ArtBar & Bistro SW Broadway & Main, inside the PCPA Building 432-2905 With its towering ceilings and expensive ticket prices, the Portland Center for the Performing Arts (PCPA) exudes an intimidating odor of wealth and power, which means unless you’re attending a performance, you have little reason to drop by for the sole purpose of […]
Justin Wescoat Sanders
Posted inTheater & Performance
Amadeus
Amadeus Lakewood Theatre, 368 S. State Street, Lake Oswego, 635-3901, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, Sun 7 pm, through Feb 20, $22-24 For his amazing 1984 film version of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, Milos Foreman didn’t just utilize gorgeous sets and costumes and Oscar-caliber performances by F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce, but worked closely with Shaffer for […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
The Cold Comedy Concoction
The Cold Comedy Concoction Stark Raving at the Coho Theatre, 2257 NW Raleigh, 232-7072, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, Sun 7 pm, through Jan 22, $10-18 In the thick of another long, gray, clammy Northwest winter, the good folks at Stark Raving have hatched on a simple yet novel idea: an evening of four short, light, original […]
Posted inNews
Having Fun vs. Getting Fat
Putting the Fun Back into Fitness
Let’s get real–“exercise” is not fun. Jogging? Not fun. Going to the gym? Not fun. Aerobics? Don’t make me laugh. And when was the last time you saw a Power Walker with a big, shit-eating grin on their emaciated face? America’s exercise culture is a bland hodgepodge of mind-numbingly repetitive physical toil, and if you […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Random Dance
Random Dance PSU’s Lincoln Hall, SW Park & Market, 790-ARTS, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, $14-25 For most college-graduated urbanites, the age of 22 was a time to kick back and wash away the memories of academic rigor with beer. For Wayne McGregor, the age of 22 was a time to start an internationally renowned dance company. […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
StageDirect’s Poona the Fuckdog
StageDirect’s Poona the Fuckdog screening at Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st, Fri-Sat 11:30 pm, one week only, $5 And now a word about the struggles of theater in this Modern Era, and a quirky little company with the power to ease those struggles, assuming it finds its way. In 2001, the success of Theatre Vertigo’s […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Mike Daisey
Mike Daisey performing 21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com, Portland Center Stage, 1111 SW Broadway, 274-6588, opens Fri 8 pm, runs Tues-Wed, Sun 7 pm, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, Thurs 12 pm, Sun 2 pm, through Feb 6, $15-55 When he debuted his one-man show 21 Dog Years in the back room of an Internet […]
Posted inBooks
Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies
Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies by Ted Chapin (Knopf) The story of the 1973 musical Follies includes massive production values, technological innovations of startling power, and a whopping celebrity cast and crew consisting of Yvonne De Carlo, Fifi D’Orsay, Stephen Sondheim, and more. Set at a reunion of aging performers on […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
A Bright Room Called Day
A Bright Room Called Day Theatre Vertigo at Theater! Theatre!, 3430 SE Belmont, 306-0870, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, Sun 7 pm, through January 1, $13-15, Thursdays “Pay What You Will” Liberals who think its tough facing another four years of President Bush have nothing on the liberals that lived in pre-Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Eerily […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Jonathan Walters
Jonathan Walters Artistic Director of Hand2Mouth Theatre, season kickoff party Monday December 13, Goodfoot Lounge, 2845 SE Stark, 8 pm, free It’s refreshing in this hyperactive age to find a theater company that isn’t afraid to take its time. Jonathan Walters’ Hand2Mouth ensemble doesn’t rush at any level, from the studied, powerful storytelling techniques it […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Dungeons and Drag Kings
Dungeons and Drag Kings: A Night of Fantasy Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison, Sunday December 5th, 7 pm, $5 Even though the Portland Drag King performance scene, DKPDX, is flourishing, I’d always resisted seeing them, largely due to a single phrase from a coworker, who once said, simply, “They’re okay; lots of lip-syncing.” My narrow mind […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics
Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics Portland Center Stage, 1111 SW Broadway, 274-6588, Fri-Sat 8 pm, Sat-Sun 2 pm, Sun 7 pm, closes this weekend, $15-55 One of the hot shits in the theater world right now is playwright Nilo Cruz, a prize-winning Cuban-American whose works are getting produced all over the world. In the […]