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Joe Izenman on January 31st, 2012
My wife was thoroughly unexcited about seeing Play It Again, Sam at Lakewood Playhouse. She's insisted for quite some time - or at least any time we look at comedies to rent or talk about seeing Midnight In Paris - that she hates Woody Allen movies. What's more, she'd
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Joe Izenman on January 31st, 2012
My wife was thoroughly unexcited about seeing Play It Again, Sam at Lakewood Playhouse. She's insisted for quite some time - or at least any time we look at comedies to rent or talk about seeing Midnight In Paris - that she hates Woody Allen movies. What's more, she'd seen
We Recommend
Joe Izenman on December 7th, 2011
When writing a review, especially about a play that I enjoyed, I do my best to avoid starting on the negative. But I have to get a problem I have with Tacoma Little Theatre's A Christmas Carol off my chest. I sat through the whole thing, two acts
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Joe Izenman on December 7th, 2011
When writing a review, especially about a play that I enjoyed, I do my best to avoid starting on the negative. But I have to get a problem I have with Tacoma Little Theatre's A Christmas Carol off my chest. I sat through the whole thing, two acts of it,
Stage
Joe Izenman on December 1st, 2011
Charles Dickens' Oliver! is why I'm in theater. It's not that I love the play to death or anything, but many moons ago my brother ran follow spot for a children's production of the musical through Tacoma Little Theatre, and my whole family was doomed. So it's always fun to
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Joe Izenman on October 19th, 2011
Jeffrey Hatcher's stage adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde feels ripe with potential ... Potential that never quite breaks free in the Tacoma Little Theatre staging.Most distinctive (and when re-adapting a long-recognized and oft-staged work like Jekyll & Hyde, it pays to be distinctive)
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Joe Izenman on October 19th, 2011
All the newfangled technology at PLU's Eastvold Studio Theater serves as an invisible backdrop for the remarkably simple and sparse staging that makes up The Fantasticks. The production took me some time to get into, in part because of my vague but persistent expectation of what the show
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Joe Izenman on October 18th, 2011
PLU's production of the longest-running musical in New York history, The Fantasticks, was not even remotely what I expected. I honestly couldn't really tell you what I expected, except inasmuch as it was "not that."
But let me start elsewhere. I was a student at Pacific Lutheran University. I worked for
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Joe Izenman on October 5th, 2011
There's only so much talent can do.
Talent abounds in Tacoma Musical Playhouse's production of Little Women. Singing talent in particular.
But, well, if there were ever a novel that didn't need to be made into a musical, this would be up there on my list.
I'm not a Little Women aficionado, but
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Joe Izenman on October 5th, 2011
There's only so much talent can do.
Talent abounds in Tacoma Musical Playhouse's production of Little Women. Singing talent in particular.
But, well, if there were ever a novel that didn't need to be made into a musical, this would be up there on my list.
I'm not a Little Women aficionado, but
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Joe Izenman on February 5th, 2012
WE SCENE IT >>>
Tacoma's Goldfinch is working on a new album, and it is going to be very, very good. One of my fine Volcano colleagues will pop up one of these days and tell you all about the band's Spaceworks Tacoma residency at 1310 MLK, and the process behind
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Joe Izenman on September 6th, 2011
AH, MEMORIES >>>
I love Bumbershoot for a lot of things, but mostly I love it for its memories. The singular moments that pop up every year and stick with you forever.
In 2005 I high-fived Iggy Pop as he ran through the photo trough. I stood in Memorial Stadium and watched
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Joe Izenman on September 5th, 2011
Convention is for suckers.
Convention at Bumbershoot is to wander from stage to stage taking in a dozen different kinds of pop music, from around the world and across the pop-genre spectrum - country, folk, blues, electronic, rock, punk and hip-hop.
But sometimes convention doesn't do the trick, and doesn't give you
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Joe Izenman on September 4th, 2011
NOTES FROM THE GRASS >>>
Day one of Bumbershoot 2011 has me thinking about scale in music. As far as I can tell there are no small music stages at the festival this year. In the past the Northwest Court stage provided a quiet, out-of-the-way venue for acts that
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Joe Izenman on September 3rd, 2011
MASSIVE MUSIC FEST KICKS OFF IN SEATTLE >>>
The usual disclaimer: I go to Bumbershoot for the bands I don't know, not the ones I do. So my daily previews are always a little thin on knowledge. But regardless, here are a few places where your trusty Weekly
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Joe Izenman on June 17th, 2011
YOUR SOURCE FOR SOUTH SOUND THEATER COVERAGE >>>
David Auburn's Proof is built on relationships: a damaged girl and her broken father; the sibling rivalry of two sisters on very different paths; the uncertainty of young love. Each tie between two characters helps illuminate another.
Nominally, the play is about brilliance and
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Joe Izenman on June 11th, 2011
YOUR SOURCE FOR SOUTH SOUND THEATER >>>
Is it wrong that I secretly wished Lakewood Playhouse's production of Sweeney Todd would be a little bit more like a GWAR concert? My instincts say yes, but my heart says no.
Not that I wanted a horde of spastic metalheads kicking me in the
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Joe Izenman on May 6th, 2011
FREE STUFF AND MORE >>>
What's the best way to get people excited about something? Free stuff.
Check that. Free stuff and Imperial stormtroopers.
When the number one goal of the free stuff is the promotion of literacy in children, teens and adults, it's a win for everybody.
Thus, on the first Saturday of
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Joe Izenman on April 29th, 2011
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENTS AND YOUNG PEOPLE ACTING OLD >>>
Sloth, a world premiere play produced by Gold From Straw a quarter century after its writing, is at its best a compelling commentary on grief, and at its worst a somewhat confused jumble of casting decisions and script weaknesses.
There's this voice that young
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Joe Izenman on April 28th, 2011
James Goldman's The Lion In Winter is about nothing so much as legacy. The year is 1183. Henry II, who won the throne by strength of arms, aims to leave behind the one thing his life has lacked: prolonged, lasting peace.
Standing in his way? Pretty much
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Recently Reviewed Movies
Joe Izenman on March 9th, 2010
When do you give up on what you want to do, and turn to what is profitable and popular? At what point are dreams of art and integrity laid to rest at the altar of commercial whoredom? That is the question posed in the new film Bestsellers, by Tacoma
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