(Image: Moisture Festival)

(Image: Moisture Festival)

As Capitol Hill hosts a new film festival this weekend, a familiar neighborhood visitor is also ready to take the stage. Seattle’s Moisture Festival kicks off its 2023 edition Thursday on the stage at the Broadway Performance Hall.

Moisture Festival presents high energy comedy/varieté shows featuring a rapid succession of acts showcasing comedy alongside awe-inspiring physical and mental dexterity, with amazing moments of strength and delicate beauty to make audiences laugh, wonder, shake their heads in disbelief and truly appreciate how live entertainment can exhilarate and bring real joy. A live show band propels each performance. Varieté has its roots in the Music Halls of 19th century England, cabaret in Europe and vaudeville in America. Because of the talented artists currently working in this genre, it is still fresh, exciting and tremendous fun for the audience.

Much of the opening weekend is already sold out — but the Moisture Festival’s stay on Broadway is a long affair with weeks of performances on tap through April 16th — that weekend, the Libertease burlesque shows join the lineup.

Since 2004, the festival has presented a month of events around Seattle in the early spring. Fremont’s Hale’s Palladium used to serve as a co-host with venues like the Broadway Performance Hall and a de facto headquarters for the festival until that venue was shuttered last year.

(Image: Seattle Central)

The Broadway Performance Hall, for now, remains available for shows like the festival and more but that might not always be the case.

Seattle Central says the building is more than 100 years old, and though it was “modernized” in 1979, it rates the lowest on the campus in terms of facilities and is no longer up to code in terms of energy efficiency or seismic standards. Additionally, the sandstone keeps absorbing water, causing more problems, a spokesperson told CHS in 2019. The school’s long-term planning includes a project that would carve up the 295-seat auditorium to create what the school has said is much-needed classroom space. Enjoy the stage while you can.

The Broadway Performance Hall stands at 1625 Broadway. You can learn more about the 2023 Moisture Festival and buy tickets at moisturefestival.org.

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