Portland Sings! Brings Cabaret-Style Musical Theatre Concert Series to Artists Rep on June 7

I'm about to give away the best-kept musical theatre secret in Portland. Once every few months, a rotating group of incredibly talented singers and actors gets together and puts on a cabaret-style concert. For a big Broadway musical fan like me, this is about as close as it gets to a perfect night.

Happily for us all, the next perfect night will happen on June 7, when Portland Sings! performs songs about family on the set of Artists Repertory Theatre's The Skin of Our Teeth.

The brains behind Portland Sings! is actor, singer, and songwriter Courtney Freed. Before coming to Portland, Freed lived in Chicago and Los Angeles, where there are many opportunities for musical theatre actors to perform, even when they're not in a show. In Portland, however, that isn't the case. Despite the abundance of talent we have in this town, we don't have much of a musical cabaret culture.

Freed decided to change that. As a new mom, she didn't have time for a full run of a show, but she still wanted to perform -- and give others the chance to showcase their talent without having to commit to a long rehearsal and performance schedule. So, she started a concert series.

This will be Portland Sings! fifth concert. Each one is organized around a theme. They started with Disney, then did Sondheim, Richard Rodgers, and female songwriters. (I saw the last two -- they were spectacular!) The June 7 show is part of the Artists Rep In Concert series, which pairs musical performances with the plays currently running on stage.

Titled Mothers, Daughters, Fathers, and Sons -- Songs About Family, the concert will feature songs from a mix of classic and modern musicals, including Ragtime, The Color Purple, Working, Falsettos, Footloose, and Carousel. The cast combines some of Portland's musical theatre powerhouses with up-and-coming talent: Courtney Freed, Vin Shambry, Hailey Kilgore, Del Lewis, Camille Trinka, Hudson Hale, Josie Seid, and music director Mont Chris Hubbard. It's going to be great.

Portland Sings! Mothers, Daughters, Fathers, and Sons -- Songs About Family happens June 7 at 7:30 pm at Artists Rep. Get tickets for your next perfect night here: http://www.artistsrep.org/onstage/music-events/in-concert-artists-rep/