Patrick Brassell - Page 4

Simon Levy's adaptation is actually a skillful condensation of the events and dialogue of the novel, stitched together with some narration, but this production isn't up to his writing, let alone Fitzgerald's.

One of the most famous quotes regarding Fiddler on the Roof came from the producer of the first Japanese production, who said to the writers, 'Do they understand this show in America? It's so Japanese!' Well, you don't have to be Japanese, or Jewish, or anything else to understand Fiddler.

This is The 39 Steps as filtered through Monty Python or Carol Burnett. If you're old enough to remember Carol's Saturday night movie parodies, with the wigs that never quite fit and the accents that were hammier than Easter dinner, you'll have a sense of what this show is trying to do.

Lucky Stiff is an early project by composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist/librettist Lynn Ahrens, who went on to create Once on This Island, Ragtime, and the underrated A Man of No Importance. It's an odd mating of one of those twee English comedies that always seemed to feature Alec Guinness and a dorky 1980s comedy, specifically Weekend at Bernie's.

A high point of the first part of the play is when King asks Camae what she would say to the world if she were in his shoes, and she literally puts on his shoes (and coat) and launches into her own oratory, which is surprising and intelligent, if quite different from King's perspective on the conflict between the races.

The Big Meal is about nothing less than the entire scope of life, played out in a series of meals in a variety of restaurants.

I salute any theater that tries to push itself into new creative directions. However, if you're going to do those risky shows, especially those with challenging roles, you need to have the right people to lead the way.

In Licking Batteries, electricity is both literal (in the use of electroshock therapy to treat mental illness) and metaphoric (in the sparks between people), and it gets used in a multitude of ways to tell an engrossing story.

Cole Porter's songs are justifiably classic, both the tunes that relate to the backstage story and the numbers for the show within the show, and this company has the voices to put them over sensationally.

The late Lehman Engel was a conductor for a number of Broadway shows in the 1940s through the 1960s, in addition to writing several masterful books on the creation and construction of musicals, and founding the musical theater workshop that bears his name and has trained many of the top songwriters and librettists of the past thirty years. He invented the term 'charm song,' referring to a song that isn't a true comedy song or a ballad, but is intended to make the audience smile and like the character singing it. The gold standard for charm songs is My Fair Lady - practically the whole show is charm songs like 'The Rain in Spain,' 'Wouldn't It Be Loverly,' and and 'You Did It.' The only overt love song is handed to a minor character, and the story is resolved via dialogue rather than a big final number. And it's just a great show.

We enter the world of Padua, which in director Michael Mendelson's vision takes place in the swinging 1960s. The set is a clear reminder of Laugh-In, with its pastel colors and patterned walls with small doors that the actors can peep through. The costumes are witty reminders of that era, particularly the women's outfits and wigs. And the music throughout echoes Carnaby Street.

Is there a more reliably funny performance piece than The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield?

Director-choreographer Lyn Cramer put her cast to work right away, sending them on one by one during the overture, crawling, slinking, and rolling onstage. The cast of twenty-four filled the auditorium's huge stage, each one in full cat costume and moving in time to the music. The actors stay in character throughout, and their energy is infectious; they kept me riveted almost throughout the show.

I attended Avenue Q at a sold-out Saturday night performance on Pride weekend in Portland, and the house was filled with people who clearly knew the show and were ready to have fun. The couple seated next to me, however, came with a group of friends and seemed confused about what they were going to see. 'It's Sesame Street for twentysomethings,' I explained. 'It's a great comedy.' And so it is. But what hit me this time (my third) was how sweet and likable the show is. At the end of Act One, when the various plots hit their snags and the characters are heartbroken, I heard an audible 'Awwww' throughout the house. This is the triumph of Triangle Productions' 2013 take on Avenue Q: They've found the heart underneath the goofiness. And this is by far the best rendition of the show I've seen.

The lush music, the period costumes, and Andrew Samonsky's performance kept me involved. There's some trimming to be done, and some rewriting, and maybe it will work for fans of the movie. But there could be so much more.

When soldiers go to war, they find themselves in unbearable, life-threatening situations, and terrible things happen. Then, if they survive, they have to find their way back to the places they lived before, where society expects them to pick up where they left off. But soldiers are changed by what they see and do, and coming back isn't all that simple.

Here are five upcoming productions in the Portland area that shouldn't be missed this summer. Of course, we'll have our eyes open for other productions as well, which will be reviewed in this space as they arrive. And don't forget the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, which is not part of the Portland area, but is certainly worth the drive for great theater in a beautiful setting.

Catherine Treischmann's play Crooked, now playing at CoHo Productions, is about a fourteen-year-old girl named Laney who is even more confused and angry than most kids her age.

Tommy Tune said it (or sang it) best in Seesaw, to the music of Cy Coleman and the lyrics of Dorothy Fields: "It's not where you start, it's where you finish." When a show has a strong finale that sends you out into the night singing, you'll forgive it some bumps along the way.

The play looks and feels like a bright, witty comedy, the kind that used to light up Broadway stages year after year.