Latest articles posted in View From the Cheap Seats http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/feature/25 2008-05-16T23:28:02+01:00 text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/2206 <p>The last time Man of La Mancha was playing in the South Sound, Micheal O&rsquo;Hara was rocking out the title role at Lakewood Playhouse. It was the show of the season.<br /> <br /> Such is apparently the case when Capital Playhouse stages its v ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/2158 <p>I've talked a bit over the years on how theaters have a tendency to pull their theater seasons together by drawing from a fairly shallow well of works. Generally, theaters want to stage shows that people readily want to see, actors want to perform ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/2126 <p>I&rsquo;ve done a bit of trash talking about Neil Simon plays over the years. This is particularly because only about three or four of his plays ever seem to find their way onto a stage. Community theaters always seem to stage his &ldquo;war trilo ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/2098 <p>There once was a time in the not so distant past that storytellers would gather around a fire and tell yarns of great adventure and suspect. The characters were complex and complete. The plot and back stories were vivid. The storytellers would tel ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/2090 <p>I never would have thought that a 6 foot Irish dude could pull off the role of a half Vietnamese-half French brothel owner. But here he is doing just that. Micheal O&rsquo;Hara plays the role of &ldquo;the Engineer,&rdquo; a streetwise, go-go club ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/2033 <p>There are only a few shows I look forward to seeing over and over again. They are shows that always seem to have a little bit of something new and yet familiar. <em>Cabaret </em>is one of those shows. Maybe it is because I yearn for a time when Ge ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/2009 <p>Lakewood Playhouse is currently staging the Caribbean-themed musical <em>Once On This Island. </em>The acting was solid but not overall stellar. The singing was good, with a few mulligans here and there. The set design was simple but effective. Al ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1979 <p>Last week I told you about Capital Playhouse&rsquo;s current production of <em>Side Show</em>, a story about a set of conjoined twins who find themselves on the freak show circuit only to be discovered and brought to national attention. It&rsquo;s ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1951 <p>Anyone who has wondered what folks such as the Elephant Man, the bearded lady or the midget clowns think about their lives and the audiences who pay to see these &quot;freaks&quot; on stage should look no further than <em>Sideshow </em>now playing ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1928 <p>The charging knight behind Federal Way&rsquo;s Centerstage Theater is an all-around theater guy to his core. As an actor turned director turned playwright and theater operator, the very English Alan Bryce has likely done every job remotely connect ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1903 <p>Last weekend was interesting in the world of theater as the Northwest Festival of Plays came to a close and deepened a lot of interest in local theater talent with a roster of thoughtful, funny, clever, and touching shows. Kudos go out to all invo ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1877 <p>There&rsquo;s a lot of theater taking to stages around the South Sound, so this is a roundup of the offerings this weekend.<br /> <br /> One of the funniest shows that no one really has heard of is playing across the Narrows Bridge. Gig Harbor&r ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1841 <p>Festival of Northwest Plays has a lot going for it during its first staging of the event. It is already the largest festival celebrating plays written solely by playwrights from the Pacific Northwest.<br /> <br /> It will feature three full-leng ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1813 <p>It seems only fitting that Lakewood Playhouse is staging How the Other Half Lives around Valentine&rsquo;s Day &mdash; and I&rsquo;m sure the theater planned it at a time that I&rsquo;m marking my 10th year with my wife. All things revolve around ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1783 <p>Prodigal Sun Productions is at it again. The vagabond troupe of thespians in Olympia is presenting the adult comedy &ldquo;Don Juan in Chicago,&rdquo; by David Ives.<br /> <br /> The show is about a man suffering in his own sort of hell by actua ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1765 <p>I became double booked this weekend when my daughter found herself at a tae kwon do match that landed her one step closer to being allowed to date. She has to have a black belt, and she just received her white belt with a green stripe. She has awh ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1731 <p>One thing about theater is that directors make the shows their own more often than not by personalizing the show and interpreting the text their way. I only wish theaters dunked their buckets into deeper wells of work rather than drawing from the ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1681 <p>Classic shows are always fun, but spoofs of classics are generally hilarious. A South Sound case in point is Olympia Little Theater&rsquo;s staging of &ldquo;Moonlight and Magnolias,&rdquo; which opens this week.<br /> <br /> This Ken Ludwig com ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1652 <p>I had a bit of time on my hands over the holidays, so I found myself cruising through television station after station in search of something remotely interesting to watch. I often failed. But one time when I didn&rsquo;t fail I had clicked over t ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1617 <p>I had a soft spot for the movie &ldquo;The NeverEnding Story&rdquo; when it played in theaters in 1984. I had just returned from a three-year tour in South Korea and saw the film time and again that summer and fall as we settled into our new duty ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1577 <p>The holiday season goes into overtime with George M. Cohan&rsquo;s &ldquo;Give My Regards to Broadway&rdquo; at Gig Harbor&rsquo;s Encore Theater.<br /> <br /> The story is fairly straightforward for this Broadway classic. Theater director Dick ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1558 <p>It seems like an odd time to be staging a show about the death of Jesus when the rest of the world is marking his birth, but I suppose the theater has to take the touring slots that are offered.<br /> <br /> Seattle&rsquo;s Paramount Theatre is ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1512 <p>There are a few times in history when there is a perfect marriage between particular people and the times in which they live. Winston Churchill was the absolute right person for Britain during the early days of World War II. He managed to keep his ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1477 <p>It&rsquo;s a busy time in theater, so I&rsquo;ll get right to it.<br /> <br /> I wasn&rsquo;t wowed by Capital Playhouse&rsquo;s staging of Walter Jones&rsquo; &ldquo;The 1940s Radio Hour.&rdquo; I wanted to be wowed. It wasn&rsquo;t a bad show. ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1460 <p>The parade of princess shows continues in the South Sound. Tacoma Little Theatre, as you know, is finishing its run of &ldquo;Sleeping Beauty&rdquo; this weekend just as Federal Way&rsquo;s Centerstage Theatre is staging &ldquo;Cinderella.&rdquo;< ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1405 <p>One of the most awaited holiday traditions is taking to the stage of Harlequin Productions. The Olympia theater is staging its holiday offering, the latest in its original serial about a troupe of New York nightclubbers doing their part for the wa ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1386 <p>I have to be brutally honest here for a minute. I didn&rsquo;t have high hopes for <br /> Tacoma Little Theatre&rsquo;s production of &ldquo;Sleeping Beauty.&rdquo; I just didn&rsquo;t.<br /> <br /> But I played the role of the dutiful father a ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1335 <p>It is always great to see budding theaters thrive. Not only does the growth of new theaters provide job security to those brave souls who opt to draw paychecks from reviewing their works, but it means that staged theater is alive and well as it fi ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1301 <p>For a show not well seated in reality, take a trip to Seattle to see &ldquo;Into the Woods&rdquo; by Stephen Sondheim. The show tells the story of a fabled baker and his wife as they journey into the woods on a quest to lift a witch&rsquo;s curse ... text/html 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.weeklyvolcano.com Steve Dunkelberger http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/article/1266 <p>I must be honest. I was a little worried about &ldquo;Holes&rdquo; when I first saw the stage.<br /> <br /> In an effort for full disclosure, I&rsquo;ll give you the full story: My daughter is showing signs of liking being on the stage as much a ...