Portland Opera Presents Broadway Across America Portland is pleased to announce MEMPHIS, the 2010 Tony® Award Winner for Best Musical, and the show that’s currently blowing the roof off Broadway, opens at Keller Auditorium on September 11, 2012 for a limited engagement. Tickets go on sale Sunday, July 29.
Imagine a version of Cinderella where the setting is 1964, the ball is prom, the dance moves are the Twist and the Mashed Potato (“It’s the latest/It’s the greatest”), and Cinderella goes by “Cindy.” Choreographers Donna Marisa and Hannah Bontrager have. The mother-daughter team directs the Eugene-based contemporary ballet company Ballet Fantastique, and will bring their critically acclaimed Cinderella: A Rock Opera Ballet to the Lincoln Performance Hall Sunday, August 5 at 4 pm. The all-original production recently sold out its run at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts and earned consecutive standing ovations.
Shakespeare… touched on just how twisted and out of whack family members can become around aging, madness and death of a central figure, especially families wielding power and determining the future of the feudal masses in many of his plays. But nowhere does this hit home more in the subject of fathers and daughters and sons than in King Lear.
Director Jon Kretzu, whose work at Artists’ Repertory Theatre we have enjoyed in the past, recognizes the rich material available here around aging, family power dynamics and death, especially here in Oregon, a “right to die” state, and also in recent context of the Supreme Court’s upholding of the majority of the Affordable Care Act provisions. Together with a stellar ensemble cast, they give us a darkly rich, dynamic, modern and personal King Lear for the Portland Shakespeare Project.
Last weekend, the deadites came to town, and oddly enough, they were singing. But that’s because “Evil Dead: The Musical” was here at the Wonder Ballroom. The highly-acclaimed tour landed here again, and to be honest, I was a little let down. This was my first experience with the musical version of this, so it might be that my expectations were astoundingly high, or perhaps not.
Often when one imagines the term “Absurdist Play” it may conjure up images of men dressed as monkeys, chained to a park bench, talking about freedom or something comparably odd. Such was my thought process going into see the U.S. Premiere, performed by The Factory Theatre,of “Theatre Without Animals” (also, the first time the play has been performed in English) at the CoHo Theater.
Milagro Theatre Presents the AVENTURAS DE DON QUIXOTE (“Adventures of Don Quixote”) – A bilingual presentation for ages 5-10 created by Teatro Milagro – Maria doesn’t like to read, but her curiosity draws her into the literary world of Don Quixote, an overly imaginative gentleman whose good intentions — and mountains of books! — are driving his friend into a frenzy! In this charming new touring play from Teatro Milagro, children and adults alike will be pulled into a fun and exciting interactive drama inspired by the famous novel of Cervantes.
A good rule of thumb before embarking on such a venture would be: unless you have something absolutely riveting to say or do with the text that takes the piece to a whole new level (as Oedipus El Rey did), stick to the original text. There are plenty of examples of directors taking setting and costume liberties with Shakespeare and the classics to make their own thematic, social or current political commentary on what they feel the text is trying to say (or as the old theatre rat joke goes, “Hey, I know! Let’s do Hamlet in modern, plain rehearsal clothes!”).
Unfortunately, this is not the case with “Lear’s Follies” — more often than not, if you know the original source material well, one is left thinking, gee, the original did that so much better.
Jersey Boys is the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons: Frankie
Valli, Bob Guadio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi. This is the story of how
a group of blue-collar boys from the wrong side of the tracks became one
of the biggest American pop music sensations of all time. They wrote
their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records
worldwide–all before they were thirty!
At last week’s Annual Meeting, General Director Christopher Mattaliano announced Portland Opera’s success—artistically and financially—for the Company’s 48th season.
Thank goodness Portland’s Comedy scene has several really great women who are nuturing their own in this scene, including an all female comedy fest coming here in September, aptly named, “All Jane, No Dick.”
It’s an uphill fight, to be sure, for women, but we do have local contenders who can dish out the comic punches with the best and then some — and to extend the metaphor perhaps a bit further, a delight to watch in this arena is our own local Stacey Hallal, now in her new one-woman show at the CoHo Theatre, “Irregardless.” And prepared for the fight she appears to be, as the photos of her in the boxing ring for this production would indicate.