Teatro Zinzanni

Love, Chaos and Dinner

Wed – Sat: 6:30pm, Sun 7:30pm

222 Mercer Street, in Seattle Center’s Theater District at 3rd Avenue North and Mercer Street

Tue, Wed, Sun.: $104/$120; Fri-Sat: $120/$155 through www.zinzanni.org

Love, Chaos and Dinner

Teatro ZinZanni throws out its arms and says “Tah-Dahhh!” with A Rosa De Rio. In classic ZinZanni fashion, A Rosa De Rio incorporates a slew of show business’ greatest styles including vaudeville, tumbling and acrobatics, contortionism, opera, and a variety of music from "76 Trombones" to "Águas De Março."  The night’s hero is Chef Caesar. The character, created and performed by Teatro ZinZanni veteran Frank Ferrante, is a cross between Cesar Romero and Dean Martin. Ferrante has made a name for himself in many ways, including portraying Groucho Marx in Groucho: A Life in Revue, and he does a fine job channeling Romero as well. In search of the perfect love spice—say it “loff spass”—Chef Caesar is a lover, a gambler, and possessor of an unruly mole. Ferrante, as Caesar, can get away with saying nearly anything to an audience member as long as he uses his go-to first line, “Look at you. You’re beautiful!”  

A night at A Rosa De Rio is interspersed with chaos when “the help” sneaks on stage—not a stage so much as a path that splits the dining room in half— and shows off while the audience dines. In this regard, ZinZanni is a variety show and Chef Caesar, coming out to entertain and get the audience involved, is its MC. Chef Caesar may introduce the food and take credit for the menu, but another name deserves the recognition for this performance. Tom Douglas created the five-course meal of shrimp samba; cream of roasted butternut squash soup; salad carnivale; a choice of steak, salmon, or a vegetarian crostada; and Peruvian chocolate surprise for dessert.  

The show slows down during the salad and entrée service, but always remains entertaining. Chef Caesar’s audience participation is slightly redundant, but he is mostly hilarious. The variety acts impress during each course.  

The biographies of each performer are one of the most interesting aspects of the show. Ukrainian contortionist Vita Radionova is a graduate of the Circus School of Kiev. The austere, German-accented schutzmann is the successful German comic, acrobat, and street performer, Sabine Rieck. I was pleased to see that the “waitress turned chanteuse, Paula,” is native Brazilian Paula Gelly. Gelly has performed in Chicago and Sweet Charity—and has a voice rivaling Astrud Gilberto’s.

  A Rosa De Rio goes out with a bang as desserts fly through the air and the dining room descends into pandemonium. The performers still spin energetically, but three hours of nearly ceaseless spectacle comes to an end and the audience feels both fulfilled and quite full. Still, it’s difficult to leave the magic behind.


The History

In 1992 Teatro ZinZanni Creative Director Norm Langill walked into one of renowned craftsman Willem Klessens’ spiegeltents (mirror tents). This opulent palace of red velvet and gold brocade situated on a quite Barcelona street beckoned Langill into its warm circular embrace. Taken by the colors, music, and enchantment he entered into, Langill’s entrepreneurial imagination took flight. Soon after his visit to his first spiegeltent, Langill began a search for his own magic tarp. He found what he was looking for in a Belgium tent known simply as the Palais Nostolgique. After convincing the Klessens family to bring the Palais Nostolgique to Seattle, Langill went to work creating a bold and adventurous dinner show unlike anything Seattle had ever seen before. Langill combined the classic style of the European Cabaret, with the fresh fashion of American comedy, topped off this visual feast with five-course meal prepared by the premiere chefs of the northwest and called it Teatro ZinZanni. 

In 1998 the first production of Teatro ZinZanni opened in Seattle to a slew of rave reviews. The show ran for fourteen months after that playing to a full house nearly every night. In 2000 Langill once again set-out to pioneer new artistic territory. This time he packed up the Palais Nostolgique and moved the show to San Francisco. As in Seattle, Teatro ZinZanni captivated San Francisco audiences from the get go, finding a new and welcome home in California.