by Milton W. Hamlin

SGN A&E Writer

Seattle weather heads toward a record-breaking heat wave and many of the city’s major entertainment groups are breaking records of their own. Taproot Theatre revives Smoke On The Mountain for the third time and strikes gold again, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival offers its final four concerts at Lakeside School before moving to the Eastside for two additional weeks. The Seattle Gilbert&Sullivan Society scores with its clever, fast-paced Pirates Of Penzance, proving that Emerald City audiences can’t get enough of pirate treasure—stage and screen—this summer.

Two short-term musical events start this weekend and are “must sees” on Bits&Bytes’ busy entertainment schedule. Read on:

JEANETTE D’ARMAND’S

SUMMER BREAK OPENS

AT THUMPER’S CABARET

Jeanette d’Armand, one of Seattle’s finest musical and cabaret performers, teams with pianist Mark Rabe for two Saturday evenings of Summer Break, “sweltering songs likely to change your temperature.” The seasonal revue opens tomorrow, July 22, and plays only two performance. Next Saturday, July 29, ends the short run.

“It’s summer and we could all use a break,” d’Armand declares in her press release. A terrific talent, d’Armand has never disappointed this reviewer. Mark Summer Break on your calendar now. Reservations and information at 328-3800.

TAPROOT SCORES WITH

A JOYOUS MUSICAL—

SMOKE ON MOUNTAIN

Taproot Theatre continues its 30th anniversary season of “greatest hits” with its third revival of Smoke On The Mountain, one of many “little musicals that could” that did. Audiences across America obviously love the folksy humor, the cornball jokes and the authentic bluegrass country music that the fictional Sanders Family brings to North Carolina’s Mount Pleasant Baptist Church “on a hot summer night” in 1938. It’s the church’s first “Saturday Night Sing” and Pastor Oglethorpe is worried that the conservative congregation might not approve of secular music in the sanctuary—and he should be.

The show opened in 1988 and moved to New York in 1990 where it confounded “sophisticated” New York critics when it turned into a runaway hit—running 475 performances in the intimate Lamb’s Theatre in the Times Square area. Taproot first produced the musical in 1992 where it was a surprise hit and ran for 13 weeks. A 1996 revival, celebrating Taproot’s opening season at its new Greenwood home theater, was another hit with multiple extensions. (Taproot’s summer musicals and/or its summer mystery series usually meet with tremendous success and are often extended for weeks and weeks.)

The current revival is highlighted by strong performances from major cast members—as in Edd Key, who plays Burl Sanders, the family’s patriarch (Key also serves as the show’s musical director) and David Anthony Lewis, the black sheep family member who returns to the fold after a recent prison sentence. Key has played his on-stage acting and off-stage direction roles in all three Taproot stagings of Smoke.

The rest of the solid cast does fine supporting work in their center stage moments and in the all-important ensemble scenes. Aubrey Bean and Allen Cox are delightful as the gospel singing twins, and Loni Kappus has great fun as the daughter who specializes in sign language—with all the hammy overtones that all-too-often implies (fans of the Seattle Men’s  Chorus will get a kick out of the characterization and her late-in-the-show revelation about her skill).

Theresa Holmes’ underplayed Vera anchors the show—and the family—as the wife/mother. Perfect in “Vera’s shoes and baggy stockings,” Holmes’ on-stage Vera is a triumph of costuming and make-up—in her press photo Holmes is unrecognizable as the properly frumpy Vera. (Off-stage, Holmes and Key are a married couple—undoubtedly adding to the on-stage polished work of the two.)  Kevin Brady offers a broad but likeable Pastor Oglethorpe—his three-colored “Fred Astaire” spectator shoes reveal a wonderful vanity that supports his characterization. Throughout the show, Sarah Burch Gordon’s depression-era costumes help define the characters, often with a skilled tongue-in-cheek approach.

As  usual, director Scott Nolte, Taproot’s co-founder and its Producing Artistic Director, grounds the show in reality. The jokes may be corny, the characters may be stereotypes but the emotions are genuine and give the show a needed depth.

It should be noted that all of the cast members are strong musicians and singers. Smoke not only offers a life-affirming message, it also offers musical performances including banjo, Sousaphone, ukulele, guitar, mandolin, tambourine, cowbells, bass who who-knows-what-else.

Smoke On The Mountain continues through Aug. 12 (with its expected extension to be announced soon). Check with the box office at 781-9707 for performance details—be sure to ask about student/senior rates, “rush” tickets and other special pricing. Ask the friendly box office staff to add you to Taproot’s mailing list for future productions. And, ya, go ahead—tell ‘em Bits&Bytes sent ya.

SMOKIN’ HOT NIGHT

FOR SMOKE BENEFIT

Taproot offers a special fundraising event for the theater next Tuesday when A Smokin’ Hot Night At TTC combines a performance of the play, a “mouth-watering buffet” of Southern-style BBQ from OK Corral and a special post-performance show that includes an audience sing-a-long, a “Sanders Family Reunion” with cast members from past productions and  (my heart be still) The Beatles—Bluegrass Style. Only in Seattle—and only at Taproot.

At $40, the benefit is a real bargain. Most tickets for weekend performances are $30—and for $40 you get dinner, the show, other special events and the Bluegrass Beatles. Such a deal….

Tickets and information at 781-9707.

PIRATES OF PENZANCE

CAPTURE SEATTLE

TOPSY TURVY FANS

The current program for Gilbert&Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance says it all: “Attempts at a detailed, literal analysis of any Gilbert&Sullivan plot will only upset you and annoy your friends and others seated near you.” Enough said.

But let the record state that the 2006 staging of Pirates is another triumph for the hard-working theatrical troupe, the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society that has been delighting Emerald City audiences with giddy, topsy turvy productions of G&S classics since1954 (Bits&Bytes got in on the fun in 1959 and has never stopped).

Pirates Of The Caribbean may rule at the Hollywood box office, but Pirates Of Penzance rules at the Bagley Wright Theater (home of the Seattle Repertory Theatre) at the Seattle Center.

The fun continues through July 29 with various matinee and evening performances. Local theater fans should make note that this weekend is also Bite Of Seattle at the Center and the place will be packed—and parking a real pain.

The new production, smartly directed by Christine Goff with musical direction by Bernard Kwiram, features a cast of 40 with a 27-piece orchestra. Once again, Dave Ross takes the role of the “patter king,” here Major General Stanley, and, once again, Ross stops the show with his big number, “I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major General.” (Emerald City stage fans will remember Tom Orr’s Dirty Little Showtunes! Gay-themedsend-up, “I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Homosexual” which Nick Garrison’s delivery propelled into local theater history.)

Tickets for the show’s final two weeks are available at 341-9612. Ask about student/senior discounts.

NW FILM FORUM

HOSTS PREMIERE OF

KALEIDOSCOPE EYES

The mad genius of director/choreographer Busby Berkeley, the unquestioned genius of Seattle-based composer/lyricist/writer Chris Jeffries and the support of the Northwest Film Forum on Capitol Hill combine for the world premiere of Kaleidoscope Eyes: Songs For Busby Berkeley, “Unique” is not the right word for the unprecedented work, but it will have to do for now.

Jeffries, so the story goes, was watching some old Busby Berkeley depression-era fantasy musicals with the sound turned off and wondered what it would  be like to write new songs for the existing choreographed sequences. And so he did.

Jeffries and six of Seattle’s top vocalists will appear at Northwest Film Forum for weekend performances through July 30, Thursday through Sunday at 8 p.m. Sixteen film sequences will be screened with new songs for each routine. It could be/should be terrific. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds—the source of the show’s title—may not show up but Bits&Bytes certainly will. See you there. Ticket information at (800) 838-3006.