Weekend entertainment offerings range from classic musical to rollicking rockabilly show

Molly Gilmore
·3 min read

Feel the Heat

Don’t look to him for a sermon, but if you’re ready for a rollicking and rowdy romp, rockabilly/psychobilly dynamo Reverend Horton Heat, aka Jim Heath, might just be your bottle of bourbon. He’s been described as “a hellfire-spewing rock-and-roll dare-demon,” and among his claims to fame is the fact that his song “Wiggle Stick” was featured on MTV’s adult animated series “Beavis and Butt-Head.” In other words, he is not the reverend you want performing your marriage ceremony. (Or maybe he is. We won’t judge.) Heath and bassist Jimbo Wallace are swinging through the Northwest on their Stars Align tour and will be rocking Olympia on Saturday, March 30. Also on the bill: Dale Watson and Jason D. Williams. The show, at the Capitol Theater, 206 Fifth Ave. SE, launches at 8 p.m. with doors opening at 7. Tickets are $40-$50.

Alyssa Kay makes bloody work of Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus” in Harlequin Productions’ ”The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again].” Shanna Paxton Photography/Courtesy of Harlequin Productions
Alyssa Kay makes bloody work of Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus” in Harlequin Productions’ ”The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again].” Shanna Paxton Photography/Courtesy of Harlequin Productions

Laughs from the past

Surprising as it might sound, Olympia audiences are delighting in hilarious homages to 17th-century theater. Theater Artists Olympia’s production of “The Liar,” playing through April 7, was adapted from a little known French farce and is set in 1643, but the witty repartee — all delivered in iambic pentameter — is thoroughly modern, and the anachronisms make it all the funnier. Meanwhile, Harlequin Productions’ “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again]” owes nearly as much to reality TV as it does to the bard. “Complete Works,” so popular that its run has been extended two weeks to April 7, includes a cooking-show scene with blood-spattered aprons, a sequence in which the audience plays various aspects of Hamlet’s psyche, and lots of simulated vomit. (Who said Shakespeare had to be highbrow?) “The Liar” is on stage at OlyTheater, near the cinema in Capital Mall, 625 Black Lake Blvd., Olympia. Tickets are $10-$20. “The Complete Works” is happening at the Washington Center Black Box, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia. Tickets are $28-$43. For the 2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 30, show, pay what you can.

The Olympia Film Society will screen the classic Busby Berkeley musical “Gold Diggers of 1933” three times in the next 10 days. Courtesy photo
The Olympia Film Society will screen the classic Busby Berkeley musical “Gold Diggers of 1933” three times in the next 10 days. Courtesy photo

We’re in the money

The Olympia Film Society takes pride in programming movies that aren’t often shown on big screens. Beginning Sunday, March 31, the film society is screening “Gold Diggers of 1933,” a Busby Berkeley extravaganza about a trio of what were then called showgirls who have to figure out how to keep the show going despite the arrival of the Great Depression. As the title reveals, these women are looking for rich husbands, too. “Diggers” will be shown on 35mm film, and the print is courtesy of the Library of Congress. Check out the classic musical, with introductory remarks by Rob Patrick, the film society’s programming director, at 7 p.m. Sunday, plus April 4 and 7, at the Capitol Theater, 206 Fifth Ave. E., Olympia. Tickets are $9-$12.

Freelance writer Molly Gilmore talks with DJ Kevin the Brit about what’s happening around town on KGY-FM’s “Oly in a Can,” airing at 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Fridays.