WEIRD SCIENCE
Harlequin searches for the perfect 10
Originally, the next slot at Harlequin Productions was to be filled by my favorite play of all time, Cyrano de Bergerac. ("We are the Gascony cadets!") So imagine my disappointment when that show's lead, Kerry Skalsky, tore his Achilles tendon, forcing director Scot Whitney into panic mode. His solution? Revive one of his company's biggest hits, a Norm Foster farce called The Love List, in which Bill (Gerald Browning) is asked to enumerate the top 10 qualities of his ideal woman. Then that woman (Alison Monda) walks into his apartment. As Whitney's tag line advises, "Be careful what you wish for!" Foster is often called "Canada's most produced playwright," and he's certainly among its most prolific. Well, The Love List is one of his funniest efforts, boasting guaranteed laughs and, in this run, a promising cast. - Christian Carvajal
[Harlequin Productions, The Love List, Sept. 29-Oct. 22, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $31, 202 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, 360.786.0151]
LITTLE CUPID'S CRAFTY ARROW
OLT goes Shakespearean
If you're a fan of Olympia Little Theatre, you know they never do musicals, and they never, ever do Shakespeare ... which makes it all the more impressive that someone talked them into doing Much Ado About Nothing. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Kenneth Branagh's 1993 movie version, which proved it's possible to do Shakespeare with sex appeal. I only hope aptly-named director Terence Artz's stage production will be as sensual, filled to bursting with music and dancing and caustic badinage. (I do ask, however, that unlike Branagh's version, it does not cast Keanu Reeves as Don John.) Since Harlequin's Richard III may be replaced with the postponed Cyrano de Bergerac, and since it's unclear at press time whether Theater Artists Olympia will stage Titus Andronicus, Artz appears to have a wide open Elizabethan field until Animal Fire reconvenes. I predict he'll run with it. - CC
[Olympia Little Theatre, Much Ado About Nothing, Feb. 24-March 18, 7:55 Thursday-Saturday, 1:55 Sunday, $10-$14, 1925 Miller Ave. NE, Olympia, 360.786.9484]
MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
Redefining family theater
I once scoffed at "children's theater," but Olympia Family Theater changed my mind by choosing Pixarian depths of material. As I look ahead to OFT's season, then, which show to highlight? I almost went with Bunnicula, which has a gifted director in Peter Kappler, and Jenny Greenlee will stage the hell out of A Christmas Story. But for my money, this season is all about Animal Farm. Unlike most of you, I never read Orwell's classic until I was in my 40s. Wow! It deserves its reputation as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, and it's as relevant now to world politics as it was in 1945, the year it was written to vilify Stalin. If it seems a bit heady for the wee ones, that's OK; they'll get lost in the story and never give a thought to the allegory. But it'll seep in ... and perhaps they'll vote more wisely when they're older. - CC
[Olympia Family Theater, Animal Farm, March 23-April 8, 8 p.m., Thursday-Saturday, also 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, $9-$16, Washington Center, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia, 360.570.1638]
FALL ARTS: Holy hand grenade!
FALL ARTS: Tacoma Third Thursday Artwalk update
FALL ARTS: Theater Artists Olympia goes questing
FALL ARTS: Our theater picks of the new season
FALL ARTS: Big shows are headed our way
FALL ARTS: Our visual arts picks of the new season