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April 14, 2006
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Bits & Bytes

PNB opens lavish Sleeping Beauty, SSO finishes Shostakovich Festival, Taproot's Prairie, Plowman at ACT
by Milton W. Hamlin - SGN A&E Writer It's another great week for Emerald City entertainment fans-and, as usual, for Bits&Bytes. On with the run down: PNB'S SLEEPING BEAUTY OFFERS LAVISH BALLET Pacific Northwest Ballet brings lavish spectacle-and five rotating casts-to McCaw Hall with the April return of Ronald Hynd's beloved The Sleeping Beauty. Hynd uses the immortal music of Tchaikovsky for his updating of the 116-year old ballet. It was a smash in its American premiere at PNB in 2001 and equally as successful in its 2003 PNB encore. The spectacular production opened last night and continues this weekend and next through April 23. Weekend matinees, Saturday and Sunday, are especially popular with student, family and senior audiences packing McCaw Hall. It's always great fun to see the hundreds and hundreds of young ballet students-the thin, thin school age girls in their tight buns and the young boys in their&eagerness. Seattle-area dance nuts-and you know who you are-are wild about the prospects of five rotating repertory casts of leading dancers. With tickets starting at just $20, many Emerald City dance aficionados are planning on attending multiple performances to see established PNB stars and up-and-coming young dancers. Ticket information at 441-2424. Bits&Bytes will review the production in detail next week, but ballet buffs should call now for the best tickets. Tell 'em SGN sent ya. SYMPHONY ENDS SHOSTAKOVICH FEST, MADE IN AMERICA OPENS IN MAY The Seattle Symphony Orchestra continues its celebration of the 100th birthday of Dmitry Shostakovich with its on-going Shostakovich Festival, continuing through April 15. By all accounts, last Saturday's keynote panel-featuring a trio of Shostakovich experts in SSO's Round Table program-was a highlight of the festival. Conductor (and world famous cello soloist) Mstislav Rostropovich joined an acclaimed biographer and a celebrated musicologist for the "terrific" discussion in the Benaroya Hall Grand Lobby. SSO's final Festival concert tomorrow, April 15, features violin soloist Julian Rachlin in a performance of Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 Shostakovich's Symphony No. 8 in C Minor and a short work by Sibelius complete the program. Ticket information at 215-4747. SSO barely finishes the encompassing Shostakovich salute before it launches it next major Festival-the May 6-20 Made In America-A Celebration of American Music. What a terrific year for SSO-and for Emerald City music fans. "EXPLOSIVE DRAMA" OPENS ACT SEASON Martin McDonagh's "explosive drama," The Pillowman, continues at ACT Theatre with performances through this Sunday, April 16. One of the "most electrifying and talked about plays of the last decade," as director Kurt Beattie terms it, Pillowman is billed as "a postmodern Gothic whodunit" with grim, grim plot elements. The award-winning modern Irish play was a smash in New York and London and has caused a sensation in Seattle-with many walkouts early in the run while many "loved it" reactions. McDonagh's earlier The Beauty Queen Of Leenane and A Skull In Connemara were hits in earlier Emerald City productions-at The Rep and ACT, respectively-and Pillowman is attracting the same crowds. Bits&Bytes finally caught up with the sizzling production last weekend, and it certainly is a terrific start to ACT's 2006 season. It is also a vivid reminder of ACT's original mission statement when it was founded as A Contemporary Theatre-with a stress on Contemporary. The riveting production-with outstanding performances by the entire cast-ends this Sunday. Fans of contemporary theater should not miss the fine, fine production. The much-discussed walkouts-common at many subscription theaters when cutting-edge dramas are staged-seemed to have ended before this scribe saw the show last weekend. Season subscribers evidentially learned a lot about the show before attending, and single ticket buyers clearly embraced the mounting. Ticket information is available at 292-7676-be sure to ask for a free season's brochure. ACT's season continues with Christopher Durang's provocative Miss Witherspoon opening April 28 with low-cost previews and running through May 28. REACT ENDS POIGNANT >TO GILLIAN ON HER 37TH ReAct Theatre, one of Seattle best small theaters, ended its accomplished staging of To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday with final performances last weekend at Richard Hugo House on Capitol Hill. David Hsieh, the company's artistic director, staged the poignant, compelling family comedy/drama for Seattle's only "multi-ethnic and Philanthropic Theatre Company" which celebrates cultural diversity (a big topic at SGN) with every offering and openly appeals to Seattle's diverse-and supportive-GLBT theater-goers. Upcoming events for ReAct include the Gay-themed The Last Sunday In June, running June 9-July 2, and the Gay-themed Six Degrees Of Separation, July 6-30. Upcoming fundraisers for the financially battered company include Poker! Poker! Poker! April 22 and The Hula Bowl-O-Rama, May 21. (Bits&Bytes just loves the theater's titles for its fundraisers&.) Ticket details for all ReAct events are available at 364-3283. TAPROOT REVIVES THE VOICE OF THE PRAIRIE FOR 30TH ANNIVERSARY Taproot Theatre, "the little theater that could," continues celebrating its 30th anniversary season of revivals with John Olive's charming, nostalgic The Voice Of The Prairie. The play's original Taproot production in 1994 remains one of Bits&Bytes' favorite shows of the past decades. The new staging, directed by Scott Nolte-Taproot's founder, artistic director and all-around good guy-uses just three actors for the play's 15 characters (if Bits&Bytes could spell tour de force, he would use that fancy-pants term for this demanding casting). Prairie continues through April 22-that's just next weekend-with evening and Saturday matinees (one of the most popular performances with Taproot's loyal subscribers). As part of Taproot's 30th anniversary celebration, free birthday cake will be served following at performances. Theater patrons with a birthday between now and April 22 will receive a free ticket with the purchase of a second, full-priced ticket only at the box office. Wow! Free cake and a free ticket-such a deal. Ticket information at 781-9707. 5th HOSTS FREE SPOTLIGHT SUNDAY Seattle 5th Avenue Musical Theatre ended its happy staging of Wonderful Town-would it be redundant to note that this Wonderful Town was truly wonderful?-with final performances last weekend. The Sunday matinee crowd barely had time to clear the theater before the 5th opened the doors for its free Spotlight Night on its upcoming production of Stephen Schwartz's magical Pippin, a rarely revived Tony Award-winning Best Musical from 1972. "We've Got Magic To Do&: sings the chorus in the opening tune-and the 5th has a demanding, magical show cut out for its loyal subscribers. Schwartz captivated the theater savvy crowd. He performed several of his own songs-and provided his own piano accompaniment. The 5th Avenue's Pippin cast and 5th regulars performed songs from Pippin and his Oscar winning songs from Disney films and his current Broadway sell-out smash, Wicked- It was a terrific evening. In New York, such a program could cost $45 or $50-on one of the Evening With& series-but in Seattle it was free at the 5th. Ticket details on the upcoming Pippin performances-starting May 2 and continuing through May 21-and on future Spotlight Night are available at 625-1900. The long running Broadway favorite, Les Miserables, returns for a final tour stop with a May 24-June 4 run at the 5th. As usual, it should be a sold out run-plan ahead.


Christophe


Sleeping Beauty


Prince


Stanko