Portland Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 14

BWW Review: A CIVIL WAR CHRISTMAS Reaches Back 150 Years to Bring Us a New, More Nuanced Holiday Story, at Artists Rep
by Krista Garver - December 01, 2016

Holiday shows can be pretty cliche -- someone learns the true meaning of Christmas and then everyone breaks into song. Now, don't get me wrong, I look forward to watching Mickey's Christmas Carol and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon version) every year. But during a time when new societal fau...

BWW Review: ASSISTANCE Takes the Horrible Boss/Mistreated Underling Dynamic to a Whole New (and Funny) Level, at Theatre Vertigo
by Krista Garver - October 21, 2016

The next time you're getting ready for work, take a moment to be grateful that your boss is not Daniel Weisinger, the super-rich, super-entitled boss who sucks the life out of one assistant after another in Leslye Headland's ASSISTANCE, now playing at Theatre Vertigo. The play is a sarcastic and fun...

BWW Review: Before You Vote, Go See HOLD THESE TRUTHS at Portland Center Stage
by Krista Garver - October 14, 2016

In this weird presidential campaign, where ideas like building a wall along our southern border and excluding entire groups of people from our country based on their religion are tossed around as if they were reasonable, it's important to look back at our shameful history -- in the hopes that we mig...

BWW Review: AMERICAN HERO Takes on the Franchise System, at Artists Rep
by Krista Garver - October 14, 2016

What do you do if you work at a fast-food franchise that's been abandoned by the manager, but instructed by corporate to stay open, even without supplies?...

BWW Review: Spooky Fairy Tales (and a Greek Tragedy) Come to Life in HEAD. HANDS. FEET. at Shaking the Tree
by Krista Garver - October 13, 2016

If you're looking for Portland's most creative theatre, Shaking the Tree productions are always in the running. And the current show is no exception. Just in time for Halloween, director Samantha Van Der Merwe brings us HEAD. HANDS. FEET., which consists of three devised works based on the fairy tal...

BWW Review: August Wilson on the Making of an Artist in HOW I LEARNED WHAT I LEARNED, at Portland Playhouse
by Krista Garver - September 29, 2016

If you'd like to know how August Wilson went from humble beginnings to a beloved (and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning) playwright, then make your way over to Portland Playhouse for HOW I LEARNED WHAT I LEARNED, a one-man show originally written as a memoir and performed by the playwright himself....

BWW Review: FLY BY NIGHT is the Kind of Musical That Makes You Fall in Love with Musicals, at Broadway Rose
by Krista Garver - September 27, 2016

If you're looking for that next musical to fall in love with, or you wonder what the big deal is about musical theatre, I very highly recommend you make your way out to Tigard to see FLY BY NIGHT at Broadway Rose. (Protip: Take a date. And tissues.)...

BWW Review: Don't Feed the Plants! Do See LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at Portland Center Stage
by Krista Garver - September 22, 2016

You know the songs by heart, you have complicated feelings about the dentist (Steve Martin could never really be that bad, right?), and, admit it, you always secretly root for the plant. If any of this rings true, then go right now and buy your tickets to LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at Portland Center St...

BWW Review: Margie Boule is Glorious as the Empress of Fashion in Triangle Productions' FULL GALLOP
by Krista Garver - September 22, 2016

I'm not that into fashion. In truth, we're barely on speaking terms. So, when I found out that Triangle Productions' first show of the season was FULL GALLOP, a one-woman show about tastemaker and fashion icon Diana Vreeland, I wasn't sure what to expect. On the one hand, I've greatly enjoyed past T...

BWW Review: What TREVOR the Chimpanzee Teaches Us About Being Human, at Artists Rep
by Krista Garver - September 20, 2016

It seems like every time a previously docile animal, like a pet dog or an animal at the zoo, does something unexpectedly awful (usually in the form of harming a person), we hear things like, 'I don't know what happened. He's never been aggressive before.' When it's a person who commits a terrible ac...

BWW Review: CoHo Productions' THE GUN SHOW Challenges Us to Have a Reasonable Conversation About a Divisive Issue
by Krista Garver - September 13, 2016

'Something happened 13 years ago.' That's the first line of E.M. Lewis's stunning one-person play THE GUN SHOW, and from the moment Vin Shambry says it until a little over an hour later when he takes his bow, you should be prepared to laugh, cry, sing, and maybe, just maybe, change your perspective ...

BWW Review: Ancient Greek Drama Meets the Patriot Act in ANTIGONE PROJECT: A PLAY IN 5 PARTS, at Profile Theatre
by Krista Garver - September 12, 2016

In response to the controversial Patriot Act of 2001, which allowed for wiretapping, surveillance, and other measures ostensibly to protect the United States against terrorism, five women wrote adaptations of Sophocles' ANTIGONE, a play about power, resistance, and what happens when we're denied tho...

BWW Review: Love, Hate, Disappointment, Forgiveness -- ANNAPURNA Plumbs the Depths of Human Relationships, at Third Rail
by Krista Garver - August 12, 2016

What would you do if the wife who left you 20 years ago in the middle of the night, and who you've loved and and hated ever since, showed up at your door?...

BWW Review: Get Your Laugh On at A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, at Broadway Rose
by Krista Garver - August 10, 2016

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM is the musical equivalent of the perfect summer beach read -- funny, not too demanding, and everything works right out in the end. The current production at Broadway Rose fulfills all of these expectations and gives you a tune to hum on your way home (I...

BWW Review: When Fantasy Goes Too Far...Public Citizen Theatre's THE MAIDS
by Krista Garver - August 09, 2016

Portland has a new theatre company! Public Citizen Theatre is the mostly crowdfunded passion project of Amanda Mehl and Aaron Filyaw. For their first production they've chosen Jean Genet's 1947 play THE MAIDS, a sadomasochistic look at domestic servitude, based on the true story of the Papin sisters...

BWW Review: Michael Streeter Gives Us a Fresh New Woman-Centered JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, at Post5
by Krista Garver - July 28, 2016

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR had its heyday before I was born. Of course, growing up as a musical lover, I had several Andrew Lloyd Webber compilation CDs, so I got to know the music, which I still think is rates among Webber's best. But, I'd never had the pleasure of seeing the actual musical until last ...

BWW Review: WEST SIDE STORY is Beautiful, Haunting, and Sadly Still Relevant, at Broadway Rose
by Krista Garver - July 06, 2016

Broadway Rose could perhaps not have picked a more fitting time to bring us Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim's WEST SIDE STORY. Right now, our country and several others around the world are in dire need of a reminder that when gangs face off, there is no happy ending. Violen...

BWW Review: The Office Gets Weird in Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble's PROCEDURES FOR SAYING NO
by Krista Garver - June 27, 2016

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BWW Review: Experience the Punk Angst in AMERICAN IDIOT at Triangle Productions!
by Krista Garver - June 27, 2016

When AMERICAN IDIOT premiered on Broadway in 2010, I must admit I was skeptical. Like every other person of my generation, I started listening to Green Day in high school. But a punk jukebox musical? Really?...

BWW Review: Hope and Humor Spring Eternal in THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH at Artists Rep
by Krista Garver - June 08, 2016

If you've been wondering whether you should see THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH at Artists Rep, the answer is yes. Here's why....

BWW Review: Feel the Heat in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE at Portland Center Stage
by Krista Garver - May 31, 2016

As soon as you walk into the theatre at Portland Center Stage, you'll start to feel overheated and a little claustrophobic. No, nothing's wrong with the air conditioning. It's because of G.W. Mercier's set, which features an authentic New Orleans second-story balcony jutting out over the two cramp...

BWW Review: GRAND CONCOURSE Considers the Benefits and Costs of Compassion, at Artists Rep
by Krista Garver - May 13, 2016

You know those shows that won't quite let you go? Heidi Schreck's GRAND CONCOURSE, now playing at Artists Repertory Theatre, is one of them. I saw the show with 10 people. We all had a slightly different take on it, and we have continued to talk about it -- both online and off. I take that a sign ...

BWW Review: Human Relationships Go Bite-Sized (or Is It Byte-Sized) in LOVE AND INFORMATION, at Theatre Vertigo
by Krista Garver - April 19, 2016

If you were to google 'information about love,' randomly click on 57 of the results, and then skim each page starting in the middle, you'd experience the digital equivalent of watching Caryl Churchill's LOVE AND INFORMATION, currently playing at Theatre Vertigo....

BWW Review: Ancestry, Identity Collide in BLUE DOOR, at Profile Theatre
by Krista Garver - April 14, 2016

Are we the products of our cultural history? Or can we create ourselves from scratch as something new?...

BWW Review: THE PIANIST OF WILLESDEN LANE Melds Music, Storytelling, and Inspiration, at Portland Center Stage
by Krista Garver - April 13, 2016

Chalk up another winner for Portland Center Stage this season -- THE PIANIST OF WILLESDEN LANE is one you don't want to miss! Mona Golabek's one-woman show about her own mother's escape from Nazi-controlled Austria on the Kindertransport is part-concert, part-storytelling, and all magic....