Out and about Olympia this weekend? Holiday classics abound, and ‘God’ is back
Angel gets his wings at Olympia Little Theatre
Locals who love Frank Capra’s 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which Rotten Tomatoes calls “the holiday classic to define all classics” and Entertainment Weekly put at the top of its list of best Christmas movies ever, can experience the tender tale in a different way this season. Olympia Little Theatre is giving the holiday heart warmer the radio theater treatment. “Life” happens at 7:25 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 1-2, plus Dec. 8-9 and 14-16 and 1:55 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 3, as well as Dec. 10 and 17, 1925 Miller Ave. NE, Olympia. Tickets are $10-$16. Also among the weekend’s holiday-spirited options is Masterworks Choral Ensemble’s “Making Spirits Bright”, a concert happening at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia. Tickets are $12-$24.
Get to know ‘God’
Olympia audiences, it’s clear, are totally down with the idea of a drag-queen deity. The queen in question, played by Canadian comedian Mike Delamont in his long-running series of one-man shows, is returning to the Washington Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, Dec. 1, with “God Is a Scottish Drag Queen 3.” (Though it’s a sequel, “Drag Queen 3” stands alone.) The show is popular with atheists as well as members of the clergy, Delamont has said. “In this show, God is the comedian, not the punchline,” he told the South Okanagan (Canada) Times Chronicle in 2020. The show is at 7:30 p.m. Friday, and tickets are $26-$54.
Dress up (sort of) for ‘Elf’
“Elf,” in which Will Ferrell plays an extraordinarily silly human raised in Santa’s workshop, is no. 4 on EW’s list of best holiday movies, and the 2003 comedy is screening Saturday, Dec. 2, at the Capitol Theater. And that’s not all: The screening will be preceded by an ugly Christmas sweater contest. The event is a fundraiser for the Citizen Science Institute at Thurgood Marshall Middle School in west Olympia. The contest starts at 12:30 p.m. at the theater, 206 Fifth Ave. E., with the doors opening at noon and the film at 1 p.m. Tickets are $9-$12.
Freelance writer Molly Gilmore doesn’t own an ugly sweater, but “Elf” is one of her favorite Christmas movies, along with the original “Miracle on 34th Street” (no. 15 on the EW list) and “The Year Without a Santa Claus” (no. 9). She talks about what’s happening in Olympia and beyond with 95.3 KGY-FM’s Michael Stein from 3 to 4 p.m. Fridays.
