Bits & Bytes

Wild West Comedy Show opens, PNB's new, stark Romeo & Juliet, Mame at 5th Avenue Theater

by Milton W. Hamlin - SGN A&E Writer As usual, it's another terrific week for Emerald City entertainment fans. Clubs and restaurants throughout the Seattle area are gearing up for next Thursday's Valentine's Day crowds, Pacific Northwest Ballet is basking in rapturous reviews for its stunning new production of Romeo & Juliet, Jazz Alley is literally vibrating with Chris Botti and his golden trumpet, the 5th Avenue Theatre is readying Mame, one of the last of the glorious old-fashioned musicals. Read on: WILD WEST COMEDY OPENS AT VARSITY - "30 DAYS, 30 NIGHTS" Hollywood comedy magnet, Vince Vaughn (Fred Claus, Wedding Crashers, Old School), hand picked four comedians from the "world famous" Comedy Store in Los Angeles and took them on a 30 days and 30 nights tour of America's heartland during the year and month that Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and much of the south. An intriguing documentary about the whirlwind 2005 tour - unprecedented in the modern entertainment world - finally reaches the screen this week as Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days and 30 Nights - Hollywood To The Heartland opens at the Varsity Theatre. While there's much to like about the film - and the four young men who anchor the tour (with guest artists in every concert) - the film is a curious mix that will have trouble finding its audience. The comedy sequences are among the most unfunny moments ever committed to film. The behind-the-scenes events - tour bus boredom, rowdy pranks, bad backstage behavior - have been done before (and done to death) and, sad to say, done better in other showbiz documentaries. The filmmaker's style - a guided map snakes across the screen to show each destination - is Film School 101. The film has no clear focus - but it does have much of offer. For SGN readers, one of most riveting sequences is when one young man talks about his older, Gay brother who died of AIDS. "He came out of the womb singing Broadway show tunes," the comedian quips as his parents join in the laughter. "We used to break into neighborhood homes - I did it to steal things, he did it to redecorate." The poignancy of the moment is a rare, honest, heartfelt moment in this uneven caravan of comedy. Another great, fleeting moment of honesty comes when one comedian takes center stage and is regaling the crowd with tales of oral sex with his girlfriend. He stops for a moment in his hometown visit and quips, "I'm telling blowjob jokes, and my mom's in the balcony." (Trivia fans will remember the early Bette Midler version of a similar situation: "It's my mother's worst nightmare - I'm stage center telling fart jokes!") The film includes an accidental tour of historic theater architecture - many of the gilded palaces of yesteryear host the comedy tour and the camera lovingly captures the architectural details of the legendary buildings. The documentary opens today at a number of suburban multiplexes and at the Varsity Theatre in the University district. Recorded show times for the Varsity screenings are available at 781-5755. PNB SCORES WITH NEW ROMEO & JULIET, PREMIERE ENDS SUNDAY Pacific Northwest Ballet is celebrating the rapturous reviews its new production of Romeo & Juliet received last week. Officially Romeo et Juliette, the glorious new work by French choreographer (and genius, it would seem) Jean-Christophe Maillot plays its final performances tonight through Sunday. The new R&J stands in stark contrast to the beloved 20-year-old production in PNB's repertoire, a lavish affair dripping with Renaissance flavor. The new Romeo et Juliette strips the story to its basics, omits many characters from the Shakespeare classic, elevates supporting characters to major status, substitutes physical violence for swordplay - and works beautifully. Bits&Bytes eagerly returns to the captivating new work at the special added matinee tomorrow - "by popular demand." Details next week. Tickets start at just $20 for the production. Check it out. Production and ticket information at 441-2424. MUSICAL MAME OPENS AT 5th AVENUE, THE '20S ROAR AGAIN The Tony-winning Best Musical, Mame, Jerry Herman's classic retelling of Patrick Dennis' immortal Auntie Mame, opens at the 5th Avenue Theatre with previews tomorrow with a gala opening night next Thursday, February 14 - Valentine's Day. The 5th Avenue's free Spotlight Night on Mame last month previewed the cast and the show, provided an insightful history of the works of Jerry Herman, shed new light on the openly Gay author and contained some poignant moments for GLBT patrons. The openly Gay - and very campy - novelist, Patrick Dennis, who identified himself as the titular Uncle Mame in his autobiography, suffered failure after failure when he tried to get his original comic novel published. It was rejected by about a zillion publishers until he self-published a "vanity" edition. It dominated the best seller lists for nearly a year after a commercial publisher finally took a chance. "And the rest," as they say, "is history." The 5th Avenue bravely included the Gay life - and AIDS status - of the musical's composer. Jerry Herman, of Hello, Dolly! fame, had his second blockbuster hit with Mame. Openly, but discreetly Gay his whole career, Herman talks poignantly about his homosexuality in several magazine articles and in a recent PBS television interview which the 5th excerpted on its big screen. Herman never had a major relationship - "I was lucky to get a date!" - until late in his career. When he finally fell in love with a younger man it was the beginning of the AIDS era. When his lover fell ill and died of AIDS-related illness, Herman discovered that he, too, was HIV positive. "All the money in the world couldn't save him," Herman sighs sadly, "but new drugs keep me alive and healthy. It isn't fair, but it is life." There were few dry eyes in the house as the TV clip ended. Herman's third blockbuster was the Gay-themed La Cage Au Faux which gave the GLBT community its Broadway anthem, "I Am What I Am." Can a 5th Avenue revival be too many years away? Ticket information on Mame and the 5th's upcoming Cabaret is available at 625-1900. Ask for a free mailer with the 5th's 2008-09 just announced season. Go ahead and tell 'em Bits&Bytes sent ya. CULTURAL DIVERSITY RULES WITH UPCOMING GUNG HAGGIS FAT CHOY All of us at SGN and most of the GLBT community celebrate cultural diversity in all areas, but one of the strangest events has to be the upcoming Gung Haggis Fat Choy. The February 24 event at the Ocean City Restaurant in Seattle's International District (aka Chinatown) is a Scottish/Chinese celebration sponsored by The Caledonian & St. Andrew's Society of Seattle. It commemorates the Chinese New Year and birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns. The unlikely event started 10 years ago in Vancouver, B.C. by a Chinese Canadian man who noticed the unusual proximity of the two unrelated celebrations and decided, on a whim, to combine the two. The Canadian dinner now draws nearly 400 guests. The Seattle edition, now in its second year, expects a crowd between 200 to 250 - last year's inaugural event attracted 150. The Chinese Youth Orchestra and the Northwest Junior Pipe Band will entertain. Should be a blast. Information is available at 523-2618. CAPITAL PLAYHOUSE HOSTS SIX WOMEN WITH BRAIN DEATH This week's award for Kooky Title Of The Week, a periodic feature of Bits&Bytes, goes to the Capital Playhouse in Olympia for its current production of Six Women With Brain Death - Or Expiring Minds Want To Know. The musical continues performances through February 16. The hard working theater always offers productions well worth the trip to Olympia. The Sunday matinee is a great time for Seattle-area travelers. Ticket info at (360) 943-2744. SEATTLE OPERA GIVES NEW MEANING TO "PLAN AHEAD" Seattle Opera's recent mailing, Guardians Of The Gold - a plea for donations for the 2009 production of Wagner's The Ring cycle - gives a new concept to the "plan ahead" or "save the date" syndrome. The August 2009 Ring dates have been announced for a long time, but the new mailer notes the schedule for "Future Ring Cycles:" August, 2013, and August, 2017. Mark your calendars now. Only at Seattle Opera.