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| Drowsy Chaperone, PNB New Works, UW's Il Mondo della Luna | |
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by Milton W. Hamlin -
SGN A&E Writer It's another great week for Emerald City entertainment fans. It's the final weekend for the delightful The Drowsy Chaperone at the 5th (SGN liked it so much it's reviewing it twice), PNB offers the final performance of its very modern, very challenging New Works mixed rep program while gearing up for the annual return of the Nutcracker, and the UW School of Music offers a rare performance of Haydn's Il Mondo della Luna. What a week - Bits&Bytes can hardly wait. Read on: PNB CHALLENGES WITH NEW 4 NEW WORKS REPERTORY PROGRAM Pacific Northwest Ballet continues its two-week performances of its new mixed repertory program, New Works, with final performances this weekend, ending with Sunday's 1 p.m. matinee. Mark Morris' 2001 A Garden, originally staged by the prestigious San Francisco Ballet, made its Seattle debut to open the mixed rep program on opening night. Morris, an openly Gay native of Seattle, grew up in Renton and studied dance with various folk dance groups in the Emerald City as a teenager. Once the "bad boy" of modern ballet, he is now an internationally-respected choreographer with his own dance company and dozens of commissions from major European and American ballet companies. A Garden is a thoroughly pleasant outing with Morris in a subdued mood. Six couples wind through the lyrical, untypical Baroque-sounding music by Richard Strauss. It's a visual delight, an abstract ballet that challenges its dancers and charms its audience. Expect an encore staging next year or the next. Conductor Allan Dameron and the PNB orchestra played beautifully, and the PNB dancers danced, well, beautifully. It's a PNB premiere and a welcome addition to the repertory. PNB dancer Kiyon Gaines choreographed M-Pulse, one of two world-premieres on the program. On first viewing, it was attention-getting, if highly derivative. The first section reminded this scribe of Martin Denny's Exotica talent show stagings of the 1950s, but the second sequence seemed highly original. The cheering, stomping crowd gave it an enthusiastic reception. The costuming by Mark Zappone added luster to the work. The men wore square-cropped copper tank tops over black jeans and the women were exotically costumed in peacock green/blue short mermaid-tailed costumes. The work was clearly an audience favorite. It was danced to a newly commissioned score by Cristian Spineit. Benjamin Millepied, in another world-premiere, offered the most intriguing new work, 3 Movements, danced to music by Steve Reich. Very modern, very West Side Story feeling, the gritty work was another audience-pleaser. Conductor Stewart Kershaw took the podium for the two world premieres, and the PNB orchestra, as usual, outdid itself. One Flat Thing, Reproduced, the "table dance"" from last year, ended the opening night program. One of the most controversial works PNB has ever staged, the William Forsythe work delighted its fans from last season and infuriated its detractors. Many subscribers slipped out at the second intermission, "dreading," as one friend noted, seeing it again. Others stayed to cheer. On the second night of the mixed rep program, One Flat Thing opened the show - a brave staging decision by PNB. Ticket information and reservations are available at (206) 441-2424. PNB raised its least expensive tickets from $20 to $25, understandable. Bits&Bytes used to hawk the mixed rep program, at $20 for balcony or side seating, as "five bucks a ballet." At $25, it's hard to be alliterative with "$6.25 a ballet." Oh, well, time, and alliteration, changes. Check it out. Ask about student/senior rates, "rush" prices, etc. PNB's beloved Nutcracker opens the Friday night after Thanksgiving to officially open the Christmas holiday season in Seattle. Same phone number. Plan ahead. UW SCHOOL OF MUSIC STAGES RARE HAYDN IL MONDO DELLA LUNA Emerald City music fans often turn to the University of Washington's School of Music opera stagings for rarities that could never draw huge crowds to McHall for Seattle Opera subscribers. Haydn's rare, rare Il Mondo della Luna (roughly The World in the Moon) continues performances tonight and Sunday at Meany Theatre with final stagings through Sunday's 3 p.m. matinee, one of the favorite times for UW opera fans. Parking at Meany Theatre is free on Sundays, and many people like to get home before it gets dark. The show, "science fiction before there was science fiction," is a "farcical, tangled tale of love and deceit." Ticket details and reservations at (206) 543-4880. Check it out. DROWSY CHAPERONE CHARMS & DELIGHTS AT 5TH AVENUE THEATRE One of Broadway's most creative musicals in decades, the 2006 Tony Award-winner for Best Musical, The Drowsy Chaperone stopped in Seattle on its first national tour and charmed the pants off musical theater fans. It continues its toe-tapping happiness through November 16. It's a "must" for musical comedy fans. The charming tribute of Broadway musicals of yesteryear is really, as the show bills itself, "a musical within a comedy." Written first as a 20-minute "wedding gift" for a Toronto bride and groom (her real name is still used in the show), the little musical that could expanded for a Canadian run, moved to regional theaters in the U.S., got more material, more production numbers and ended up on Broadway as the rare "original musical" and won five major Tony Awards. Quite a feat for a wedding skit. Our leading man, the Man in the Chair, welcomes us to his dreary apartment and his dreary life. His only happiness is playing one of his rare Broadway cast recordings, this one of the all-but-forgotten 1928 musical, The Drowsy Chaperone. It's a two-disc set, a 1950s LP reissue of the original 1928 recording on 78s. As he tells the story, the 1928 production comes to life in his drab apartment. Clever, clever staging - people walk out of the refrigerator at one point - and clever set and costume designs keep this brisk, just-under-two-hour musical zip along. Now single, the Man in the Chair talks about his life and marriage, which ended "when your only copy of Gypsy comes sailing across the room and crashes into bits." He clearly lives for Broadway - and to many in the audience, he is clearly a Gay man, a stereotypical "Broadway Show Queen," who knows his place in life. He craves The Music Man because "I once had a great yearning for the young Ronnie Howard." He adores the leading man in Chaperone and gets (tastefully) sexually aroused after one love song. When an aviatrix, a minor character, appears (she literally flies in), he confides, "aviatrix & it's what we now call a Lesbian." The show is chock-full of wonderful musical spoofs - send-ups like the life-affirming anthem, "As We Stumble Along," novelty numbers like the bridegroom, blindfolded and on roller skates, singing "I'm an Accident Waiting to Happen." Bits&Bytes saw this touring company in Houston last May (and reported on it for SGN). The cast remains as fresh and spontaneous as the original Broadway production. Jen Taylor Farrell, the understudy for the leading lady, went on one Tuesday night, election night, when an intimate crowd obviously loved the show. Farrell seemed tentative in many dance numbers, especially her "Show Off" spotlight, but she gave it her all. The whole cast does terrific work. Georgia Engel, of TV's Mary Tyler Moore fame, repeats her Broadway role as the ditzy Mrs. Tottendale. To many subscribers at the 5th, she is the headliner. In Seattle, and in Houston, she was the only cast members with fans lined up for autographs at the stage door after the performance. The Drowsy Chaperone is a musical delight from start to finish. The ending, when Engel steps forward for a ukulele solo for the Man in the Chair, is a touching finale to an enchanting night. Highest recommendation. Ticket information is available at (206) 625-1900 - or (888) 5TH-4TIX for out-of-area stage fans. Remember that tickets purchased in person at the 5th Avenue's box office have no added service fees. The "word on the street" (the only word that Bits&Bytes believes) is that the 5th is offering various discounts - ask at the box office, check your e-mail, or call a subscriber friend. |
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