Stage
Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes is awfully hard to stage. The novel relies much more on introspection and narrative than dialogue and action, and is thus in many ways the antithesis of a medium that eliminates the internal monologue.Bradbury's adaptation, and the Lakewood Playhouse production, rely much more
Stage
Who knew spelling bees could be so funny?Well, I did, but only because I've seen two other productions of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Which makes Tacoma Little Theatre's take on the play all the more impressive - it requires a certain level of quality to make me
Stage
David Auburn's Proof is built on relationships: a damaged girl and her broken father; the sibling rivalry of two sisters on very different paths; the uncertainty of young love. Each tie between two characters helps illuminate another.Nominally, the play is about brilliance and madness in mathematics, but even that is
We Recommend
Is it wrong that I secretly wished Lakewood Playhouse's production of Sweeney Todd would be a little bit more like a GWAR concert? My instincts say yes, but my heart says no. Not that I wanted a horde of spastic metalheads kicking me in the head, but if there is one
Stage
Is it wrong that I secretly wished Lakewood Playhouse’s production of Sweeney Todd would be a little bit more like a GWAR concert? My instincts say yes, but my heart says no. Not that I wanted a horde of spastic metalheads kicking me in the head, but if there is one
We Recommend
What's the best way to get people excited about something? Free stuff. Check that. Free stuff and Imperial stormtroopers. When the number one goal of the free stuff is the promotion of literacy in children, teens and adults, it's a win for everybody. Thus, on the first Saturday of every May since 2002,
Arts
What's the best way to get people excited about something? Free stuff. Check that. Free stuff and Imperial stormtroopers. When the number one goal of the free stuff is the promotion of literacy in children, teens and adults, it's a win for everybody. Thus, on the first Saturday of every May since 2002,
We Recommend
James Goldman's The Lion In Winter is about nothing so much as legacy. The year is 1183. Henry II, who won the throne by strength of arms, aims to leave behind the one thing his life has lacked: prolonged, lasting peace. Standing in his way? Pretty much everyone
Stage
James Goldman's The Lion In Winter is about nothing so much as legacy. The year is 1183. Henry II, who won the throne by strength of arms, aims to leave behind the one thing his life has lacked: prolonged, lasting peace. Standing in his way? Pretty much everyone else. Three sons,
We Recommend
Sloth, a world premiere play produced by Gold From Straw a quarter century after its writing, is at its best a compelling commentary on grief, and at its worst a somewhat confused jumble of casting decisions and script weaknesses. There's this voice that young people use when they play old people.
Stage
Sloth, a world premiere play produced by Gold From Straw a quarter century after its writing, is at its best a compelling commentary on grief, and at its worst a somewhat confused jumble of casting decisions and script weaknesses. There's this voice that young people use when they play old people.
We Recommend
There are far too many people who would be ashamed to say they like something as fundamentally shallow and conventional as AC/DC, but I'm not one of them. I think this is part of why I've grown to love Big Wheel Stunt Show. They don't sound like
Arts
In a lot of ways, 2010 felt like the year of the bully. It was difficult to turn to any national media outlet without finding yet another news story about a teen suicide tied to bullying, be it by conventional schoolyard methods or the continually escalating electronic means. Secret webcams,
Live & CD Reviews
DELIBERATE, STRUCTURED, PENETRATING HAZE >>> What a difference a mix makes. I bought Drag Lake Sin, the new EP by Tacoma outfit Slowwave, upon its release Tuesday. Five dollars for six tracks, and man, they are good ones. There is a layering and nuance to the instrumentation and production
We Recommend
If I had to pick one play for a small, local theater to produce out of the current public consciousness, it would be Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon. Aside from the bevy of awards and the recent film, the subject matter seems as relevant today, in our atmosphere of ethics violations and
Stage
If I had to pick one play for a small, local theater to produce out of the current public consciousness, it would be Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon. Aside from the bevy of awards and the recent film, the subject matter seems as relevant today, in our atmosphere of ethics violations and
We Recommend
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Other, non-North American English-speaking countries know the film of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by an alternate title: The Worst Kids In The World. That should tell you about the quality of the characters in question, and the odds that the title will actually come true.
Stage
White Christmas Bing Crosby's recording of Irving Berlin's White Christmas is considered by Guinness to be the best-selling single of all time, at more than 50 million copies. That, my friends, is a lot of frickin' records. On the quality of Berlin's songwriting, Crosby had this to say: "A jackdaw with a
We Recommend
Almost, Maine tells something on the order of a dozen or so different love stories, all taking place on the same evening under the aurora borealis of northern Maine. The stories are told in a series of vignettes, rather than as an intertwined tale - though
Stage
John Cariani's Almost, Maine is cheese.Now, there are plenty of different kinds of cheese. There is the plastic, homogenized, processed American crap, devoid of flavor, that barely deserves to exist. Then there's the excessively fancy, expensive, snooty cheese that spends way too much time trying to pretend that it wasn't
