The Top Things to Do This Weekend: October 16–19
Seattle Opera returns with the lustful drama of Don Giovanni.
CLASSICAL & MORE
Oct 18–Nov 1
Don Giovanni
Seattle Opera begins its 2014–15 season with the passions of Don Giovanni. Mozart's classic opera tells the tale of the lustful Casanova and his shocking exploits with a sweeping score and soaring singing that keeps it a masterpiece centuries after its premiere. McCaw Hall, $71–$278.
CONCERTS
DANCE
Oct 17–26
Made in Seattle: Jody Kuehner – The Cherdonna Show: Worth My Salt
Jody Kuehner’s over-the-top alter ego Cherdonna Shinatra puts many of Seattle’s male drag performers to shame. Her colorful costumes (designed by Mark Mitchell), wild wigs, and garish makeup transform her, but it doesn’t mask her inherent dancing and comedic talents. In her first evening-length Cherdonna show, Worth My Salt, Kuehner explores femininity and gender inequality in a brash performance piece. Velocity Dance Center, $20–$25.
THEATER
Thru Oct 26
Kinky Boots
The story of a company pulling itself up by its bootstraps has never been as literal as in the musical Kinky Boots, which makes its Seattle debut. The show tells the true story of a floundering British shoe factory that begins making flamboyant high boots for drag queens to stay afloat. Cyndi Lauper's Tony-winning score will have patron's tapping their toes regardless of their footwear choices. 5th Avenue Theatre, $50–$145.
Thru Nov 2
The Vaudevillians
Jinkx Monsoon went from fringy Seattle favorite to drag superstar after winning season five of the reality show competition RuPaul's Drag Race in 2013. Since then, she's spent much of her time touring The Vaudevillians, a wild two-performer caberet. In the show, Monsoon and Major Scales play pop hits like "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" in the style of Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. The show is uncouth, unrelenting, and uproariously funny. Seattle Repertory Theatre, $37–$57.
VISUAL ART
Thru Jan 11
Pop Departures
Pop art was always a response to the cultural norm. The genre’s artists took what was commonplace in modernity and subverted it, fetishized it, and spat it back out for further public consumption. Seattle Art Museum’s Pop Departures exhibit takes an in-depth look at the art inspired by the initial 1960s pop art boom and the way it subsequently shaped our contemporary viewpoint. Seattle Art Museum, $20.
Thru Jan 18
Pan Gongkai: Withered Lotus Cast in Iron
Pan Gongkai is one of China's leading artistic scholars, serving as president of the prodigious Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. If there's one person to provide an education in Chinese brush painting, it's him. And with Withered Lotus Cast in Iron, he's here to show us what we're getting wrong about his country's signature style. The large-scale improvisational paintings of seasons, flowers, and atmosphere require a visitor to take the time fully examine them, to study them. Which is just what Pan wants. Frye Art Museum, free.
Thru Mar 1
Jason Walker: On the River, Down the Road
Bellingham-based artist Jason Walker’s solo show On the River, Down the Road addresses the intersection between a rapidly growing, often ruthless civilization and the natural world. Walker brings this clashing reality to life through meticulously rendered and hand-painted ceramic sculptures of deer navigating through a miniature cityscape, ravens guarding a nest of rubble that is empty that depicts cars speeding down an interstate, and more. Animals and economics coexist in the same works begging the viewer to question how wrong the scene is despite how beautifully executed it may be. Bellevue Arts Museum, $10.
SPECIAL EVENTS
COMEDY
Thru Oct 17
Dave Chappelle
Dave Chappelle shot to stardom with a mere two seasons of Chappelle's Show, and then basically disappeared for seven years. Last year he finally reemerged and reconnected with his standup comedy roots. When he visited Seattle in October 2013, it resulted in five sold out shows at the Moore Theatre. Now Chappelle returns for four nights of shows at the smaller, more intimate Neptune Theatre. Neptune Theatre, sold out.
Ron Funches
“I kind of treat (my parents) like a Walmart… I really don’t like going to them for any reason, I’d prefer it if they stayed out of my town, but I get a strange satisfaction from stealing from them.” - Ron Funches. The Undateable actor and @Midnight favorite brings his soft-spoken standup delivery and his disarmingly adorable Japanese schoolgirl laugh to Tacoma for three nights of shows. Tacoma Comedy Club, $10-15.
BOOKS & TALKS
Sat, Oct 18
Lena Dunham
Even when Lena Dunham is acting, she's writing (in a roundabout way). On Girls, Dunham lets art imitate life as she plays her endearing aspiring writer alter ego Hannah Horvath. As the show's creator, writer, and star, everything passes through the hilarious, hyper-aware, and painfully accurate lens of her 20-something lit-minded worldview. After nailing down a $3.5 million publishing deal, Dunham release her first book Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s Learned and stops in Seattle for a reading and Q&A session. University Temple Chapel, sold out.
