PORTLAND THEATER REVIEWS

AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ is a great musical showcase, as well as a much-needed diversion. The hooting, hollering, clapping, and toe-tapping audience seemed to agree....

Samuel Beckett’s 1961 masterpiece HAPPY DAYS, now being presented by the Northwest Classical Theatre Collaborative, is a tragicomic meditation on how to hang onto our humanity as time marches us slowly toward death. It’s equal parts LOL funny and deeply depressing, and it’s eerily relevant to ...

What did our critic think of ROGERS + HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA at Broadway Rose?...

Blending 16th century history with modern pop culture and music, SIX is a super-smart, high-energy celebration of women reclaiming the narrative of their own lives. Most of all it’s just really fun....

CARDIAC ORGAN is excellent fun – not the good, clean type, but the vastly superior creepy, twisted type. Slither up to the bar for a Red Rabbit and enjoy the show....

This wild play by Max Yu explores how technology isolates and then consumes us as it goes from being a tool we use to something we’re used by....

This beautiful play is a powerful lesson in staving off despair and loneliness through authentic connection with others....

What did our critic think of TRUE STORY at Artists Repertory Theatre?...

MYRA’S STORY, a solo show by Brian Foster now running at Corrib Theatre, takes an unflinching look at the factors that resulted in a woman becoming an alcoholic and losing her home....

This beautiful musical, based on the true story of how a small town in Newfoundland opened their doors to 7,000 stranded “plane people” when U.S. airspace was closed following the terrorist attacks, is an antidote to skepticism, nihilism, and loneliness....

You will be hard-pressed to find anything more fun than this super sassy, high-energy celebration of self-acceptance, inclusivity, and, of course, big hair....

IMO you should never pass up the opportunity to see an August Wilson play, and that certainly goes for SEVEN GUITARS....

This is very intimate theatre, and not just because it’s performed for small groups in small rooms. Every piece deals with an intimate subject – something we don’t like, or don’t know how, to talk about. So, buckle up. And go see it....

Madeline Sayet’s sweeping and poetic one-person play WHERE WE BELONG tells the story of Achokayis, a Mohegan theatre-maker, who in 2015 moves to England to get her PhD in Shakespeare. It deals with issues that we as a country have actively worked to avoid talking about, or at least to relegate the...

YOUNG AMERICANS a quiet contemplative sort of play. It asks you to reflect on a question -- What does it mean to be an American? -- that has no definitive answer in a way that takes a wide variety of perspectives into account....

Whether you feel like a romantic comedy or a look at an important moment in our civil rights history, WHAT I LEARNED IN PARIS fits the bill....

WELCOME TO ARROYO'S is a moving and must-see play about family, grief, love, art, and the importance of being open to new perspectives and experiences. But more than anything else, it’s about community....

Do you remember those brilliant Kodak commercials way back when that chronicled people’s lives through photographs and seemed specifically designed to tug at every last heartstring? In all the best ways, SNAPSHOTS: A MUSICAL SCRAPBOOK, now running at Broadway Rose, is a full-length musical version...

MS. HOLMES & MS. WATSON – APT 2B simultaneously plays homage to and flips on its head the detective story tropes to show what happens when women are in charge....

The national tour of this Broadway hit, now running at Keller Auditorium, literally defines the word spectacular. It’s dazzlingly gorgeous and also oh-so-much fun!...

I count on Portland Playhouse's A CHRISTMAS CAROL every year to get me into the holiday spirit, and it has never failed. It will work for you too....

What did our critic think of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY at Portland Center Stage? It's the theatrical equivalent of hot cocoa with whipped cream....

Amed with fabric, scissors, and a sewing machine, Kristina Wong goes to war against COVID with her squad of mask-sewing Aunties. Catch her show KRISTINA WONG, SWEATSHOP OVERLORD at Portland Center Stage....

KING OF THE YEES combines biting humor, keen social commentary, and the thrill of discovery into a touching and also wildly entertaining package....

Through two unnamed characters – lonely people struggling to find purpose and connection – the play explores how fundamental empathy is to our existence. I give this production my absolute highest recommendation....