Seattle Blog Reviews

Ali is a grocery bagger who lives with her mother. She sells stolen booze to fat kids. Her best friend claims to have a gorgeous spouse from India. She is afraid of driving cars and falling in love with boys.

In other words, she is the average teenage girl. For those who watch Arrested Development, Ali is a lot like Maeby Bluth: often in rebellion simply for the sake of revolt. When fellow bagger and love interest Julio comes on the scene, she has to deal with all the classic dilemmas of young romance. The story is simple, but the script is witty enough to make the ride worthwhile.

Blackbird tells the story of a bullied, teenage, Goth outcast who is wrongly accused of planning a school shooting in a small, Canadian town. I enjoyed this film and the concept overall, but there are pieces that felt a little tired and unnecessary. For one, the film presents polarized cliques and stereotyped teenagers that are often seen in classic teen movies, but are, to me, completely inaccurate. Rarely will you find the letterman jacket jock group facing off against the extreme Goth kid in high school, nor will you see teens throwing food from across the room at their enemies. At points it feels like the story line clunks along in a very monotonous way, but the end result is slightly more satisfying.

The film presents hyper-sensitivity within our society and our tendency to blame the victim and ostracize the “other”. The main character is forced to conform, change his personality, and denounce his interests. He is pushed into a corner, and is forced to admit to a crime that he didn’t commit.

At some point, you’ve been introduced to the man in the moon. Perhaps a parent pointed out his face on a late-night drive, or a friend described his massive grin during a lull in a sleepover. Perhaps you discovered him yourself, making out his cheery face while lying in your backyard.

As it turns out, it’s lonely being the only man on the moon. The Moon Man of Stephen Shesch’s animated film certainly is. Though the children of the world bellow rely on the Moon Man for comfort and reassurance, he grows increasingly agitated in his rocky home. So when a meteor passes by one day on its way to Earth, the Moon Man doesn’t hesitate to climb aboard.

Many American teenagers these days have it easy. Apart from the grueling hours spent sleepwalking around our high schools, we lead cushy lives with video games, junk food, and (if it’s your thing) friends. We take for granted our families, the work that goes in to buying our food, and even how the food is prepared. Our biggest worry in life is not when we are going to next be fed.

If only Jin’s problems were this mundane.

What is dance really? Not Dance Moms or what you do at prom, but the real physicality of it. African Cypher completely answers this question; not through a highbrow analysis of each component, but with just plain movement. The documentary is about isiPantsula and sBhujwaI, two young dancers from South Africa. But even though the focus is on these two and their journey, there’s so much more. The story explores South African Street dance, and the explosion of culture that comes with it. There’s a sense of respect and honor in the dance that is called a complex, convoluted underworld. The movement is all about ritual, celebration, counsel, and storytelling, and the group that is created over dance is a true community. The extraordinary duo of isiPantsula and sBhujwaI leads the viewer throughout the documentary. But on the way we meet different dancers, people, and styles, a mass of diversity in a somewhat small group. Director Bryan Little builds up to the final performance by the duo, but integrates this taste of differences and styles in an amazing way.

One of my favorite aspects of the dancing was the freshness and creativity involved. They use each other as props and foundations, rocks as balances, and anything else they can get their hands on. The movement never gets old or bland because each time the duo manages to make it new and exciting. You don’t have to appreciate a deep concept or subplot to enjoy this documentary, because the dance in itself is thrilling. You get to watch performances of strength and creativity but also get the story of the dancers and their culture. They dance to move and in the words of Mada Sthembiso, “I dance as if I have a gun to my head.” This documentary really should not be missed. It’s the ultimate cinematic experience and depicts at least one side of dance, portraying the real physicality involved in movement.

Sadness and hope. These are a few of the feelings I experienced watching the story of Crash. Crash Coogan (played by Quinn Franzen) seems to have everything: great grades, cool friends, and a school record for most touchdowns in a football game. When Crash’s Grandfather (played by Todd Jefferson Moore) has a stroke, Crash starts to learn that winning isn’t always the most important thing.

Author Jerry Spinelli, who wrote the book that Crash is based on, has written a powerful story about the challenges that many kids face when growing up, such as friendship issues and family relationships. I could understand and relate to all these challenges. Playwright Y York has done an amazing job of adapting Crash to the stage, using engaging dialogue to tell the rich story of Spinelli’s book. Director Rita Giomi’s clear vision of this play comes across beautifully in her staging. She has also put together an excellent ensemble cast. Crash’s little sister, Abby, (played by Emily Chisholm) is a constant thorn in his side. His neighbor, Penn Webb, (played by Rio Codda) wants to win the upcoming Penn Relays to make his great-grandfather proud. They are joined by Mike (played by Adam Standly) who wants to be friends with Crash, and Jane (played by Kate Sumpter), who Crash wants to be friends with.

August: Osage County, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tracy Letts, embodies issues of identity, family unity, and disengagement, as well as a cultural perspective on hierarchies of power and gender roles within a family's core values. Angelo Domitri's lighting design enhances Ahren Buhmann's perfectly executed stage environment. Your eye wanders around the stage, discovering some of the characteristics that identify the Weston family.

The play is set in 2007 in the town of Pawhuska, Oklahoma. The action takes place throughout the month of August in Beverly and Violet Weston’s house. Beverly, a once renowned and talented poet (played by Charles Leggett), introduces the story and the characters in the play. His sarcasm is palpable from the start. His very first line, T.S. Elliot’s “Life is too long,” tells us a lot about how humor is used to face the problems, issues, and tension throughout the play.

There is nothing easy about dancing en pointe. Ballerinas and danseurs often spend years perfecting their abilities to dance on the tips of the toes while still remaining graceful in their upper bodies. Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Swan Lake dancers, however, make dancing en pointe look flawlessly easy.

PNB’s production of Swan Lake, choreographed by Kent Stowell, is a classic performance of Tchaikovsky’s ballet, with four acts and a brilliant company of dancers. The ballet tells the tragic tale of Odette and Siegfried, two lovers who are determined to break Odette’s curse of being a swan, but are undermined by the menacing Odile, who deceives Siegfriend and forces Odette to forever remain a swan by day.

On the surface, Bat Boy appears to be a show about a half-man-half-bat integrating himself into a silly hick town – an amusing situation that would never happen in real life. But this show has deeper messages waiting to be heard. The bat boy is a loner who has been dehumanized. All he wants is to be accepted by society but sometimes he can’t stop the ‘monster’ that he used to be from coming out. His journey can make the audience realize that everyone has their own streak of wickedness and we shouldn't be so quick to label others as evil. But this production of Bat Boy misses the mark and focuses too heavily on the comedic aspects. Instead of amplifying the real emotions and messages that this musical can support, director Kathryn Van Meter chooses to treat it as a farce. For the most part, each comedic moment is very well done while the serious moments are thrown away through melodrama. Again and again honest emotion is sacrificed for a cheap laugh. This makes for some hilarious numbers (Christian Charity; Show You a Thing or Two; Children, Children) but the audience doesn't leave thinking about their personal demons, the audience leaves thinking about that funny part when the woodland creatures had an orgy.

This production starts off promising. The first scene is visually creative and exciting. The sheriff, Meredith, and Shelley are all funny, talented actors, and quality singers. The cast is short a few male actors but they handle this common predicament remarkably well. The female ensemble members strap on bushy beards and play hilarious hicks. While the majority of the boys they do have are very talented: Bat Boy’s physicality is intriguing and believable, Reverend Hightower is a fantastic singer, Pan proves himself a master of fake fornication, and the audience can't keep their eyes off a certain hillbilly with a handlebar mustache. But as the story develops and requires more truthfulness to support the actions of the characters, the underlying weaknesses become blatant.

Music from the renowned Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, what a hoot! This one and only historical big band takes jazz standards to a whole new level. On a technical level, this show is flawless. Every note, every phrase and every cut off is perfect, even down to the tone of the individual instruments. Trombonist Frank Woser has impeccable tone, vibrant and smooth. Frank plays Tommy Dorsey’s solos, and fills the performance with creativity and thoughtfulness. The solos are the main attraction in this carnival of sorts.

About a third of the way through the concert, Bryan Anthony comes in and sings a few numbers with the band. He is an excellent singer. Even though he is young, his Sinatra-like image makes his songs feel like period pieces. When he starts his first few songs it can get quite loud. It is very distracting and hard to hear the wonderful band, but it gets better after those first few songs. His performance definitely opens up in the latter half, allowing him to really shine like the gem that he is. His act goes further than his voice as well. He knows so much about the popular music back in the day and he shares some of the greats--his heroes--with the audience.

Filipino American siblings Edith (played by Sara Porkalob) and Kenny (played by Jose Abaoag) are forced into the adult world after being abandoned by their father after their mother’s passing. Edith is a fierce, powerful, strong-willed 12-year-old who, while old enough to handle a BB-gun and to protect herself and her brother, is still young enough to carry on extended conversations with a stuffed-frog companion.

The only other person in their lives is Benji (Tim Smith-Stewart), Kenny’s nerdy friend who wishes for them to be more than friends. The two teenagers explore what it means to be in a relationship, while growing up in a farm during a time when people make mix tapes for their crushes.

Pentecost. At first it seems like a show about a fresco and the two people who find it, but later the audience is immersed in the social and cultural tensions of war torn central European countries. After leaving the show, I was left speechless, not necessarily because of the script or the actors alone, but because of the complex nature of the issues within the show.

Many of the actors stand out. Brian Culbertson as Mikhail Czaba and Sunam Ellis as Yasmin come to mind for their engaging acting, especially keeping track of multiple languages and maintaining an accent the entire time in an understandable and engaging way. They also express the theme of being people from war torn countries and dealing with the repercussions of war. These two actors paint a clear picture for the audience through their portrayals of the characters.

Seeing Nick Flynn on February 13th was a perfect palette cleanser for the saccharine day that was to follow. Chocolate and unbridled affection are the chosen dessert and emotion, respectively, for the day, but this lecture on “The Intersection of Poetry & Memoir” was an intriguing, bittersweet morsel, leaving my ears and heart wanting.

Sweet, because I have new holds at the SPL waiting by Flynn: Another Bullsh*t Night in Suck City, The Captain Asks for A Show of Hands, The Ticking Is the Bomb, and Blind Huber.

Book-It’s Anna Karenina begins with a whirlwind of characters, plots, and secrets dancing before the audience’s eyes. Overwhelming at first, this intricate culture collage melds together with each character, plot, and secret, highlighting a different facet of the tragic life of Anna Karenina.

Anna, played by the elegant Emily Grogan, is a wealthy Russian woman married to Karenin (played in a delightfully quirky manner by Andrew DeRycke) with a cherished son Seriozha (played by Montserrat Fleck for the opening performance). Unexpectedly, she falls in love with her friend Kitty’s husband-to-be, Count Vronsky (the dashing Scott Ward Abernethy) as the burly Levin (David Anthony Lewis) begins to pursue Kitty. Anna and Vronsky’s love becomes the theme of the play, spinning plot after plot into a Russian soap-opera with a tragic twist.

The bayous of Louisiana are some of the treasures of the United States, rich in culture and wildlife, but are not often publicized in today’s media. One of this year’s Academy Award contenders, Beasts of the Southern Wild, brought us a mythical view of an isolated, yet vibrant, bayou community. Sharon Linezo Hong’s My Louisiana Love brings us a harsher reality of the conditions in the bayous.

My Louisiana Love traces Monique Verdin’s poignant story of love, both for her people and her home. Hong’s first full-length documentary is made more intimate through her use of home footage, recorded by Verdin and her partner Mark Krasnoff, and later by Hong herself.

Next To Normal is a Pulitzer Prize winning rock musical about a middle-aged mother, Diana Goodman (played by Beth DeVries), diagnosed with bipolar illness, and how her illness affects the rest of her family. Her husband Dan (Auston James), daughter Natalie (Keaton Whittaker), and son Gabe (Kody Bringman) all appear to live normal lives, but are, in fact, nowhere near normal.

Balagan Theatre, which has brought a wide range of amazing musicals to Seattle, including [title of show] and Avenue Q, Spring Awakening and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, has again done a great job with this production.

Beauty through fashion photography is the focus of the Henry Art Gallery's new exhibit, Out [o] Fashion Photography: Embracing Beauty. Out [o] focuses on the many nuances of beauty using studio, fashion, and pop culture photography by artists from the 19th to 21st century.

I had the opportunity to walk through the gallery with curator Deborah Willis and a small group. The fluid and open gallery perfectly frames each photograph, which are juxtaposed with multimedia further enhancing the subtleties of Willis' ideas about media, and how different forms of beauty interconnect with each other.

Stephen Greenblatt walked onto the stage of Benaroya Hall with the air of a man who is accustomed to being in the spotlight. Fairly short with a dark suit, a slightly receding hairline, and a penchant for puns and jokes, he seemed more like your friend’s father than a Harvard professor, New York Times bestselling author, and winner of both the 2011 National Book Award and the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction. Greenblatt poked at the projector remote.

“Is this thing working?” he asked, fiddling with it for a second, before, "ahh!" The projector flipped its slide, revealing the name of his lecture: The Survival of Dangerous Ideas: Lucretius, The Renaissance, and the Modern World. Then, without even pausing to formally begin his lecture, Greenblatt jumped into his introduction , which followed the history and culture of militant Christian orthodoxy. Yet the historical portrait that Greenblatt painted for the multitudes of people who came to hear him speak at Benaroya Hall was fascinating and amazing because it was deeper than just dates and namedropping. Not only can I safely say that I exited the auditorium feeling smarter and more educated about the world around me, but I can also say that I genuinely enjoyed the lecture.

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg tells the story of a couple with a young daughter who has severe cerebral palsy. This dark comedy follows the couple as they attempt to use humor to avoid addressing their situation. As the show progresses, the tension mounts and their careful way of life begins to unravel.

This show marks the premiere of Thalia’s Umbrella, a new Seattle theatre group. The acting in Joe Egg is amazing, with a strong ensemble cast of Leslie Law, Terry Edward Moore, Susan Corzatte, Carol Roscoe, Brandon Whitehead, and Aidyn Stevens. The actors’ high energy and focus keeps the show moving forward. Often it feels that when accents are used in shows it is distracting and awkward but the cast of Joe Egg proves that this is not true in their case, often Moore portrays different characters within a scene or monologue and is able to switch effortlessly between a few dialects. The chemistry and emotion portrayed by the actors is never unbelievable or distracting.

“In Sanskrit, Turanga means the universe spinning through time, and Lîla means the cosmic play of love and death,” explained Seattle Symphony music director Ludovic Morlot, discussing Olivier Messiaen’s (“MESS-yohn”) Turangalîla-Symphonie. This may sound excessively grand, but it describes perfectly Seattle Symphony’s first-ever performance of this 20th century masterpiece.

Turangalîla is rarely performed, and the reasons are evident; it’s long and physically exhausting, requires an uncommonly large percussion section, features a solo piano and the rare ondes Martenot (“ohnd MAR-ten-oh;” more on that later), and as a contemporary piece, is hard to market to wider audiences. However, judging by an almost-full house and the instant standing ovation, Morlot, the Seattle Symphony, and guest soloists Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Cynthia Millar did not have much trouble with these obstacles.