Upcoming Seattle theater: Frida Kahlo play, Andrew Lloyd Webber musical
Staff Picks
This month, cap off your lengthening summer days with theater shows, including a solo piece about painter Frida Kahlo, a weekend festival presenting seven new plays, an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical and the return of perennial summer favorite: outdoor Shakespeare.
‘Frida...a Self-Portrait'
Brazilian playwright and performer Vanessa Severo brings iconic Mexican painter Frida Kahlo to life in this one-woman show that explores the parallels between their two lives. Severo, who has performed this show around the country, blends movement, music and language to sketch out "Frida's evocative art, multilayered love life, and distinctive philosophy," per Union Arts Center, in this production set on the eve of Kahlo's death in 1954.
Through June 28; Union Arts Center, 700 Union St., Seattle; $5-$104; 206-292-7676, unionartscenter.org
The Distillery New Works Festival
Over the course of one busy weekend, Seattle Public Theater will present staged readings of seven new plays during its annual new works festival. Staged readings - which have no sets or costumes, just actors with scripts - are a great way to get in on the ground floor of a new play that you just might love. These seven plays come from local and national playwrights, and each performance will have a post-show discussion to elicit audience feedback. All the festival's shows sound intriguing but I'm gravitating toward L M Feldman's "SCRIBE, or The Sisters Milton, or Elegy for the Unwritten" - about "the poet Milton's relationship with his three kept-barely-literate daughters," per marketing materials - and Phanésia Pharel's "Refuse it: A Black Woman's Guide to 21st Century Rage," a vignette-based play that "explores the lives of Black women who reject the status quo."
June 11-14;Seattle Public Theater, 7312 W. Green Lake Drive N., Seattle; $10-$100; 206-524-1300, seattlepublictheater.org
‘Wish You Were Here'
ArtsWest continues its rich collaboration with Seda Iranian Theatre Ensemble in this coproduction of "Wish You Were Here" by Sanaz Toossi, who won a 2023 Pulitzer Prize for her play "English." "Wish You Were Here" spans 13 critical years (1978-1991) in the lives of a tight-knit group of Iranian women, whose friendships are tested by growing political unrest. Seda co-founder Naghmeh Samini directs the play, while co-founder Parmida Ziaei both designed the set and performs in the piece.
June 11-July 5;ArtsWest, 4711 California Ave. S.W., Seattle; $43-$48; 206-938-0339, artswest.org
‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's "Jesus Christ Superstar" just rocked The 5th Avenue Theatre, and now the composing duo's Old Testament musical is coming to Taproot Theatre. The show shares a similar early '70s vintage with "Superstar," but this one blends pop, gospel, calypso and rock sounds to tell the story of Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel. Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers (he was his father's favorite; Jacob even gave him a very fancy coat), but Joseph ended up in a powerful position after interpreting the dreams of a stressed-out Pharoah. This family-friendly show, which is led by a main character known as the Narrator, is set at Taproot against the backdrop of a summer camp.
July 8-Aug. 15; Taproot Theatre, 204 N. 85th St., Seattle; $28-$77; 206-781-9707, taproottheatre.org
‘Macbeth'
Seattle Shakespeare Company's long-running summer series Wooden O is now a program of Union Arts Center, the new company formed in a merger of SSC and ACT Contemporary Theatre. This year, Wooden O brings us "Macbeth," the classic Scottish story melding murder, witchcraft and vaulting ambition into a political thriller for the ages.
July 9-Aug. 16; various locations; free; 206-292-7676, unionartscenter.org
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This story was originally published June 8, 2026 at 4:55 PM.