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The Top Things to See or Do in Seattle: October 2014

A Tony-winning play, a Newbery-winning book, and Macklemore’s pals release competing albums.

Images: Brantley Gutierrez; Autumn De Wilde


Battle of the MackleFriends

Fences and Mary Lambert, two of Macklemore’s Seattleite pals and the singers behind “Otherside Remix” and “Same Love,” each release a new album on October 14. So, naturally, we’ve pitted them head to head.

Oct 14   fencesmusic.com; marylambertsings.com
 

Fences ARTIST Mary Lambert
Lesser Oceans Album TItle Heart on my Sleve
Fences Debut LP Heart on My Sleeve
“Arrows” Lead Single “Secrets”
“Arrows land, we’re falling
Arrows were fallen
Single’s Chorus “I don’t care if the world knows what my secrets are, So what?”
Yes, on “Arrows” Macklemore Appears on Record? No

Chekhov in a Blender 

What do you get when you mash playwright Anton Chekhov’s masterworks like The Seagull and Three Sisters with a modernity that includes Entourage and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? Apparently, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, 2013’s Tony winner for Best Play. Vanya and Sonia’s unemployed life full of Chekhovian misery receives a jolt of drama when their sister Masha returns to the family home with her much younger lover Spike and things take a turn for the absurd. 

Oct 17–Nov 16   ACT Theatre, acttheatre.org

Pages to Soothe the Savage Beast

Animals have always had a knack for tugging on the heartstrings in children’s literature. The latest entrant in that pantheon is Ivan the lonely captive gorilla from Katherine Applegate’s The One and Only Ivan. Based on a real gorilla that spent 27 years as a Tacoma mall attraction, the story of Ivan bonding with a baby elephant taken from the wild earned the Newbery Medal in 2013. Now Applegate tells the nonfiction account in Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla. 

Oct 7    University Book Store, bookstore.washington.edu

 
 
 

“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. 

Oct 16–18   Tacoma Comedy Club, tacomacomedyclub.com

 

 


Bows and Merlots

Seattle Symphony loosens its collar once again and steps out into Benaroya Hall’s grand lobby for the first installment of the 2014–15 Baroque and Wine series. Patrons can pair their evening drinks ($10 for four pours) with three classic concertos by Bach, a sinfonia by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and a suite by Telemann. Just make sure not to imbibe to Beethovian levels.

Oct 24 & 25  Benaroya Hall, seattlesymphony.org

Published in the Washington's 100 Best Wines issue of Seattle Met.











Seth Sommerfeld
Seth Sommerfeld
Assistant Editor (Arts) Seth Sommerfeld runs the arts department at Seattle Met, crafting the magazine's On the Town section, editing the Culture Fiend blog, and contributing to reader service features such as “The Ultimate Seahawks Guide” and the front-of-the-book department, Mudroom. Seth has written about music and culture for Rolling Stone, Spin, Pacific Northwest Inlander, Charleston Post and Courier, Syracuse Post-Standard, and Billings Gazette. He also extensively covered the NBA Draft for years for Fox Sports and NBADraft.net, and was published as part of Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars: An Anthology. Originally from Billings, Montana, Seth first lived in Washington while earning an undergraduate degree in journalism and broadcasting at Gonzaga University. He followed up those studies at Syracuse University, where he earned a master’s degree in arts journalism.