Theater comes alive again

What’s playing in the South Sound

By Alec Clayton on September 16, 2021

After a year and a half of no live theater on stage, Tacoma Musical Playhouse, Tacoma Little Theatre, Lakewood Playhouse, Olympia Little Theatre, Harlequin and all theaters in Tacoma and Olympia are once again able to welcome people into their auditoriums, and actors, singers and dancers onto their stages. In no particular order:

Twice now, Theater Artists Olympia has produced the ludicrous and hilarious The Head That Wouldn't Die, a spoof on the terrible 1962 horror flick The Brain That Wouldn't Die. Now they're bringing it back - once again directed by Pug Bujeaud and performed with most of the same actors - to the Broadway Olympia Production space in the Capital Mall

Broadway Olympia hosts performing arts of all types - theater, singing and dancing, comedians, you name it - in their black box studio in the mall. and they produce main stage shows at venues around the area. The Head That Wouldn't Die runs Oct. 7-10, 15,16, 22, 23 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct 17 at 2 p.m.

BROADWAY OLYMPIA, 625 Black Lake Blvd. SW, Olympia, 360.684.1255, info@broadwayolympia.com.  

Harlequin Productions opens up its season with a couple of homages to celebrated singers: Tenderly, the Rosemary Clooney Musical, Oct. 22-Nov. 20, and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, a tribute to the great Billie Holliday, Oct. 29-Nov. 27. These will rotate in repertory with Until the Flood, Nov. 5-Dec. 4, Pulitzer Prize finalist Dael Orlandersmith's play about the social uprising in Ferguson, Mo.

Through her signature songs such as "Hey There," "Sisters," "Come On-a My House," and many other favorites, Tenderly tells the story of Clooney's successes on film, radio, and TV, as well as her struggles with addiction and depression. Lady Day recreates one of Holliday's final shows in a seedy bar in Philadelphia.

HARLEQUIN PRODUCTIONS at State Theatre, 202 4th Ave. E, Olympia, 360.786.0151, boxoffice@harlequinproductions.org/.

Tacoma Musical Playhouse's big fall musical is Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (the Enchanted edition), with book by Hammerstein and Douglas Carter Bean, playing Nov. 26-Dec. 19, 7116 Sixth Ave, Tacoma, 253.565.6867 https://tmp.org/.

Lakewood Playhouse heads into the Christmas season with A Christmas Carol ... More or Less, a play-within-a-play spoof on the Dickens classic, Nov. 26-Dec. 19, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd., Lakewood, 253.588.0042, https://www.lakewoodplayhouse.org/.

Next up for mystery buffs it's Clue on Stage, directed by Jennifer York at Tacoma Little Theatre, based on the 1985 mystery inspired by the classic board game, Clue is a hilarious farce-meets-murder mystery. Murder and blackmail transpire in a remote mansion, where six mysterious guests assemble for an unusual dinner party. Oct. 22-Nov. 7, 210 N I St, Tacoma, 253.272.2281, https://www.tacomalittletheatre.com/

Olympia Little Theatre opens its 2021-22 season with the Agatha Christy murder mystery Go Back for Murder directed by Toni C. Holm and Allison Gerst, Oct. 8-23, 1925 Miller Ave. NE, Olympia, (360) 786-9484, http://www.olympialittletheater.org/.