Downtown Olympia filled with Pride, Port hosts circus and concert this weekend
Wilkommen back to the State Theater
Harlequin Productions’ “Cabaret,” opening Friday, June 28, isn’t just a stage production of the beloved 1966 musical about British tourist-turned-nightclub singer Sally Bowles (Karin Terry) and other denizens of a seedy Berlin club in the twilight of the Jazz Age. It’s also a chance to explore the newly expanded backstage of Harlequin’s State Theater — and attend a party with two bars and an hour of live entertainment before showtime, including an aerial performance by the multitalented Amy Shephard. “The audience will hopefully get very jazzed,” marketing director Helen Harvester told The Olympian. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June 28-29, plus July 5-6, 11-13, 18-20 and 25-27; and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 30, plus July 4, 7, 14, 21, 24 and 28 at the State Theater, 202 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia. Tickets are $33-$48 for regular seats. Also an option are $141 VIP tables for two, which are attached to the stage and come with sparkling wine and appetizers — and interaction with the cast, including the Emcee, played by Adam Rennie, whose provocative way of playing with audience members was on display in 2022’s “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”
Downtown full of Pride for weekend
Rainbows, glitter, art and music will abound in Olympia during Capital City Pride, happening Friday through Sunday, June 28-30. The weekend will kick off with the free Drag Block Party from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, June 28 on Water Street between Legion Way and Fifth Avenue. The creativity continues with the free Pride Music and Art Festival from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, June 29, at Port Plaza and Percival Landing. Also Saturday is the Pride After Party at 8 p.m. at the Capitol Theater, 206 Fifth Ave. SE, Olympia. Among the headliners for the party is Mx. Dahlia Belle of Portland, who appeared in the Netflix special “Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda” and was voted the funniest among Willamette Week’s 2024 Funniest Five. Tickets are $21-$24. The weekend wraps up Sunday, June 30, with the Pride Parade, which begins at 11 a.m. on the Capitol Campus and ends in Heritage Park, where the party will continue with Dyke Day in the Park, happening from 2 to 6 p.m.
Port hosts the circus and a Queen
Bellingham’s Shoestring Circus, making it Olympia debut Friday, June 28, combines theater with such classic circus arts as tightrope walking, trapeze work, clowning and sword swallowing. The company’s 2024 show, with a medieval fantasy theme, is “a very absurd, silly, fun show,” Shoestring’s Nicole Laumb told The Olympian. (Laumb, by the way, can escape from a straitjacket and spin chairs with her teeth.) Performances will happen at 5 and 8 p.m. June 28; 1 and 9 p.m. June 29; 3 and 6 p.m. June 30; 4 and 7 p.m. July 4; 5 and 8 p.m. July 5; 1, 5 and 8 p.m. July 6 and 1 p.m. July 7 under Shoestring’s big-top tent at Swantown Marina, 1022 Marine Drive NE, Olympia. Tickets are $32-$48 for adults and $16 for children younger than 12.
Also happening this weekend at the Port of Olympia: Queen tribute band Queen Mother will play from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 29, as part of Summer Nights at the Port. There’ll be food trucks and a beer garden, too. Summer Nights happens north of the circus, in the lot next to the Swantown boat launch parking lot at NorthPoint, 1210 Marine Drive NE.
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.
