Spotlight: It could be a wicked long line for ‘Wicked’
Start lining up, Broadway musical fans: Single tickets for “Wicked” will go on sale to the general public on March 5, 7 a.m. at the INB Performing Arts center box office.
For the next three hours, that’ll be the only place you can grab them. Then, at 10 a.m., any remaining tickets will go on sale through TicketsWest outlets (www.ticketswest.com, 800-325-SEAT).
This is an unusual on-sale format for Spokane’s Broadway touring shows, although it’s a ticket strategy that “Wicked” employs at all of its dates.
The last time there was a similar line-up event in Spokane was for “The Lion King” in 2005. Hundreds of people were in line by 5 a.m.
Lerria Schuh of WestCoast Entertainment said that “Wicked” has the “same kind of pent-up demand” that “The Lion King” had.
“The Lion King” went on to sell out a six-week run. “Wicked” will have only a two-week run at the INB, May 18-29, for a total of about 40,000 seats.
A lot of those tickets have already been sold to season subscribers and to groups. So the ticket inventory is, in Schuh’s words, “limited.”
“A lot of people who love big Broadway musicals are not going to get to go,” she predicted.
‘Spelling Bee’ sold out
This just in: The entire run of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at the Spokane Civic Theatre is already sold out.
That includes the two extra Saturday matinees that were already added to the regular run, which ends Feb. 20.
This is no big surprise, since (1) The show is in the small Firth Chew Studio Theatre space that seats less than 100 and (2) It’s a hoot of a show that is getting excellent word of mouth.
The people at the Civic are probably wondering about now if they should have run the show upstairs on the Main Stage. Yet the intimate setting is one of the reasons it works so well.
You may be able to catch a cut-down version in March. The Civic plans on making “Spelling Bee” its competition show for the statewide 2011 Kaleidoscope Festival – which will be hosted by the Civic, March 11-13.
‘Grizzly Adams’ producer
Charles E. Sellier Jr., 67, the producer and creator of “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams” and dozens of other TV shows and films, died Monday at his home near Coeur d’Alene.
“Chuck” Sellier has a huge screen resume – more than 30 feature films and 230 TV shows. His work includes such popular films as “In Search of Noah’s Ark,” “Chariots of the Gods,” “In Search of the Historic Jesus” and “The Bermuda Triangle.”
Recently, he and his locally based Grizzly Adams Productions had produced a number of religious-oriented films and TV shows, including “Miraculous Messages” and “The Case for Christ’s Resurrection.”
Sellier was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the children’s show “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in 1980.
The family requests that Sellier be remembered through donations to his passion, the ABC Foodbank, which serves Athol, Bayview and Careywood, Idaho.
Remembering Tramontin
J. Michael Tramontin, who appeared in many Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre productions, died Jan. 29 in New Orleans at age 26.
He played Dan in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” Kevin in “The Producers” and Link Larkin in “Hairspray” among other roles.
Tramontin was a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. In his bio in the 2009 CdA Summer Theater program, he said he was studying at the University of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit and “wandered the country as an evacuee for over a year” before returning to New Orleans.
He said he was “proud to have aided in the rebuilding of what the New Orleans theater community is today.”
According to his friends at the theater, Tramontin’s life has been remembered this week “in gatherings from Spokane to New York City.”
Utah Phillips tribute
A concert celebrating the release of “Long Gone,” a Utah Phillips tribute CD, will take place Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. at the Rick Singer Photography Studio, 415½ W. Main Ave.
It will include the late folksinger’s son, Duncan Phillips, and a number of former bandmates and musicians influenced by Utah, including Kate MacLeod, Paul Rasmussen, Doug Wintch and Gigi Love.
Tickets are $15, available at www.ricksingerphotography.com or (509) 838-3333. Seating is limited, as in, extremely limited.
‘Lady Lily’
Here’s a film of particular local interest at the Spokane International Film Festival, now in progress: “Lady Lily: Adventures in God’s Country,” directed by Spokane native Danielle Barbieri.
Barbieri graduated from Boston University’s film program in 2008. She lives and works in New York, but the movie was filmed at Priest Lake with a local cast.
It’s about two best friends, Lady and Lily, who meet a boy along the Idaho backroads.
Barbieri will attend the screening on Friday, 7:30 p.m. at the Magic Lantern Theatre, 25 W. Main Ave. A second screening has been added due to demand Friday at 11:30 p.m. at the Magic Lantern.
Floating Crowbar
One of Spokane’s finest Celtic bands, Floating Crowbar, will play the Bing Crosby Theater on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
This will be a chance to see the high-energy band in a concert setting. The instrumental mix includes pipes, whistles, flute, banjo, mandolin, fiddle and guitar.
Tickets range from $16 to $22, through TicketsWest outlets.