Cabaret Review - Cherdonna’s Favorite Things (Intiman Cabaret)
Stage Review - Cherdonna’s Favorite Things
Presented By: Intiman Cabaret (Intiman Theatre) - Seattle, WA
Show Run: April 16 - April 20, 2025
Date Reviewed: Thursday, April 17, 2025
Run Time: 1 Hours, 45 Minutes (including a 15 minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Tucker Cholvin
What are you afraid of? Have your answer handy before you sit down for Cherdonna’s Favorite Things, the latest installment in Intiman Theatre’s Cabaret series at the Erickson Theatre in Seattle’s Capitol Hill – because you may be asked. Perhaps it’s spiders, or being alone, or death, (a classic!) or having a performer push a microphone in your face in public. Whatever it is, the scariest things are softly wrapped up in the absurd in this one-weekend show.
Cherdonna Shinatra, known outside of costume as Jody Kuehner, has been a fixture of Seattle dance, drag and performance for the last 20 years. And in her latest production, she lets her signature blend of the whimsical, the awkward, and the purely silly play out across Intiman’s Cabaret stage, designed to let artists “eff around and find out,” in the words of Intiman’s artistic director Jennifer Zeyl. On stage, Cherdonna is joined by Sari Breznau and Wade Madsen for an evening of lighthearted song, singalong, pantomime, dance, and audience interrogation.
Wandering about the audience, Cherdonna asks audience members whether they have dogs, what they’re afraid of, how much dust is healthy for a person to accidentally consume on a daily basis, and more. She’s comfortable letting silence and awkward pauses linger, lengthen, practically grow up and start walking. She pushes her audience into and through those stilted moments to the point they become funny, cease being funny, and then become funny again.
Several times during the show, while Cherdonna was variously wandering around the room, panting heavily, or laying face down on the stage clicking her heels together, I asked myself, “Is this working?”. I still am not sure, but I suspect Cherdonna doesn’t care. At times, the whole affair begins to evoke a supremely confident six-year-old interrupting her parents’ dinner party to deliver a talent show. And maybe that’s the point.
Picasso is credited as saying, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” Cherdonna would likely never be so pretentious as to quote Picasso, but she’s striving for the same energy, the same genius. That lightning is difficult to bottle. When it works, it clicks to hilarious effect. When it doesn’t, the pacing and deliberate strangeness can leave the audience suspended midair.
Performances from Sari Breznau and Wade Madsen round out the show. Breznau, who backs Cherdonna on the piano, delivers monologues and singalongs that combine the cheerful poise of a flight attendant with the effusive joy of a camp counselor confronting the end of the world. She gives the impression that she could read a crime blotter aloud and still make it sound like a bedtime story. Madsen leads the audience through short numbers that combine clowns, dance, lip synch, and more. Similar to Cherdonna, it’s not always clear what exactly is happening. And much like Cherdonna, it’s not clear that Madsen really cares if you figure it out. But it is fun.
In this way, Cherdonna, Breznau and Madsen all use the stage for precisely what Intiman intended: to let artists eff around and find out. It’s fun, it’s weird, and it’s not always neat and tidy. And there’s still time for you to come find out.
Cherdonna’s Favorite Things, the latest installment in Intiman Theatre’s Cabaret series, is a combination of the whimsical, the awkward, and the purely silly. Song, dance, and a lot of audience interrogation are all part of the order of the day in this trademark show that features someone who has been a fixture on the Seattle theatre scene for the past 20 years. There are a few opportunities left to come out and see this fun, though not always neat and tidy, cabaret production.
The Intiman Cabaret presents Cherdonna’s Favorite Things running at the Erickson Theatre in Seattle through April 20. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.intiman.org/.
Photo credit: Stephen Anunson, Lou Daprille
