Live theater options abound this weekend — and Olympia Symphony performs eclectic mix
Harlequin premieres screwball comedy
Harlequin Productions is opening the professional world premiere of “Building Madness,” a screwball comedy by Kate Danley that won the Panowski Playwriting Award. Here’s the set up: Max and Paul are just trying to keep their architecture company afloat, but they accidentally hire the mob to build a police retirement home. If you love old comedies from Hollywood’s Golden Era of the 1930s, this is the play for you. The play will open Friday, March 17, at the State Theater, 202 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, and run through April 1, with 7:30 p.m. performances on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. matinees on Sundays plus Wednesday, March 29. Tickets are $43 general admission, $40 for seniors and military, and $28 for students and youth. The play is recommended for those 11 and older.
OFT visits the desert
“The Girl who Swallowed a Cactus” continues this weekend through March 26 at Olympia Family Theater, 612 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia. OFT describes the Eric Coble play as “a whirlwind adventure about five friends and a coyote who want to save the world.” The play is 48 minutes long with no intermission, and recommended for ages 5 and older. Performances are at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, plus 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Masks are strongly encouraged for all shows, but are required at the Sunday performances. Tickets are $5 to $35 and offered on a sliding scale.
Lewis Black is a playwright?
Lewis Black is best known as a cranky stand-up comedian and actor, but it turns out he’s also penned more than 40 plays, including the romantic comedy “One Slight Hitch,” currently being produced by Olympia Little Theatre. The play is about the perfect wedding where things go perfectly wrong. Performances are at 7:25 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 17-18, plus Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 23-25, as well as 1:55 p.m. Sundays, March 19 and 26. Tickets are $13-$15, except for the Thursday performance, when they are $11-$13.
Backwards and forwards
Broadway Olympia and Theater Artists Olympia have partnered to produce “The Last Five Years,” which opens this weekend at Broadway Olympia’s black box studio at Capital Mall in west Olympia. The musical is about two young New Yorkers who fall in and out of love over five years, but the show is structured so that the woman, played by Elise Campello, tells her story backwards while the man, played by Richard Cubi, tells his story chronologically. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays from Friday, March 17, to Friday, April 7, and at 2 p.m. Sundays March 19 and 26 and April 2 plus Saturday, April 8. Tickets are $25, with discounts for students.
Olympia Symphony breaks the glass
In the second in a series of “love letters to the community,” new Olympia Symphony Orchestra music director Alexandra Arrieche presents a program that breaks barriers. The concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 19, at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington St. SE, will feature violinist David Kim, concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, performing Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto in G minor. Other pieces are Alberto Ginastera’s Estancia (“Ranch”), which reflects the sights and sounds of his native Argentina, and Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 4 “Heroes” inspired by David Bowie’s album “Heroes,” which aims to merge the boundaries between “classical” and “pop” music. Tickets are $65 to $15, with student, military, and group discounts available.
