Seattle Theater Reviews

Review: ROMEO AND JULIET at Center Theatre At Seattle Center
by Shelley Dean - May 06, 2024

The biggest challenge of pulling off a show such as Romeo and Juliet is finding new ways to keep the audience interested when we all know what happens. If you’re going to put on a production of a play that has been endlessly adapted, performed, and studied for longer than any of us have been around,...

Review: THE BARBER OF SEVILLE at Mccaw Hall
by Erica Miner - May 05, 2024

Without a doubt the highlight of, and a perfect ending to, the company’s season...

Review: THE LION TELLS HIS TALE at Broadway Performance Hall
by Shelley Dean - May 04, 2024

History is often rewritten in a way that is easier to digest, leading to hundreds of years of misinformation and erasure of the struggles of marginalized and persecuted groups. Artfully directed by Steve Sneed, Intiman Theatre has officially opened the world premiere of The Lion Tells His Tale, the ...

Review: THE LEHMAN TRILOGY at ACT Theatre
by Jay Irwin - May 03, 2024

At first glance, Dear Readers, Stefano Massini’s “The Lehman Trilogy”, as adapted by Ben Power and currently playing at ACT, may seem like a daunting task. I mean, a 3-and-a-half-hour play (thankfully with two intermissions) about bankers. It doesn’t sound like a rollicking good time. It sounds like...

Review: DISNEY'S ALADDIN at The Paramount Theatre
by Jay Irwin - April 25, 2024

If there’s one thing, Dear Readers, that Disney is good at, it’s spectacle. But when you take that spectacle and combine it with one of their most musically magical properties such as “Aladdin”, it should end up with theatrical gold for the whole family. When the genie first poked his head from the ...

Review: FAT HAM at Seattle Rep
by Jay Irwin - April 18, 2024

So, did the Rep’s “Fat Ham” crush my soul? Absolutely not and I must entreat anyone reading this, DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW!!!...

Review: THE SEASONS' CANON at Pacific Northwest Ballet
by Melody Datz Hansen - April 15, 2024

“The Seasons’ Canon” offers a safe haven for deeply feeling arts lovers to take a safe seat for a couple of hours and experience our powerful and merciful natural world through the medium of dance....

Review: SCRAMBLING THE GOOSE at Washington Ensemble Theatre
by Jay Irwin - April 12, 2024

When you go to the theater, Dear Readers, you sit in silence and enjoy the show. You may laugh, or cry, or gasp, but for the most part, you keep yourself to yourself. (At least I hope you do.) But every now and again, shows may ask something of you. Maybe a call back like in “Rocky Horror” or voting...

Review: BEETLEJUICE at The Paramount Theatre
by Jay Irwin - April 03, 2024

Dear Readers, warning, I’m about to be a bit of a snob here. I know, big surprise. But I’m not the biggest fan of the musical, “Beetlejuice”, currently playing at the Paramount Theatre. I wasn’t a fan when I first heard the cast recording and now having seen it, I can’t say my opinion has changed al...

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...