Spotlight: Civic offers few teases to 2012-13 season
Here’s a sneak peek at the Spokane Civic Theatre’s 2012-’13 season.
The 2011-’12 season is only halfway finished, yet executive artistic director Yvonne A.K. Johnson has already set the schedule for next season, which begins in September and continues through June 2013:
Main Stage
• “The Producers,” the Mel Brooks musical-comedy about a theatrical get-rich quick scheme gone bad.
• “White Christmas,” the stage adaptation of the great Bing Crosby musical, a reprise of a 2010 hit for the Civic.
• “Escanaba in Love,” the backwoods comedy by actor Jeff Daniels, the prequel to “Escanaba in da Moonlight,” a 2010 Civic hit.
• “The Drowsy Chaperone,” the hit 2006 Broadway musical set in the Jazz Age.
• “Treasure Island,” the great Robert Louis Stevenson adventure story (version pending).
• “Grease,” the wildly popular 1950’s musical (rights pending).
Firth J. Chew Studio Theatre
• “A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline,” a musical featuring Cline’s hits.
• “Next to Normal,” a 2009 rock musical about mental illness. It won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
• “On Golden Pond,” the well-known comedy-drama about two aging parents.
• “The Dixie Swim Club,” a comedy about five Southern women.
• “Happy Days,” the summer performing camp production.
Season tickets go on sale March 1. Call (509) 325-2507 for info.
Another ‘Swing’ extension
Talk about ac-cent-chuate-ing the positive.
“The Sisters of Swing: The Story of the Andrews Sisters” has been extended a second time, this time through Dec. 30.
The show was originally scheduled to end on Dec. 17. Then it was extended through this Saturday, due to strong demand.
Now, Interplayers has added four more shows: Dec. 27, 29 and 30 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 28 at 2 p.m.
For tickets, call (509) 455-PLAY, or TicketsWest outlets (800-325-SEAT or www.ticketswest.com).
Nothing like a hit show to lift a theater’s holiday spirits, said Interplayers head Reed McColm.
Three longtime Interplayers favorites will be involved in “Tuna Does Vegas,” beginning Jan. 19.
However, two of them have swapped roles.
The two-man cast will consist of Michael Weaver and Patrick Treadway, under the direction of William Marlowe.
The original lineup was announced as Weaver and Marlowe, with Treadway directing. Yet Marlowe decided that he would be happier in the director’s chair. All three are veterans of various “Greater Tuna” roles.
This will be a homecoming for Weaver, who was an actor, director at Interplayers for 18 years until 2003 when he went on to run Spokane’s Actors Repertory Theatre until its demise in 2008. Weaver has been performing at theaters around the country for the past three years.
Kenyan sounds
Kamatana, a musical duo from Kenya, has been booked into the Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave., at 7 p.m. Dec. 27.
They play traditional Kenyan instruments including a large Kenyan bass lyre called the obokano. They perform folk songs from their own Gusii tribe and other Kenyan tribes.
Tickets will be $15 at the door.
First Night buttons
Get your buttons early for Spokane’s big downtown New Year’s Eve party, First Night Spokane.
If you buy them in advance, they cost $12. If you wait until Dec. 31, they’ll cost $15.
You can buy buttons through TicketsWest outlets or at the various locations of Sterling Savings Bank, Windermere Real Estate, Cenex Zip Trip, Bergman Luggage and Mountain West Bank.
Buttons for children 10 and younger are free when accompanied by a button-wearing adult.
Beethoven’s Ninth
Speaking of New Year’s Eve, the Spokane Symphony will be reprising its popular New Year’s Eve tradition: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m., at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, 1001 W. Sprague.
Tickets run $22 to $27, or $16 for children 12 and younger, available by calling (509) 624-1200 or through TicketsWest outlets.