Theater Search
Paradisiacal Rites
Thurs-Sun at 8 pm. Through May 19.Dance
"It’s put up or shut up time for Saint Genet, their detractors, and their defenders. For years, company member Ryan Mitchell has said he wants to make a work not in a theater, but on a city. Now is that time. The company has been working for years on Paradisiacal Rites, an 'opera' in three long acts which just had its trial run in Austria, and promises, Dante-like, to descend into seriously ugly shit in an attempt to find paradise. Their dramaturgy has included ballet, cults, gold leaf, hysteria, leeches, shooting each other with bb guns, nitrous oxide, and an investigation of criminal-artist Jean Genet and his hagiographer Jean-Paul Sartre." (Brendan Kiley) $12-$25.
Women in Theater (WIT) Conference
Sun May 19 at 2 pm.Special Events
Artistic director of Live Girls! Theater, Meghan Arnette, presents a panel of women in local theater to discuss the ongoing push for equal representation of all genders, sexualities, and ethnicities on stage in Seattle. Free.
Boeing Boeing
Tues-Fri at 7:30 pm, Sat-Sun at 2 and 7:30 pm. Through May 19.Theater
A 1960s musical farce (recently revived in London and New York) about Bernard, a swinging bachelor entangled with three stewardesses. $15-$80.
Gathering Bones
Sat-Sun at 8 pm. Through May 19.Dance
A new dance work created by Maya Soto with original music composed by Paurl Walsh set in an interactive gallery space. $18.
Gypsy
Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm. Through May 19.Theater
Gypsy Rose Lee (born in Seattle) was reared by her stage mother to be a vaudeville performer. Instead, Gypsy became a star in the world of burlesque, emphasizing the "tease" in striptease. Her memoirs were adapted into the acclaimed comedic musical by Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents. $35-$40.
Not All Clowns Are Bozos V: Not Our First Rodeo
Thurs-Sun at 7:30 pm. Through May 19.Theater
Ear to the Ground presents the fifth edition of its clowning-for-people-who-think-they-hate-clowning showcase. Featuring best-of performances from past years, including work by Valerie Moseley and Cecelia Frye, Mary Purdy and Keith Hitchcock, Linda Severt, and others. $10-$15.
SANCA's Annual Spring Showcase
Sat-Sun at 2 and 7 pm. Through May 19.Cabaret
The School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts (SANCA) presents their annual circus and variety performance of students, alumni, staff, and friends. Featuring The Magnificent 7, Kari Hunter, Nicholas Lowery, and others. $10-$20.
My Girlfriend's Boyfriend
Tues at 7:30 pm, Wed at 7:30 and 10 pm. Through May 22.Theater
Actor, writer, comedian, and This American Life regular Mike Birbiglia (Sleepwalk With Me) tell tales from "a lifetime of romantic blunders and miscues." The show has been popular during its New York and Chicago runs. $35.
Star Crossed, and other tales from a devious universe
Tues-Wed at 8 pm. Through May 22.Theater
Eight short plays—four of which follow an astronaut on her scientific journey away from and back to love—written by Scotto Moore (A Mouse Who Knows Me, Duel of the Linguist Mages), directed by five directors, and featuring an ensemble cast. $5-$10.
Lollyville: The Workshop
Fri May 24 at 8 pm.Theater
Lollyville is a communal village entirely inhabited by women, and one ghost. Playwrights Bret Fetzer and Juliet Waller Pruzan weave a modern fairytale about loneliness, love, and school reports about ladybugs. Talkback with the playwrights and director Kristina Sutherland to follow. Macha Monkey Productions at $10.
Where No Man Has Gone Before
Fri May 24 at 8 pm.Improv
Seattle Experimental Theater performs a fully improvised parody of the original Star Trek TV series, based on audience suggestions. $16-$20.
No one to witness #4
Thurs-Fri at 12 pm. Through May 24.Dance
zoe|juniper presents an open performance where the audience experiences the show from a new perspective: the floor. Free.
33 Variations
Wed-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 3 pm. Through May 25.Theater
Nominated for five Tony Awards, Moises Kauffman's play is a drama set in New York City and Austria about a mother and a composer separated by 200 years. $10-$45.
Team of Heroes: No More Heroes
Thurs-Sat at 8 pm. Through May 25.Theater
Writer Alexander Harris and director Jaime Roberts return with (almost all of) the original cast members for the final installment in the superhero trilogy about "the underbelly of doing good," which Paul Constant has described as "a superhero movie made on a tiny theater budget." $5-$20.
The Temperamentals
Thurs-Sat at 7:30 pm, select Sun matinees. Through May 25.Theater
A play by Jon Marans about a love affair between two of the founding members of the Mattachine Society, the first sustained LGBT rights organization in the U.S. The title comes from the early-20th Century usage of the word "temperamental," which is slang for "homosexual." "An eminently likable docudrama about gay identity in the age of Eisenhower" (New York Times). $12-$20.
Three Billy Goats Gruff
Fri at 7:30 pm, Sat-Sun at 1 and 3 pm. Through May 26.Theater
A puppet version of the classic fable about three goats who attempt to cross a bridge, guarded by a troll. Thistle Theater company uses Bunraku, full-body, and rod puppets, designed and built by Brian Kooser. Featuring two puppeteers and original music. $8-$10.
The A/V Club
Fri-Sat at 10:30 pm. Through June 1.Improv
Mystery Science Theater 3000 meets The Breakfast Club in a late-night comedic improv show written and directed by David Nance. $10-$15.
Captain Smartypants
Fri at 8 pm, Sat at 7:30 and 10 pm. Through June 1.Comedy
Nine gay men will sit around an onstage "campfire," singing and telling their comedic versions of classic ghost stories, horror comics, and gothic novels. $25.
Grey Gardens
Tues-Wed at 7:30 pm, Thurs-Fri at 8 pm, Sat at 2 and 8 pm, Sun at 2 and 7 pm. Through June 2.Theater
"Directed by Kurt Beattie, Grey Gardens is a musical based on the fascinating real-life story of Edith and Little Edie, a mother and daughter from the wealthy Bouvier-Beale clan, once great socialites (and cousins of Jackie O) who became fallen, cat-food-snarfing shut-ins. Act one (the problem!) takes place in July 1941, when the Bouvier-Beales are living high on the gilded hog in their still-glorious Hampton estate. This part of the legend is necessary for context, to introduce the family, and to properly frame their fall. It needs to be, you know... there. But it is not worth fully one-half of this darn-nigh-three-hour show. And it is definitely not the most interesting or important part of the Grey Gardens story." (Adrian Ryan) $55-$77.
In the Land of Rain and Salmon, Jewish Voices of the Northwest: 1880-1920
Sun June 2 at 2 pm.Theater
Washington State Jewish Historical Society and Book-It Repertory Theater present a theatrical adaptation of Family of Strangers, Building A Jewish Community In Washington State and other stories. Narratives in the book by Molly Cone, Howard Droker, and Jacqueline Williams with others follow the challenges and triumphs of Jewish families that arrived in Washington state between 1880 and 1920. $18-$36.
The Vaudevillians with Jinkx Monsoon: The Big Seattle Sendoff Show!
Sun June 2 at 7:30 and 9:30 pm.Special Events
Jinkx Monsoon (winner of Ru Paul's Drag Race: Season 5) and Major Scales perform as Kitty Witless and Dr. Dan von Dandy. The two 1920s burlesque stars were trapped in Antarctica, and only thaw to discover their original songs have been misused and passed off by others. Cornish College of the Arts at $10-$25.
www.brownpapertickets.com
201 Mercer St
Seattle (Seattle Center)
map
Fela!
Tues-Thurs at 7:30 pm, Fri at 8 pm, Sat at 2 and 8 pm, Sun at 1 and 6:30 pm. Through June 2.Theater
The (mostly) true story of Fela Kuti, the Nigerian musician and activist who helped create Afrobeat, a blend of jazz, funk, and Yoruba music. His unusual living situation (he lived in an urban commune with 27 wives) and outspoken political critiques made him a target for the Nigerian military, which attacked and killed some of his family and bandmates. (During an attack on the commune, Kuti's mother was flung out of a window and killed.) Directed by Bill T. Jones, the musical mostly focuses on Kuti's sonic inventiveness and the generation of Africans he inspired. $20-$85.
The Stranger
RSSSeattle Art & Performance Quarterly
A complete guide to Seattle's current art, film, dance, and theater season.
Facebook
Twitter
