BWW Reviews: STOREFRONT REVUE: THE BABES ARE BACK Pays Jumbled Tribute to Portland Theatre's Past, at Triangle Productions

In 1970, Portland's Storefront Theatre was founded by two former theatre professors, Tom Hill and Anne Gerety. For the next 20 years, the company put on provocative, alternative productions ranging from anti-war street theatre to premieres of work by Sam Shepard and David Mamet, to original children's shows. In 1990, the company dissolved due to financial reasons, but its memory lives on in Triangle Productions' STOREFRONT REVUE: THE BABES ARE BACK, playing through May 30 at the Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza.

STOREFRONT REVUE is a musical conceived and written by Triangle Productions! founder and executive director Donald Horn with help from some members of the original Storefront Theatre. It tells the story of Storefront through narrative as well as skits from Storefront productions.

Unfortunately, the show is unfocused. Rather than just relating the history of the theatre or presenting Storefront's best sketches or exploring the relationships among the company or showing the effects of the political and social context of the time, Horn tries to do it all and more.

In addition, some of the scenes and skits are very long and lack a real purpose. For example, the entire reason for the snippet of LYSISTRATA appears to be to show off the men's large fake phalluses at the end, which hardly justifies the what-feels-like-10+-minute sketch. Other skits also drag on without even a fake phallus to give them a raison d'etre. The same goes for some of the scenes between the sketches -- one long backstage discussion about sex feels like it must have been an inside joke.

The show is at its best during the short sketches with music, like Danielle Purdy's fabulously delivered number about waiting for her lover for 18 years, Leah Seligman's funny song about the MAX, an ensemble number about all of our favorite bad habits that shows off Storefront's costume styling (see the picture above), and the rousing anthem "Eat Your F***ing Corn Flakes" from the long-running ANGRY HOUSEWIVES.

Ultimately, the show just simply tries to do too much. The AIDS epidemic, the characters' drug problems, LYSISTRATA -- all of these things were undoubtedly important for Storefront, but when you have limited time (the program says 90 minutes, but it was closer to 110), you have to pick and choose. I wish that Horn had either cut the skits and focused more on the storytelling or, even better, just written the history in the program, dispensed with the storytelling altogether, and presented the skits cabaret-style.

If you were around during the Storefront years, then STOREFRONT REVUE: THE BABES ARE BACK will likely prompt a pleasant feeling of nostalgia. But if, like me, this is your first exposure to Storefront, you may feel a bit like you are listening to someone tell a very long story only to conclude that you really just had to be there.

STOREFRONT REVUE: THE BABES ARE BACK plays through May 30. For tickets, visit www.trianglepro.org.

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