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Fall Arts
Theater: Crowdpleasers and classics

By Misha Berson
Seattle Times theater critic

JOAN MARCUS/ DISNEY The Broadway version of "The Lion King" comes alive for a run at the Paramount Nov. 30.

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"Anna and the Tropics" and "Jumpers" and "Take Me Out," oh my. "The Lion King" and "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Hairspray." Oh my.

You'd think Seattle was Broadway West, considering all the attractions slated for our stages, which recently played (or are still playing) on the Great White Way.

Nothing wrong with going with the east-west flow — as long as there's fresh, homegrown material to balance things out.

And there is, including world premiere adaptations of Jonathan Raban's novel "Waxwings," the children's storybook "The Magic City," and a well-earned encore for the quirky puppet fable "Frankenocchio."

Local theaters are still trying to recover from the lengthy fiscal spiral that led to layoffs, pinch-backs and worse. But most of the major survivors have not chucked their missions to do substantial shows with bite and breadth — including reworkings of such solid fare as "Our Town" and "South Pacific." Overall, the emphasis is on Americana.

Smaller, scruffier troupes will keep young actors busy doing rarely-seen works ( "Requiem for a Heavyweight"), shoestring musicals (an off-beat, off-budget take on "Jesus Christ Superstar"), and tryouts of fresh scripts.

And do keep an eye on plucky newer fringe venues ( Capitol Hill Arts Center, Georgetown's JEM Arts Center) where good things can happen.

CRITIC'S PICKS

"Anna in the Tropics." Nilo Cruz's Pulitzer Prize-honored drama, about Depression-era workers in a Florida cigar factory, did not get the staging it deserved on Broadway. Let's hope Seattle Repertory Theatre's mounting by Sharon Ott (in her last season as Rep artistic director) better captures the script's sensuous lyricism. Oct. 2-30.

	Bartlett Sher, director of "Our Town."

"Our Town." Intiman Theatre launches a five-year "American Cycle" with a multi-ethnic vision of Grover's Corners, the small American everytown illuminated in Thornton Wilder's classic 1938 play. Intiman's nimble artistic head Bartlett Sher directs. Oct. 8-Nov. 20.

"Waxwings." The most intriguing world premiere play this fall: Book-It Repertory Theatre mounts Julie Beckman's stage adaptation of the probing 2003 novel by locally based author Jonathan Raban, about Seattle during the roaring dot.com boom years. Oct. 5-31. Seattle Repertory Theatre.

"Take Me Out." A gay baseball star "outs" himself, in Richard Greenberg's funny, provocative play about bigotry, superstar egos and the Great American Pastime. Seattle Rep presents the play's local debut, staged by its original Broadway director Joe Mantello. (Expect locker-room male nudity). Nov. 6-Dec. 4.

"The Lion King." The key to the huge success of this Broadway/Disney musical spectacle about an African lion cub is its ever-surprising visual vibrancy, conceived and directed by the inimitable Julie Taymor. Nov. 30-Jan. 16.

ONE TO WATCH

	Fetching Taryn Darr stars in "South Pacific" at the Village Theatre starting Sept. 15.

Taryn Darr

It ain't easy to be a perky blond musical theater ingenue these days, without seeming hopelessly retro or plastic.

So what Seattle performer has the stuff to scamper into the sandprints left by Mary Martin (and, in the film version, by Mitzi Gaynor), in the role of Nellie Forbush (the "cockeyed optimist" Army nurse in Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific")?

Our hunch is artistic director Steve Tomkins made the right choice when he tapped Taryn Darr to tackle the part at Village Theatre this fall.

Darr, a 1999 University of Washington grad, is fair-haired and ebullient, natch. But she's also a fetching singer, a snappy dancer and an easy-on-the-nerves stage personality — or so we've seen in her past turns in "Babes in Arms" and "Grease" at the Village.

Nellie, though, is a taller order: a spunky gal whose ingrained prejudices almost get the best of her during a World War II romance. You need a real actor-dancer-singer triple threat to play Ensign Forbush. If Darr really is one, here's her chance to glimmer.

— Misha Berson, mberson@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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