Feeling arty on Super Bowl weekend? Cinderella opens at PNB; “Babs the Dodo” at WET.

Millions of LGBT people are just as enthralled as the straight folk about this being Super Bowl XLV weekend, not only because there ARE gay people who like sports, but it also doesn’t hurt that this year’s line-up of SB entertainment is pretty damn gay: Lea Michelle…Christina Aguilera…Black Eyed Peas…GLEE in the post game slot. The only thing missing is the ghost of Paul Lynde. BUT, there are also millions of LGBT folk who could give a rat’s ass about sitting in a living room/bar and watching 16 hours of football, commercials and bland MOR entertainment so you need some entertainment options for the weekend. Here’s some artier choices for you anti-NFLers out there:

Occupying a location about 360 degrees from the Super Bowl, Pacific Northwest Ballet opens their newest production, Cinderella, tonight with performances continuing to February 13. It’s been nine years since PNB staged choreographer Kent Stowell’s version of Sergei Prokofiev’s classic ballet and it makes its McCaw Hall debut tonight, Friday, February 4. Based on the classic fairy tale by Charles Perrault, this production of Cinderella:

is a sweet and tender story of love lost and found. In sustaining this romantic focus throughout the ballet, Stowell has departed meaningfully from earlier modern versions of Cinderella, most of which take their lead from Frederick Ashton’s 1948 production for the Royal Ballet. Drawing heavily on the English music hall tradition, especially in the depiction of the ugly stepsisters (who are danced by men en travestie), theseCinderellas, Stowell believes, are more comic-tragic than romantic in feeling. And, wedded to the original 1945 score, which Sergei Prokofiev modeled on the 19th-century ballets of Marius Petipa, they boast more theatrical variety than narrative or emotional cohesiveness.

Tickets still available for tonight’s opening performance. Go HERE!

The cast of "Babs the Dodo" at Washington Ensemble Theater.

If ballet isn’t your thing, but you are in the mood for cutting edge theater, head to Washington Ensemble Theater’s newest production, the world premiere of Michael Mitnick’s Babs the Dodo, a wry satire of modern media, pop culture, office politics and mass consumerism centering on a Home Shopping cable channel. Directed by Elise Hunt and starring John Abramson, Hannah Victoria Franklin, Marty Mukhalian, and Charles Norris, the play opened last night and runs through March 14. The show is sold out for tonight, but tickets remain for Saturday and Sunday. WET is one of the most exciting and innovative theater companies in town and they are always worthy of being checked out. Do it!