ArtsWest Offers Something Different This Holiday Season,
Folk-Pop Musical PENELOPE by Alex Bechtel

– ArtsWest presents PENELOPE Music, Lyrics & Arrangements by Alex Bechtel, Book by Alex Bechtel, Grace McLean, Eva Steinmetz directed by Kelly Kitchens. The cast features Chelsea LeValley recently who finished the North American Broadway National Tour of COME FROM AWAY. LeValley will be joined onstage by a five-piece, onstage band. With a soaring score and heartfelt storytelling, PENELOPE delivers everything audiences crave during the holiday season while offering a more inclusive option for live entertainment. PENELOPE performs at ArtsWest from November 29 – December 21, 2025. Tickets are available online at artswest.org or by phone at (206) 938.0963.

Penelope has been waiting…and waiting…and waiting for her husband, Odysseus, to return from a decade-long war. Given the rest of the soldiers came home years ago—forgive her, but she’s going to need a drink while she tells you about it. With a beautiful folk-inflected pop score backed by an onstage band of strings, piano, and drums, Penelope confides in us about her loneliness, her son’s disappearance, her suitors, her gods, her faith in her marriage—and ultimately, the faith that she must have in herself. So go ahead and grab a drink too, and listen to this ancient tale made new: A woman wondering who she is if she’s alone, and discovering that she has, is, and will always be complete, with her husband by her side or otherwise.

For PENELOPE, ArtsWest’s space is transformed to offer cabaret seating in addition to their standard thrust seating. Audiences are invited to be even closer to the action on stage as Penelope weaves her story with the support and presence of a live, five-piece, onstage band – viola, violin, cello, percussion, and piano. In an exclusive interview with writer and composer Alex Bechtel he shared, “One thing that I find to be really elemental to [PENELOPE] is the experience of audiences getting to be very close to incredible musicians playing music live. That feels more and more rare in musical theater.” Bechtel remarked that often in musical theater, the live musicians are obscured behind a screen, in the pit, or even sometimes in a different room. He continued, “But that’s really the point of a lot of PENELOPE is getting to see really incredible instrumentalists play their instruments and sharing space with that. So that’s super exciting.”

ArtsWest has a long tradition of producing non-traditional holiday musicals in their holiday slot. Past titles include PETER AND THE STAR CATCHER (2016), JANE EYRE THE MUSICAL (2018), and HEAD OVER HEELS (2019). Each of these productions share similarities with PENELOPE. They all feature transportive storytelling with rich, dynamic characters at the heart and are accompanied by music that touches audiences in a way words alone cannot reach.

Three ArtsWest veterans lead the production. Director Kelly Kitchens returns after directing ArtsWest’s original holiday musicals SNOWED IN (2023) and SNOWED IN (AGAIN) (2024) as well as THE REVOLUTIONISTS (2020). Producing Artistic Director Mathew Wright is Musical Director. Chelsea LeValley lights up ArtsWest’s stage again after playing Jane Eyre in JANE EYRE (2018). LeValley was also a cast member of ANGRY HOUSEWIVES (2015) and the immersive AMERICAN IDIOT (2015).

PENELOPE is the second production of ArtsWest’s 2025-2026 Season titled Between Us. The season features 5 bold contemporary plays that explore the invisible threads that bind us — the responsibilities we bear for one another, the debts of care we carry, and the lifelines we extend in moments of crisis. In PENELOPE, the titular character wrestles with waiting and the unknown and in doing so, wrestles with what she owes her partner and what she owes herself which is something we can all relate to.

ArtsWest will present PENELOPE Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 pm and Saturday through Sunday at 3 pm with additional Saturday Matinees on December 13th and December 20th.

TICKETS HERE