Friday February 24, 2006 SGN.org |
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Volume 34 Issue 08 |
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Saturday, Nov 21, 2009
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Bits & Bytes |
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| Dirty Little Showtunes! scores at Thumper's, Que Sera, Sera opens at Cabaret de Paris, Sarah Rudinoff offers Last Year's Kisses | |
| Milton W. Hamlin - SGN A&E Writer
Broadway's Kander & Ebb wrote it in the 1960s and it's still true: "What good is sitting alone in your room, come hear the music play- Life is a cabaret, old chum, come to the cabaret." Seattle's cabaret scene is alive and well and packing in the crowds. Highlights include new shows on Crepe de Paris's cabaret series and show after show after show on Thumper's Cabaret On The Hill calendar. New York cabaret headliners-Eartha Kitt's last week's visit at Jazz Alley-and special events at various venues and bars keep the Emerald City's cabaret scene healthy and prosperous. What a city, what a scene& DIRTY LITTLE SHOWTUNES! ENCORES AT THUMPER'S Tom Orr's Dirty Little Showtunes! Unplugged opened to a cheering capacity crowd at Thumper's last weekend. The new staging, by Seattle's Gaydar productions, revisits the Broadway-styled revue spoof with a few updates and a couple of new numbers by the talented Orr. When Showtunes! opened nearly a decade ago, it was an immediate sensation and encored again and again at ReBar and other venues. The new staging does nothing to erase the vivid memories of the original but it is a fun night of broad, broad Gay satire. The format, lifted from New York's Forbidden Broadway, is simple: take a well known song from a Broadway musical and write and sing satirical lyrics. Orr added the All Gay twist that made Dirty Little Showtunes! a local legend. The show has also played well in other cities, but the Seattle mounting was the strongest, Orr has often said. So, My Fair Lady's "Show Me" becomes "Show Queens," the stereotypical Gay men who collect and memorize Broadway Cast albums-witness the famous dialog in Love! Valour! Compassion! when the "show queen" character launches into a screaming match challenging one man who confuses "Broadway Cast" albums and "Movie Soundtracks." Guys And Dolls' "Fugue For Tinhorns" ("I've Got The Horse Right Here") becomes "I've Got The Porn Right Here." Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" turns into "Daddies Are A Boy's Best Friend." And so it goes-one clever twisted lyric after the other. It's a fun, fun show that's delightfully entertaining. It's good to have Showtunes! back in town. The witty revue continues Sunday nights through April 2. Reservations are a must-as in must. Details at 328-3800. 'YOLY' TOLENTINO SALUTES DORIS DAY AT CREPE DE PARIS Yolanda Tolentino, a Broadway actress and cabaret singer, brings her award-winning salute to Doris Day to the Cabaret At The Crepe series at Crepe de Paris. "Que Sera Sera"-A Tribute To Doris Day runs only two weeks at the Crepe, continuing tonight and tomorrow and March 2-3. (It is alternating with Please Pardon My Mush, the George and Ira Gershwin salute which is taking a brief vacation before returning weekends March 10-25.) Tolentino, affectionately known as "Yoly," won raves as Lady ("Something Wonderful") Thiang in the Tony Award-winning revival of The King And I several seasons past. She is also the winner of the Best Female Vocalist competition in the San Francisco Bay Area Cabaret Competition. She has sung in major cabarets in Los Angeles and San Francisco and appeared in opera (the title role in Madama Butterfly). She sings pop, jazz, gospel and R&B. The Filipino-American singer is the youngest of 10 children. Seattle's supportive Filipino community should be out in full force for this historical combination of Doris Day songs from a Filipino singer-talk about cultural diversity. Her two weeks at Crepe de Paris should be a musical highlight of the spring. Reservations and complete information at 623-4111. SARAH RUDINOFF SCORES WITH LAST YEAR'S KISSES Sarah Rudinoff's Last Year's Kisses continues Friday and Saturday nights through March 4 at the Theatre Off Jackson in the International District. The actress/singer/vocal stylist covers a broad, broad spectrum of music styles with her one-woman revue (with a four piece all female band). Younger members of the intimate Saturday night audience seemed to love the rock songs. Bits&Bytes, a self-proclaimed old fogey, loved the Broadway outing with "You Can't Get A Man With A Fun," the Irving Berlin classic from Annie Get Your Gun. As the boisterous Rudinoff-soon to star in the 5th Avenue's Wonderful Town-ended the song with "Oh, you can't shoot a male in the tail like a quail&" one audience member shouted out, "Unless you're Dick Cheney." The audience went wild. Last Year's Kisses continues through March 4. Tickets at 325-6500. WHEREVER WE GO PLAYS WEDNESDAYS AT THUMPER'S Add another show on Thumper's Cabaret On The Hill calendar. The production team known as "3 Girls, 2 Guys And A Cabaret!" opens Together Wherever We Go for a Wednesday night only run March 15-April 5. The cleverly titled revue (the Sondheim lyric comes from Gypsy!) features-well, there is truth in advertising-three girls and two guys in a cabaret. Details at 328-3800. >LADY SINGS THE BREWS MOVES TO THUMPER'S Sylvia O'Stayformore-a local drag entertainer with several hit Thumper's cabarets in her past-moves her recent hit revue, Lady Sings The Brews-"A Musical About One Girl's Journey To Coffee And Back!"-to Thumper's Cabaret On The Hill series for an encore run. The hit show plays Friday and Saturday nights, March 3-25. Tickets at 328-3800. UW SCHOOL OF MUSIC POSTS BUSY CALENDAR- MANY FREE OR CHEAP There's always something on the local performance scene happening at the University of Washington's School of Music. All of the events are low cost, usually $10 or under, and many are free. Upcoming concerts of note: o Focus On French Music-a voice division recital-on Monday, Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. features French art songs by Faure, Debussy and others. The program is free. o Also on Monday, The UW Modern Jazz Contingent, with special guests The Jim Knapp Orchestra, performs at Meany Theatre. Tickets are $10. o Marimba soloists, a guest conductor, music from a father/son composition duo and the world premiere of "My Broken Music Box" highlight Percussion Ensemble's Meany Vibes next Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 7:30 p.m. at Meany Theater. Tickets: $10. o The UW Harp Ensemble performs solos, duos, harp ensembles and chamber music for harp and flute and harp and violin on the Thursday, March 2, concert at 7:30 p.m. in Kane Hall. Tickets: $10. o Next Friday, March 3, the School of Music hosts its winter composer's workshop. Three young composers are featured with works for solo piano and electronics, music for solo clarinet and an intriguing work, "Kolmetoista," written for tape-all rhythms come from a master palindrome. The 7:30 p.m. concert is at Brechemin Auditorium on campus. Tickets: $5. o Women's Vocal Jazz and Vocal Jazz 1, two performance groups, take the spotlight on Saturday, March 4, at 7:30 at Brechemin Auditorium. Dave Cross directs the program that includes "Almost Like Being In Love," "The Lonesome Road," "Smack Dab In The Middle," "In A Sentimental Mood" and other vocal choices. Tickets: $5. o One of the UW's "big" music events is the Tuesday, March 7, program, Continental Divide, a concert featuring the UW Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, Campus Band and Concert Band. At Meany Theatre, tickets: $10. o Operatic works by Mozart, Donizetti, Massenet and Menotti highlight the Wednesday, March 8, Opera Workshop at 7:30 p.m. at Meany. Tickets: $5. o Mozart's Great Mass In C Minor, another of the UW's "big" events, is offered March 9 and 10 at Meany Theater. Geoffrey Boers conducts the UW Symphony plus the combined voices of the UW's Chamber Singers, University Singers and the University Chorale. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. concert: $10. o A variety of small ensembles perform work by Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Schumann and others for the Student Chamber Ensembles on Friday, March 10, in Brechemin Auditorium. Tickets: $5. Tickets for most School Of Music events are available at 685-8384. Tickets for the Meany Theater are available at 543-4880. KITSAP CULTURAL SCENE OFFERS VARIED EVENTS- WHO KNEW? Like many Seattle-based arts fans, it always comes as a surprise that other-often near-by-cities and towns have busy cultural calendars. A chance encounter with What's Up: This Week On Kitsap's Cultural Scene gave Bits&Bytes a what's-hot-and-what's-not peek at varied events on the Kitsap Peninsula. The Peninsula Dance Theatre offers its annual Choreography Showcase tomorrow and Sunday in Bremerton. The event features "dozens of dancers" performing original works of ballet, modern and jazz dance created and directed by eight choreographers. Tickets, $15, with student and senior discounts, are available at the door. The group performs at the Bremerton High School Performing Arts Center. Saturday's performance is at 8 p.m. with a Sunday matinee at 3 p.m. Stage events in the Kitsap area include: o Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None continues through Sunday at the Bremerton Community Theatre. Information, toll free, at (800) 863-1706. o The Ride Down Mount Morgan runs weekends through March 4 at the Jewel Box Theatre in Poulsbo. Tickets at (360) 779-9688. o The Secret Garden plays weekends through March 5 at the CSTOCK Theatre at the Silverdale Community Center. Tickets at the Kitsap Mall information booth. o An original musical, Alkmena, continues through March 18 in a production by Changing Scene Theatre Northwest. Information and tickets are available at (360) 792-8601. o Living Voices of Seattle brings Through The Eyes Of A Friend, a program honoring the legacy of Anne Frank, to the Admiral Theatre in Bremerton for a one-night, March 1, event. The program of live theater and historic film footage is a popular staging-Bits&Bytes saw a San Francisco group do it several years back and it remains a haunting memory. The multimedia event is often staged by theater groups dedicated to keeping the history of the Holocaust alive. Ticket information at (360) 373-6743. o Frank Ferrante just ended Bainbridge Island and Bremerton performances of his award-winning An Evening With Groucho. The audience-pleasing solo show has toured extensively for two decades, recreating his Groucho Marx: A Life In Revue that played off-Broadway in New York in the mid-1980s. Ferrante, a 42-year old comedian and actor, has played other Northwest areas-Yakima last year, Tacoma before-but has never brought his show to Seattle. Let's hope some local theater group books him soon-it's time to hear "Lydia The Tattooed Lady" again and great quips like, "Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?" FEMINIST ALERT: EVE ENSLER'S GOOD BODY OPENS Eve Ensler startled theater fans with the frank title of her first major stage work: The Vagina Monologues. That ground-breaking documentary-styled solo show turned into a world wide phenomenon-with productions staged in almost every country on the planet. The off-Broadway production opened as a solo outing for Ensler but quickly turned into a celebrity event with three major actresses rotating the monologues. Various charity stagings used as many as 30 major performers. Ensler's follow up, The Good Body, did not meet with as much success-it opened on Broadway in a fairly intimate house but failed, as they say, "to find its audience." (The Good Body was offered as a staged "play in process" by the Seattle Rep on a famous evening when the electrical system at the Seattle Center went out. Ensler and the Rep valiantly struggled on with back-up power and lighting but no microphones-a major problem for the talented solo performer.) Ensler and The Good Body-which discusses women and their body types and men and their reaction to women's body types-return to Seattle this weekend for three performances at the Moore Theatre, tonight through Sunday. Details at 292-ARTS. (In the Who Knew? Category-see above-Ensler performed The Vagina Monologues at the Pantages Theatre in Tacoma last weekend. A charity fundraiser, the event had little Seattle-area publicity, which is a shame since many Emerald City stage fans would have loved to see Ensler in her groundbreaking work again. Her first Seattle visit with Vagina Monologues was at ACT Theatre and took Seattle's theater enthusiasts by complete surprise. When the show went on to wow New York and the rest of the world, Emerald City stage fans were not surprised.) Vagina is scheduled for performances at Bastyr University in Kenmore while Ensler is in the Northwest but without Ensler. Monologues performs tonight and tomorrow with a full cast of Bastyr staff and students. Details at 755-4136. |
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