WORKING: Everyday stories told in Seattle musical this weekend

SEATTLE (May 6, 2016) — Yesterday, we posted a list of great union-made Mother’s Day gifts you can give your mom this weekend that support good family-wage jobs. In addition to several MayWorks events happening this weekend, here is an opportunity for folks in the Seattle area to take your moms to see a union production by a SAG-AFTRA member on Saturday or Sunday. Union members can get 20% off of tickets for this show with the passcode UNION. Here’s the scoop:

Showtunes Theatre Company is thrilled to announce the final concert musical of their 16th season, WORKING. Thirteen of Seattle’s most talented musical theatre performers will immerse themselves in Studs Terkel’s oral histories of the working class compositions for two performances, May 7 at 8 p.m. and May 8 at 2 p.m. Benaroya Hall’s acoustically rich Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall is the perfect venue for director Timothy Piggee and music director Mark Rabe to present this powerful contemporary score and dramatic book that was nominated for six Tony awards in 1978.

Showtunes Theatre Company will present the new, revised 2012 version of WORKING that includes a streamlined book, updated lyrics and two songs added by Tony Award- and recent Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Lin-Manuel Miranda. Miranda’s “A Very Good Day” and “Delivery” complement the music Stephen Schwartz, Craig Carnelia, Mary Rodgers and James Taylor created for the original Broadway run. The Showtunes concert version, which includes 2012 updates and three songs from the 1978 version that were removed for the Chicago revival, has never been presented on stage before. WORKING presents a different look at the seemingly humdrum lives of everyday people and reveals a myriad variety of hopes, aspirations and dreams. From “Millworker” to “The Mason” to “Just A Housewife,” the stories from everyday Americans working to get by resonate with today’s audiences.

Live musicians join a talented cast (performing “on book”) that includes: Corinna Lapid Munter, Cheryl Massey-Peters, Frances Leah King, Alexandria Henderson, Iris Elton, Anne Allgood, John X. Deveney, Nick Clawson, Allan Barlow, Matt Giles, Dominic Micheal Lewis, J Reese, and Nicholas Ponting. The Sunday May 8 matinee performance will include a special round of applause for all the hard-working mothers in the audience.

Single tickets ($21-$46) are available now over the phone (206-215-4747), online here (get 20% off of tickets for this show with the passcode UNION), or in person at the Benaroya Hall Ticket Office on the corner of Third Avenue and Union Street. Ticket office hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m.

Executive Producer Maggie Stenson Pehrson, a company founder, has guided the company’s lauded productions from the inaugural show at Seattle’s Town Hall, to celebrated seasons at Kirkland Performance Center, The Moore Theatre, and now in their new home at Benaroya Hall.  As a working Pacific Northwest actor, Maggie has also enjoyed diverse stage, TV, film, industrial, voiceover and vocal recording projects for over 25 years. Maggie is a SAG-AFTRA member.