THEATER


OPENING THIS WEEK

AS YOU LIKE IT Seattle Repertory Theatre

SPRING AWAKENING UW Playhouse Theatre

WHEN I GROW UP I'M GONNA GET SOME BIG WORDS Seattle Children's Theatre


ONE WEEK ONLY

FOOLPROOF -- THE NORTHWEST COMEDY ARTS FESTIVAL Various venues


CLOSING THIS WEEK

CIRCUS PEOPLE Union Garage

THE COUNTRY WIFE UW Penthouse Theatre

HE WOULD NOT COME DOWN Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center

PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET Seattle Center Opera House

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA The 5th Avenue Theatre

RUBHERWHERE Oddfellows Hall Chamber Theatre

SIGOURNEY SQUARE PARK Northwest Actor's Studio

THE SOUND OF MUSIC Paramount Theatre


OPENING AND CURRENT RUNS


AS YOU LIKE IT

Shakespeare, having had a very busy year locally, wraps up the Rep's season with one of his most appealing comedic gender-benders. Artistic Director Sharon Ott guides a cast that includes the superlative Laurence Ballard. Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Center, 443-2222. Tues-Sun at 7:30, Sat-Sun matinees at 2, runs Mon April 24 through May 25. $10-$42.


BEATRICE

Former Annex artistic director Andrea Allen pairs up with playwright Suzanne Maynard for this quirky feminist rethinking of Middleton and Rowley's brooding 17th-century farce, The Changeling. "You can sense Maynard's moving concerns and clever contrivances looping around each other beneath Matthew Smucker's terrific garden set, but Allen oversimplifies the humor in the script, as if the only way to get a laugh is to point out how the actors would really be talking if they weren't saddled with Maynard's damned high-falutin' dialogue."(Steve Wiecking) Annex Theatre, 1916 Fourth Ave, 728-0933. Thurs-Sat at 8, Sun at 7, through May 6. $7-$12.


BIG BOSS, OR THE INNER LIFE OF EVERYTHING

Billed as "a play with music," writer/director Ki Gottberg's new work was commissioned by New City Theater and concerns the tangled lives of two sisters, one an obsessive, the other a cynic -- accompanied by live percussion. First Christian Church, 1632 Broadway, 328-4683. Thurs-Sat at 8, through May 20 (no show on May 6). $10-$12.


CIRCUS PEOPLE

Local performer Heidi Heimarck's full-length play (fleshed out from a one-act) is the story of a young woman who experiences the serendipity of life for the first time when she joins a traveling carnival. "Surely a bunch of carnival 'freaks' should provide more interesting stories than the usual heart-of-gold martyrdom they are given here, though Tim Gouran is quite nice in a ridiculous role as an armless sweetheart. Faintly precious and amateurish -- nothing shameful, but nothing new." (Steve Wiecking) Union Garage, 1418 10th Ave, 720-1942. Thurs-Sat at 8, through April 22. $12, Thurs is pay-what-you-will.


THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

Bay Area director Danny Scheie hit big back home with this lively production of Shakespeare's farce, and his staging here -- complete with live music and a game cast in overdrive -- should be just as pleasing. Two sets of twins, mistaken identity, and big, bawdy laughs. Ethnic Cultural Theatre, 3940 Brooklyn Ave NE, 286-0728. Thurs-Sat at 7:30, Sun matinees at 2, through May 7. $10-$20.


THE COUNTRY WIFE

Wycherly's ribald classic, a Restoration comedy concerning -- what else? -- seduction and lies. The cast is comprised of students from UW's Third Year Professional Actor Training Program. UW Penthouse Theatre, near the UW entrance at 45th St and 17th Ave NE, 543-4880. Tues-Thurs at 7:30, Fri-Sat at 8, Sun at 2, through April 23. $7-$10.


"A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE..."

An evening of human failings in two one-acts by masters of the form: Ionesco's divine absurdist classic The Bald Soprano, and another little-seen treatise on fading Southern belles, Tennessee Williams' A Perfect Analysis Given by a Parrot. Stone Soup Theatre, 4035 Stone Way N, 633-1883. Thurs-Sat at 8, through April 29. $5-$10, Sat tickets are two for $15.


FOREVER PLAID

A bit of a phenomenon in some circles (it's in the sixth year of its run in Chicago), writer/choreographer/director Stuart Ross' Plaid is a lighthearted celebration of those four-part-harmony boy groups from the late '50s and early '60s. Squeaky-clean renditions of "Three Coins in the Fountain" and other freshly scrubbed pop fare sung by "teen angels." Much gayer than it knows. Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Center, 443-2222. Tues-Fri at 8, Sat at 8:30, Sun at 2, Sat matinees at 5, Sun matinees at 2, through June 25. $37-$42.


GOD OF VENGEANCE

ACT hosts a world premiere of recent Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald (Dinner with Friends) Margulies' latest work, an adaptation of Sholom Asch's turn-of-the-century Yiddish drama updated to New York in the roaring '20s. This was actually a scandal-causing piece of theater back in the '20s (it was shut down); some people didn't like the play's supposedly wild conceit that a man of extreme religious faith would secretly be overseeing the downstairs brothel. A Contemporary Theatre, 700 Union St, 292-7676. Sun-Thurs at 7:30, Fri-Sat at 8, select matinees at 2, through May 7. $10-$42. Reviewed this issue, page 23. See Bio Box.


HANGING LORD HAW-HAW

Jeffrey Hatcher, who wrote the wonderful Shaw adaptation Smash, returns with a specially commissioned world premiere exploring the motives of William Joyce, a Nazi Germany propagandist in World War II who also happened to be a staunch patriot of the British Empire. Empty Space Theatre, 3509 Fremont Ave N, 547-7500. Tues-Thurs at 7:30, Fri-Sat at 8, Sun at 7, Sat-Sun matinees at 2, through May 13. $18-$26. Reviewed this issue, page 23.


HARVEY

Mary Chase's sentimental bit of whimsy from the '40s -- about a man and his giant, invisible rabbit, in case you've been living in solitary confinement -- always seems to ache for Jimmy Stewart no matter how polished the production, but Taproot Theatre Co. is going to try anyway, with artistic director Scott Nolte as lead eccentric, Elwood P. Dowd. Taproot Theatre, 204 N 85th St, 781-9707. Wed-Thurs at 7:30, Fri-Sat at 8, Sat matinee at 2, through April 29. $16-$24.


HE WOULD NOT COME DOWN

A multicultural cast tells the story of that little-known underdog, Jesus Christ, and his attempts to make you stop it already with all that crap about the Easter Bunny and Cadbury eggs. Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center, 104 17th Ave S, 684-4757. Tues-Sun at 8, Sat-Sun matinees at 3, runs through April 23. $15-$19.


THE HOSTAGE

Brendan Behan's brazen take on morality in Ireland (set in a Dublin brothel) receives a staging from Susanna Wilson. "Very little of Behan's genius survives the production. Both sets of leads are fine, but it's missing any consistent directorial sense of tone. The show's relentlessly shrill, frantic pace sabotages narrative momentum." (Tom Spurgeon) Theater Schmeater, 1500 Summit, 324-5801. Thurs-Sat at 8, Sun matinee on April 30 at 2, through May 6. $12.


Late Night Catechism

An evening of audience participation and interactive improv theater: Think Sister Windy crossed with Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You. ACT, 700 Union St, 292-7676. Thurs-Sat at 8, Sun at 2, extended for eternity. $24.50-$29.50.


*NORTHWEST NEW WORKS FESTIVAL 2000

On the Boards offers some of the region's most unique developing projects, presented in five different programs over the course of a three-week contemporary arts festival. Programs Two and Three fill both of the spaces at the theater, and feature, among others, new work from the Young Composers Collective and Portland dancer/choreographer Randee Paufve. On the Boards, 100 W Roy, 217-9888. Programs Two and Three: Thurs-Sun at 8 pm on the mainstage, and in the Studio Theater at 9 pm, through April 22, $12. Festival runs through April 29.


THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

In which a man with a pizza-face regales a goosey soprano with pop show tunes, and hopes that smoke machines and a falling chandelier will distract audiences from the inherent disposability of the entire production. Based on attendance records, the freak was right. The 5th Avenue Theatre, 1326 Fifth Ave, 292-ARTS. Tues-Sat at 8, Sun at 7:30, Sat-Sun matinees at 2, through April 23. $15-$67.50.


SIGOURNEY SQUARE PARK

Fresh from a run in the latest Fringe Festival, Jeffrey Kagan-McCann's play unfolds over a dramatic Labor Day weekend and concerns the memories of four estranged brothers. Northwest Actor's Studio, 1100 E Pike St, 324-6328. Fri-Sat at 8, Sun at 7, through April 22. $8-$10.


THE SOUND OF MUSIC

The hills are alive... so run! Run for your lives! Richard Chamberlain may be old, but that's not gonna stop him from seducing a singing ex-nun half his age. For the love of God, people, run! Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St, 292-2787. Tues-Sat at 8, Sun at 7:30, Sat-Sun matinees at 2, through April 23. $21-$50.


SPRING AWAKENING

In this once-banned 19th-century play, three teens, masks, and puppetry combine to form, according to press info, a "sexual phantasmagoria." Well, then. UW Playhouse Theatre, 4045 University Way NE, 543-4880. Tues-Thurs at 7:30, Fri-Sat at 8, Sun at 2, runs Wed April 26 through May 7. $7-$10.


WHEN I GROW UP I'M GONNA GET SOME BIG WORDS

An ambitious work culled from letters, essays, speeches, and diary entries. See Stranger Suggests, page 36. Charlotte Martin Theatre, Seattle Center, 441-3322. Fri at 7, Sat-Sun at 2 and 5:30, through June 11. $13.50-$20.50.


DANCE


PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET

Yippee-kay-ay! Have you seen the print ads for the Ballet's April program? Some bare-chested, mouth-watering piece of dancer beef is struttin' his stuff in cowboy hat and chaps in the Seattle premiere of Loring's Billy the Kid, set to the wistful and rambunctious Copland piece. Those varmints at PNB better not be foolin' us! (Oh, and there's some Balanchine and Kent Stowell stuff, too.) Seattle Center Opera House, Seattle Center, 292-ARTS. Thurs-Sat at 7:30, Sat matinees at 2, through April 22. $10-$100.


RUBHERWHERE

The Bleeding Hearts Ensemble, in an attempt to blend theater and dance, premiere a new work presented in High Camp, B-movie style. Rockabilly, jazz, and swing are the musical backdrops for the words and movements of this look at the "dark side" of June Cleavers everywhere. Chamber Theatre, Oddfellows Hall at 915 E Pine St, 328-1171. Thurs-Sat at 8, through April 22. $10.


FESTIVALS, CABARETS, & COMEDY


BALD FACED LIE

Seattle's longest-running sketch comedy troupe hits prime time on stage with a new show. Some of these performers -- including the hysterical Ian Bell -- are so talented that you can even forgive the fact that they're helping Almost Live's John Keister come back to TV. Open Circle Theatre, 429 Boren Ave N, 382-4250. Thurs-Sat at 8, Sun at 7, through April 29. $12.


*FOOLPROOF -- THE NORTHWEST COMEDY ARTS FESTIVAL

This may be your best chance all year at a sure-fire gut-buster. See Stranger Suggests, page 37. Various venues, times and ticket prices vary, Mon-Sat April 24-29 only, call 628-0888, or check out the website at www.foolproof.org.


Julie Cascioppo Experience

Songs and characters you may grow to love. The Pink Door, Pike Place Market, 1919 Post Alley, 443-3241. Tues at 8:30 & 11. No cover.


*THREE DOLLAR BILL

Seattle's original gay/lesbian/bisexual stand-up comedy night is still standing in its third year. Comedy Underground, 222 S Main St, 628-0303. Tues at 8. $6.


LATE NIGHT


THE A.M. CABARET

Amoral entertainment for insomniacs; promising naked poetry, music, strippers, and drag queens. You may think you're dreaming. Coffee Messiah, 1554 E Olive Way, 860-7377. Sat from 2-4 am. $5.


THE HABIT

Raucous sketch comedy back at Annex for six shows only, featuring talking furniture and other absurdities. Annex Theatre, 1916 Fourth Ave, 728-0933. Fri-Sat at 11, through April 29. $5.


JE M'APPELLE PABLO

The second late-night comic extravaganza from Disgruntled Bit Players, who claim that this will be "a treatise, if you will." They also promise hookers and smack. Union Garage, 1418 10th Ave, 729-4839. Fri-Sat at 11, through April 21. $6.


Jet City Improv

Improv comedy and music based on audience suggestions. Ethnic Cultural Theater, 3940 Brooklyn Ave NE, 781-3879. Fri-Sat at 10:30. $7, $5 with student ID.


Theater Sports

Improv comedy with a competitive edge, brought to you by Unexpected Productions. Market Theater, 1428 Post Alley, 781-9273. Fri-Sat at 10:30, $9; Sun at 7, $5.


THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Theater Schmeater presents its popular live versions of the cult TV series. Escape Clause pulls the rug out from under a hypochondriac who buys immortality from the Devil; a homeless man pilfering from a slain gangster makes the mistake of wearing a Dead Man's Shoes. Theater Schmeater, 1500 Summit Ave, 324-5801. Fri-Sat at 11, through May 6. $8 (under 18 gets in free).


UP IN YOUR GRILL

This fresh four-person comedy troupe is supposed to be pretty damn funny, so, as with other talented folks, we must overlook its current association with the painfully unfunny John Keister (they're all appearing on KIRO TV's The John Report with Bob). The Grill folks are tearing it up weekly with fast and furious comic sketches. Speakeasy, 2304 Second Ave, 444-4336. Sat at 11 (opening acts at 10:30). $7.