“Take Me Out” throws a curve ball through America’s favorite pastime.
Richard Greenberg’s Tony Award-winning comedy-drama, a provocative story about a big league baseball star who comes out as gay, opens Wednesday at the Seattle Repertory Theatre.
Darren Lemming, a team star at the top of his game, outs himself at a press conference. It’s a matter-of-fact thing for him, but he’s not prepared for the fallout, including the isolation and loneliness he experiences in the clubhouse, from the media and the public.
Lemming, who is of mixed race, becomes a victim – of homophobia and of racism – and it’s something he’s not prepared for.
Greenberg’s richly textured play is directed in Seattle by Joe Mantello, who won a Tony Award for his direction of the play in New York.
“Take Me Out” has been lauded for its treatment of the subject of gays in professional sports and the busting stereotypes, as well as gaining attention for the nudity on stage in several of the locker-room scenes.
And it offers an affectionate look at the game of baseball to boot.
The all-male cast includes a couple of characters who play pivotal roles in Lemming’s story. Shane Mungitt is a bigoted jock who can throw a fastball but do little else. Mason Marzac is Lemming’s gay business manager who discovers baseball and learns to love it.
Lemming, a baseball god, is stunned by the reaction he gets, from the likes of Mungitt and others.
“I don’t have a secret. I am a secret,” he says.
In the end, he doesn’t really have any friends, except Marzac. “Mason is the only one he can talk to about it,” said Michael Walton, the young actor who plays Lemming.
The genius of Greenberg is that he touches on so many issues intertwined with baseball, Walton said in a telephone interview. Imagine, he said, what it would be like if someone in the Mariner clubhouse came out.
Walton, 24, is at the beginning of his stage career, and the role of Darren Lemming is the kind of part that could give his career a jumpstart.
“This is definitely a stretch,” Walton said.
The New York State native (and a big Yankee fan) saw “Take Me Out” in its New York production.
“I said, this is the role for me.”
Dance extravaganza: Dance and drama fuse in weekend productions of “A Dance to Die For: The Case of the Fallen Flapper” at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley.
This lively stage show is more than dance demonstration when the Northwest dance team of the United States Amateur Ballroom Dance Association takes the floor.
The dancers show off their prowess in a variety of dance styles, from the sultry Bolero to the sassy Lindy-Charleston, and tell a story at the same time.
The setting is Chicago in the 1920s. A starlet has been murdered, and there are five suspects, all with compelling motives. The mystery unfolds, and the investigation begins, in more than a dozen dance numbers that include such styles as the waltz, foxtrot, swing, rumba, tango and cha-cha.
The mission of the dance team is to promote ballroom dancing with performance, and in its dozen-year history the team has performed frequently throughout the United States Canada.
“A Dance to Die For: The Case of the Fallen Flapper” premiered last summer in Bellevue. Integrating a story line and dialogue with dance is something new for the dance team, said member Molly Conant. The script came first, she said, then the choreography.
Eight dancers are in the program, and team members range in age from their 20s to their 60s. The dancers “come in all shapes and sizes,” Conant said.
“This is a really great way to bring it to the people,” she said.
Chris Bennion photo
Harlon George (left), Michael Walton and Doug Wert in Seattle Repertory Theatre’s production of “Take Me Out.”
Mike Begley and Sharon Wolf in “A Dance to Die For: The Case of the Fallen Flapper.”
Where to see it
“Take Me Out”: Wednesday through Dec. 4 at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Center. Tickets, $10-$26, 206-443-2224, 877-900-9285, www.seattlerep.org.
“A Dance to Die For: The Case of the Fallen Flapper”: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, 565 Camano Ave., Langley. Tickets, $10-$12, at the box office, 800-638-7631, 360-221-8268, www.wicaonline.com.
Where to see it
“Take Me Out”: Wednesday through Dec. 4 at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Center. $10-$26, 206-443-2224, 877-900-9285, www.seattlerep.org.
“A Dance to Die For: The Case of the Fallen Flapper”: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, 565 Camano Ave., Langley. $10-$12, at the box office, 800-638-7631, 360-221-8268, www.wicaonline.com.
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