Showtunes Theatre Company completes its first decade of effervescent life and kicks off its first season at the Moore Theatre with a limited run (this Saturday, June 5, and Sunday, June 6) of Follies. In this Sondheim & Goldman musical (1971) a revue company popular in the 1920s holds a reunion 30 years later in a once-beautiful, now dilapidated theater that will soon be demolished. The romantic follies of two married couples who had been members of the company in their youth are sometimes comically, sometimes painfully unveiled in songs and vaudeville routines. Musical numbers from Follies include the memorable “Losing My Mind” and “I’m Still Here.”
Also still here, and still beautiful after more than a century of hosting entertainment, is The Moore, Seattle's oldest extant theater. With Follies, The Moore harks back to its origins as a musical venue and vaudeville house whose popularity peaked during the Great Depression as audiences sought distraction from dismaying global problems. Sound familiar? This weekend you can forget the world's troubles while you support a showplace that’s on the National Register of Historic Places, and benefit Showtunes, too.
The company is known for its sparkling reprises of yesterday's popular musicals and for concerts such as the recent Music, Music, Music — summed up as "a musical theater-lover's paradise" by Seattle’s self-styled "theater geek" Jay Irwin at Broadwayworld.com. Martin Charnin, creator of and lyricist for Annie, is Showtunes artistic director, and Maggie Stenson Pehrson, most recently seen as Mrs. Darling in Peter Pan at Seattle Children's Theatre, is executive producer.
If you go: Follies, The Moore Theatre, 1932 Second Ave (at 2nd & Virginia) on Saturday June 5, 8:00pm and Sunday June 6, 2:00pm. Tickets: $15-$25 (not including fees). Advance purchases can be made online, by calling 1-877-784-4849, or (low-fee option) visiting the Paramount box office, 911 Pine, Friday 10am-6pm.
