Looking ahead to local companies' fall theater offerings, it'd take an NSA supercomputer to find anything resembling a trend. Thank the gods! All too often, theater troupes play it safe from September to December, packing 'em in for inoffensive comedies and heartwarming holiday shows, thus stocking their coffers for colder stretches to follow. Sure, you'll find some of that here, but for every roasted marshmallow of a Yuletide favorite, there's a brainteaser, perhaps even a head-scratcher.
Harlequin Productions in Olympia, for example, is just closing Middletown, an audience divider if ever I've seen one. Olympia Little Theatre (OLT) continues its run of Blithe Spirit, a reliable war horse of a romantic comedy, and Lakewood Playhouse just revived Agatha Christie's locked-room mystery And Then There Were None. Rolling the dice, however, Working Class Theatre Northwest is opening a David Ives update of Molière's Misanthrope, renamed School for Lies. Beginning Sept. 19, Tacoma Little Theatre (TLT) takes an uncharacteristic dive into Shakespeare, essaying the Bard's venerable comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. Olympia Family Theater (OFT) closes the month with Busytown, a musical adaptation of Richard Scarry's hardworking menagerie, on Sept. 26. Happily, that show marks OFT's first in their new space, the former Capital Playhouse venue at 612 Fourth Ave. E.
I'm so looking forward to Harlequin's production of Clybourne Park, opening Oct. 2. It's a brilliant script, perfect for that space and richly deserving of the Pulitzer and Tony it won on Broadway. A week later, Theater Artists Olympia (TAO) debuts its production of The Complete Works of Wm. Shakespeare (Abridged). Three new shows open Oct. 24, because why should I have a stress-free weekend? TLT struggles to remember how to rotary-Dial "M" for Murder, Lakewood Playhouse offers an old-time-radio-style Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and OLT plays spy vs. spy for Michael Hollinger's espionage comedy, Red Herring - all treats, no tricks, the week before Halloween. Dukesbay Productions adds Tea, a drama about Japanese "war brides" who meet in postwar Kansas, Oct. 30.
November brings the non-musical version of Little Women from Lakewood Playhouse, starting the 7th, then the calendar gets crowded (as usual) on Black Friday. OFT introduces us to Sally, a refreshingly nontraditional banana slug, in a kid-friendly comedy called How the Slug Stole Solstice. By popular demand, Harlequin rallies the troops for The Stardust Christmas Commotion, also opening Nov. 28.
Neil Simon's beloved comedy Barefoot in the Park should feel right at home at OLT. It opens Dec. 5, the same day TLT debuts Scrooge: The Musical. (It grieves me to report the latter show has nothing to do with Bill Murray.) Lakewood Playhouse's youth program, LIT (Lakewood Institute of Theatre), opens a charming musical adaptation of A Year With Frog and Toad Dec. 18, leaving your humble critic a week for last-minute Christmas shopping and a new round of Carvy theater award nominations. Of course, it wouldn't surprise me if TAO, Working Class, or some nearby college found an extra way to crowd my schedule and dazzle us along the way.
