Portland Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations

Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Portland Playhouse
by Krista Garver - December 15, 2025

Portland Playhouse’s annual production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL continues to be essential holiday viewing. It’s a gorgeous piece of theatre that honors tradition while finding ways to surprise even its most devoted returnees. Consider me among them, already looking forward to next year....

Review: THE WINTER'S TALE at Salt And Sage
by Krista Garver - December 05, 2025

Shakespeare's THE WINTER’S TALE is notoriously difficult to do well. One of the Bard's later 'problem plays,' it essentially presents two different theatrical worlds: the first half is a tragedy driven by King Leontes' sudden, irrational jealousy toward his pregnant wife Hermione and his best friend...

Review: LOUISA MAY ALCOTT'S LITTLE WOMEN at Portland Center Stage
by Krista Garver - November 26, 2025

What did our critic think of LOUISA MAY ALCOTT'S LITTLE WOMEN at Portland Center Stage? I had forgotten that Little Women opens at Christmas until I started rereading the book in anticipation of Portland Center Stage's production of Lauren M. Gunderson's new adaptation: LOUISA MAY ALCOTT'S LITTLE WO...

Review: STILT at Corrib Theatre
by Krista Garver - November 21, 2025

Not knowing who you are can hollow you out, leaving a space that can too easily get filled with all sorts of dangerous things. Joy Nesbitt's STILT, now making its world premiere at Corrib Theatre under Holly Griffith's direction, takes that primal anxiety about identity and weaves it into something ...

Review: RECENT TRAGIC EVENTS at Third Rail Repertory Theatre
by Krista Garver - November 12, 2025

What did our critic think of RECENT TRAGIC EVENTS at Third Rail Repertory Theatre?...

Review: MADONNA OF THE CAT at 21ten Theatre
by Krista Garver - November 05, 2025

What did our critic think of MADONNA OF THE CAT at 21ten Theatre?...

Review: SHUCKED at Keller Auditorium
by Krista Garver - October 29, 2025

In times like these, sometimes you just need to turn off your brain and laugh. That's exactly what the national tour of the musical comedy SHUCKED delivers – a few hours of unapologetically silly, pun-saturated fun....

Review: DANCING ON THE SABBATH at Shaking The Tree
by Krista Garver - October 21, 2025

Samantha Van Der Merwe once again demolishes any idea of conventional theatre with DANCING ON THE SABBATH, her adaptation of 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses,' now running at Shaking the Tree Theatre. It's a story told without audible dialogue, a movement piece without traditional dance, and an immers...

Review: PARADISE BLUE at Portland Playhouse
by Krista Garver - October 16, 2025

Dominique Morisseau's PARADISE BLUE, now running at Portland Playhouse, is an intense, beautifully acted noir drama about community, legacy, and the forces that tear both apart. Set at the Paradise Club in Detroit's Black Bottom neighborhood in 1949, this jazz-infused play opens with a jolt — a trum...

Review: THE BED TRICK at Artists Repertory Theatre
by Krista Garver - October 13, 2025

What did our critic think of THE BED TRICK at Artists Repertory Theatre? Is all well that ends well? If you’re familiar with Shakespeare's comedy, you know this is a loaded question. The play's supposedly happy resolution hinges on the 'bed trick,' a deception in which one person tricks another pers...

Review: PRIMARY TRUST at Portland Center Stage
by Krista Garver - October 10, 2025

When I saw Portland Center Stage lineup for this season, the show I was most excited about was Eboni Booth’s PRIMARY TRUST. I’d heard nothing but good things about this play, which won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The plot is deceptively simple, but underneath flows a current of kindness, huma...

Review: ORANGE FLOWER WATER at 100 Lives Repertory
by Krista Garver - October 01, 2025

As the lights dimmed at the end of ORANGE FLOWER WATER, the debut production of 100 Lives Repertory, a deafening silence settled over the audience, as if we were collectively deciding whether to clap or let out a primal scream. It was one of the most visceral theatrical experiences I've had in years...

Review: TRIANGLE at Broadway Rose
by Krista Garver - September 30, 2025

When I first learned that a musical romance would be built around the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire — one of New York's most devastating industrial disasters (there’s an excellent book about it) — I'll admit I was skeptical. But TRIANGLE, with its intricate dual narrative structure, won me over. ...

Review: THE CAKE at Triangle Productions
by Krista Garver - September 11, 2025

Right now, with political divisions seeming to slice through every aspect of our lives, Bekah Brunstetter's 2017 play THE CAKE arrives at triangle productions with uncomfortable timeliness. This show is a funny and insightful exploration of what happens when our convictions collide with our hearts....

Review: SOME LIKE IT HOT at Keller Auditorium
by Krista Garver - September 03, 2025

What did our critic think of SOME LIKE IT HOT at Keller Auditorium?...

Review: ANYTHING GOES at Broadway Rose
by Krista Garver - August 11, 2025

Broadway Rose Theatre continues to dazzle with their big summer productions. The latest offering of Cole Porter's beloved 1934 classic ANYTHING GOES proves that sometimes the best entertainment comes from embracing pure, unadulterated fun....

Review: & JULIET at Keller Auditorium
by Krista Garver - August 06, 2025

Whether you're a Shakespeare devotee, a musical theater lover, or simply someone who believes in the transformative power of love and second chances, & JULIET delivers....

Review: MJ THE MUSICAL at Keller Auditorium
by Krista Garver - July 16, 2025

MJ The Musical is a high-energy tribute to the King of Pop that delivers everything you could want from a Michael Jackson show. This Tony Award-winning production (4 wins, including choreography) combines spectacular performances with Jackson’s legendary catalog into a celebration of one of the bigg...

Review: THE ONE at 21ten Theatre
by Krista Garver - July 07, 2025

What did our critic think of THE ONE at 21ten Theatre?...

Review: WAITRESS at Broadway Rose
by Krista Garver - July 03, 2025

At its heart, WAITRESS celebrates the dreams that refuse to stay buried, the courage to reimagine your life, and the friends who believe in you when you don’t believe in yourself. I loved every minute of this excellent production....

Review: MOTHER RUSSIA at Profile Theatre
by Krista Garver - June 19, 2025

The play centers on Evgeny (Bets Swadis) and Dmitri (Orion Bradshaw), two twenty-five-year-olds whose career aspirations – cushy government work and KGB glory, respectively – have been rendered obsolete. With no other work available, they find themselves surveilling a former subversive-pop-star-turn...

Review: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST at Portland Center Stage
by Krista Garver - June 19, 2025

Kamilah Bush's new adaptation of Oscar Wilde's beloved comedy THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST transplants the action to 1919, creating a world that mirrors contemporary D.C.'s obsession with wealth, identity, and reputation as social currency. ...

Review: CHRIS GRACE: AS SCARLETT JOHANSSON at Portland Center Stage
by Krista Garver - May 18, 2025

Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johansson, currently playing at Portland Center Stage, is a delightfully disorienting theatrical experience that defies categorization and expectations....

Review: JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE at Portland Playhouse
by Krista Garver - May 17, 2025

Portland Playhouse's latest production, August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, offers audiences a complex meditation on identity and belonging. As the second play chronologically in Wilson's Century Cycle, this work captures a pivotal moment in African American history during the Great Migratio...

Review: THE STORYTELLER at Artists Repertory Theatre
by Krista Garver - May 06, 2025

Artists Rep is ending its short season on the highest of high notes with the world premiere of THE STORYTELLER, by local playwright Sara Jean Accuardi. This gorgeous play, which won the 2023 Oregon Book Award for drama, delves into the profound ways stories shape our understanding of the world – hea...