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BWW Reviews: TWIST YOUR DICKENS at Portland Center Stage Is a Wild Ride Through Your Favorite Holiday Tales
Twist Your Dickens is two hours of sketch comedy using Dickens's tale as a very rough basic structure but going off in dozens of different directions, from parodies of classic holiday TV specials (A Charlie Brown Christmas gets banged around) to rewrites of familiar carols....
BWW Reviews: This Year's Entry in THE SANTALAND DIARIES at Portland Center Stage Will Still Make You Laugh
When Crumpet (the character's 'elf name') gets annoyed with the other elves, the children, and their parents, Pierce doesn't get bitchy; he goes into full Shakespearean revenge mode, plotting his vengeance like Iago, and it's all the funnier for that....
BWW Reviews: You Can't Help But Love AS YOU LIKE IT at Post5 Theatre
Actors adore Shakespeare and can't wait to share that love with the rest of us, and it brings out the zest in their acting. And who doesn't want to watch actors having fun?...
BWW Reviews: Powerful Acting Makes CoHo's 'NIGHT, MOTHER a Must See
Thelma and Jessie have a messy relationship, and there are a lot of questions both women have for each other. Some get answered and some don't....
BWW Reviews: THE TYPOGRAPHER'S DREAM Explores What Our Jobs Mean to Us at Portland Center Stage
At first we think they do not know each other - they have the strained politeness of strangers who are forced into a situation together - but gradually we see connections between them, and past arguments begin to spill out....
BWW Reviews: EXILES Is a Muddled Immigration Story at Artists Rep
The specificity of the Cuban immigrant experience is discarded in favor of a Survivor-style fight among the passengers to see who will control the boat's destiny....
BWW Reviews: Learn About Great Acting at THE PIANO LESSON at Portland Playhouse
The performances are all excellent, and they are all of a piece. You believe that these people all exist in the same time frame, the same culture, and the same place....
BWW Reviews: Post5 Is the Right Place to Spend THE LAST DAYS
There are some dark laughs along the way, and some gross-out moments, but the action feels realistic, as if these four people were being besieged on all sides, and the stress was taking a toll on each of them in a different way....
BWW Reviews: MIDDLETOWN Is Home to All of Us at Third Rail
Middletown is a frustrating play to describe because I want to tell you everything that made me love it, and yet I don't want to tell you anything about it. I want you to go see it and experience it for yourself....
BWW Reviews: DREAMGIRLS Hits Some of the Right Notes at Portland Center Stage
There's so much plot crammed into the show, and so many songs (many of them performance pieces that have little to do with story or character), that it hurtles by too quickly for us to get to know the people we're watching....
BWW Reviews: A Very Gifted Cast! That's WHODUNIT at Broadway Rose
As the mystery elements kicked in and the bodies began to pile up, I relaxed and enjoyed myself thoroughly....
BWW Reviews: Clackamas Rep Deftly Depicts the Struggles of GOOD PEOPLE
the playwright has written the characters in a very even-handed way; at no time is either Mike or Margie completely right or completely wrong; we see them both as people trying to do the right thing, yet also trying to hold on to what they already have....
BWW Reviews: A Small but Deeply Moving Story of INTIMATE APPAREL at Artists Rep
Lynn Nottage's play Intimate Apparel finds a way to make loneliness not only dramatic, but incredibly moving....
BWW Reviews: WAIT UNTIL DARK Is Worth Seeing - and Hearing - at Northwest Classical
Their production of Wait Until Dark is based on a revised script by Jeffrey Hatcher that premiered in 2013. The original, by Frederick Knott, opened in 1966 and was set at that time; this version is backdated to the 1940s. The loot is slightly different, and there are a few four-letter words added t...
BWW Reviews: THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS Is Innocent Dirty Fun at Broadway Rose
Whorehouse, for all of its naughty language and scantily clad cast members, is actually one of the most innocent shows around....
BWW Reviews: Clackamas Rep's CAROUSEL Is a Trip to Musical Heaven
The waltz begins its hurdy-gurdy rhythm and suddenly we're transported to the carousel through dance, music, movement, and the above-mentioned scenic effects. It's beautifully done, and every member of the company contributes....
BWW Reviews: Shakespeare Goes to the Frat House in Post5 Theatre's LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST
The lines aren't ancient at all; the dialogue makes perfect sense, the jokes become hilarious, and the physical comedy is as well-played as a Three Stooges routine....
BWW Reviews: Do You Believe in Magic? THE TEMPEST at Portland Shakespeare Project
Theater is about illusion and the suspension of disbelief. If the actors believe in what they're saying, the audience follows along....
BWW Reviews: Broadway Rose Brings 76 Trombones and a Lot of Exuberance to THE MUSIC MAN
Their new production of The Music Man isn't flashy and doesn't do anything radical with Meredith Willson's book and score, and that's the best decision they could have made....
BWW Reviews: THE PHILADELPHIA STORY Is Smartly Told at Clackamas Rep
Under the able direction of Doren Elias, the actors all get the period feeling just right, and the wealthy family feels like a wealthy family - all upper-crust manners and comfortable ease with the fancy trimmings....
BWW Reviews: Post5 Theatre Takes Another Shot at THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) (REVISED)
Once the actors start doing their version of Romeo and Juliet the adrenaline kicks in, and all three performers are willing to do just about anything for a laugh....
BWW Reviews: THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE Is a Bit Too Pretty at Third Rail
McDonagh's plays are like sitcoms with the anger boiling underneath; they're like Cheers if the characters had all been wasted alcoholics, or the 'Eunice' sketches from The Carol Burnett Show with the wackiness dialed way down....
BWW Reviews: LIZZIE Is a Bloody Mess at Portland Center Stage
It is possible to do a rock show about an era that predates rock - think of Spring Awakening, Evita, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson - but these fellows don't seem to know what rock has to do with Lizzie Borden....
BWW Reviews: Artists Rep Strikes a Blow with THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD
John Millington Synge's 1907 play is about Christy, a young man who shows up in an Irish village and announces that he has killed his father with a blow to the head. For some reason, the men of the town are impressed by this feat and immediately claim friendship with the boy, while all the women in ...
BWW Reviews: Family Conflict with a Political Edge in AFTER THE REVOLUTION at Portland Playhouse
To Herzog's credit, the answers aren't easy, and Emma spends the play struggling to decide how she feels about her grandfather's actions, taking input from everyone around her while trying to figure out how best to honor his legacy - even as she's still unsure what that legacy actually is....
Videos
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Kristina Wong #FoodBankInfluencer Portland Center Stage at The Aromory (5/26-6/07) |
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Funny Girl Lakewood Theatre Company (4/24-6/07) |
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Arbus & West The Sactuary @ Sandy Plaza (6/04-6/20) |
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Next To Normal Twilight Theater Company (5/21-6/14) |
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Doja Cat at Moda Center Moda Center (10/17-10/17) |
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Once Upon A Mattress Broadway Rose Theater Company (5/21-6/21) |
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The SpongeBob Musical Portland Playhouse (4/29-6/07) |
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The Taming Ten Fifteen Productions (5/28-6/13) |
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Sound Of Music Keller Auditorium (5/11-5/16) |
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DAPPERLESQUE: (PRIDE EDITION) A Gender Bending Burlesque Cabaret Alberta Rose Theatre (6/27-6/27) |
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