Broadway comes to the Auburn stage as part of the City’s expanded Bravo Performing Arts Series for the 2010-11 season.
From classics to something new, the series lineup has grown from four performances to 29 events by combining shows at the Auburn Avenue Theater and the Auburn Performing Arts Center.
“(The expanded lineup) creates new arts opportunities for all,” said Daryl Faber, Auburn Parks, Arts and Recreation director.
Among the blockbuster performances will be a presentation of the Broadway version of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps” on April 23 at APAC.
The series also will feature several opportunities for the family, including a full season of Ave Kids and Saturday matinees featuring music, magic, puppetry, theater and comedy.
The series kicks off Sept. 24 with Chocolate Confessions, a one-woman musical comedy featuring a special chocolate reception sponsored by Gosanko Chocolate Art.
Tickets for the series go on sale Monday and are available online at www.auburnwa.gov/arts, the City’s Web site, or in person at the Auburn Parks, Arts and Recreation building at 910 Ninth St. SE.
Tickets also are available by phone at 253-931-3043. Ticket discounts are offered on purchases to 5 or more different shows and group rates are offered on 10 or more tickets purchased to the same performance.
For more information visit the city’s Web site.
2010-2011 BRAVO Season Performances
• Chocolate Confessions: The Musical Comedy
Friday, September 24, 7:30 pm
Auburn Avenue Theater
Tickets: $20/$18
In this one-woman musical comedy, you’ll meet over a dozen unique characters and hear amusing anecdotes about chocolate. A special chocolate reception provided by Gosanko Chocolate Art prior to the show at 6:30 p.m.
• The Coats
Saturday, October 2, 7:30 pm
Auburn Avenue Theater, 10 Auburn Ave
Tickets: $20/$18
The Coats four-voice chemistry truly demonstrates the novelty and adaptability of a cappella music. Their repertoire spans popular hits of over four decades, and includes everything from ‘50’s doo-wop to jazz, country to ballads, and rap.
• Sambatuque
Saturday, October 23, 7:30 pm
Auburn Avenue Theater, 10 Auburn Ave.
Tickets: $17/$15
This exciting new Seattle-based quintet performs a vibrant and eclectic blend of music from Brazil and the Caribbean.
• Seattle Int’l Comedy Competition
Friday, November 5 and 12, 7: 30 pm
Auburn Avenue Theater, 10 Auburn Ave.
Tickets: $20/$18
America’s best comedians compete for prize money in the 31st Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition. The Auburn Avenue Theater will host two nights of the competition’s preliminaries and feature lots of laughs. Recommended for ages 18 and above.
• Sinatra at the Sands
Saturday, November 13, 7:30 pm
Auburn Avenue Theater, 10 Auburn Ave.
Tickets: $20/$18
Return to the heyday of Las Vegas and the reigning king of the strip as Joey Jewell revives Frank Sinatra in the tradition of the great shows of the Rat-Pack era. You’ll be in for an unforgettable night of swinging big band music.
• Erwillian Holiday Concert
Friday, December 3, 7:30 pm
Auburn Avenue Theater, 10 Auburn Ave.
Tickets: $17/$15
Erwillian shapes their unique sonic blend around traditional melodies with distinctly modern influences. Instruments range from recorders, guitars, and drums, to the more unusual – bouzouki, hammered dulcimer – and just about everything in between.
• Red, White & Blue Holiday Concert
Sunday, December 5, 2:30 pm
Performing Arts Center, 700 E Main St.
Tickets free, but required for admission. Tickets will be available beginning November 1st. Limit 6 per family.
Celebrate the holidays with this festive and rousing concert of patriotic music honoring our troops, together with all your favorite holiday music and carols.
• An Inspirational Christmas with Elvis
Friday, December 10 and Saturday, December 11, 7:30 pm
Auburn Avenue Theater, 10 Auburn Ave.
Tickets: $20/$18
From the many years of admiration of Elvis, Danny Vernon has created a show that holds the excitement of the King on stage throughout various stages in his career.
• Rainbow Dance Theatre
Friday, January 28, 7:30 pm
Performing Arts Center, 700 E Main St.
Tickets: $20/$18
Dance and visual illusion are combined with humor and nonstop surprises in the three remarkable dance stories that create Rainbow Dance Theatre’s Mystery and Magic.
• Tingstad and Rumbel
Saturday, February 19, 7:30 pm
Auburn Avenue Theater, 10 Auburn Ave.
Tickets: $17/$15
Grammy Award winners Eric Tingstad and Nancy Rumbel have 19 albums to their credit and truly love making music. Eric Tingstad is a composer who plays fingerstyle guitar. Nancy Rumbel is one of the world’s premier oboe and English horn players and a virtuoso of the double ocarina.
• Expect the Impossible: Mark Nizer in 3-D
Friday, February 25, 7:30 pm
Performing Arts Center, 700 E Main St.
Tickets: $20/$18
Imagine juggling laser beams at 1000 rpms, or throwing five ping-pong balls 20 feet in the air using just your mouth, or juggling an electric carving knife, propane tank, and bowling ball. Now imagine it in 3-D! Mark Nizer’s unique combination of original comedy, world class juggling, movement, music and 3-D technology promises a spellbinding evening.
• Uncle Bonsai
Saturday, March 12, 7:30 pm
Auburn Avenue Theater, 10 Auburn Ave.
Tickets: $17/$15
Uncle Bonsai’s acoustic folk-pop songs are like one-act plays or very short satirical stories that defy strict pop, folk, or singer-songwriter categories. This vocal trio brings their wonderful harmonies and their witty lyrics to a show you will not want to miss.
• The Gothard Sisters: Celebrating St. Patty’s Day
Thursday, March 17, 7:30 pm
Auburn Avenue Theater, 10 Auburn Ave.
Tickets: $17/$15
Celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day at the Ave! Fast fiddle numbers, singing ballads, and champion Irish step dancing. Come join the toe-tapping, fiddlin’ fun with mugs of green beer available for purchase.
• Broadway Showstoppers
Saturday, March 26, 7:30 pm
Performing Arts Center, 700 E Main St.
Tickets: $25/$23
Take a walk down Broadway from blockbuster hit shows to sizzling revivals to the hottest new tickets in town. This show is a roller coaster ride from one showstopper to the next with music from Les Miserables, The Producers, Spamalot, Chicago, Ragtime, Man of La Mancha, Fiddler on the Roof, Funny Girl and Phantom of the Opera to name a few.
• Film Screening: Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps
Saturday, April 9, 7:30 pm
Auburn Avenue Theater, 10 Auburn Ave.
Tickets: $6
Alfred Hitchcock’s classic The 39 Steps (1935) will be screened at the Theater. Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Gaumont-British Pictures; Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
• Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps
Saturday, April 23, 7:30 pm
Performing Arts Center, 700 E Main St.
Tickets: $25/$23
Alfred Hitchcock’s award-winning The 39 Steps is Broadway’s longest-running comedy thriller. Performed by a cast of four playing 150 unique characters, The 39 Steps follows a man with a boring life as he meets a woman with a thick accent who says she’s a spy and is then murdered. A mysterious organization called “The 39 Steps” is hot on the man’s trail in a nationwide manhunt. Winner of two Tony and Drama Desk Awards and London’s Oliver Award for Best New Comedy, The 39 Steps is packed with laughs, thrills and suspense!
• Auburn AVE Kids shows
The BRAVO Season also includes performance just for kids, Auburn AVE Kids, which showcases local, regional and national acts and touring presentations with an emphasis on audiences ages four through 12 and their parents. AVE Kids performances are on select Saturdays at 2pm at the Auburn Avenue Theater. All shows are $6 in advance or at the door.
• Thistle Theater presents: Tale of Two Bad Mice
Saturday, September 25
Young Beatrix Potter persuades her governess to join her in re-enacting the day the mice came to be called two bad mice.
• Auburn Kids Theater: Pirates of Penzance Jr
Saturday and Sunday, October 9 & 10
Wacky, irreverent and as entertaining today as it was when it first opened in 1879, this play spins a hilarious farce of sentimental pirates, bumbling policemen, dimwitted young lovers, dewy-eyed daughters and an eccentric Major-General.
• Doktor Kaboom!
Saturday, October 16
Creatively blending theatre arts with the wonders of scientific exploration, Doktor Kaboom keeps his audience riveted with interest and rolling with laughter whilst exploring scientific content.
• Steve the Pretty Good
Saturday, November 20
Steve the Pretty Good pulls out all the stops to present a magic show so amazing he will finally get a more impressive name than “pretty good”. With the help of the audience and a brand new assistant, Steve attempts the classics of magic with hilarious results.
• Science Circus
Saturday, January 22
Explore gravity through bowling ball juggling, gyroscopic stability through glass bowl spinning, and center of mass on an acrobatic ladder. Add the irresistible force of levity to even more tricks and you’ve got a rough idea of what the Science Circus is all about.
• Studio Eastside: Jack and the Beanstalk
Saturday, February 19
Join this fanciful journey where a handful of beans really can produce magic, a goose really can lay a golden egg, and a beanstalk does indeed reach into the heavens where an immortal giant lives, breaths, and swears vengeance for all eternity.
• 5th Avenue Theater: Rosie the Riveter
Saturday, March 12
The can-do spirit of the 1940s comes to the Ave in this fast, funny, and inspirational musical adventure the story of the women who joined the workforce, drove the taxis, paved the highways and, yes, riveted the airplanes when the men marched off to war.
• Auburn Kids Theater: Emperor’s New Clothes
Saturday and Sunday, April 16 & 17
Laugh your socks off in this fairy-tale pop musical with eclectic styles ranging from 50s rock to 20s jazz to Celtic and more!
• Book-It Repertory Theater: Secret Garden
Saturday, May 14
A lonely girl discovers the key to an unkempt garden and, with the aid of a local boy, learns how to make it grow. This adaptation of the classic novel invites you to experience this classic story of family, friendship, and renewal.
