As the weather cools, it’s time to move indoors to local performance stages, where a wide range of live entertainment comes to life. Take your pick from beloved musicals and classic plays, edgy dramas, special concerts, and innovative performance arts.
At Tacoma’s Broadway Center for the Performing Arts, the Pantages Theater will feature, among others, a tribute to Queen, the ballet Swan Lake, “Mark Twain Tonight” with Hal Holbrook, the Jeff Daniels Band and Chris Perondi’s “Stunt Dog Experience.” The Rialto brings to life “In My Life: A Musical Theatre Tribute to the Beatles.” And live autumn entertainment can be found at the 302-seat Theatre on the Square adjacent to the Pantages.
As Lacey Wright, associate executive director of the Broadway Center, sums up: “With appearances by Johnny Mathis, Audra McDonald, and Los Lobos, plus Broadway musicals, comedy, dance, film and family events, you’re sure to find performances you’ll love to share with friends and family.”
Tacoma Little Theatre, now in its 97th year, presents Boeing Boeing, set in 1960s Paris around the blossoming aerospace industry; Rabbit Hole, the 2007 Pulitzer Prize–winning drama; and the 1940s classic A Christmas Story.
At the Paradise Theatre in Gig Harbor, shows include Fiddler on the Roof, The Little Mermaid, the Puget Sound premiere of the Tony-winning Next to Normal and Scrooge: The Musical. The theater is also presenting the Brothers Grimm tale Into the Woods, by Lapine and Sondheim, with several accompanying public events.
In Olympia, The Washington Center for the Performing Arts has slated a season of international artists from a broad spectrum of genres including the dazzling dancer-illusionists in MOMIX: Alchemia, Martin Sexton’s spirited sounds of American music, Black Box Jazz, and the Golden Dragon Acrobats. Other highlights include the Seattle International Comedy Competition; National Geographic’s recollections of Mars explorations; “In My Life,” the Beatles musical remake; and the Seattle Rock Orchestra’s Pink Floyd tribute.
So no matter where you are around the South Sound, you can slip indoors and experience some of the region’s top stage performances, live concerts and innovative artistic venues.
HOLLY SMITH PETERSON
For Additional Information:
Broadway Center for the Performing Arts, Tacoma
253.591.5894 • broadwaycenter.org
Tacoma Little Theatre, Tacoma
253.272.2281 • tacomalittletheatre.com
Paradise Theatre, Gig Harbor
paradisetheatre.org
The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, Olympia
360.753.8586 • washingtoncenter.org