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This page was last updated on: April 11, 2009
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For Tickets to the Broadway Season:
Call 503.241.1802 and ask for the "ASL Section"
Dates/Interpreters subject to change.
World Premiere
Crazy Enough
Written and Performed by Storm Large; Directed by Chris Coleman
Studio Theatre
Interpreted Performance: April 16, 2009. Interpreter: Tammera Richards
What do you do when you’re told you are going to lose your mind? That by the time you are in your twenties, you will start hearing voices and slip into insanity? What do you do when this prediction comes from the psychiatrist who’s been treating your troubled and suicidal mother your entire life? Oh, and you’re nine years old. For Storm Large, this was the starting gun, the cruel shove that sent her sprinting into life, doing anything and everything to avoid the impending madness, or at least to have one hell of a life before her mind was gone. Crazy Enough is an exploration through stories and song of how a girl can live, nearly die and live again by praying to the holy trinity: Sex, Drugs and Rock’n Roll.
“Over the top, and out of control… and all she ever said was ‘ain’t life beautiful.” - Storm Large
What do you do when the doctor whispers into your nine-year-old ear that by the time you’re 20 you’ll be confronting the same visions that haunted your mother? For Storm Large (Portland rock legend and star of last season’s Cabaret), answering that question has been a lifelong journey. This world premiere production weaves music and story into a ride through the darkest alleys and brightest vistas faced by the human mind. As hard as nails, as fragile as a raindrop, and as sexy as your most unrepeatable dreams- Crazy Enough will be an event that lingers long into the night.
Frost/Nixon
By Peter Morgan; Directed by Rose Riordan
Main Stage
Interpreted Performance: April 30, 2009. Interpreters: TBA
Frost/Nixon centers around a series of televised interviews former president Richard Nixon granted British journalist David Frost in 1977 that ended with a tacit admission of guilt regarding his role in the Watergate scandal. The play premiered at the Donmar Warehouse in London in August 2006 and opened on Broadway the following year, bringing instant acclaim for the playwright, Peter Morgan, who is also a noted screenwriter, whose recent credits include The Queen and The Last King of Scotland. The New York production also garnered many important awards, including a Tony Award for Frank Langella for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Richard Nixon. The New York Times described the play as “proceed[ing] with the momentum of a ticking-bomb thriller and the zing of a boulevard comedy… Structured as a prize fight between two starkly ambitious men in professional crisis, Frost/Nixon makes it clear that the competitor who controls the camera reaps the spoils.”
“I gave ‘em a sword. and they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. And I guess if I had been in their position, I’d have done the same thing.” - Richard Nixon
Can a lightweight, has-been talk show host lead the most infamous political figure of his time to publicly acknowledge his guilt? That is the central question raised in Peter Morgan’s delicious drama about a series of televised interviews that former president Richard Nixon granted British journalist David Frost in 1977. The New York Times described the play as “proceed[ing] with the momentum of a ticking-bomb thriller and the zing of a boulevard comedy…structured as a prize fight between two starkly ambitious men in professional crisis, Frost/Nixon makes it clear that the competitor who controls the camera reaps the spoils.”
Grey Gardens
Book by Doug Wright, Music by Scott Frankel, and Lyrics by Michael Korie; Director TBA
Main Stage
Interpreted Performance: June 11, 2009 Interpreters: TBA
Fresh from Broadway where it was nominated for ten Tony Awards in 2007, this new musical from Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife) tells the hilarious and heartbreaking story of two indomitable women, Edith Bouvier Beale and her adult daughter “Little Edie,” the eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Once among the brightest names on the social register, these two women became East Hampton’s most notorious recluses, living in a dilapidated 28-room mansion. From the grandeur of 1940s high society to the sensational tabloid headlines that rocked the Kennedy clan in 1973, Grey Gardens is a witty and unforgettable journey to the other side of Camelot.
“If you can’t get a man to propose to you, you might as well be dead.” - “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale
Fresh from Broadway where it was nominated for ten Tony Awards in 2007, this new musical from Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife) tells the hilarious and heartbreaking story of two indomitable women, Edith Bouvier Beale and her adult daughter “Little Edie,” the eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Once among the brightest names on the social register, these two women became East Hampton’s most notorious recluses, living in a dilapidated 28-room mansion with their 52 cats. From the glittering high society of 1940s New York to the tabloid headlines that rocked the Kennedy clan in 1970s, Grey Gardens takes you inside the fascinating world of “America’s royalty,” asking: when should the private be made public? And what are the limits of America’s right to know?
Portland Center Stage
Interpreted Performances
COMING ATTRACTIONS
2008-2009 Season for Broadway Across America - Portland
2008-2009 Season at Portland Center Stage
2008-2009 Season for Oregon Children's Theatre
Petit Rouge: A Cajun Red Riding Hood
INTERPRETED: Saturday, May 2, 2009 @ 2:00pm
Based on "Petite Rouge" by Mike Artell and illustrated by Jim Harris • Adapted for the stage by Joan Cushing by arrangement with Ina Kahn Assoc.
A Cajun croc, a less-than-dainty duck, and a swamp full of fun make up this bayou-fl avored version of Little Red Riding Hood. The classic fairy tale gets a Southern twist, complete with a basket full of gumbo, hot sauce, and a sidekick cat. Told in rhyming Creole dialect and rich in Cajun culture, a saucy swamp chorus sings backup in the Zydeco-driven score to this spicy new family musical from the writer/composer of Junie B. Jones and the Miss Nelson musicals.
Winningstad Theatre
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GREASE Interpreted: Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 7:30pm
Interpreters: Julie Gebron and Jean A. Miller
The one that you want is back! GREASE, Time magazine’s 2007 pick for “#1 musical of the year,” is rockin’ across the country in this new production direct from Broadway. Take a trip to a simpler time of poodle skirts, drive-ins, and T-birds. “Bad boy” Danny and “the girl next door” Sandy fall in love all over again to the tune of your favorite songs: “Summer Nights,” “Greased Lightning” and “We Go Together” as well as additional songs from the hit movie: “Grease Is the Word,” “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “You’re the One That I Want.” So throw your mittens around your kittens and Hand Jive the night away with the show that’ll make you want to stand up and shout, “A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop A-wop-bam-boom!” GREASE!
RENT Interpreted: Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 7:30pm
*Special
RENT Broadway’s Smash-Hit Musical! Now in its 12th Season of Love! Set in the East Village of New York City, RENT is about being young and learning to survive in NYC. It’s about falling in love, finding your voice and living for today. Winner of the Tony Award® for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize, RENT has made a lasting mark on Broadway with songs that rock and a story that really resonates. Whether it’s your 1st time or your 100th time, the time is now for RENT!
Fiddler on the Roof
August 25-30
Xanadu:
Jan. 12-17
Legally Blonde:
Feb. 16-21
August: Osage County
Oct 20-25
Cats
March 23-28
Dreamgirls
April 6-11
CirqueDreams: Illumination
April 20-25
The Lion King:
June 16-July 11
Broadway In Portland: 2009-2010 Season
2009-2010 at Oregon Children's Theatre
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
October 31-November 22, 2009
Interpreted Performance: TBA
Sideways Stories from Wayside School
May 15-June 6, 2010
Interpreted Performance: TBA
The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs
February 27 - March 21, 2010
Interpreted Performance: TBA
Giggle, Giggle, Quack
January 30-February 21, 2010
Interpreted Performance: TBA
Small Steps
April 24-May 16, 2010
Interpreted Performance: TBA
2009-2010 Portland Center Stage Season
Information regarding Interpreted Performances has not been published yet. Keep checking back for more information.
Ragtime
Book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty
Directed by Chris Coleman
(Main Stage)
September 15 to November 1, 2009
E.L. Doctorow’s sweeping novel comes vividly to life in this Tony Award-winning musical, set against the backdrop of the ragtime craze in New York City. In it, three disparate families intertwine: a wealthy white couple; a Jewish immigrant father and his motherless daughter; and an African American ragtime musician who teaches them all about the surprising interconnections of the human heart, the limitations of justice and the unsettling consequences of dreams permanently deferred. Historical figures like Harry Houdini, J.P. Morgan and Emma Goldman also inhabit this stirring epic, but it is American popular music that carries the story, including marches, cakewalks and — of course – ragtime.
…
Thurgood
by George Stevens, Jr.
(Ellyn Bye Studio)
September 29 to November 22, 2009
One of America’s greatest heroes takes the stage in this powerful new play about Thurgood Marshall, the grandson of a slave who rose from a childhood in the back streets of Baltimore to become our first African-American Supreme Court Justice. Thurgood’s life was a triumph of courage — not just for one man, but for the nation he bravely challenged and proudly served. Called a “a don’t miss event” by the New York press, Thurgood invites us to meet and, perhaps just a little, understand a man whose life story reminds us how critical it is to keep the American dream alive. PCS’ production of Thurgood will star local favorite Wendell Wright.
Special Holiday Offerings!!!
This year the holidays will feature TWO PCS favorite productions, both presented outside of the regular subscription packages.
…
A Christmas Carol
Adapted by Mead Hunter from the novella by Charles Dickens
Directed by Rose Riordan
(Main Stage)
November 24 to December 27, 2009
Already a Portland holiday tradition, this year Associate Artistic Director Rose Riordan will add her own unique stamp to Mead Hunter’s original adaptation, starting by casting of Portland’s favorite weird and wise old man, Ebbe Roe Smith, as Scrooge. This timeless tale of the gifts that become available when you cross the divide that separates neighbor from neighbor will retain all the sparkle and spookiness Portland has come to expect… but look for the director of The Receptionist and How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found to add a few intriguing new low lights to the rich texture of the production.
…
The Santaland Diaries
By David Sedaris
Adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello
(Ellyn Bye Studio)
December 3 to December 27, 2009
Based on the outlandish true chronicles of David Sedaris’ experience as Crumpet the Elf in Macy’s Santaland display, this hilarious cult classic riffs on a few of Sedaris’ truly odd encounters with his fellow man during the height of the holiday crunch. NPR humorist and best-selling author of When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Me Talk Pretty One Day and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. This production will include two late night 10:00 pm performances on December 10th and 17th.
…
Snow Falling on Cedars
adapted for the stage by Kevin McKeon
from the book by David Guterson
(Main Stage)
January 12 to February 7, 2010
Adapted for the stage by Seattle’s Book-it Repertory Theatre (the people who brought us Pride and Prejudice), Northwestern author David Guterson’s haunting story takes place in 1954, on a Puget Sound island so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies. The island’s white and Japanese-American communities have lived in quiet but uneasy peace, even through the dark days of WWII internment camps and widespread anti-Japanese war hysteria. But when Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with murder and it turns out that his wife’s spurned white lover Ishmael holds the information that could set him free, the island’s secret prejudices, jealousies and ancient grievances threaten to boil over into an act of injustice from which there can be no return.
…
The Chosen
adapted by Aaron Posner
from the Chaim Potok novel
(Ellyn Bye Studio)
February 2 to April 11, 2010
This award-winning adaptation from the award-winning novel is the coming-of-age story of two boys growing up in two very different Jewish communities—“five blocks and a world apart”—in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the 1940s. In it, Danny, the brilliant and curious son of a Hasidic rabbi, struggles with his longing to know more of the world and his father’s unwillingness to speak to him when they are not studying the Torah. After a heated fight at a baseball game, Danny befriends Reuven, an Orthodox Jew from a nearby neighborhood who becomes a friend and a partner in investigating both their shared Jewish heritage and their wildly divergent family environments and hopes for the future. When Danny’s father prohibits him from speaking to Reuven because of a political disagreement about a nascent Israeli state, both boys learn that the bonds of religion, friendship and community are both more brittle and more binding than they could have possibly imagined.
…
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
By August Wilson
(Main Stage)
April 6 to May 2, 2009
One of the masterpieces of August Wilson’s ten-play Century Cycle, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone follows Harold Loomis, who appears in Pittsburgh in 1911 to reunite his family after spending seven years on a Joe Turner’s chain gang. Surrounded by the vibrant tenants of a black boarding house, he fights for his soul and his song in the dawning days of a century without slavery. The San Francisco chronicle recently called Joe Turner “Powerful, joyously musical and chillingly visionary…How far we’ve come…The high of [President] Barack Obama’s victory gain[s] deeper resonances from August Wilson’s dramatic depiction of the lives of African Americans just a few generations ago.”
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The Best So Far
by Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich
(Ellyn Bye Studio)
May 4 to June 27, 2010
From one of the hottest team of songwriters in New York, whose clever cabaret songs have been covered by the likes of Kristin Chenowith (“Taylor the Latte Boy”) and Terence Mann (Dear Edwina),comes the world premiere of a new musical as saucy, zany and romantic as a carriage ride through Central Park. Like a Cole Porter musical scathingly edited by Dorothy Parker, The Best So Far takes a bumpy, giggling ride through the wilds of modern romantic relationships. Whether the characters are 18 or 80, the terror and thrill of leaping into commitment looms large and keeps them spinning.
…
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
lyrics and music by William Finn
book by Rachel Sheinkin
(Main Stage)
May 25 to June 27, 2010
Rounding out the season is a hilarious tale of overacheiver’s angst from the author of Falsettos and A New Brain. This unlikeliest of hit musicals draws the audience directly into the action, bringing 4 nerdtastic audience members onto the stage each night to compete alongside some of America’s unlikeliest kid heroes: a quirky yet charming mix of awkward outsiders, divided by their stereotypes (the hyper-achieving Asian kid, the over-precious daughter of gay dads, the goober snorting nerd, the underachieving hippie kid) and united by the discovery that a spelling bee may be the only place on the planet where they can both stand out and fit in.
Season subscriptions open for sale on February 23rd. Want to subscribe RIGHT NOW? Call the box office at 503.445.3700 and they’ll get you all set up.
Single tickets range from $24 to $64 with student rates available. The night of show Rush discount returns this year, with a slightly higher $15 ticket price.
Evening performances in both the Main Stage and the Studio begin at 7:30 pm, with weekday matinees at noon and weekend matinees at 2 pm.
