Before we get caught in the “sunshine guilt” of high summer, which can make missing even a minute of our city’s limited beautiful weather feel like a cardinal sin, get caught up in some of this month’s intriguing theater around the city, from unexpected musical hits to philosophical acrobatics. This unlikely 2006 hit (honestly, who would have thought that a pop musical adaptation of a 19th-century German play, with book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Duncan “Barely Breathing” Sheik, would win eight Tony Awards?) follows a group of teens navigating adolescence in a repressive small-town environment. But in my memory, the score — plaintive strings, distorted guitar chords, driving rhythms, melancholy power ballads — powerfully and perfectly echoes the angst, anger and yearning of the teenage years.
The show also became a star-maker that launched the careers of its two young leads, Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff, who originated the roles of naive young lovers Wendla Bergmann and Melchior Gabor. In this 5th Avenue Theatre production, Caitlin Sarwono and Ricky Spaulding star as Wendla and Melchior; 5th Avenue associate artistic director Jay Santos directs. Through June 30; 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 Fifth Ave.
, Seattle; tickets start at $39; 206-625-1900, 5thavenue.org The CliffsNotes for this production of “Clyde’s” read thusly: It’s a play by Lynn Nottage, directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton and starring Tracy Michelle Hughes. For some Seattle theate.
