(OUTview NW) REview Part 1: Artswest's Brilliant Production of 'American Idiot' is so Huge, it needs 2 Reviews!

A Drug-addicted, Johnny becomes St Jimmy

by MK Scott

After the Broadway hits of Rent and Spring Awakening, the daring production of 'American Idiot", the Greenday Musical, inspired by their 2004 album of the same name, American Idiot is an testament of the 2000's with war and confusion. Not since, The Who's Tommy has a concept album inspired a Rock Opera.

After a run at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2009, the show moved to the St. James Theatre on Broadway. The show officially opened in April 2010. The show closed in April 2011 after 422 performances. While Green Day did not appear in the production, vocalist/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong performed the role of "St. Jimmy" occasionally throughout the run.

The story, expanded from that of the concept album, centers on three disaffected young men, Johnny, Will, and Tunny. Johnny and Tunny flee a stifling suburban lifestyle and parental restrictions, while Will (Michael Coale Grey) stays home to work out his relationship with his pregnant girlfriend, Heather (Chelsea LeValley). The former pair looks for meaning in life and tries out the freedom and excitement of the city. Tunny (Justin "Lizard Boy" Huertas) quickly gives up on life in the city, joins the military, and is shipped off to war. Johnny (Frederick Halgreen, fresh from 5th ave's Jasper and playing Freddie Mercury in SMC's Queen Concert) turns to drugs and finds a part of himself that he grows to dislike, has a relationship with Whatshername (Kirsten "Lizard Boy" Helland) and experiences lost love. Johnny becomes Drug dealer, St Jimmy (Trent Moury, fresh from last season's Angry Housewives) and Tunny loses a leg in Iraq and is treated by nurse, Extraordinary girl  (Played by a Male actor for the first time,  Jimmie Herrod). I had to relook at the program to be sure Herrod was male with a  powerful and sounded female with great chemistry with Huertas's Tunny.

(OUTview NW) RE-view: Chandelier Productions' Spring Awakening is an INCREDIBLE Triumph!

by MK Scott

With Duncan Sheik's Spring Awakening heading back to Broadway, it is easy to appreciate the modern day classic and even seeing countless versions (Actually 3 so far) it is refreshing how fresh it can be.

Just imagine without Spring Awakening, we wouldn't have GLEE or LOOKING or even PITCH PERFECT, because the stars of the original Broadway cast was Lea Michelle (Wendla) who went on to mega success in Glee and the soon to be Scream Queens, but also Jonathan Groff (Melchior) who reteamed with Michelle in Glee and starred in HBO's Looking. Even Skylar Astin (Georg) went on to the highly Successful, Pitch Perfect franchise. The Tony winning, John Gallagher Jr, (Moritz) has stayed on Broadway with American Idiot and small TV roles.

(OUTview NW) RE-view: Intiman's John Baxter brings Scandal and Debate to this World Premiere!

Intiman

by MK Scott

If it is summer in Seattle it means it is Intiman's Summer Theater Festival time. The Festival brings new life for the Legacy of Intiman Playhouse. A little Intiman is better than no Intiman at all.

This is the 4th year of the festival and each year they stage a new production that has NW Roots. Two years ago was Stu for Silverton (the realife story of the transgender Mayor of a small Oregon Town) and Three years ago with Dan Savage's controversial play, "Miracle!".

This year the play to see is John Baxter is a Switch-Hitter by Ana Brown and Andrew Russell, and it focuses on the biggest scandal to ever Hit Gay Softball. Back in 2008, Seattle hosted the NAGAAA World series about playing for Gay team means you have to be Gay, if any teammate is Bi, you must declare who they are to the organization. In this actual case 5 players were called in questions and had to determine what their label was. Ultimately, three players were deemed at least "not gay enough," to play.

(OUTscene NW) RE-view: The Children's Hour is a MUST-SEE and Great FIT at the Ballard Underground

Yes, There were Mean Girls in the 1930's Photo: Michael Brunk

by MK Scott

I confess I had never been to a Lesbian-Themed Play (It isn't like I have tried), but when that said-play is a bonafide American Classic written by the Controversial and Brilliant, Lillian Hellman that was turned into a Mildly-successful film led by 2 giants (Audrey Hepburn and Shirley Maclaine) in the code breaking 1960's (1961 to be exact). Of course, I am talking about the Children's Hour, that was stage by Arouet at the Ballard Underground this past weekend.

The last time I was at the Underground was for Ghostlight Theatricals production of 'Rope" another Early Gay themed play that was adapted in a Hollywood Film. There is something about the Underground and how you feel are in a speakeasy and transported into the time when being Gay or Lesbian was a mental illness.

The Children's Hour is a 1934 stage play written by Lillian Hellman. It is a drama set in an all-girls boarding school run by two women, Karen Wright and Martha Dobie. An angry student, Mary Tilford, runs away from the school and to avoid being sent back she tells her grandmother that the two headmistresses are having a lesbian affair. The accusation proceeds to destroy the women's careers, relationships and lives.

The play was first staged on Broadway at Maxine Elliott's Theatre in 1934, where it ran for over two years, and in 1936 it was put on at London's Gate Theatre Studio and Dublin's Gate Theatre. This was Hellman's first hit play. At the time, any mention of homosexuality on stage was illegal in New York State, but the play was such a success and so widely praised by critics that the rule was not enforced, according to Wiki.

(MFW-Seattle 2015) MORE PHOTOS!

The show stopper!

We are excited to present a one of a kind, exclusive – runway show that celebrates the world of fashion designers and costume designers. 10 designers and over 115 works of art created by National and International Designers and Costume Designers strutted the 2015 Metropolitan Fashion Week Bellevue-Seattle Runway Show & Closing Gala at the South Hall of the Magnificent Seattle Art Museum. This was an amazing 65-minute show last Saturday! Hosted by Eduardo Khawam, Amy Yamada and Niveen Heaton

Designers Line Up

Costume Designers, Inoe Vargas, Ricardo Soltero & Mask by Swig Miller
International Designers Presented by Fashion Forwards
ADICORA Swimwear by Designer Niveen Heaton

Canvas Project by Metropolitan Fashion Week
Men's Formal Wear Suitsupply - Seattle
Jewelry by: George Wittels & Cintli by Beto Yarce
Hair & Makeup by Gene Juarez Salons & Spas

(MFW-Seattle 2015) The WOMEN Part 3: The ADICORA Swimwear Collection!

We are excited to present a one of a kind, exclusive – runway show that celebrates the world of fashion designers and costume designers. 10 designers and over 115 works of art created by National and International Designers and Costume Designers strutted the 2015 Metropolitan Fashion Week Bellevue-Seattle Runway Show & Closing Gala at the South Hall of the Magnificent Seattle Art Museum. This was an amazing 65-minute show last Saturday!

Tonight we start with ADICORA Swimwear by Designer Niveen Heaton. Hair & Makeup by Gene Juarez Salons & Spas

 PHOTOS provided by Jorge Hernandez and SULEY ERA

(OUTscene NW) RE-view: "Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in SEATTLE" at the ACT!

Tracy Martin

by MK Scott

Now, I must confess that I had never heard of Jacques Brel or the Revue of Brel's songbook that was off-Broadway in the late 60's.

Of course, I googled Brel and researched all I could and realized I had heard of some of the music, but performed by American Artists from Sinatra to Andy Williams to John Denver. In Europe, Brel was known as the French Sinatra and was an influence for Bowie and Cohen.

I had already wanted to see the ACT/5th Ave co-production of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, because; A) The Brillant, David Armstrong was Directing and B) The King of Seattle Musical Theater, Louis Hobson (Balagan's former Artistic Director) was part of this 5-person ensemble.


Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris is a musical revue of the songs of Jacques Brel. Brel's songs were translated into English by Eric Blau and Mort Shuman, who also provided the story. The original 1968 Off-Broadway production ran for four years and spawned international and regional productions, as well as a West End production and Off-Broadway revival, among others. A film adaptation was released in 1975.

(OUTscene NW) RE-view: SMC celebrates 'Legacy', one of their Most Inspirational Concerts in Years!

Deshon, Lippa and Lasentia in the MILK Finale 

by MK Scott

During this past weekend at Seattle's McCaw Hall, the Seattle Men's Chorus once again came together for 2 One ACT shows, celebrating 2 very different Men. The first ACT was called "Tyler's Suite", the story of a Tux-clad, Tyler Clementi's life set to music. Clementi was the Rugter's music student, who was "Outed" by his roommate and jumped off the the GW Bridge in the Fall of 2010. In Act 2 in "I am Harvey Milk", went from a Jewish, Tux-clad opera lover from NY to starting a new open life as a community leader in San Francisco until his tragic murder in the late-1970's.


On the night of Milk’s death in November 1978, according to a SMC Press Release,  the national gay choral movement was born when a group of men, who would later become the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, performed at Milk’s candlelight vigil. A few months later, in 1979, Seattle Men’s Chorus was formed.

(OUTscene NW) RE-view: SRT's The Comparables is 'Devil wears Prada" meets "Real Housewives" on Acid and that is the Best Part!

Photo: Alabastro Photography

by MK Scott

When I heard that Seattle Rep was doing a "Campy One Act Dark Comedy" about 3 professional women, I knew that there would be some backstabbing, but wow! The Comparables by Laura Schellhardt gives off that 'Devil Wears Prada' vibe with a little of Bravo's Million Dollar Listing/Real Housewives thrown in to make it a little more 2014.

(OUTscene NW) Theater RE-view: NCTC's The Flick is an EPIC statement on the Death of the Movie House!

a LOVE Triangle AT THE MOVIES      Photo by John Ulman

by MK Scott

Movies, movies we all love movies. Classic and Pop Culture Movies even more. I used to spend moments alone just going to old rundown movie houses in Portland, far from my hometown of Beaverton and how its only Historic movie house went out of Business in the early 80's and I had to venture out to multi -plexes (Beaverton had 2)  or head to the Valley multi-plex or all the way to the Historic Hollywood in NE Portland or up to 1987, we had the rundown Broadway Theaters, (Fox, Music Box, Broadway) for cheap double features. The only Theater that still exist today is the Hollywood.

I also enjoyed the Drive IN, Beaverton had 3 screens, and in the summer of 1987 I worked at the concessions stand and even socialized with my co-workers.

So I went to see NCTC's latest this past weekend, that debuted in its new home at the 12th Arts Building.

(OUTscene NW) Theater RE-view: 'Seven Ways to Get There' or Be Square at Seattle's ACT!

Michelle (Potter) couldn't keep her hands off Nick and Vince!  / Truman Buffett

by MK Scott

Back in my teens and twenties, my shrink tried to get me to join Group Therapy, so I tried it once and realized it just wasn't for me. It wasn't crazy as the antics of  the fact I couldn't find any type of the characters from the 'Bob Newhart Show', it was just that you could never talk or get any word in. I did much better when it was one on one and latter a very small group of 4 or 5. (Less than 6).

“Seven Ways to Get There,” a new play (Directed by John Langs) debuting at Seattle's ACT Theatre, was about group therapy with one or two many loons in a Therapy Group. What I discovered was there were either all sides of me or all the different types of men I have dated through the years.

But poking fun at dysfunction and caricaturing the therapeutic experience is not all co-authors Dwayne J. Clark (whose experiences inspired the play) and Bryan Willis have set out to do.

We  have Anthony (Darragh Kennan) the Bully; Mark (Bradford Farwell) the Artist; Nick (James DeVita); the Workaholic; Mel, the only African American member (Bob Williams; the shy supportive friend; Vince (Ty Boice) the sex addict; Peter (Charles Legget) the social/quiet conservative, and  Richard (Jim Lapan), the loud talkative Buffoon. They all have their hangups and refuse to work together.

(OUTscene NW) RE-view: Edison Meets Freak Show in Cirque Du Soleil's "Kurios", playing at Seattle's Marymoor!

The Seeker                                                     /Cirque du Soleil

by MK Scott

Last week I caught American Experience on PBS, which focused on the life and accomplishments of Thomas Edison. A few months back, FX had American Horror Story: Freak Show. So, on Saturday I caught Cirque Du Soleil's "Kurios" at Marymoor Park, not too far from the Microsoft World Headquarters, of where both of those TV shows are combined in quite an impressive show!

Kurios is a Cirque du Soleil touring production under the full title of Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities. Created and directed by Michel Laprise, it looks at a late-19th century world inventor who invents a machine that defies the laws of time, space and dimension in order to reinvent everything around him with steampunk elements featuring characters from another dimension that interact with him and a tribute to the power of the human imagination. For the Homage AHS: Freak Show, you have machines (Most invented by Edison from the Light bulb to the Electric Chair to the Movie Camera ) come to life. There were Siamese twins, contortionists, and a 3 foot tall woman, dressed like AHS:FS' Elsa. 

(SUPER BOWL 2015) Getting to know Seahawk (and model) Cooper Helfet

Photo Credit: Lesley Keefer of Focus Photography

Seahawks tight end Cooper Helfet turns heads both on and off the field, and being part of a world championship football team is just one of the reasons.

Alongside a fulltime gig as a professional football player, Helfet also regularly models, supports local charities and visits children's hospitals with teammates in his spare time.

We sat down with this jack of many trades, a Lady 12s favorite, to ask some questions from fans on what he favors in life, love and of course, football.

(OUscene NW) Re-view: 4000 miles is a Journey and proves you can always count on Grandma!

Michael Brunk

by MK Scott

I could completely relate with characters of 4000 Miles, currently at Seattle's Artswest Theater, because in my early 20's I traveled great distances to find myself, but I could always count on my Grandmother for a place to come back to. After her death in 2006, I have just started to recover this past year. 

4000 Miles is a dramatic comedy by Amy Herzog. The play ran Off-Broadway in 2011, and again in 2012 and was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

When 21 year-old Leo ( the scruffy,  Adam Standley) suffers a major loss while he was on a cross-country bike trip (starting in Seattle), he seeks solace from his feisty 91 year-old grandmother Vera (the FAB and Legendary, Susan Corzatte) in her West Village apartment. Over the course of a single month, these roommates infuriate, bewilder, and ultimately reach each other.

(OUTscene NW) RE-view: Falls' A Christmas Carol' at ACT celebrates 39 years as the Abbreviated Dickens Classic!

Wright as Scrooge              P: Bennion

by MK Scott

It is hard to fathom that I had never seen a stage version of a Christmas Carol, until now. Seattle's ACT theater stages this production of the Dickens' Classic Adaptation into a ONE Act, 90 min. version now in its 39th year by ACT Founder, Gregory Falls and Directed by the associate Artistic Director, John Langs has cleverly woven this classic story and staged it in the ROUND, with lots of trap doors and projected images on tapestry. The Dickens Carolers set the mood and the tone as we meet Ebenezer Scrooge (Seattle's Best Theater Actor, R. Hamilton Wright) and Bob Cratchit (James Lapan) as he is forced to work on Christmas Eve.

As Scrooge prepares for bed, he is visited by the ghost of his late 'Partner', Jacob Marley (David Foubert) with a warning of 3 spirits, Past (Sydney Andrews), Present (Charles Leggett) and Future (Scott Abernethy).

(OUTscene NW) RE-view: ARTSwest's 'Judy's SCARY Little Christmas' is Holiday Camp, Eye-candy FUN at its BEST!

Photo: Michael Brunk

by MK Scott

Judy Garland and Christmas go Hand in Hand, but Judy's SCARY Little Christmas got my interest. Just from the title alone you know you are in for some CAMPY Fun.

Our friends at ARTSwest just opened Judy’s Scary Little Christmas (directed by OUTview Pal, Troy Wageman, who most recently directed the Robbie Turner Revue), an original musical written by James Webber and David Church, with music and lyrics by Joe Patrick Ward. It is a spoof on television variety shows of the 1950s, satirizing celebrities’ public images and private lives. The fictional story employs a metaphysical plot twist (as in the television series, The Twilight Zone) and spiritual redemption through a ghost (as in Charles Dickens’ novel, A Christmas Carol.) The show contains campy humor based on the sensationalized personal lives of the celebrities, with satirical references to pop culture and politics of the 1950s.

The first stage reading was directed by Leonard Foglia in January 2000 at the John Houseman Theatre Center in New York City, with Isabel Keating as “Judy Garland,” and continued when the play was staged that December, in fact, I saw Keating playing Judy again in the 'Boy from OZ' in 2004 and sounds like she could have been discovered from the show to play Judy again in 'OZ'.

(OUTscene NW) Concert RE-view: Well-Strung is a Well-Hung Revelation!

Facebook

by MK Scott

Take this, a String Quartet plus vocal group of Single and Young Gay men, called Well-Strung was at Seattle's Neptune this past weekend and most of the audience didn't know who this group was up until a week earlier.

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!


If they hadn’t come up with a surefire concept, who knows where Edmund Bagnell (first violin), 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.

All Gay and single has they introduce each other and go right into a number.

(OUTscene NW) RE-view: ACT's 'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike'; Simply FABstastic!

Photo: John Cornicello

by MK Scott

I confess I had never seen Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya', but when I first heard of  'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike' by Christopher Durang, the 2013 Tony winner of Best Play was based from it, I knew I wanted to see it some day.

Well, the good news it has made it to Seattle, thanks to ACT's new production I saw this past weekend. I am glad I did, and the production has many things that a Gay audience would love. A Gay Character, a Diva, Disney, and lots of Beefcake.

The story goes like this; Middle-aged siblings Vanya (Seattle Theater Legend, R. Hamilton Wright) and Sonia (Marianne Owen),  live in the family home in Pennsylvania. Vanya and Sonia have not had to grow up. After spending their adulthood looking after their now-dead parents, neither has a job, and money is provided by their movie star sister, Masha (Pamela Reed), who owns the house and pays the bills. Vanya (who is gay) and Sonia (who is forever reminding everyone that she is adopted) spend their days reflecting on their lost chances, Cassandra (Cynthia Jones), the cleaning lady, believes in Voodoo and is prone to making dire prophecies that no one believes.

This static environment is disrupted when Masha returns home, bringing with her a flurry of drama, an endless litany of insecurity, and a much younger, gorgeous, dimwitted and half-naked, lover named Spike the Sexy, William Poole). Spike meets a girl at the lake and introduces Nina (Sydney Andrews), an aspiring actress who provokes envy in Masha, lust in Spike and sympathy in Vanya (Nina even calls him 'Uncle Vanya'). Vanya also lusts after Spike.

(OUTscene NW) RE-view: Here come the Marines! Artswest stages the Seattle Premiere of 'Dogfight', The Musical!

Photo: Michael Brunk

by MK Scott

Attended the Opening Weekend of the movie turned Stage Musical, 'Dogfight' at Seattle's Artswest Playhouse. It was originally a joint-production of Balagan, but its recent closure, Artswest took over.

Based closely on Nancy Savoca’s intimate, thoughtful 1991 film, “Dogfight”, which I barely remember, has a fresh new look on the stage, but more of the Hot, Young American sort of way, with a little Full Monty added.

The movie, as I recall,  was an indie showcase for its remarkably gifted young stars, Lili Taylor and River Phoenix. The two sensitively enacted the tentative romance between Rose, a bright, plain-featured, folk-singing San Francisco waitress, and Eddie, a cocky new Marine about to ship off to Southeast Asia. (The time is 1963, before the Summer of Love and during the early U.S. ramp-up of military intervention in Vietnam.)

(SLGFF 2014) Audience and Jury WINNERS List!

Jury Awards for Excellence in Filmmaking
Our Awards for Excellence in Filmmaking are chosen by an esteemed panel of jurors and include a cash prize.

Short Film Jury Awards

Best Short Film: DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
Directed by Melissa Finell / USAJury statement: "DISASTER PREPAREDNESS is a comedic human relations story with three dimensional characters. It is a metaphorical storm with great writing, acting and sound."

Most Innovative Short: UNICORN

Directed by Rodrigo Bellot / Bolivia

Jury statement: "UNICORN has unique cinematography, sound and lighting. It is a different kind of storyline. An exposé documentary told through an exquisite narrative of a difficult real life event."

Documentary Film Jury Awards

Best Documentary Feature: OUT IN THE NIGHT

Directed by Blair Dorosh-Walther, Produced by Giovanna Chesler, USA

Jury statement: "OUT IN THE NIGHT emphasizes the dire need for justice and elicits an urgent call for equality in our systemically biased judicial system. And even more, it implores us all to reflect on how we challenge the criminalization of black bodies, especially queer black bodies, in America."

OUT IN THE NIGHT