have a bad time at The Can Can. I honestly am not even certain what that show would look like. They’d need to change up everything they are by having bad and out of shape singers and dancers, performing a lame story and songs, wh...

Review: ANYONE CAN WHISTLE at Theatre Off Jackson
by Shelley Dean - March 10, 2024

It takes a special group of actors and a stellar production crew to turn a show infamously known as one of Stephen Sondheim's biggest “flops” into a hit. Luckily for Seattle audiences, Reboot Theatre has opened a fresh, spunky, and wildly entertaining production of Anyone Can Whistle. Hilariously di...

Review: SOMETHING'S AFOOT at The 5th Avenue Theatre
by Jay Irwin - March 09, 2024

Curating a season is not an easy thing, especially for a large, professional theater. You want to strike that delicate balance of diversity, entertainment, cutting edge, and most of all audience appeal. But when the 5th Avenue Theater announced they were doing “Something’s Afoot”, an old show often ...

Review: SANCTUARY CITY at The Seattle Rep
by Jay Irwin - March 07, 2024

Dear Readers, I want to share with you one of the issues I come up against while writing these reviews. How much of the story to tell you. Especially with shows such as “Sanctuary City” by Martyna Majok, currently playing at the Seattle Rep, I want you to experience it somewhat blind, and let this b...

Review: X: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MALCOLM X at McCaw Hall
by Erica Miner - February 25, 2024

Without doubt a definitive event for Seattle Opera, and worth experiencing in all of its many extraordinary aspects....

Review: MEMOIRS OF A FORGOTTEN MAN at 12th Avenue Arts
by Shelley Dean - February 25, 2024

How far back can you remember? When you were 10? 5? Do you remember the day you were born? Probably not. That is what makes the subject of D.W. Gregory’s Memoirs of a Forgotten Man so incredible, he can. Thalia’s Umbrella’s productions of the four-person play, masterfully directed by Terry Edward Mo...

Review: ONCE MORE, JUST FOR YOU At Seattle Public Theater
by Shelley Dean - February 19, 2024

Seattle Public Theater is currently hosting the world premiere of Maggie Lee’s play, Once More, Just For You, directed by Amy Poisson. With a three-person cast and a homemade time travel machine, this show could be of particular interest to Seattle’s sci-fi fans. ...

Review: SUNSET BOULEVARD at Showtunes Theatre
by Jay Irwin - February 11, 2024

Dear Readers, if you know me at all you know my disdain for most things Andrew Lloyd Webber. With so much repetition and borrowing from other’s works, I just don’t see the appeal. But many love him and so it should come as no surprise that Showtunes Theatre would choose to dust off one of his grande...

Review: BLOOD COUNTESS at MAP Theatre
by Jay Irwin - February 10, 2024

The MAP Theatre gang is back, Dear Readers, and as usual they’re not ones to shy away from the bizarre with their latest offering, “Blood Countess” by Kelleen Conway Blanchard. This gothic, horror, sex, comedy doesn’t pull any punches. I just question if it needed all the punches it landed....

Review: THE LOWER DEPTHS at the Erickson Theater
by Shelley Dean - February 10, 2024

This weekend, Intiman Theatre and The Seagull Project opened their outstanding, heart-wrenching, and purposefully uncomfortable production of Maxim Gorky’s The Lower Depths. Housed at the Erickson Theater, the extremely cohesive 14-person cast takes the audience on a journey that is intertwined with...

Review: A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD at ACT
by Jay Irwin - February 09, 2024

If you’re unfamiliar with the playwright Samuel D. Hunter, Dear Readers, you shouldn’t be. His latest, “A Case for the Existence of God”, currently playing at ACT, isn’t the first of his we’ve seen in the area. We were blessed with his “A Great Wilderness” back in 2014, plus his “The Whale” which fi...

Review: BECOMING DR. RUTH At Village Theatre
by Shelley Dean - January 22, 2024

Village Theatre has welcomed a new show and a new Doctor to the stage this weekend. With a set that can’t leave your mind after stepping out of the Issaquah theater, and a leading lady who steals the show (good news, since she’s the only one in it), Becoming Dr. Ruth is a labor of love and arduous w...

Review: HOUSE OF HEARTS at The Can Can
by Jay Irwin - January 19, 2024

Come with me, Dear Readers, for a little trip down the rabbit hole to “House of Hearts”, the latest offering at The Can Can. If you’ve read my previous reviews of The Can Can shows, you know of my love for these folks. And if you’ve seen any of their shows, you know they consistently put on the good...

Review: THE BOOK OF MORMON at The Paramount Theatre
by Jay Irwin - January 10, 2024

Dear Readers, I hope you already have your tickets to “The Book of Mormon”, currently playing at the Paramount Theatre, because it’s pretty much sold out. And with good reason as it’s a near perfect show....

Review: THE DINA MARTINA CHRISTMAS SHOW at ACT
by Jay Irwin - December 09, 2023

Dear Readers, I am loathed to admit that I’ve never seen one of Dina Martina’s Christmas shows. Hey, I’ve only had 25 years to catch one. I have seen her perform before, way back when at Thumpers on Capitol Hill (back when that existed). Well, she’s back at ACT this year with “The Dina Martina Chris...

Review: MJ at The Paramount Theatre
by Jay Irwin - December 08, 2023

Dear Readers, you know I’m not a fan of the bio musical. Very few get it right with jamming too many songs in or a bad book. Unfortunately, “MJ” the Michael Jackson bio musical currently playing at the Paramount suffers from both of those things, and more....

Review: FELLOW PASSENGERS from Strawberry Theatre Workshop
by Jay Irwin - December 04, 2023

It’s the holiday season, Dear Readers, and you know what that means. Myriad productions of “A Christmas Carol” in the area. Just to name a few, there’s the old, trusty standby production out at ACT. And last week I saw an amazing one man “Christmas Carol” performed by the incredible Allen Fitzpatric...

Review: IRVING BERLIN'S WHITE CHRISTMAS at The 5th Avenue Theatre
by Jay Irwin - December 02, 2023

Dear Readers, you know I love a good rousing tap number as much as the rest of you. So those old musicals on stage such as “Singing in the Rain”, or “Holiday Inn” are right up my alley. ...

Review: SIBELIUS SYMPHONY NO. 5 at Benaroya Hall
by Erica Miner - December 01, 2023

Two contemporary compositions provided the framework for the haunting, ebullient Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82 by iconic Finnish composer Jean Sibelius in a recent program, performed live in Benaroya Hall on Nov. 16, 2023, and streamed on the innovative Seattle Symphony+ service. Helmed by ...