In this hilarious Christmas classic, a couple struggling to put on a church Christmas pageant is faced with casting the Herdman kids–probably the most inventively awful kids in history. You won’t believe the mayhem – and the fun – when the Herdmans collide head on with the traditional Christmas story! This delightful comedy is adapted […]
A Christmas Carol Tacoma Arts Live
Published on December 19, 1843, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens has been a holiday classic for 146 years. All editions were sold out by Christmas Eve; it has never been out of print. It has appeared in hardbound and paperback editions, and numerous plays everywhere from grade school productions to professional and many grand […]
Holmes for the Holidays Tacoma Little Theatre Play Review
Question: When is a foot, not a foot?Answer: When the game’s afoot! Holmes for the Holidays is a play-within-a-play. When the curtain opens we see the final minutes of a production featuring the character Sherlock Holmes as he solves a crime. The actors take their bows and the Holmes actor sees someone in the audience […]
Elf – The Musical – Tacoma Musical Playhouse Review
My wife Peg and I attended the opening night performance of “Elf – The Musical.” Before the orchestra’s downbeat for the Overture, Jon Douglas Rake stepped forward with great news: Elf – The Musical is completely sold out. As I studied the program I noticed that the book for the musical was written by Bob […]
Robin of Lakewood – Robin Hood – Panto Musical Comedy Review
We brought along two granddaughters to CenterStage and Robin Hood. It didn’t seem like it, but it had been a decade since we last brought Bella and Sofia to a CenterStage panto. They booed with the best of the audience and volunteered to come on stage, but the younger children were selected. They had a […]
Budgeting and Decorating for the Holidays
The holiday season is upon us. It is a time for sharing and celebrating. We all have different ways of expressing ourselves and we all have different budgets. There is no one way to do anything. People and families differ. People have been collecting holiday cards and Hallmark Decorations for years. Many people collect them […]
Come to the Cabaret, Old Chum, Come to the Cabaret
Cabaret is a riot of color, excellent music, sexy women and studly men belting out songs or quietly moaning, dancing, swinging their hips and whatever else moves. Such energy is exhibited that you can’t sit still and I sat through the whole show with a goofy smile pasted on my face. The audience is a […]
Modern Art and James C. Leonard
When you mention Tennessee most people think of Davy Crockett, or recording stars like Chet Atkins, the Allman Brothers, Tennessee Ernie Ford, or Aretha Franklin, but Tennessee was also home to artists. Joseph Delaney was a fixture of the New York art scene in the Harlem Renaissance. William Gilbert Gaul illustrated military subjects from the […]
A Blanket Policy to Help People in Need
Helping people doesn’t always take a big operation and lots of money. A small kindness can still warm a heart, and more. Here in Pierce County we had some frosty mornings in October, so we know we will have plenty more frost and freezing weather from now until April or May. Here’s an idea that […]