Seattle Theater Reviews

Review: DAMN YANKEES at Reboot Theatre Company
by Jay Irwin - September 07, 2024

Dear Readers, if you’ve seen a show from Reboot Theatre Company, you know they like to tackle old gems and turn them on their heads with non-traditional casting and perspectives. And just like when companies attempt to transplant Shakespeare or other works into different locales or time periods, som...

Review: COWBOYS WITH QUESTIONS at 12TH AVE ARTS
by Shelley Dean - September 07, 2024

Digesting art that clearly portrays substantial and timely topics, such as the dynamics of power and its abuse, is paramount. From movies, books, and plays, this highly important topic has been in the news and conversation cycle lately. Cowboys With Questions, penned by local playwright Rebecca Tour...

Review: TITANISH at Seattle Public Theater
by Jay Irwin - August 24, 2024

Star-crossed lovers, a doomed ship, an iceberg, a gem, and a big damn door. I am, of course, Dear Readers, talking about “Titanic” or rather in this case, the parody from The Habit and Seattle Public Theater, “Titanish”. It’s back for another summer run and once again a must see!...

Review: PETER PAN at The Paramount Theatre
by Jay Irwin - August 22, 2024

Dear Readers, I’m of two minds in reviewing this revised production of “Peter Pan” currently playing at the Paramount. First as a season ticket holder who came to the show with no kids and wants a quality musical, I question the inclusion of this in the season and find it not all that great, but fro...

Review: VIETGONE at Theatre Off Jackson
by Shelley Dean - August 16, 2024

Quite a few factors contribute to a great show, and they vary for each audience member. Vietgone is one of those rare productions that caters to a diverse audience seeking comedy, romance, and thoughtful reflection. The second Seattle production of Vietgone, written by Qui Nguyen and directed with h...

Review: PAGLIACCI at McCaw Hall
by Erica Miner - August 12, 2024

The term has become familiar and beloved to opera lovers since the late 19th century. Seattle Opera offered Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, one of the most performed works of this genre, as its opening production of the 2024-25 season....

Review: COMPANY at The Paramount Theatre
by Jay Irwin - July 24, 2024

I’m about to commit a musical theater geek sin, Dear Readers, so get the torches and pitchforks ready. I don’t care for Stephen Sondheim’s show, “Company”. I appreciate it for what it is, but I think it rambles, and ultimately says not very much at all. Then along comes the revival of the show with ...

Review: SISTER ACT at Taproot Theatre
by Jay Irwin - July 14, 2024

Dear Readers, the musical version of the hit 1992, Whoopi Goldberg comedy “Sister Act” has never been one of my favorites. On paper it should work with an Alan Menken score and fabulous source material were it not for those lackluster Glenn Slater lyrics. He writes passable songs but nothing that tr...

Review: CLUE at The 5th Avenue Theatre
by Jay Irwin - July 11, 2024

Dear Readers, chances are you played that classic board game “Clue” as a kid. That game of weapons and rooms and attempting to decipher who the killer is. And if so, then you also may have seen the classic 80’s comedy movie based on that game with a litany of comedy heavy hitters playing those iconi...

Review: GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY at The Paramount
by Jay Irwin - June 26, 2024

Dear Readers, I will admit that “Girl From the North Country”, currently playing at The Paramount, is a tough one to get into. It’s not a happy little romp and not structured like your typical musical. But if you can get past the bleak and let those voices wash over you, it’s a tragically beautiful ...

Review: 53% OF at Center Theatre At Seattle Center
by Shelley Dean - June 18, 2024

Are you a good person? Does anyone truly know if they are? Countless factors go into deciding such a weighted answer, for a lot of people, politics plays a large role. 53% Of is a direct work of art that attempts to answer that question, paying special attention to that factor. The show, wittingly d...

Review: SPRING AWAKENING at The 5th Avenue Theatre
by Jay Irwin - June 15, 2024

Dear Readers, I should start by saying that “Spring Awakening”, the musical from Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater based on the 1891 play by Frank Wedekind, has never been one of my favorites. But that first national tour and especially the 2012 local production from Balagan Theatre gave me a better app...

Review: DOLLY! at The Can Can
by Jay Irwin - June 14, 2024

Dear Readers, as you know, I’ve often extolled the fabulousness of the shows at The Can Can. Director Chris Pink and the cast and crew repeatedly bring the goods. And I’ve often commented on how one show after another may be one of my new favorites of theirs. Well, Dear Readers, they’ve done it agai...

Review: VENUS & THE VIXENS: GAMES OF LOVE at Emerald City Trapeze Arts
by Shelley Dean - June 11, 2024

We’ve all probably heard the story of Cupid and Psyche, a forbidden love that faces a greater-than-average amount of challenges, but in this day and age, is it really more than average? The new musical extravaganza, Venus & the Vixens: Games of Love, rockingly conceived, written, and directed by Mar...

Review: JINKX MONSOON & MAJOR SCALES TOGETHER AGAIN, AGAIN! at The Seattle Rep
by Jay Irwin - June 06, 2024

I was excited for this one. And if the show had been 30 minutes, it would have been great. At an hour, it would have been good. But at 90 plus minutes, the dead horse was severely beaten, and I found myself repeatedly looking at my watch....

Review: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE PRECARIOUS POSITION at Taproot Theatre
by Jay Irwin - May 19, 2024

First off, Dear Readers, “Sherlock Holmes and the Precarious Position” currently playing at Taproot Theatre, is not a Holmes story from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s a silly little lark with Holmesian characters by Margaret Raether. The program even says, “Based on the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doy...

Review: ONCE ON THIS ISLAND at Village Theatre
by Jay Irwin - May 18, 2024

Dear Readers, we’re about to enter the realm of one of my favorite shows, “Once on This Island”, currently playing at Village Theatre. This gem of a show is, sadly, not often produced. In fact, I’ve only seen it twice, once on Broadway in 2017, and once in 2005, again from Village Theatre. Both of t...

Review: UNRIVALED at Seattle Public Theater
by Shelley Dean - May 16, 2024

There are countless modern retellings of historical events out there, I could name twenty right now, but Unrivaled does it differently, in a fresh way that deserves to be talked about. The co-production from Seattle Public Theater and SIS Productions is running from now until June 2 at Seattle Publi...

Review: SEATTLE OPERA 60TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT & GALA at McCaw Hall
by Erica Miner - May 13, 2024

an enchanted evening that will be remembered for many decades as an occasion that was memorable in every way...

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!!!...