Gay Pride 2001
Andy Mangels
Posted inTheater & Performance
A Kind of Surrender
Theater Review
A Kind of Surrender The Engaged Theatre Through May 5 788-6670 I’ve never attended a theatrical performance in the basement of a pizza parlor before, but on assignment, I loped on over to It’s a Beautiful Pizza on Belmont Street. Downstairs, a U-shaped grouping of chairs outlined piles of trashy romance novels. A very small […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Brutality of Fact
Theater Review
Brutality of Fact Theatre Vertigo Through May 5 Few things seem shocking on stage any longer. Audiences are so inured to nudity and swearing that an all-nude production of The Wizard of Oz might be just down the yellow brick road. Which makes the moment in Brutality of Fact (Theatre Vertigo’s final season offering) when […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Never the Sinner
Theater Review
Never the Sinner Artists Repertory Theatre Through Feb 25 The papers had dubbed it “the crime of the century,” and yet 1924’s single murder by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb would barely be a blip on today’s news radar. Even those Chicago newspapers would soon be full of stories about the mob’s battles with the […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Closer
Theater Review
Portland Center Stage, 241-1802 Through Feb 11 There’s a mid-’90s comedy film in which a sweet granny character swears like a sailor, saying, “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckety-fuck.” That scene kept playing in my head like a surreal mantra as I sat in the audience of Closer, Portland Center Stage’s newest production. You can’t say they […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Theater
Goblin Market: Review
Stark Raving Theatre, 232-7072 Closes Dec 31 You know how at Easter time they sell those giant chocolate bunnies, promising mammoth amounts of sweets? And yet, when you bite in, your teeth break through the chocolate layer and into air, because as tasty and pretty as it is on the outside, the inside of the […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
A Christmas Carol
Theater Review
A Christmas Carol Portland Center Stage Through Dec 23 Picture if you will, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Audiences have seen the stage show every year, or have been “treated” to countless bastardized television versions (with female Scrooges, funny Scrooges, animated Scroogers, animal Scrooges, child Scrooges) or even the odd faithful production (Patrick Stewart, your […]
Posted inMusic
Country Goes Gay:
Big Butch Queer Attends Alan Jackson Concert
A FEW WEEKS AGO, my husband took me to the Alan Jackson (swoon) concert for my birthday. While I was there, I learned five things as a gay country fan: 1) The fiddle player will always have a nice ass, and the singer will point that out. I’ve seen everyone from Garth Brooks (hefty ass) […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Theater Review
Ain’t Misbehavin Artists Repetory Theatre Through Dec 17 To Portland theater audiences, Harlem of the 1930s might seem as foreign as a thatched hut in medieval Europe. How then–without the use of dialogue–can the performers in Ain’t Misbehavin a musical show based on the songs of Thomas Fats Waller, get the audience to identify with […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Diabolical Experiments: Improv
Theater Review
Brody Theater, 224-0688 Through Dec 2 It’s hard enough for most people to imagine going on stage as an actor night after night, facing the audience live, without the benefit of another take. But imagine if you had to go on stage with no costumes, no scenery, no music and most importantly, no script? Welcome […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Theater
The Cripple Of Inishmaan Theater Review
Portland Center Stage 1111 SW Broadway Through Nov 26 The poster for Portland Center Stage’s latest production features a leering man–a Marty Feldman look-alike with fake glasses. This is the first clue that you aren’t going to see something tame. But just in case you don’t realize you are sliding into strangeness, there’s the life-size […]