While You’re In: Celebrate ‘Vaccination Day,’ see a fresh ‘Romeo,’ get some laughs
Pre-vaccine videos
The drive-through mass vaccination site at South Puget Sound Community College has been gathering accolades for its efficiency, skilled nurses and masses of enthusiastic volunteers. Now the site even offers entertainment while you wait via a curated YouTube playlist called “Best Pandemic Funny Videos.” Signs — posted along the route drivers follow through the campus from check-in to observation, where the newly vaccinated wait for 15 minutes in case of an adverse reaction — include a QR code and link along with the words “We love cats.” But felines feature in only a few films. The most appropriate selection for the site, “It’s Vaccination Day,” is a parody of “Frozen’s” song “For the First Time in Forever” that features a singing and dancing dad who’s ecstatic at the prospect of escaping from the house and seeing people other than his wife and kids. “I’ll see actual real-life people,” he sings. “I might even get to go see a game.”
Lovers in lockdown
The National Theatre’s contemporary take on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” a film/theater hybrid performed throughout the shuttered Lyttelton Theatre in London, premieres at 9 p.m. Friday, April 23 on PBS. The Guardian’s Susannah Clapp called the production, filmed over 17 days this winter, “an accomplished example of pandemic-style drama.” Looking for more of the bard’s work? The Seattle Shakespeare Company is presenting an online reading of the rarely performed “Troilus and Cressida,” which the company had planned to produce in spring 2020. The reading is available to stream on demand Friday, April 23, through Sunday, April 25. It’s free, with donations appreciated.
Comedy coming up
Live comedy is returning to the South Sound. Travis Nelson will headline a sold-out show Thursday, April 29, at Ricardo’s Kitchen & Bar in Lacey. Check out the 6-foot-9-inch comedian’s work online, and look out for more comedy from producer Baurice Nelson in May and June. Next up for those looking for laughs is a “Best of Comedy Underground” show set for May 20 at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia. Both in-person tickets ($26 each; available in packs of two and four) and livestream ones ($12 per household) are on sale now.
Freelance writer Molly Gilmore catches as many online Shakespeare shows as she can, but she’s also busy binge-watching “Grey’s Anatomy.” She discusses arts, entertainment and more with 95.3 KGY-FM’s Michael Stein on “Oly in a Can” from 3 to 4 p.m. Fridays.
This story was originally published April 22, 2021 at 5:45 AM.