There is no way for me to write my review of the 5th Avenue Theatre’s production of Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn without sounding racist. Incidentally, when people use the qualifying phrase “sounding racist” they are usually just being racist. Here is the big problem. The 5th Avenue Theatre’s current, not racist version of Holiday Inn […]
Sometimes you don’t know how soul worn weary you are, until you stumble upon a momentary resting place. And sometimes you don’t realize how much you need music, art and beauty until your eyes are tearing up in a darkened 5th Avenue Theatre watching the opening night production of Ragtime The Musical. America’s current, or […]
The touring production of the Broadway musical comedy farce Something Rotten opened last night at The 5th Avenue Theatre to uproarious laughter and applause from an audience that was well suited for the show’s greatest strengths. Something Rotten is a somewhat satirical, but mostly ridiculous, silly send-up of the American musical theater genre. It is […]
After watching The 5th Avenue Theatre’s opening night production of The Secret Garden I was reminded of my recent trip to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. While visiting the tulip festival I was at first overwhelmed by the acres of vibrantly colored tulips in full bloom. From a distance, the rows of flowers looked as […]
Don’t let the rather mundane and boring title fool you, Murder for Two is an innovative, consistently creative, hilarious musical comedy farce. This 5th Avenue Theatre/ACT–A Contemporary Theatre co-production is the Pacific Northwest premiere of what happens when just two gifted actors and one well-tuned grand piano embody the interrogation of a room full of […]
Yesterday, Lin-Manuel Miranda once again introduced something thoroughly unique to the world. The full Hamilton Mixtape finally dropped last night and like pretty much everything else Lin-Manuel touches, this Hamilton Musical inspired multiple song release exists in a world all its own. Miranda has done more than gather big named musicians to croon covers from […]
When I first heard The 5th Avenue Theatre was mounting a production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, I prepared myself to write a somewhat cynical and sarcastic review lamenting the Disneyfication of musical theater. However, after watching The Little Mermaid’s opening night preview, I am reluctantly unable to do much more than just praise the […]
I’m a big fan of Jim Gaffigan and a faithful viewer of The Jim Gaffigan Show. The show is in its second season on TV LAND during a time slot that is unbeknownst to this avid DVR aficionado. I think it airs sometime on Sundays following reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond while preceding reruns of […]
I must admit I was rather giddy to see the opening night of Jon Marans’ new book adaptation of Lerner and Loewe’s Paint Your Wagon at the 5th Avenue Theatre last night. Reading the production notes about Marans’ collaborative working process with director David Armstrong, music supervisor Ian Eisendrath and choreographer Josh Rhodes only added […]
A.J. Swoboda’s latest book, The Dusty Ones, has a title evocative of a Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western. However, the actual content of The Dusty Ones deals with a different kind of grit, namely the interrelationship between wandering and spiritual maturity. For anyone caught somewhere between Egypt and the Promised Land it is a worthy read. […]