AVENUE Q
AVENUE Q is Broadway's smash-hit 2004 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book. A hilarious show full of heart and hummable tunes, AVENUE Q is about trying to make it in NYC with big dreams and a tiny bank account. Called "one of the funniest shows you're ever likely to see" by Entertainment Weekly, AVENUE Q features a cast of people and puppets who tell the story in a smart, risque and downright entertaining way. The New Yorker calls it "subversive and uproarious!"
Recommended for ages 13 and up.
DISNEY'S HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL
“Deservedly, Disney has a hit! – CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Watch the twists and turns of the lovable schoolmates – Troy, super-popular captain of the basketball team, and Gabriella, super-smart transfer student and a genius in science class – as they surf the tricky tides of peer pressure and school cliques to follow their dreams and score the leads in the big school show, and a place in each others hearts.
Disney's HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL ON STAGE follows the much-loved story of the movie, featuring all your favorite characters and songs, together with two brand new numbers performed by a new cast of talented theatrical performers and an electrifying live band. So “get'cha head in the game!” And go totally wild for what the Daily Herald calls “great family entertainment” - Disney’s HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL!
SWEENEY TODD
Innovative, intimate and ingenious, this revolutionary new production of SWEENEY TODD "is an event theatergoers will be talking about for years." The Wall Street Journal.
The legendary demon barber, hell-bent on revenge, takes up with his enterprising neighbor in a delicious plot to slice their way through London's upper crust. Justice will be served--along with lush melodies, audacious humor and bloody good thrills.
Directed by Tony Award winner John Doyle, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler, this dazzling reinvention of a magnificent musical thriller is set to stun theatergoers as never before.
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This page was last updated on: March 16, 2008
Please send us any information regarding signed performances in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Information is posted here on the website and send out in the SignPlay Yahoogroup which reaches a large number of people in the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Interpreting and Hearing Communities. Please check here often for updates and additional information. Thank you for your support.
For Tickets to the Broadway Season:
Call 503.241.1802 and ask for the "ASL Section"
Dates/Interpreters subject to change.
Interpreted Performance: Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 7:30pm
Interpreted Performance on June 26, 2008 at 7:30pm
August 13-September 7, 2008 - Interpreted Performance(s) TBD
Interpreted Public Performance:
April 26, 2008 at 2:00pm
Interpreted Public Performance:
May 10, 2008 at 2:00pm
World Premiere: SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION
Based on the novel by Ken Kesey; Adapted by Aaron Posner; Directed by Aaron Posner
April 1 – 27, 2008
Named the “all-time great Oregon novel” by Portland Monthly magazine, Ken Kesey’s epic tale is set amidst the conflict between the Stamper clan – a family of hard-nosed, self-centered lumberjacks – and the out-of-work union loggers in town. But the heart of the story is the struggle between two brothers: one who represents the land, the body and the spirit the pioneers brought with them over the Oregon Trail; the other an introspective, Yale-educated gentleman whose long-awaited return home provides the play’s catalyst. The fury of the brothers’ long-held grudge rises to the surface as their love for the same woman becomes increasingly impossible to ignore. Writer/director Aaron Posner has telescoped this monumental work into two jam-packed hours on the stage, while managing to encompass the scope, passion and power of the original story as well as the eloquence of Kesey’s unique literary voice.
DOUBT
By John Patrick Shanley; Directed by Rose Riordan
May 20 – June 15, 2008
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play in 2005, Doubt takes place in the St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx in 1964. This sensitive yet provocative play centers around the conflict between Sister Aloysius, a traditional, by-the-book nun who presides over the school, and the more laid-back parish priest, Father Flynn, over what Sister Aloysius considers to be inappropriate behavior toward one of the school’s new students. Described by TheaterMania as “a modern mystery or thriller that ends with no certain answers… [Doubt] is a supreme contest of wills, an unflinching search for the truth and a measure of justice dealt to the audience for 90 minutes without an intermission… Some of the original Broadway cast has even stated in interviews that the second act takes place when the audience leaves the theater to discuss their differing opinions of the play – some agreeing with Aloysius and others siding with Flynn.” But the real issue of the play is not what is right and what is wrong, or who did what to whom and why, but the role that doubt plays in the hearts and minds of all of us, believer and non-believer alike.
There will be No Late Seating or re-admittance in the Studio Theater!
A FEMININE ENDING
By Sarah Treem; Director TBA
February 5 – March 23, 2008
The hit of the 2006 Just Add Water/West Playwrights Festival, A Feminine Ending centers around a brilliant young oboe player caught between two visions of her future: her own musical career or that of her fiancé, a rocker whose star is rapidly on the rise. In her search for answers, Amanda journeys home to face the sources of her ambivalence: a mother who frequently leaves her husband and returns to him without his even knowing she’s been gone, and The Boy Next Door who’s grown into an independent and intriguing young man. Funny, fresh and surprising, this beguiling romantic comedy written by a talented young playwright, Sarah Treem, will have everyone talking.
THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED
By Douglas Carter Beane; Directed by Chris Coleman
April 29 – June 15, 2008
The Off-Broadway hit of 2006 follows the adventures of Mitchell Green, a handsome, young movie actor who is about to hit it big. Always photographed on the arms of beautiful women, he nevertheless has a little secret that could end his career once and for all – his clandestine affairs with men (sound familiar?). And as if that’s not enough, he’s fallen in love with his most recent “rent boy” and wants to announce it to the world. Helping him navigate Hollywood’s choppy waters is his devilish agent Diane (a modern-day Lady Macbeth in stilettos), who’s doing everything she can to keep him away from the rent boy and the rent boy’s girlfriend (wait, the rent boy has a girlfriend?). The Little Dog Laughed is one of the most keenly observed social satires in recent memory. And it’s not just the dog who’ll end up laughing by the time it’s over.
Guys and Dolls
A Musical Fable of Broadway, Based on a Story and Characters of Damon Runyan, Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser, Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows; Directed by Chris Coleman
September 23 – October 26, 2008, Main Stage
Based on the popular stories by Damon Runyon, Guys and Dolls is highly regarded as a quintessentially American musical. Its basic plot revolves around the romantic clash between Sky Masterson, a high-rolling gambler willing to bet on virtually anything, and Miss Sarah Brown, a straight-walking sergeant at the Save-a-Soul Mission. With such memorable characters as Nathan Detroit, Miss Adelaide and Nicely-Nicely Johnson and such popular musical numbers as “Luck Be a Lady” and “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” Guys and Dolls has been revived countless times since its Broadway debut in 1950.
R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY [and Mystery] OF THE UNIVERSE
Written and Directed by D.W. Jacobs, from the life, work and writings of R. Buckminster Fuller
October 14 – December 7, 2008, Studio
An engineer, architect, mathematician, designer, poet, philosopher, motivational speaker, major utopian thinker and inventor of the geodesic dome, Buckminster Fuller was one of the most remarkable minds of the 20th century. Born in 1895, Bucky was way ahead of his time. Refusing to think in conventional ways, he was an innovator, a futurist, and one of the first true global thinkers. This tour-de-force, one-man performance explores Bucky’s life and work through a blend of testimony, lecture, autobiography, poetry, comic antics and video imagery. The play spirals and spins through ideas and experiences as Bucky escorts you on an unforgettable journey.
A Christmas Carol
Adapted by Mead Hunter from the novel by Charles Dickens; Directed by Cliff Fannin Baker
December 2 – 28, 2008, Main Stage
We reprise this popular holiday favorite for its second year, with Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, a sleigh full of ghosts and, of course, Scrooge himself, back to regale you with their holiday fable of forgiveness and redemption. And, we’ll be adding a few more bells and whistles, just to keep our audiences guessing.
World Premiere
Apollo
Written and Directed by Nancy Keystone
January 13 – February 8, 2009, Main Stage
Years in the making, Apollo is an epic, multimedia examination of post-WWII America as it explores the birth of the U.S. space program, its employment of former Nazi rocket scientists, and their surprising intersection with the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s. Using the U.S. mission to the moon as a symbol of our country’s greatness, Apollo probes deep into the core conundrum of what we believe we are as a nation. Through a thrilling variety of theatrical modes, Keystone has created a kaleidoscopic universe to reveal the moral costs of human aspiration and progress. This production will be a major event for Portland and for Portland Center Stage, garnering attention from around the country.
American Premiere
How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found
By Fin Kennedy; Directed by Rose Riordan
January 27 – March 22, 2009, Studio
When a young advertising executive reaches the breaking point and decides to drop out of his life, he pays a visit to a master of the craft – a shoestring relation posing as a seafront fortune teller in a seedy corner of the country. Haunted by strange visitations, the drop-out begins a nightmarish journey to the edge of existence, disposing of everything that made him who he was. Wryly funny and sometimes harrowing, this extraordinary new play follows one man’s desperate attempts to buck the system, and asks what really makes us who we are in the 21st century.
The Importance of Being Earnest
By Oscar Wilde; Directed by Chris Coleman
February 24 – March 22, 2009, Main Stage
Subtitled “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People,” The Importance of Being Earnest is Wilde’s most sparkling comedy of manners. The dizzying plot centers around Algernon Moncrieff, an upper-class English bachelor, who is visited by his friend Jack Worthing, who likes to be known as “Ernest” when he comes to London from his home in the country. Jack has come to town to propose to Gwendolen Fairfax, the daughter of the imposing Lady Bracknell, but he encounters two rather insurmountable problems. First, Gwendolen is only willing to consent to marriage because his name is Ernest, a name that “seems to inspire absolute confidence,” but which, of course, is not Jack’s true Christian name. Second, Lady Bracknell objects to Jack as a suitor when she learns that as an infant, he was abandoned by his parents and found in a handbag in Victoria Station. Meanwhile, Algernon pays a visit to Jack’s ward, Cecily, pretending to be Jack’s wayward brother, Ernest. This meets with Cecily’s approval because in her diary she has been writing about her engagement to a man named Ernest. Then things get really interesting.
World Premiere
Crazy Enough
Written and Performed by Storm Large; Directed by Chris Coleman
March 31 – June 7, 2009, Studio
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.
Frost/Nixon
By Peter Morgan; Directed by Rose Riordan
April 14 – May 10, 2009, Main Stage
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.”
Grey Gardens
Book by Doug Wright, Music by Scott Frankel, and Lyrics by Michael Korie; Director TBA
May 26 – June 21, 2009, Main Stage
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.
Portland Center Stage
Interpreted Performances
Interpreted Performance: Sunday, June 1 at 1p.m.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
2007-2008
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
*Special
Andrew Lloyd Weber's international award-winning phenomenon directed by Harold Prince has woven its magical spell over standing room audiences in more than 100 cities worldwide. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, the longest-running show in Broadway history, now returns to Portland to take your breath away. It's a timeless story of seduction and despair and the one show The London Sunday Times called, "God's gift to the musical theatre."
2008-2009 Season for Broadway Across America - Portland
2008-2009 Season at Portland Center Stage
A CHORUS LINE Interpreted: Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 7:30pm
In an empty theatre, on a bare stage, casting for a new Broadway musical is almost complete. For 17 dancers, this audition is the chance of a lifetime. It’s what they’ve worked for—with every drop of sweat, every hour of training, every day of their lives. It’s the one opportunity to do what they’ve always dreamed—to have the chance to dance. This is A CHORUS LINE, the musical for everyone who’s ever had a dream and put it all on the line. Winner of nine Tony Awards®, including “Best Musical” and the Pulitzer Prize for drama, this singular sensation is the longest-running American Broadway musical ever. Now A CHORUS LINE returns. Come meet the new generation of Broadway’s best.
SPRING AWAKENING Interpreted: Thursday, October 23, 2008 at 7:30pm
Broadway’s most talked about new musical is now the biggest Tony Award® Winner in years. SPRING AWAKENING is the groundbreaking fusion of morality, sexuality and rock & roll that has awakened Broadway like no other musical in years. Winner of 8 Tony Awards® including BEST MUSICAL, SPRING AWAKENING celebrates the unforgettable journey from youth to adulthood with a power, a poignancy and a passion you will never forget. We agree with the NY Times, “Broadway may never be the same again!
Oprah Winfrey Presents
THE COLOR PURPLE Interpreted: Thursday, January 1, 2009 at 7:30pm
Oprah Winfrey Presents THE COLOR PURPLE, a soul-stirring musical based on the classic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker and the Oscar-nominated film by Steven Spielberg. It is the unforgettable and inspiring story of a woman named Celie, who triumphs over tremendous odds to find joy in life, and her true inner beauty. Nominated for eleven Tony® Awards, THE COLOR PURPLE is a landmark theatrical event. With a joyous GRAMMY®-nominated score featuring jazz, gospel and blues, THE COLOR PURPLE is capturing the hearts of young and old, and uniting audiences in a celebration of love.
WICKED Interpreted: TBD. Performances run March 4 - April 15, 2009 at 7:30pm
Back by “Popular” Demand. The New York Times calls WICKED "Broadway's biggest blockbuster," and when it first played Portland in 2006, it broke box office records and sold out in record time. Winner of 15 major awards, including a Grammy and three Tony Awards, WICKED.
Long before that girl from Kansas arrives in Munchkinland, two girls meet in the land of Oz. One - born with emerald green skin - is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. How these two grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch makes for "the most completely satisfying new musical in a long time" (USA Today).
THE RAT PACK - Live at the Sands Interpreted: Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 7:30pm
THE RAT PACK – Live at the Sands is the hottest and coolest party in town. Following four unprecedented years on London’s West End, this acclaimed production vividly recreates a legendary evening at the Sands Hotel with the most famous performers of our time: Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin. It’s Las Vegas, it’s the Sands Hotel, the big band is swingin’, and those gorgeous Burelli Sisters are singin’, and of course the three wisecracking hip-cats bring their inimitable magic to the finest music ever recorded: ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’; ‘That’s Amore’; ‘Mr. Bojangles’; ‘The Lady Is A Tramp.’ You won’t find anything like it anywhere else. It’s the Rat Pack – and it’s live! Ring-a-ding-ding!
GREASE Interpreted: Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 7:30pm
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!
2008-2009 Season for Oregon Children's Theatre
To Be Announced at a later date
