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Alec Clayton

Saturday July 4, 2009 - Tacoma, WA

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Tonight:

BLOGS

• Tacoma Rock City: Green Day set list

• Arts: Critic's Picks This Week

• TNT Diner: First Bite: Minoela on Fawcett

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Alec Clayton HEADLINES

Review: Southern Gothic tale pours on the odd charm

Published June 26th, 2009 - 12:05AM

I really enjoyed the first act of “The Miss Firecracker Contest” at Paradise Theatre in Gig Harbor. Director Jeff Richards’ set, the costumes by Vicki Richards and the cast were outstanding. The principal actors nailed the quirkiness and the Southern accents of their eccentric characters.

Wit enlivens play for sophisticated viewers only

Published June 19th, 2009 - 12:05AM

Olympia Little Theatre ends every season with an envelope-pushing production as part of their “Director’s Series.” This year they push that envelope with an adult-only show that includes sexual situations, brief nudity and adult language, not to mention a huge helping of cynicism. The show is Douglas Carter Beane’s 2007 Tony and GLAAD award-nominated play “The Little Dog Laughed.”

1930s-era play charms with controlled chaos at Lakewood Playhouse

Published June 12th, 2009 - 12:05AM

The rollicking comedy “Once in a Lifetime” by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman was a harsh satirical send-up of Hollywood when first produced in 1930. Today it has lost some of its satirical bite, but it’s still funny – not to mention a huge challenge to directors and actors because it has big sets, lots of set changes, and a huge cast of outlandish characters who enter and exit the stage in controlled chaos.

Review: ‘Buddy’ goes to the heart of the story

Published June 5th, 2009 - 12:05AM

Buddy Holly rocks. He rocked Clear Lake, Iowa, in 1959, and he’s rocking the stage at Tacoma Little Theatre in 2009 in “Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story” starring Ryan Coleman and directed by Brett Carr.

Children’s tale as sweet as a pot of honey

Published May 29th, 2009 - 12:05AM

How can you not love Winnie the Pooh? He’s cute, cuddly, and all he wants is honey – lots and lots of honey.

Child actors stand out in story of 1900s orphans

Published May 15th, 2009 - 12:05AM

Tacoma Little Theatre is producing the Aurand Harris play “The Orphan Train” with three performances only this weekend at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

‘Heaven’ proves predictable but utterly charming

Published May 8th, 2009 - 12:05AM

Olympia Little Theatre’s production of “Heaven Can Wait” is funny and deeply satisfying despite being mawkish and predictable. Director Toni Murray acknowledges in a program note that the story is dated, old-fashioned and highly improbable, but asks audiences to “set aside your cynicism and consider the idea that there are more Joe Pendletons than there are Jonathon Farnsworths – even today.”

Playhouse’s ‘Producers’ charms with wit, timing

Published May 1st, 2009 - 12:05AM

“The Producers” at Tacoma Musical Playhouse is fabulous.

Cheeky play from Britain’s 1960s still charming today

Published April 24th, 2009 - 12:05AM

“Loot” by Joe Orton was ahead of its time when it premiered in Cambridge, England, in 1965. Called a black comedy, it was shocking in its irreverence and its skewering of such institutions as the Catholic Church. Nothing was sacred. “Loot” poked fun at the upper class, portrayed law enforcement as corrupt, and made light of the dead.

Tacoma actors bring skill, humanity to ‘Golden’

Published April 17th, 2009 - 12:05AM

“On Golden Pond” at Tacoma Little Theatre is a realistic and touching play that invites audience members into the lives of Norman and Ethel Thayer as we summer with them at their lakeside home. We are left glad to be alive and happy to know the Thayer family. Plus, as lovable but crotchety old men go, none are more lovable than Norman Thayer, played here by Clark Maffitt in his homecoming debut after four years away from the Tacoma area.

Tacoma Little Theatre's "On Golden Pond" is better than the movie

Published April 10th, 2009 - 5:15PM

“On Golden Pond” at Tacoma Little Theatre is a very realistic and touching play that invites audience members into the lives of Norman and Ethel Thayer as we summer with them at their lakeside home. We are left glad to be alive and happy to know the Thayer family. Plus, as lovable but crotchety old men go, none are more lovable than Norman Thayer, played here by Clark Maffitt in his homecoming debut after four years away from the Tacoma area.

‘Elephant Man’ focuses on the abstract

Published April 3rd, 2009 - 12:05AM

In “The Elephant Man” Harlequin Productions makes full use of certain theatrical traditions that have become Harlequin trademarks.

REVIEW: Lakewood Playhouse's 'Into the Woods' silly yet sophisticated

Published April 2nd, 2009 - 4:32PM

On the one hand, the Lakewood Playhouse performance of the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical “Into the Woods” is a well-acted and especially well-directed parody of all the major children’s fairy tales skillfully woven together into one silly yet sophisticated story. On the other hand, it is a dark and twisted tale of temptation, greed and human frailty that calls to mind another Sondheim dark fantasy, “Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”

REVIEW: Playhouse offers stellar ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’

Published March 27th, 2009 - 12:05AM

The day after “Jesus Christ Superstar” opened at Capital Playhouse the theater announced that it was adding four performances, “with the potential for three more,” including two on Easter Sunday.

TMP stages fabulous ‘Footloose’ musical

Published March 20th, 2009 - 12:05AM

The Tacoma Musical Playhouse production of “Footloose” is a rousing musical filled with upbeat music and high-energy dancing.

‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ production marvelous

Published March 13th, 2009 - 12:05AM

Tim Goebel and Tim Hoban are absolutely convincing as the real-life Mitch Albom and Morrie Schwartz in Albom’s autobiographical “Tuesdays with Morrie” at Olympia Little Theatre.

Don’t miss quirky comedy ‘Absent Friends’

Published February 27th, 2009 - 12:05AM

The “Absent Friends” play at Lakewood Playhouse is an excellent ensemble piece. It’s a tongue-in-cheek, irreverent comedy in which the love of close friends is severely tested.

Dark, humorless ‘Crucible’ remains relevant

Published February 20th, 2009 - 12:05AM

Arthur Miller’s classic drama “The Crucible” at Tacoma Little Theatre is as relevant today as it was when it first played the boards in the 1950s. Now as then, it is an evening of unrelenting horror – not the horror of slasher and vampire films but the more real horror of human beings throwing their friends and neighbors into the crucible of hijacked justice.

‘Glorious’ falls short of comedic expectations

Published February 13th, 2009 - 12:05AM

I had high hopes for “Glorious” at Tacoma Musical Playhouse. The true life story of Florence Foster Jenkins, billed as “the worst singer in the world,” seemed tailor-made for a musical comedy, and Sharry O’Hare as Jenkins and Josh Anderson as her pianist, Cosme McMoon, seemed inspired casting.

Capital Playhouse provides ‘Grand Night’ of music

Published February 6th, 2009 - 12:05AM

The musical revue “A Grand Night for Singing” at Capital Playhouse in Olympia features songs from legendary songwriters Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. People who love show tunes – and especially those who love standards from such hit musicals as “Oklahoma,” “South Pacific” and “The Sound of Music” – will surely enjoy this performance. It is beautifully staged, clever, witty and, according to director Jeff Kingsbury, “wicked”; although I must have blinked during the wicked parts.

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