Tacoma is a weird town theatrically speaking. I often wonder how is it that theatergoers can be cultured enough to spend their hard-earned money on theater and then walk out because they are offended by what they see. 

 

There weren’t a lot of intermission walkouts at the production of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues at Theater on the Square, but there were enough for my watchful eyes to notice. The theater was far from full to begin with, so it was hard to do an actual headcount. But the spirit was certainly there.

Folks apparently didn’t know that the traveling version of Book-It Repertory Theatre’s take on the counterculture novel would actually follow the themes of the book.  The theater has made its living bringing great books to the stage without compromising much in terms of content. It certainly achieves it here. 

 

“The Broadway Center selects programming similar to that of a restaurant menu — there are multiple entrees for everyone to choose from, but not every taste will appeal to each individual,” explains Broadway Center Deputy Executive Director Benjii Bittle in a statement about the show.

In the play, Sissy Hankshaw makes lemonade by taking life’s lemons and turning them into a life changing adventure. She is born with oversized thumbs. Since a career as a carpenter is obviously out of the question, she puts those thumbs to use by hitchhiking around the United States. On her travels, she finds a full menagerie of road characters, particularly a collection of real-life cowgirls in search of the American dream circa 1900. The play, based on Tom Robbins’ classic counterculture novel of the same name, takes a turn for the weird when the show finds its center in a ladies-only spa.

 

The show has hot buttons that range from extremely coarse language, nudity, big-time racial stereotyping, and more sexual references and situations than a crab feed hosted by Paris Hilton.

Sit back, keep an open mind, and just let it ride. There likely will be something you will be offended by in this show. But that is what art is for sometimes. We are to be entertained, enlightened and offended as a way to evolve as people.

[Theater on the Square, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, Saturday, Oct. 25, 3 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 26, $22-$34, 915 Broadway, Tacoma, 253.591.5894]

On stage 

• SOUTH PACIFIC: Tacoma Musical Playhouse is staging the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein classic musical about life and love in the war-torn tropics. South Pacific has it all — musical theater, violence, romance, comedy, a great score, complex and conflicted characters, and adventure. 
  
  
  
  [Tacoma Musical Playhouse, through Oct. 26, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m., Sunday, $18-$25, 7116 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.565.6867]
  
   


• THREEPENNY OPERA: For another show that might raise some eyebrows, Capital Playhouse is staging a comedy with some bite. The Threepenny Opera is a light opera that spares little when it comes to poking fun at the upper class. 
  
  
  
  [Capital Playhouse, through Nov. 1, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $23-$35, 612 E Fourth Ave., Olympia, 360.943.2744]
  
   


• THE BFG: The Olympia Family Theater presents Roald Dahl’s The BFG (Big Friendly Giant), the story of Sophie, a lonely orphan who hears that the children-chewing giants are off to England; she is out to stop them. 
  
  
  
  [Minnaert Center, through Nov. 2, 7 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 1 and 4 p.m. Saturday, $8-$15, South Puget Sound Community College, 2011 Mottman Road S.W., Olympia, www.olyft.org]
  
   


• NUNSENSE: Encore! Theater is staging the überfunny Nunsense, a comedy about a gaggle of nuns who find themselves in a pickle and sing their way out of it. 
  
  
  
  [Encore! Theater, through Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $8-$15, 6615 38th Ave. N.W., Gig Harbor, 253.858.2282]