Musicals in the mall? Broadway Olympia moves into Capital Mall storefront

A new theater will open this spring in Capital Mall, a black box-style venue that seats 60 and is planned as a home for musicals, straight plays, comedy and more.

The Broadway Olympia Studio is located in a 2,500-square-foot space near the Century Olympia movie theaters and Old Navy. The theater company began renting it in August 2018, using it as rehearsal space for the musicals it staged at the Capitol Theater in late 2018 and early 2019.

Now, the space has risers, seats and a red curtain that blocks the view from the mall into the space.

“The Capital Mall is interested in having a theater,” said Kyle Murphy, Broadway Olympia’s managing director. “They are looking for non-traditional ways to bring people into the mall.”

The theater will open in April with a production of “21 Chump Street,” a 15-minute musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda of “Hamilton” fame.

The musical, about a high school student who falls in love with an undercover police officer and is arrested for selling drugs, is based on a true story reported on the popular public-radio program “This American Life.” The premiere, which featured Miranda as the narrator, aired on the program in June 2014.

“We’re going to do lots of different types of content in this venue as well as partnering with other theater companies,” Murphy told The Olympian, “but I want to launch it with something that is emblematic of how we started and at the core of what we want to do, which is musicals.”

Broadway Olympia mounted four large-scale musicals during its first season in 2018 and early 2019, then took a step back for several months, returning with the song cycle “Songs for a New World” in November at Harlequin Productions’ State Theater.

“I set out to do audacious things and hit roadblocks and pivot and course correct and go from there,” Murphy said.

The course he’s set for spring and summer involves producing a show each month as well as getting the studio ready to open, working toward non-profit status and putting together a board of directors. He’s enlisted help and advice from a network of theater people including actor/improviser Mark Alford, lighting designer Joe Griffith and Lakewood Playhouse technical director Aaron Mohs-Hale.

The next Broadway Olympia production will be “Mercury Rising: A Queen Tribute,” set for March 12 at the Minnaert Center for the Arts at South Puget Sound Community College’s Olympia campus.

The band, assembled just for the show, includes such local musical-theater notables Bruce Haasl, Jerod Nace and Amy Shephard.

“It was something Jerod wanted to do for his 40th birthday at a smaller venue,” Murphy said. “He’s really good. I asked him, ‘Do you want to do this big?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ So I’m producing it.”

Also in the works for spring is “An Afternoon of Guided Meditation with Interim Pastor Chastity Joy,” a one-woman show by Sara Geiger of Olympia, which will be staged in May at the studio.

Geiger began developing the semi-autobiographical show in 2018, when she participated in the Intiman Emerging Artist Program in Seattle.

Interim Pastor Chastity Joy is “this flamboyant gay drag-queen shady pastor who loves you very much,” Geiger told The Olympian. “She appears and helps Sara through some difficult times in her life.”

In June, Murphy aims to produce a small play in the new theater, and come July, he’d hopes to do a full-length musical. He knows it’s an ambitious schedule, but he’s aiming to keep the Broadway Olympia Studio busy.

“Part of my agreement with the mall involves having entertainment there on a regular basis,” he said. “In a perfect world, we’d have something every weekend. It might take a while for us to build to that.”

‘Mercury Rising: A Queen Tribute’

• What: Broadway Olympia’s next production is a one-night-only Queen tribute show featuring Bruce Haasl, Jerod Nace and Amy Shephard. Proceeds will benefit the opening of Broadway Olympia Studio.
• When: 8 p.m. March 12
• Where: The Minnaert Center for the Arts at South Puget Sound Community College, 2011 Mottman Road SW, Olympia
• Tickets: $19
• More information: 360-753-8586, broadwayolympia.com
• Get involved: Interested in volunteering or collaborating with Broadway Olympia? Email Kyle Murphy at kyle@broadwayolympia.com.