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by Milton W. Hamlin - SGN A&E Writer Pacific Northwest Ballet ended an era last weekend with final performances of the audience-pleasing Silver Lining and a special Sunday night Tribute To Kent Stowell & Francia Russell that closed the 28-year reign of the husband-and-wife team as PNBs artistic directors. Thumpers Gay Pride Cabaret Season rolls merrily along with Miss Angies Blues!, the new Peggy Platt brunch shows, a last-minute A Taste Of Off-Broadway, a final Monday with Ruby Bishop and a rousing cabaret benefit earlier this week to raise money for the costs of a July production of John & Jenits another great week for Seattle entertainment fans and for Bits & Bytes. THUMPERS CABARET SERIES FILLS GLBT ARTS CALENDAR Thumpers Cabaret On The Hill series just keeps getting betterand longer (and whats wrong with bigger and longer? my editor just asked). Miss Angies Blues! opened in early June to a cheering, stomping crowd of family and friendsand a few Seattle cabaret fanatics. Peggy Platt brought Brunch-O-Rama to Thumpers for two brunch shows on Sunday, opening a summer-long Sunday run with Michael Oaks providing co-host support. A short-notice booking found jazz singer Tani Erickson on the Oak Room stage last Friday for a one-night-only appearance with A Taste Of Off-Broadway, an evening of sassy, sultry and saucy songs, three adjectives that Bits & Bytes simply cannot resist. A rare Monday and Tuesday booking brought a special cabaret benefit to the stage of Thumpers Oak Room. In celebration of the collaborative spirit of theater, some of Seattle brightest and best cabaret performers joined together in a benefit performance to raise funds for a summer staging of John & Jen, a chamber musical by Broadways Andrew Lippa. Ann Evans and Brian Earp will star in the summer production. Evans is a frequent cabaret performer at Thumpers and the producer of the restaurants on-going Cabaret Showcase series. Ruby Bishop, a true Seattle institution, continues her A Touch Of Class, an evening of keyboards and vocals, with a final appearance next Monday, June 20. The show starts at 8:00 p.m. and continues for three hours. For Gay Pride weekend, June 24-25, Platt reteams with Lisa Koch as the inspired vocal/comedy team, Dos Fallopia, a favorite with Seattles Lesbian and feminist community. The two evening performances start at 9:00 p.m. and reservations will be a must. MISS ANGIES BLUES ROCKS THUMPERS Miss Angies Blues! playing most Saturdays, all Sundays and one Monday through June 27proves to be a raucous musical/comedy revue featuring two church lady drag queens and the talented Angie Louise on vocals and the keyboard. Like many of Seattles cabaret revues, the show was not quite ready for the opening night crowd. The shows title, Miss Angies Blues!, seems to now be Marie Leveaus House Of Pancakes, according to the program. But wait, the rambling revue turns into Miss Angies Blues At Marie Leveaus House of Pancakes in Act Two. Or so it seems. Heart Break Tonight could be the subtitle of Act One when Angie, the blues star at the House of Pancakes, finds herself deserted by Toad Mouth Smith when he takes his band, The Bottom Feeders, on a six-week tour. Miss Angie is immediately attracted to Tristian Waterford, a young singer auditioning for the House of Pancakes cabaret revue. LaWanda DuPree, a Seattle drag personage, seems to be Marie Leveau, owner of the Pancake house. Which may be in Louisiana or may not. She orders the nervous Mr. Waterford, well sung by Nick DeSantis, no Judy Garland, no Bette Midler, no Barbra Streisand, and he has little left in his music book. At the end of the actwith some terrific numbers like You Took Advantage Of Me, Body & Soul, It Dont Mean A Thing (If It Aint Got That Swing)Miss Angie is surprised and heartbroken when Tristian mentions my boyfriend Artie. And, or so it seems, the show returns in Act Two as Miss Angies Blues! Act Two finds the unhired Tristian gone. Clotine Garnier, a righteous church lady drag queen (who sounds amazingly like Nick DeSantis), joins Miz LaWanda to cheer up Miss Angie. Steam Heat, You Always Hurt The One You Love, Pet Me, Poppa, Sisters and Miss Celies Blues (better known as Sister from The Color Of Purple) and a number of jazz and blues classics highlight Act Two. If the past is any indication, Miss Angies Blues! will get better with each performance. The convoluted plot with far too many rambling diversions will get streamlined, and the performances will tighten. As it is, Miss Angies Blues! is a thumping good time for most of the Oak Rooms patrons seeking a fun night of comedy and great music. (Greg Thompson, a local producer, and his wife, Sunny, were in the opening night crowd, obviously checking out Seattle talent. Thompson produces a number of Las Vegas and Reno revuesboth naughty and niceand is often called The King Of Cruise Ship revues. Their upcoming Sunny Sings Sinatra opens June 30 at Crepe de Paris Cabaret At the Crepe series and runs through the summer.) Reservations and ticket details on all of Thumpers diverse cabaret offerings are available at (206) 328-3800. Be sure to plan ahead and make reservations, especially for Gay Pride Weekend events. And, of course, tell em Bits & Bytes sent ya. QUEERS ON STEERS PLANNED FOR PRIDE The most intriguing ad for Seattles various Gay Pride events is a new one for Queers On Steers scheduled for Sunday, June 26, from 7:00 p.m. Until We Drop. The catch phrase invites patrons to Throw One Leg Over & Squeeze With Your Knees and uses the logo On Pride We Ride. The clever marketing is for Cowgirls, Inc., An American Saloon in Pioneer Square that draws a diverse crowdfeminists, Lesbians, various members of the GLBT community, straights and the Emerald Citys celebrated diverse population. Sounds like funcheck it out at queers@queersonsteers.com. Bits & Bytes cant wait. PNBS SILVER LINING ENDS A 28-YEAR ERA Pacific Northwest Ballets just-closed Silver Lining, a revival of Kent Stowells colorful salute to American musical theater and the music of Jerome Kern, was an audience-pleasing grab bag of musical numbers that spotlighted the full PNB company. While dance purists will find many quibbles about ensemble performances, the smaller individual numbers were constantly first rate. Valerie Piacenti, a delightful soprano, and Erich Parce, a strong-voiced baritone, added a unique dimension to the evening with vocal performances of many of Kerns best known works. The full PNB troupe joined in on the chorus of select numbersincluding the ballets title work, So always look for the silver lining/And try to find the sunny side of life. PNB sure found the sunny side of life with this elaborate offering. Stowells Silver Lining certainly delighted PNBs loyal subscription audience and single ticket buyers. With tickets starting at just $20, it was a fun outing and the perfect ending of an era. Check PNBs 2005-06 season, the first under new artistic director Peter Boalprogram and ticket information (and a free full-color brochure) at (206) 441-2424. SUNDAYS TRIBUTE HONORS STOWELL/RUSSELLS 28 YEARS Last Sunday nights A Tribute to Kent Stowell & Francia Russell, a once-in-a-lifetime gala at McCaw Hall, found a number of surprises on stage. The full dance company, many students from PNBs ballet schools, the Board of Directors, loyal subscribers and local dance fans joined to bid a fond farewell to the husband-and-wife team that has directed PNB for the past 28 years. The gala event included a champagne-&-chocolates toast to the Stowells and highlights from the many works the two have created or staged during their historic tenure. With few exceptions, the whole program was mounted with great secrecy to make sure the stage events came as a real surprise to the retiring pair. Their son, Christopher Stowell, a former San Francisco Ballet dancer and now the artistic director of Oregon Ballet Theatre, mounted a delightful Piece dOccasion, a dance collage of costumes and sequences from ballets that highlighted his fathers choreographic work at PNB. A formal Grand Defile, a stately progression and presentation, ended the memorable evening. The evening was an emotionally charged highlight for local dance fans. It will stay in the memory for years to come. BENEFIT CABARET RAISES JOHN & JEN STAGING COSTS Three local production companies are joining together for a July 7-16 production of off-Broadways John & Jen, a chamber musical by Andrew (off-Broadways The Wild Party) Lippa and Tom Greenwald. The Seattle premiere will feature Ann Evans and Brian Earp, local performers with strong musical theater credits. A Benefit Cabaret at Thumpers this past Monday and Tuesday found the Oak Room packedas in packedwith friends and fans who donated performances, flowers for the dining room tables organizational skills and a lot of love. Evans and Earp offered 10 songs from the off-Broadway cult musicalmost of Act One when John, from age five, and Jen, 13, bond as brother and sister, face emotional family problems and develop into adults. Act Two features Jen and her son, the child named after her brother. The July 7-16 staging at Theatre Schmeater should be a musical and theatrical highlight of the summerwatch Bits & Bytes for full production details. The Monday and Tuesday cabaret benefit found many of Seattles top musical performers taking the stage at Thumpers Oak Room. Some dashed in and sang their hearts out, other stayed the whole evening and roared with applause as their friends and colleagues took the spotlight. The whole evening was one musical highlight after anotherfamiliar tunes alternating with the intriguing preview of the little-known John & Jen. To mention just a few: Marlette Buchanan and Porgy & Bess Summertime; Katie Tomlinsons Popular, the comic showstopper from Wicked; Jessica Skerritts If You Got It, Flaunt It from Mel Brooks The Producers; Skerritt and Brian Earps Suddenly Seymour from Little Shop Of Horrors. It was a terrific evening of terrific talent. A live auction at intermission raised additional funds. One woman paid $100 for four $15 ticket to John & Jens opening nightit was that kind of a crowd. GAY LA CAGE WINS A TONY& CLOSES The spirited revival of the Gay-themed La Cage Aux Folles just won Tony Awards for Best Musical Revival and best choreography and promptly posted closing notices. The splashy remounting of the classic hit that turned its big musical number (I Am What I Am) into the 1980s Gay anthem, opened last December (and was reviewed here in SGN by Bits & Bytes) to mixed reviews and has struggled through the spring. Robert Goulet recently joined the cast as the straight part of the Gay couple. Goulet and Gary Beach, Tony nominated for his role as Alban and Zaza, the drag queen at La Cage, stay with the show until June 26 when it closes after 229 performances and 30 previews. A tour is still a possibilityGoulet has made it clear he would be willing to take the show on a national tour. PRINCESSES SPOTLIGHT PREVIEW SCORES AT 5TH The 5th Avenue Theatres Spotlight Night on Princesses, the upcoming, Broadway-bound world premiere of the musical adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnetts Victorian classic, The Little Princess, drew a huge crowd to the 5th Avenue Theatre for a three-part program on the creation of the new musical. Three seasons ago, the 5th launched Hairspray which had its world premiere in Seattle before taking New York by storm. Last year, Intiman Theatre hosted the world premiere of The Light In The Piazza, the charming chamber musical which just won six major Tony Awards in last Sundays Tony Awards ceremony. Seattles healthy theater community hopes that Princesses will be the next direct from Seattle Broadway hit. And, to continue the new tradition, the world premiere of the musical version of The Wedding Singer is part of the 5th Avenues 2005-06 season. David Armstrong, the 5ths producing artistic director, hosted the well-attended Tuesday night program, one of the best in the Spotlight series. Several of Seattles strongest musical theater performersincluding Bits & Bytes favorites Lisa Estridge and Bobbi Kotulaperformed numbers from past shows by the Princesses creators. The new adaptation of the classic novel uses an updated story framea contemporary group of spoiled boarding school girls are forced to stage a musical version of the now-quaint Victorian novel and discover a lot about themselves through the experience. As the poster reads: High School. High Drama. The 5ths production of Princesses runs August 9-28 as the final show in the theaters 2004-05 season. It was rescheduled from earlier dates so that the headed to Broadway staging can move quickly from Seattle to The Big Apple with its cast intact. Ticket information at (206) 292-ARTS.