Comment Archives: stories: Theater
Re: “What's Up, Boys?”
That's what I just thought too!! That's IT?!
Re: “Boomer Bait”
Ok I can't resist any more because I can't believe no one has called you out yet Graham. What kind of person wishes an entire generation dead? Seriously? Those are people's parents, brother, sisters. Maybe I should wish your parents dead because they obviously did a terrible job raising you. But I won't because I am not a psychopath.
Re: “Boomer Bait”
as a late stage boomer i have to agree with graham and hallett. however, those who ignore the past....... beware the mote and mustard seed, etc.
Re: “Boomer Bait”
HAHA! Baby Boomers have ruined America and want a gold-star for it. The "Greatest Generation" spawned the "Worst Generation". Boomers need to hurry up and die already.
Re: “Lady Sings the Blues”
I just got back from this play. Fuck. Fffffuuuuck. It was good. Alison has the heart of the Grinch when it comes to theater. So the fact that she didn't lambaste this production is the sign of top notch performance. Especially Victor Mack as Levee, wow!
Re: “String Theory”
Another excellent review. Interesting, even-handed, lets me know what to expect. Awesome!
Re: “Man vs. Machine”
thank you for the informative and non-self-centered work here. I feel ready to make a choice on my evening and that is how I want to feel after reading a review.
Re: “On the Wings of Revolution”
I saw this show last Thursday. I found the actual prodction aspects of the play to be top notch. But the script and plot were needlessly convoluted. I also found the actor who protayed the tranny hooker to be unbelievable in the role.
I agree with Thayer that a few rewrites and some workshopping and this play could be excellent; but right now it tastes like young wine.
Re: “On the Wings of Revolution”
now this is a tight and informative review that is NOT about the reviewer but about the show. the opinion of the reviewer is there but NOT the conceit.
well done. think Ill see the show.
Re: “Burlesqueries”
Yes, yes! It's all included on the PDX Burlesque Calendar and in the Oregon Burlesque Podcast listings! I can't fit everybody's events into this column, but there are other resources for all-inclusive listings!
Re: “Burlesqueries”
Don't forget to mention all the burlesque happening at the TONIC LOUNGE Rayleen! Good times are being had with the likes of Jacqueline Hyde, Meghan Mayhem, Lucy O Rebel, and upcoming June with Shanghai Pearl who could go wrong?
Re: “One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest”
I thought the show last night was pretty awesome. Different guy playing McMurphy and also further into the run, which may have helped with the gelling. Also, I was in row J which I think was close enough to get really creep-ed out by Nurse Ratched.
But here may also be a significant difference for me -- I've never watched the movie of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest all the way through and the snippets I've seen have always been on a small tv.
After dumping on Futura, thought I'd better speak up for this one!
Re: “It's Not TV, It's The Scene”
Mr. Beaton I'm glad you enjoyed this production. However I don't understand why you qualified "best . . . performances" with "local". It implies that Portland performances (including this exceptional one) are across-the-board inferior to out-of-town shows. Frank Beaton the man is welcome to this position; however Frank Beaton the critic has a responsibility to inform the reader what local performers are missing in comparison to (apparently) any touring act or out-of-city show anywhere.
Perhaps it was necessary because all your review's references were nationally-distributed television/movies? Adjust your criticism rather than qualify your praise. Your repeated references don't develop your thought; their empty repetition supplants useful information about the show. Great criticism connects ideas. You do this once; keep going. You have so few words to change theater in Portland.
Re: “One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest”
Yep! But I don't think it matters when the script was written—you can't ask an audience to ignore the existence of a movie like that. (And by casting—and highlighting—an actor whose dad was in the movie, PCS wasn't exactly trying to distance their production.)
I always have a hard time wrapping my head around theatrical productions of iconic movies. Unless you're doing something like the Coens did with True Grit, and returning to the source material to mine it for something completely different (as with Doug Wright's adaptation of Grey Gardens, for example), it more often than not feels like a second rate version of something I could watch for literally 1/10 the cost.
Re: “Books Are Dead. (Long Live Books.)”
Setting aside the passionate discussion of Alison's reviewing skills, I thought this was a pretty bad play. For a lot of reasons. The narrative structure was lame and didn't really build to anything (while I was hopeful the play was over, I wasn't sure I was free until they took a bow).
The lecture in the first half could have been intriguing, but rather than really going for a highly intelligent, abrasive, unpleasant woman, it teetered back and forth with dumb laughs (she's making fun of you) and not very deep analysis that made her seem kind of dumb herself. The small ensemble second half was equally odd with unclear characterization and wavering between somewhat boring conversations about ideas.
And as the review above discusses, the ideas also seemed really weak. I love libraries, books (particularly science fiction), and technology. I even find typefaces interesting. But come on, this was DUMB. If people can still read, I bet they can still figure out to write. With a stick in the dirt, if it comes to that. If the guy can build EMP bombs, he can figure out how to write and probably isn't the idiot you're making him out to be. And it's not either/or with physical books and digital books. Why draw the line with the futura typeface between all that is good or evil? I could keep going. Ei ei ei.
I suppose this achieved the PCS goal of sparking conversation, but mostly it made me think I'm tired of PCS plays. At least the Portland obsession with the standing ovation didn't occur.
The best things about it: gooey blood and it was short.
Re: “One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest”
Is the reviewer aware that the play adaptation was written a full twelve years before the film was released?
Re: “One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest”
Ah, but what an awesome set, yes?
RSSGoing to Seattle?
Re: “What's Up, Boys?”
Here's the extended version:
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto…