(OUTview NW) RE-view: After 32 years, 'Weird Al' is Still Ageless and Weird-ly Funny!

MKS

by MK Scott

It was 1984, when I first heard this singer/comedian hit the airwaves with parodies of hit songs from Madonna and Michael Jackson and while those music videos were comic gold, we thought he had disappeared from the spotlight until a few years ago with some you song, but it was eminent that "Weird Al' Yankovic has always been in pop culture and even the punchline in many TV shows and films as evidence on his Seattle stop on July 26th at Woodland Parks' Zoo Tunes.

The concert was family-friendly and started at 6:00 pm on a Tuesday night, and most probably had no idea of 'Weird Al's' iconic status.

(OUTview NW) RE-view: With Sound Theater's 'Judas', Everyone Sees the Light!

Satan Stuns Cunningham!              (Holmes)

by MK Scott

A few years back, I reviewed 2 plays back to back about famous people in the after life, and I would assume,  the Mountaintop (staged by Artswest) and Sleep, Marilyn and Dream (staged by SPT) were most likely inspired by Stephen Adly Guirgis' 2005 Play, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, currently staged by Sound Theater.

Judas (played by the incredible, Jose Abaoag, recently from WET's 99 Ways) is catatonic in Hell, while top Attorney, Cunningham (Played by the always FAB, Caitlyn Francis) is in a pugatory courtroom pleading ex-confederate soldier and judge (Keith Dahlgren) to plead Judas' right for an appeal of betraying Jesus. On the prosecution side, we have the very flamboyant Egyptian, Yusef (the super entertaining, Yusef Mahmoud, recently seen in Artswest's American Idiot) and finally as the trial begins, so do the incredible performances of several of the actors.

Remembering our Dearly Departed Pal, Doug Titus!

Reprinted From SGN

Doug was huge supporter of OUTview and was our Pride driver in '11 and '12.  More photos Below! 

(OUTview NW) INTER-view: Gershowitz's 'OZ ANEW', set for PRIDE Weekend Preview!

by MK Scott


This brand new production of America's favorite American Classic story is brought to you by a Award winning NYC Director and Writer, Michael Gershowitz and based on the original book of the Wonderful Wizard of oz, and the backstories of the character's that Dorothy and Toto are introduced to.

Oz is not a happy fairy tale, politics and intrigue are rampant as power struggles between opposing forces divides the land and its people. It is here that a young Orphan girl from Kansas first enters the story as a helpless traveler and later becomes Oz's greatest heroine. Lifted from the pages of L.Frank Baum's Oz books, the history of the land and its strange inhabitants are presented by Page 2 Stage Entertainment. With lush and exciting and at time's intoxicating Score, this World Premiere of OZ ANEW should not be missed by any Oz fan or book reader.


Cone see a free preview this weekend on Seattle's Broadway,  I had a chance to chat with Gershowitz:

(OUTview NW) INTER-view: MK gets the Dirt from Peaches Christ on "Whatever Happened to Bianca Del Rio?"

by MK Scott

She's  BACK! After taking 'Return to Grey Gardens' on the road in the last few years, Peaches Christ is back at Seattle's Egytian Theater this Thursday, June 23rd for 2 shows only!

Sister, sister, oh so big, why is their blood all over your wig...? Peaches Christ invites you to attend the Seattle Premiere of her hag-a-rific theatrical showcase "Whatever Happened to Bianca Del Rio?" starring the unmatched talents of...PEACHES and the Super crazy, BIANCA DEL RIO.


Don't miss the SEATTLE PREMIERE of the Peaches Christ production, "Whatever Happened To Bianca Del Rio?" Find out what happens when two aging drag sisters live out their later years together in a hag-arrific house of horrors.

Former child-star and RuPaul's Drag Race winner Bianca Del Rio wants to re-mount the show she did as a little girl when her hit song "I've Written A Letter To Draggy" dominated the vaudeville circuit but her drag-sister Peaches Christ proves to be a burden on wheels. Don't miss this psycho biddy stage-show celebration of insanity. Bianca dolls and rat sandwiches included!

We were lucky to catch up with Peaches at last monthes, Sinema at Crypticon, and got a preview of the new show. 

(OUTview NW) RE-view: Fantastic Z's Psycho Beach Party is Camp, Beefcake and More!

Mommie Issues?                                  (Garland)

by MK Scott

Last year at this time, Fantastic Z (a Seattle LGBTQ theater company) brought us a Trans/Western called Sidewinders (Yes, Really) that I gave a mixed review. What a difference a year makes, their latest, Psycho Beach Party by the genus, Charles Busch, is a Campy HIT. Considering the source of the material, it was going to be a hit, but in this production it is the actors that make the show shine.

As a fan of the film, this was my first viewing of the original play. The play is more about Chicklet and her multiple personalities than the film's major plot of a serial killer on the loose.

(MFW 2016) a FAREWELL in PHOTOS!

MFW

On April 23, Metropolitan Fashion Week held its final Show in Seattle, after 5 plus incredible years and who could forget the Forbidden Fashion Show (OUTview was there every year). The Founder and Producer, Eduardo Khawam is busy making a splash in LA. Khawam still promises more shows in Vegas, Palm Springs and New York!

For the final, it was a salute to Hollywood with Gaga designer, Perry Meek and Claire's  Collection and the incredible flamboyance of Erick Bendaña. Men's attire was again provided by Suit Supply.

(OUTview NW) RE-view: Artswest's Season of Substance, ends with the 'Heartbreaking' SALESMAN!

Thankful for no more traveling! (Brunk)

by MK Scott

This was quite an Arthur Miller season, having started at Seattle Rep last fall with a View from the Bridge to Artswest closing its "roller coaster" season  of substance with Miller's American Classic, Death with a Salesman . 

They say that Willy Lohman is one of the best characters that every character actor will play eventually. In this he isn't really sympathetic as well as his 2 sons, only Mrs. Lohman has any rooting value.

So, Artswest delivers this classic, thanks to director, Matthew Wright and including a FAB performance by Seattle legend, David Pichette as Willy, the aging salesman who wastes his life and humiliates himself to pay off his house payments for his family. The guilt and pain is so overwhelming that his family ignores all the signs of his depression.

(OUTview NW) Seattle Rep's "Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem" Brings IT and More!

"Blame the Americans"            (Bennion)

by MK Scott

It has been 3 years, since we first saw R. Hamilton Wright's (and David Pichette) hugely adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles and is poised to create a series of plays based on the Holmes and Watson but not a particular Sir Arthur Conan Doyle book. Wright's (without Pichette) latest is a new and original play with Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem.

This play we actually get to see more of Darragh Kennen's Hysterical Holmes, in Baskerville,  he was mostly MIA in Act 1 and shows up in Act 2 in disguise. Not so in this version and Kennen is quite entertaining as he gets involved in a case with an American Celebrity, Annie Oakley (Christine Marie Brown), herself!

(OUTview NW) RE-view: My Name is Asher Lev is Perfect Testament of the Battle between ART and FAITH!

(Bakketun)

by MK Scott

Last Fall, I reviewed the unforgettable and chilling FESTEN at New Century Theater Company and was intrigued with what they would do with, "My Name is Asher Lev” Based on the best-selling book by Chaim Potok, this adaptation by Aaron Posner and Directed by Sheila Daniels.

The play is about Asher Lev (the always Fab, Conner Neddersen), a Brooklyn bred Hasidic Jewish Painter with Conservative parents and the talent and drive to paint.

His parents are played by Amy Thone and Bradford Farwell, who played the father and mother in FESTEN and this time you have an overbearing, but passionate father and the ultra religious mother horrified at Asher's nude sketches that they drew as a teen.

Then we see Farwell as the supportive Rebbe who refers Asher to Jacob Kahn (also played by Farwell with a Brooklyn accent) to mentor the young Asher to come to terms that Art should be separate from religious morals. In one scene, Thone appears as a Topless model for Asher that helps to create a forbidden piece of his parents that goes against his religious beliefs to a crushing conclusion.

Separate, but Equal.

NCTC's My Name is Asher Lev continues through May 21st at 12th Ave Arts. Click HERE for TIX and INFO.

(OUTview NW) RE-view: Theater Schmeater's 'Fatal Footlights' is a "What If" Whodunit, with Great Performances!

Elementary, my dear sis, Gwendolyn! (Hastings)

by MK Scott

Last October I attend my first production ever at Theater Schmeater for our fave, Tom Stewart's performance in 'Welcome to my Secret Lair" and found it to be quite entertaining. So when Stewart stars in a show, you go and be prepared to be mesmerized.

This time around it is a Steampunk murder mystery set in 1885 London called Fatal Footlights by our pal, John Longenbaugh along with Louis Broome with a "What if" scenario that brings George Bernard Shaw (Matthew Middleton), Bram Stoker (John McCenna) Dame Ellen Terry (Niki Visel) and Oscar Wilde (Tadd Morgan) all together to tell this story in a very Phantom of the Opera way with little Sherlock Holmes in the form of the Sexually fluid,  Cyril (Jeremy Adams) aided by his sister, Gwendolyn  (Katherine Grant-Suttie). I realized this was part of a Series of plays, and now I am intrigued for more.

(MOVIE FREAK) RE-views of Batman v. Superman; Greek 2; Watching!

Warner Bros

by Sara Michelle Fetters

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
2 STARS

Cluttered Dawn of Justice a Super Disappointment!

Universal Pictures

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
2 STARS

Harmless Greek Wedding an Instantly Forgettable Sequel!

(OUTview NW) RE-view: "PARADE" is a Triumph for Sound Theater!

Mrs Frank (Spero) is Determined!   (Holmes)

by MK Scott

All the attention of turn of the century south has mostly gone to the work of the late great, Harper Lee in her book, To Kill a Mockingbird, about a racially prejudiced frame up of a crime of an innocent Black man, how we forget that is was not just racism in the south, but was antisemitism was alive and well in the deep south. In Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown’s musical, Parade, currently being produced by Sound Theater and directed by our Fave, Troy Wageman, the same kind of story happens which is 100% documented of which the lowest man on the totem pole is a New York-bred, Jewish business man, Leo Frank (Played by the Fab, Jeff Orton) being accused of the Rape and  murder of a 13 yr old girl that he didn't commit.

Uhry’s book, which dramatizes the story of Leo Frank, pointedly underlines a variety of societal failings: a corrupt government eager to appear tough on crime, an economically goaded wave of racial tension, a media consumed by blood lust that makes this story very timely in today's society. The book’s lack of subtlety actually works well in concert with Brown’s complex but the FAB score from folk to gospel to military marches to jazz under the direction of Nathan Young is a delight to a very lackluster story.

(MOVIE FREAK) RE-views of DORIS; MIRACLES; ALLEGIANT!

ROADSIDE

by Sara Michelle Fetters

Hello, My Name Is Dores
3 STARS

Field’s Brilliance Makes Doris Easy to Say Hello To!

COLUMBIA

Miracles from Heaven
2 STARS

Supercilious Miracles Preaching to the Converted!

(OUTview NW) RE-view: REED's Performance in Seattle Rep's 'Luna Gale' is "Authentically FAB"!

Reed is Convincing! (Alabastro)

by MK Scott

It isn't very often when an actress is so perfect in a role that it becomes bigger than the material of the play, that is what I felt when seeing Pamela Reed play Social Worker, Caroline in Seattle Rep's production of Rebecca Gilman's "Luna Gale", directed by SRT's artistic director, Braden Abraham. Now I have seen Reed numerous times including,  SRT's "Who's Afraid of the Virginia Wolf?" and ACT's "Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike", but it is this performance in 'Luna Gale', Reed is at her finest.

Caroline (Reed) is an Iowa social worker tasked with deciding who should raise an infant taken into protective custody after the baby’s young meth addicted parents failed to seek prompt medical attention for her.

(OUTview NW) RE-view: "OZ anew"-The Concert, a Work in Progress but almost there!

The Top 4 and their Costumes were a Triumph! (Jacobs/206)

by MK Scott

Our Pal, Michael Gershowitz has been busy this past year fine tuning his Musical now turned Operetta version of the Wizard of Oz, the only version to actually base it by the original works of L. Frank Baum.

All the songs in OZ anew, are new and unique and in the course of a year went from 85 to 34 songs, mostly written by Gershowitz. I had the pleasure to attend his special Live Concert, this past weekend at the Annex Theater in Seattle's Capitol Hill.

(MOVIE FREAK) Re-views of 10 Cloverfield; Whiskey Tango; Brothers Grimsby!

by Sara Michelle Fetters

10 Cloverfield Lane
4 STARS

Clever Cloverfield Lane a Monstrously Entertaining Thriller!

 



Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
3 STARS

Afghan War Satire Whiskey Tango a Fey Showcase!

(OUTview NW) MK's Exclusive Chat with Well-Strung's Edmund Bagnell on their Return to Seattle Next Week!

"Thrilled to be Back in Seattle!" (MvR Photography)

by MK Scott

Take this, a String Quartet plus vocal group of Young Gay men, called Well-Strung. Are they a Boy band? Are they a Chamber Group or a Singing String quartet? All the above, with a little Il Divo added! What a Revelation!

Had the pleasure of catching this group the last time they hit Seattle's Neptune Theater in November 2014. 


If they hadn’t come up with a surefire concept, who knows where Edmund Bagnell (first violin) along with Christopher Marchant (second violin), Daniel Shevlin (cello) and Seattle Native, Trevor Wadleigh (viola) would be? All have classical music training and, with the exception of Marchant, who was performing 'Naked Boys Singing' in PTown.

I had a chance to catch up with Bagnell who gives us a preview of Well-Strung's return to the Emerald City's Neptune Theater next week:

(OUTview NW) RE-view: 'Disney After Dark' returns to Columbia City and is HOT as HELL!

La Bootie as the Drunken Princess (Meneldor)

by MK Scott

Believe it or not, I just started getting into Burlesque, this past year with Sailor St. Clare's Tennessee Tease this past summer to Mark Siano's Seattle Vice last month. Last year I had heard about the Stripped Screw production of Disney After Dark at the Columbia City Theater and regretted not seeing it.

By popular demand, the Stripped Screw's  Disney after Dark, returned last weekend and I made sure to bring the boyfriend to this FAB production.

The Drunken Princess Aurora (Kutie La Bootie) has spent the last 5 years waiting for her Prince to come, only to see him marry her replacement. Now our lonesome intoxicated beauty finds herself in a strange new world where she encounters a host of weird and wonderful characters from Cinderstella (Stella D'letto), a Snow White (our Pal, Violet Tendencies), Pochahantas (The gorgeous, Serephina Fiero) and those trio of evil sluts The Evil Queen (Lady Drew Blood), The chic, Cruella DeVil (Iva Handfull) and the stunning Maleficent (Bella Bijoux) on her way home to the Magic Kingdom.

(OUTview NW) COMEDY PREVIEW: the Lovable Queen of Mean, Lisa Lampanelli, hits Seattle’s Moore this Saturday!

(Dion)

Comedian Lisa Lampanelli, the self-described “lovable queen of mean,” hits Seattle’s Moore Theater this Saturday, March 12th at 8pm!

Lampanelli will bring to the stage her tenured comedian experience, which includes appearances on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Good Morning America” and “Chelsea Lately.”

According to the event’s press release, Lampanelli is a frequent guest on Howard Stern’s satellite radio show. Stern has called her “a true original and a brilliant comedy mind who’ll steal the show every time.” Lampanelli’s also appeared on previous Comedy Central roasts of figures like Donald Trump, Jeff Foxworthy, William Shatner and others.

Everyone remembers her Bitch fests on the The Apprentice, what will she say about Trump Now?

Prices range from $37.00 to $59.00. Click STG Presents for Tix.