Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down (As If Theatre)

Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down is a powerful reminder of how assumptions and long-held grudges can calcify into lasting harm, and how understanding can begin to undo that damage. Though the run is sold out, this is a production worth the effort to see. Get on the waiting list or stand by at the door — the As If Theatre team will do their best to make sure everyone can get in. This world premiere affirms why new work matters, and why stories rooted in empathy remain essential to the theatre we need now.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - Li (Seattle Public Theater / SIS Productions / YUN Theatre)

A neurodiverse young woman in Inner Mongolia, a best friend with a pet chicken, Mongolian throat singing meets rock vocals — Li is a wonderfully weird comedy about outgrowing everything you know and discovering that the quirky community you thought was holding you back was exactly what you needed all along.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville (Village Theatre)

Village Theatre’s Baskerville is a theatrical juggling act, and it succeeds because every element — performance, design, pacing, and technical discipline — is working in concert. The result is an evening that is clever, atmospheric, and consistently entertaining, proving that Sherlock Holmes is still full of surprises when placed in the right hands.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - The Wild Party (Sound Theatre Company)

The music is hot and swinging, the sets are shining and inclusive, the direction is a love story to art, and the actors are some of the most impressive artistic vessels you will ever encounter on stage. Whether you are a party animal or a homebody, “The Wild Party” at Sound Theater Company will only leave you with complaint: it only runs two weekends. Cancel all your plans and as Queenie says, get ready to “Raise the Roof” at “The Wild Party”.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - The Fairest Flame (Olympia Little Theatre)

The Fairest Flame is an ambitious and uncommon staging opportunity, a new work still early in its theatrical life, presented with care and anchored by Amanda Nixon’s truly compelling Countess. While the production occasionally struggles with pacing in its opening act, the second half finds a stronger pulse, and the play’s quieter, more interior approach to Joan begins to shine through. It’s a deeply worthwhile story of Joan of Arc, one that lives not in the battlefield legend, but in the human spaces around it, in the moments of doubt, pressure, and resolve that history often skips past. With continued refinement, this is a piece that could grow into something truly powerful, and Olympia Little Theatre offers audiences a rare chance to encounter it at the very beginning of that journey.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - Wait Until Dark (Harlequin Productions)

Harlequin Productions’ Wait Until Dark is an extraordinary example of theatrical craft in service of suspense. From its meticulous noir-inspired design to its perfectly calibrated pacing, this is a production that understands how to build tension not through excess, but through precision. It invites the audience into a world of shadow and silence, and then rewards that patience with a final sequence that is as thrilling as it is earned. This is suspense theatre at its finest, and a true achievement for everyone involved.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - The Time Machine (Tacoma Little Theatre)

The Time Machine at Tacoma Little Theatre is more than a clever science fiction adventure — it is the latest adaptation of a story that has helped define the very idea of time travel for generations, and a reminder of how fragile and consequential time truly is. This version invites us not only to marvel at the possibility of traveling through history, but to consider the moral cost of doing so, and the ways a single moment can ripple outward to reshape countless lives. With excellent performances, richly detailed design, and a production that balances spectacle with thoughtfulness, this is theatre that entertains while quietly asking its audience to reflect on the past, the future, and the choices that define the space between.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - Till We Have Faces (Taproot Theatre)

Taproot’s world premiere staging of Karen Lund’s new adaptation of the C.S. Lewis story Till we Have Faces embraces the uncertainty of the original piece with thoughtful craftsmanship, strong performances, and design work that supports the mythic scale while never losing sight of the intimate human core. The story reminds us that before we can reach for what lies beyond us, we must first come to terms with what lies within. In bringing this messaging forward with such clarity, and in delivering a production that is both intellectually engaging and theatrically compelling, Taproot has offered an achievement worthy of this literary work: a powerful reminder that the gods may not be revealed until, at last, we have faces.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (SecondStory Rep)

SecondStory Repertory’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike beautifully highlights the tender-heartedness underlying this tragicomedy while getting great humorous mileage from the script’s many allusions and word play moments. Replete with an ensemble that plays in harmony with one another and fantastic design elements across the board, this current production is a smart and funny start to what promises to be another great year at SSR.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - Into the Woods (Ovation Performing Arts NW)

Ovation Performing Arts NW’s production of Into the Woods is all about people, choices, and the uneasy space between what we want and what we’re willing to live with once we get it. This production embraces both the charm and the cautionary nature of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s work, allowing humor and heart to coexist with consequence and loss. It’s a thoughtful, well-crafted staging that trusts its audience to follow the story beyond the wish and into the aftermath, reminding us that happily ever after is rarely an ending — it’s simply where the real work begins.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - Biosphere (Bellingham Theatre Works)

With Biosphere, Steve Lyons has created a play that works not because it recreates a historical experiment, but because it interrogates the human impulse behind it. This production understands that the real story isn’t about whether a sealed ecosystem can survive, but whether the people inside — and those controlling it from the outside — are capable of putting collective responsibility ahead of ego, ambition, and image. What Steve and director Mark Kuntz have crafted here is a piece that feels intellectually rigorous without being academic, theatrical without being overstated, and deeply relevant without ever preaching. It’s a play that feels relevant even forty years after the experiment on which the story is based has concluded, and it’s a reminder of what can happen when an original work is given the time, care, and trust it deserves. Biosphere is thoughtful, compelling storytelling — and very much worth the drive.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - Trifles (Saltfire Theatre)

At its core, Trifles is not about a murder so much as it is about who is allowed to interpret it. Saltfire Theatre’s production understands that Susan Glaspell’s play is an indictment of systems that dismiss emotional labor, domestic knowledge, and women’s lived experience as irrelevant. By honoring stillness, patience, and the so-called “small things,” this staging makes a quiet but forceful case: justice cannot exist without empathy, and truth cannot be found by those who refuse to see. More than a century after its debut, Trifles remains unsettlingly relevant—and in this intimate, thoughtfully staged revival, Saltfire Theatre reminds us why listening still matters.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - The Heart Sellers (Seattle Rep)

The Heart Sellers is a play about the bravery required to be vulnerable — to open your door, your table, and your heart to someone who was a stranger only hours before. The play gently reminds us of what becomes possible when we allow ourselves to be seen. It’s a story that feels both rooted in its time and urgently relevant today, offering a powerful reminder that progress is not just measured in laws or policy, but in moments of shared humanity, forged over food, wine, and the simple act of listening.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Cabaret Review - A Not So Silent Night (Play Me Off Music)

For those who aren’t quite ready to pack away the decorations or let the season slip quietly into memory, this cabaret offers a gentle extension of holiday cheer—a reminder that joy, music, and connection don’t need to end when the calendar turns. In a time of year when the lights often dim too quickly, A Not So Silent Night serves as a welcome encore to the season, led by performers who understand that sometimes the best way to celebrate the holidays is simply to keep singing a little longer.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Bainbridge Performing Arts)

This production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame refuses to shy away from the story’s darkness, embracing its moral weight with conviction and care. This is not a softened fairy tale, but a challenging and emotionally charged work that asks audiences to confront uncomfortable truths about power, faith, and compassion. With powerful performances and design elements working in thoughtful harmony, this production stands as one of the most powerful — and emotionally resonant — musical experiences of the season, delivering moments of genuine beauty that linger long after the tones of the Notre Dame bells fade.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - Red Riding Hood: A Holiday Panto (Centerstage Theatre)

The story is classic, the experience is more than enjoyable, the costumes, sets, designs and actors are all over the top in professionality and quality, and you will not regret spending a day if you are lucky enough to catch tickets before they sell out, at CenterStage’s Red Riding Hood.

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Greg Heilman Greg Heilman

Stage Review - Seussical the Musical (Lakewood Playhouse)

Whether you come to see the beloved story of the cat in the hat, or you come to support your friends, or you just want to see what all the fuss is about over at Lakewood Playhouse, Seussical the Musical is a show dedicated to family, friendship, change, diversity and safety, just like the artists who are in front and behind the curtain of this production.

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