Months before First Date opened at CenterStage in Federal Way I checked out the musical opening and enjoyed it, no matter what a number of early reviews said, I posted the opening for interested play-goers. Peggy and I went to the Sunday production and loved the fantastic stage setting. Once the actual musical began, we were ecstatic. I could say that First Date was the best production CenterStage has had since their last Christmas pantomime, but that doesn’t shed the right light on the wonderful musical.
When we walked into the theatre and took one look at the stage we were “gob-smacked”, a British comment meaning “utterly astonished; astounded.” The set was fantastic showing the interior of a restaurant/bar/nightclub. A live band was on stage, but other than occasionally, we didn’t see the band. We didn’t need to.
The First Date featured Jessi Sellek as Casey, a young woman and Richard Cubi as Aaron, a young man. I don’t know how many times we have been blown away by the theatrical skill of Sellek. She has a great voice, handles herself well in every production we’ve seen, moves well, and has a very nice voice and range.
We had never really seen Richard Cubi other than a brief in In the Heights for a brief moment or non-speaking parts, however we had noticed his smooth movements and apparent skills over a couple of years now. In First Date, he stars, he shines, he moves, he is complete. We look forward to seeing him in more local productions.
Sophie J. Sen plays the waitress on the bar/restaurant. She received much of her training from Cornish College. Her character sang, danced, projected as she played multiple characters and put smiles on our faces and sparkles in all eyes. Her energy, dancing and acting were remarkable.
Haunz Stroschein plays Gabe. Like my cousin, Lavinia, an actress, a director, and a producer, he graduated from Central Washington University. He has appeared in a number of local productions including Rock of Ages at Tacoma Little Theatre where he was head and shoulders above the rest of the cast. He is tall and lithe and did a fantastic job of encouraging and sharing disappointment with her glib rejection all the while in character.
Rylie Latham, besides being an excellent actress, also does double duty by working at CenterStage. She did a very nice job of acting in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Emma at CenterStage. She has been learning the skills of choreographing, and directing for the last three years.
Natalie Wingerter danced and sang, very sexily in her pink, tight fitting dress. The Wingerters are an acting family.
Mandela Gardner appeared locally in Tacoma Musical Playhouse as well as Renton Civic Theater, but the most interesting piece of news was a number of productions he was in from Waterville, Maine. Actually, I am wrong about that. The most interesting thing about Mandela is his dancing, singing and his various expressive body movements. He left us opened mouthed and staring.
Kyle Sinclair was the understudy. Kyle did excellent acting at CenterStage in Tartuffe and Oregon Trail. Before First Date opened, we were hoping that Kyle would be replacing any ill actors for First Date, but we weren’t disappointed with the cast at all. We looked forward to seeing him. We were disappointed we didn’t get to see him in action again, but things change and most likely we will see him again at CenterStage or in Tacoma and/or Lakewood.
Jeanette Sanchez did an excellent job directing First Date and giving us a great production to laugh and enjoy live. Sanchez is deeply involved in local theater and the arts. We have enjoyed her productions all around the South Sound. We think she did an incredible job with First Date!
First Date runs through April 21 . . . we encourage you to get tickets and then sit back, laugh, and just enjoy the story of love and caring.
For tickets please visit – https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=191364
