Mary Poppins Broadway Musical in Portland

Mary Poppins is one of Disney's most successful and iconic movie musicals, featuring a number of unforgettable songs and a story that has easily withstood the test of time.  It's slightly head-scratching given this that Cameron Macintosh, famed producer of mega hits like Cats, Les Miserables and Phantom of The Opera, would want to mess with something that already works so well.

The stage adaptation of Mary Poppins is one part re-imaging and one part preserving the classic film. It's a mix of the elements from the film we know and love, and new songs and material that has been added in to expand the film into a Broadway musical.  The problem, though, is that the film didn't really need much expanding; running close to two and a half hours, if the movie version of Mary Poppins ever had any real issue, it was that it's a little long for younger kids.

The Broadway musical rendition of Mary Poppins expands to nearly three hours (with an intermission), with songs and scenes that just aren't necessary.  I'm not a 'Mary Poppins purist', and recognize that some elements simply have to change in the adaptation. Perhaps the subplot of Winifred Banks and her push for the woman's suffrage movement might be more lost on modern audiences than when the movie first premiered.  Yet some of the things which are added to the mix do very little to improve the Mary Poppins experience, and two songs in particular, "Playing The Game" and "Brimstone and Treacle," actually do a slight disservice to the show.

Only one of the new songs, "Practically Perfect", an expansion of the famous way in which Mary Poppins refers to herself, really seems to feel like it could have come from the same source as the original movie.  In addition to the new songs, a few significant changes have been made that just don't work.  One of the most famous songs from Mary Poppins, "A Spoon Full of Sugar," gets pulled completely out of the context of the story and placed into a scene that is extraordinarily cartoony.  While the scene itself was fun, the whole context for the song is lost and it's meaning gets extremely diluted.

Aside from "A Spoon Full of Sugar", most of the classic Mary Poppins songs do find new life and energy on stage.  The segment for "Jolly Holiday" (where statues stand in for the film's animated penguins), is an absolute spectacle. The crescendo of the number is exceptional and shows the real possibility for adapting this beloved movie musical to the stage. The same rings true for "Supercalifragisticexpialidocious" which gets the most benefit from the re-imaging than any other number in the show. It's transformed into an absolute show stopper and highlight of the production.

I also really enjoyed how Bert's role was expanded and recast as a narrator. He is the real glue that holds everything together, even when the show gets off course.  The show really seems to get off course at the end of the first act with the number "The Game", a clunky and slightly mean segment where Jane and Michael's toys come to life and complain about being mistreated. It's a fairly dark number and the tone just doesn't match the core of Mary Poppins. It's also one of the few things in the show that younger kids might find fairly disturbing – something that simply wasn't a part of the movie.

The start of the second act also has some serious issues with the addition of an 'evil' nanny called Miss Andrews.  Aside from the fact that using the name "Miss Andrews" associated with Mary Poppins is extremely loaded, the character of Miss Andrews is simply awful and the number that finds her trying to force feed the kids some nasty medicine while singing "Brimstone and Treacle" just plain sucks. The end of the scene also finds Mary Poppins acting in a very un-Mary Poppins way. The entire sub-plot could have been easily dropped and the show would have only benefitted from its absence.

By the time we reach "Step in Time", all the shows faults and mis-steps are forgotten and forgiven. The number is a grand spectacle in the film, and it's energy and excitement are captured and enhanced on stage. If you've ever wondered why people love Mary Poppins, a few minutes of "Step in Time" will quickly show you why. It's everything a great musical number should be, and with a few nice surprises it feels as fresh and new as when the movie first premiered.

The staging for Mary Poppins is pretty spectacular. The sets and transition between scenes are so well crafted and executed that it raises the bar for what's possible on stage with a touring company. The production as a whole felt more like an actual Broadway show rather than a lesser touring version. While some performers play multiple rolls, there never felt like a shortage of people on stage and the ensemble numbers filled the stage from end to end. I don't know how they did it, but the production also managed to overcome the long standing acoustical issues of the Keller. Every note was perfectly clear, and it rates by far the best sounding thing I've seen in the venue.

The performances in Mary Poppins The Broadway Musical were also top notch.  Dick Van Dyke's shoes are impossible to fill as Bert and I appreciate that Nicholas Dromard doesn't try. Instead he manages to make the role his own and gives a very strong performance rather than a strong imitation. On the evening I saw the performance, Michael Dean Morgan played the role of George Banks. Morgan is the understudy for the role, but he gives one of the strongest performances of the night. Morgan captures the essence of George Banks both in words and in song, and it doesn't hurt that he looks and sounds a lot like David Tomlinson.

While I thought Blythe Wilson did a solid job in her performance, I didn't like the tone she brought to the role of Winifred Banks. In the film, Winifred is slightly loopy and even a little ditzy. This helps lighten some of the more tense scenes between George and the children. Blythe Wilson plays the role dead seriously and this brings a weight and almost morose seriousness to some of the more dramatic scenes, a note that just doesn't fit well with the production. Of the children, Tyler Merna as Michael is the much stronger performer of the two and does an excellent job with the role.

When it comes to Mary Poppins The Broadway Musical, it's lead actress Steffanie Leigh who is practically perfect in every way. Her performance of Mary Poppins is one of the strongest of any Broadway touring company and perhaps any performer I've seen on stage in Portland. Leigh is simply captivating. Of all the original movie performers, it would be Julie Andrews, who is so closely associated with the role of Mary Poppins, whose shoes would be the most difficult to fill. Steffanie Leigh tackles this challenge with ease, and instead of trying to live in Julie Andrews' shadow, she captures the absolute essence of Mary Poppins and performs it….perfectly. Mary Poppins The Broadway Musical is worth seeing if for no other reason than to see Steffanie Leigh perform.

The musical adaptation of Mary Poppins isn't perfect – many of the new songs and numbers don't work, and it feels a little long especially for the youngest fans. But what does work, works extremely well. In an era where so many existing movies are getting adapted into Broadway musicals, the adaptation of Mary Poppins actually makes sense. Numbers like "Supercalifragisticexpialidocious" and "Step in Time" are strong arguments for bringing the magic off the screen and onto the stage. Had Cameron Macintosh and company stuck with the original material and this staging, they could have had one of the best productions to hit Broadway in years. As it stands, warts and all, it's still an extraordinarily enjoyable and entertaining show that will undoubtedly make a star out of Steffanie Leigh.

Mary Poppins The Broadway Musical in Portland runs at The Keller Auditorium June 22 – July 10th. Tickets start at $26 and can be purchased here.

One Night With Janis Joplin

The concept behind Portland Center Stage's production of One Night With Janis Joplin is a good one: bring the Janis Joplin concert experience back on stage and give modern audiences a taste of what it was like to see her in concert. Unfortunately, the production, created, written and directed by Randy Johnson, is one big hot mess.  Johnson has a fairly impressive resume with a number of other stage music re-experiences including Elvis The Concert, Always Patsy Cline, and Conway Twitty – The Man The Music and The Legend. Johnson also has extensive experience directing actual concerts and tours. All this experience, however, doesn't result in a good show.

One Night With Janis Joplin suffers on a number of fronts.  The first and most serious issue with the show is an absolutely horrible script.  The play never can make up its mind if it's a singular concert experience or a journey through Janis Joplin's life. Many of the monologues that happen between or during songs are just one step up from ramblings. In the first act many of these monologues focus on "The Blues" and the other artists who influenced Joplin. Johnson seems obsessed with these influences and at times the show feels like it's more an essay on The Blues than a show about Joplin herself.  This obsession manifests itself in the creation of another character who wanders in and out of the show, 'The Blues Singer'.  This character comes on stage to represent many of the women who influenced Janis Joplin's music. The role is voiced wonderfully by Sabrina Elayne Carten, whose rendition of classic Nina Simone, Bessie Smith and Aretha Franklin songs are some of the absolute highlights of the show.Almost half the songs sung in the first act involve or are sung by The Blues Singer, and while I really enjoyed those songs, they often felt like a detour from the core show.  Another issue with The Blues Singer is that Sabrina Elayne Carten is a much better singer than Cat Stephani, who plays Janis Joplin, and the two simply don't sing well together.  In the first act the two duet at the end of the Bessie Smith song "Nobody Knows When You're Down and Out" and it's the absolute worst moment in the show.

Cat Stephani isn't horrible as Janis Joplin, she just isn't great.  For most of the show, Stephani is doing an impersonation of Joplin. With a lot of focus on her mannerisms and moves, Stephani seems very self aware while performing the role. But Stephani rarely crosses the line between impersonating Joplin to really embodying her. Vocally Stephani has solid skills, but the raspy rough notes which are a trademark of Joplin seem to really elude Stephani.  She's too clean, too polished and seems to be more comfortable with Joplin's ballad "A Woman Left Lonley" than songs like "Try (A Little Bit Harder)".  Stephani seems to lack the real passion and heart which defined Joplin, and she often mistakes being loud for being soulful.  It's kind of ironic how much time is spent with Joplin talking about the heart and soul of the blues, and Stephani's performance really lacks it.  Ironically it's in one of the songs that thrust Janis Joplin into popularity, the "Big Mama" Thorton song "Ball and Chain" which Joplin performed at the famed Monterey Pop Festival, that Stephani really nails it.  It's on this one song that we see the potential of both Stephani and the show itself. But as soon as the show feels like it's going to peak, the song is abruptly interrupted by a rambling monologue. It's a moment that exemplifies just how bad Randy Johnson's script is.

As poor and jumbled as Randy Johnson's script is, the back-up band, an eight piece blues band, is absolutely superb.  The band transitioned between songs like the high energy rock "Piece of My Heart" to the quiet and soulful "Today I Sing The Blues" without skipping a beat.  It's to the band that I give a lot of the credit for holding this mess together.

Ultimately, a show like this really depends on the person playing the iconic figure, and while Cat Stephani may physically resemble Janis Joplin at times, she really lacks the magnetism that made Joplin who she was.  Joplin was passionate, wild, unrestrained and had an extremely distinct and rough voice.  Stephani is too composed, too polished and too restrained. She seems resistant to dirtying up her high notes and giving the music the gravely texture which defined Janis Joplin's music. Even with an absolute ringer for Joplin, One Night With Janis Joplin still wouldn't be a fantastic evening of theater. Randy Johnson has lost sight of the story he's trying to tell with the piece and we come away with only a slightly greater sense of who Janis Joplin really was.  It's also a really sanitized version of who she was, as very little of the drug culture that Joplin was immersed in is ever referenced, and her tragic death at age 27 is only hinted at in the end with "I'm Gonna Rock My Way To Heaven".

One Night With Janis Joplin runs at Portland Center Stage May 24-June 26 (with the June 9, 12, 18, and 25 shows featuring the understudies in the main roles).

The Portland Ballet La Boutique Fantasque

With so many choices in holiday entertainment, we were excited to kick off this year's season of celebrating with La Boutique Fantasque, a charming family-oriented ballet performed by The Portland Ballet at Portland Center for the Performing Arts' Newmark Theatre.

Set in France in the early 1900s, La Boutique Fantasque, or The Enchanted Toyshop, opens with a group of excited children and their parents at the doors of a shop filled with toys and dolls. While the children play, the shopkeeper tries to convince the parents to buy something, but with no luck. Two of the children, frustrated that their parents will not allow them to take any toys home, decide to hide when the shop closes so that they may continue to play. They meet Pinocchio and spend the evening being entertained with dancing by all the toys. The parents eventually return searching for their children and are extremely angry with the shopkeeper, which he then blames on his wife, Amelie. He forces her to clean up the shop. She brightens her sadness by daydreaming about happier times while she sweeps, until Pinocchio calls on the Blue Fairy to make Amelie's dreams come true, changing her plain clothes to a shimmering gown. The shopkeeper returns to find his wife fleeing the shop with the Blue Fairy and enchanted toys. The performance concludes with the shopkeeper realizing his mistake and how much he misses her, Amelie returning to console her husband, and the two dancing together with renewed affection.

Not only is La Boutique Fantasque a great introduction to ballet for younger children (the show is just over an hour long with one intermission), it also features live music from the Portland State University Orchestra, which we felt was the highlight of the performance. The Newmark Theatre is also an intimate venue with great views from just about any seat. From our seats in the first balcony, we could easily enjoy the costumes and details of each dance without feeling like we were too far away.

The Portland Ballet offers three performances throughout the year, including a spring concert and masters workshop as well as the holiday program. Next year, the holiday program will switch to Scheherazade, based on "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp", kicking off a four-year rotating cycle which gives La Boutique Fantasque a few year's break.

For more information visit the Portland Ballet Website.

Be sure to also check out Portland Holiday Events: Shopping, Christmas, Buy Local & More

Lexi Lawson and Joseph Morales in In The Heights

The original off-Broadway (and eventually Broadway) production of In The Heights is a much better show than what I saw at the Keller during opening night. If there was ever a show that clearly demonstrated the acoustic limitations and the issues of bringing a show on the road it was In The Heights. Set in the Washington Heights neighborhood in New York, In The Heights takes a very conventional musical structure and infuses it with an eclectic mix of latin music, culture and dance. The core of the story is a Dominican named Usnavi, raised by a surrogate grandmother in the neighborhood, who struggles to run a small, often broken-down convenience store.  Usnavi is surrounded by an cast of characters all dealing with the gentrification of the neighborhood and the struggle between planting roots or sprouting wings and finding a better life somewhere else.  Thematically and musically there are a lot of notes lifted from Rent, with characters at the apex of dealing with their identity. This is no accident as many of the producers also worked on Rent.

What makes In The Heights stand out is Usnavi.  His role is almost entirely sung in lyrical rap. In the hands of show creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, the role is simply magical.  It's Usnavi who is the true narrator of the show and it's his intermingled rap which ties the whole show together.  For the touring company, Usnavi is played by Joseph Morales who completely lacks any of the spark or magic of Lin-Manuel Miranda.  Morales plays Usnavi way too laid back and the result is that he fades into the background of the show rather than leads it.  Without that structure the show doesn't hold together.  It doesn't help that many of the other roles are also horribly miscast.  The roles of Kevin and Camilla Rosario, two very core characters to the show, were both cast by performers who seemed deeply out of synch in their roles.  Also Arielle Jacobs, who plays Nina, never seemed to be able to fill the huge cavernous space of the Keller.  She often got lost in the shuffle which is awful for a role that should be a stand out.  The only two performers who really seemed to hit their groove were Chris Chatman who plays Sonny, Usnavi's younger cousin, and Lexi Lawson, who plays Vanesssa, Usnavi's love interest. Both Chatman and Lawson are able to deal with the tour's staging, play well to the big room, and seem tapped into the spark of the show.

Unfortunately it wouldn't matter if everyone on stage was pitch perfect, the Keller simply isn't suited to handle a show where actually hearing the lyrics in an ensemble-based musical is important. Most of the two and a half hour performance of In The Heights is a auditory mess.  The apex scene of the first act takes place in a night club with the power out.  In the Broadway performance it's a fantastic scene. Here at the Keller you simply can't pick out all the musical pieces and they all just muddle together into noise.

It's a real shame too, as In The Heights is a remarkably charming and emotionally honest musical. In an era where theater is is saturated with movie adaptations and spins on popular themes, this story of the struggle that happens in a changing neighborhood is genuine and unique.  As I watched In The Heights at the Keller I struggled to see that magical, Tony award winning musical. Unfortunately it isn't there.  Perhaps this show isn't really meant for the road. Without Lin-Manuel Miranda as Usnavi and without the intimacy that a smaller theater provides, In The Heights just doesn't work . As much as I'd love to recommend seeing this fantastic show at the Keller, I can't.

Portland deserves a better venue for live theater than the Keller.  Maybe someday some philanthropist will step up to the plate, gut the Keller and start over, or perhaps build a performance space where real live theater can be experienced and enjoyed. Until then this is what we've got and having this tour of In The Heights at the Keller is perhaps marginally better than not having it at all.

In The Heights in Portland from Oct 19-24, 2010 at the Keller Auditorium. Tickets $36.95-$79.95

If you go, take advantage of this offer: *SAVE 40% on tickets for the Wed., Thu. & Fri. performances*
Available in all price levels except the lowest. Offer available online only & valid NOW through Fri. 10/22/10 at 12PM.
For online purchases, use password in box marked "Promotions & Special Offers". Use password "HEIGHTS" to access special offer tickets.

Mike Daisey - The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs

I'm always surprised when I mention the TBA (Time Based Arts) Festival to friends only to find that it isn't really on their radar screens. It's a real shame as the ten day festival brings to Portland such a wide range of talent and is so well produced that it' almost inconceivable that so many people aren't even aware that it's going on.

This year, the festival brings back Mike Daisey one of my favorite monologists with a piece dedicated to all things Apple (both good and bad) in "The Agony And The Ecstasy Of Steve Jobs. Daisey follows in the line of great monologists like Spaulding Grey and performs a style of of monologue called extemporaneous monologue, where he tells a story based on a loose outline of notes. His work has an unique mix of the almost electric buzz of complete improvisation combined with a strong wire framework of something totally scripted.

Mike Daisey's work often begins with the telling of some sort of personal journey and it's combined with an examination of something bigger. Daisey mostly sticks to this format with The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, where he details his trip to see the Foxconn factories in Shenzhen China (where the computers and related devices are manufactured) to witness the horrid working conditions of the Chinese workers. The telling of this journey is combined with the history of Apple Computers its unique relationship with Steve Jobs.

In Daisey's previous monologues this mix of styles comes off very well, but with The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs the mix is a little off. Last year at TBA, Daisey performed the monologue "If You See Something, Say Something" – a piece that dealt with homeland security. In that piece there wasn't such a stated call to action or a push for the audience to make a change, but it left the audience with a real shift in perspective.

With The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, Daisey pushes for a much stronger route with his topic, literally asking the audience to do something about the issues at the end of the monologue. The humor of the piece also feels like it's punched up a little harder  to help balance out some more difficult parts of the piece including the details about horrible working conditions Chinese workers must endure to produce our tech gadgets.  In many ways it feel like – "a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down". The mix is an interesting one and it ends up giving the monologue an odd rhythm where one moment it feels almost like Jeff Garland doing stand up comedy and the next like a Michael Moore documentary.

Having said all that, The Agony And The Ecstasy Of Steve Jobs is still a remarkably funny and interesting monologue. Daisey is a master storyteller who effortlessly connects with the audience. He has a magnificent ability to unify a group and create a shared experience – the real reason why there's simply nothing like live theater.

For fans of technology both Daisey's confessions of his on Apple product fanaticism combined with the story of Apple computer are a real treat. I particularly loved Daisey's take on Microsoft and Power point which were some of the funniest and most insightful views I've ever heard on the topic. But be warned these treats come with a very naked look at how these devices come into our lives and who the people are who sometimes are literally worked to death so we can have them. I applaud Daisey for trying new ways of dealing with his subject matter as I think too many artists are afraid of taking risks. But in this case I think Daisey has messed with perfection. His monologues inherently help shift the perspective of the audience and I don't think he needs push any harder.

When I left the theater a man walked up to Mike Daisey and shook his hand. Tonight's pice was "an enjoyable ordeal," he explained. I don't think I could have put it better myself.

Mike Daisey performs The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, Sunday September 12 and Monday Sept 13 at 6:30pm at THE WORKS at Washington High School 531 SE 14th Ave. Tickets are $25.

He also performs Notes Toward All Hours in The Day on Saturday September 18th at 2:30 at THE WORKS at Washington High School, 531 SE 14th Ave. Tickets are also $25. That monologue follow's Daisey's attempt at creating a 24 hour monologue.

TBA:10 runs through September 19th.

Burn The Floor

Dance has become a huge part of popular culture. Between TV shows "Dancing With The Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance", more people are familiar with a wide variety of dance styles than ever before.  Jason Gilkison, Director and Choreographer of Burn The Floor (as well as choreographer for So You Think You Can Dance), captures the excitement of dance into a show that's fresh off a successful run on Broadway and London's West End.

We spoke to Jason Gilkison about the impact of dance moving into the popular culture, the challenges of putting together a huge dance production, and his experience with Pasha and Anya from So You Think You Can Dance.

With shows like So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing with The Stars and America's Got Talent, dancing has exploded into pop culture. Why do you think this has happened and what impact is this popularity having on dance?

In our case ballroom has always been a social history. So it’s not really surprising that it’s come back into pop culture. It’s also extremely accessible for the general public and you can really do ballroom dancing on any level. For example, you can just take a salsa or tango class, or if you’re feeling a little bit more dancing you can Burn the Floor like our cast.

How did the show Burn The Floor first get started? What were the challenges in putting together an 'all dance' show?

Burn The Floor came from an idea from Sir Elton John’s birthday party. A group of dancers performed a 20 min ballroom show, and our producer/creator Harley Medcalf was in the audience. When he saw the dancers, he had an epiphany. This was 13 years ago, long before the reality shows had kicked in. So Harley really had an amazing insight into how ballroom dance was going to become hugely popular.

With an audience more exposed to different styles of dance and dancing is there anything you have to do now to WOW them that you wouldn't have had to do before this dancing craze began?

Generally in musical theatre dance is often used just to embellish a story line, but in our case we needed to sustain a 2hr show. Luckily in ballroom dancing we have a huge umbrella of dance styles we can visit. For example ballroom dancing is as varied as tango, paso doble, samba, cha cha, mambo – the difficulty in our job is really what to leave out.

It’s been interesting for Burn The Floor because when we began with the show, the ballroom dancing phenomenon had really just started so people really couldn’t tell the difference between a waltz and a foxtrot. Now our audiences have become a lot more educated through shows like So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing With The Stars. So the exciting challenge for us is to always reinvent this interesting dance genre. Which luckily for us transforms itself very easily. I think people coming to the show still like to see us capture the original essence of the dance how it was intended.

Are there differences from the production on Broadway and in London and in the touring edition of Burn The Floor?

We’ve pretty much kept the show how it was on Broadway and the West End. In fact, all of the current members did either one or both productions. We like to think of this tour as our victory lap after being lucky enough to play both London and New York.

What's the most challenging dance sequence from Burn The Floor to execute on stage and what makes it challenging?

Probably the most difficult and the most exciting section of the show is the swing section. Trying to choreograph 10 couples who are completely pumped up, flying around doing their own choreography creates an incredible amount of traffic – if someone is one or two inches out of line you could easily have a major accident. But as I said before, this is also one of the most exciting parts of the show.

Which dance sequence is your favorite and why?

I would have to say Pasha and Anya from So You Think You Can Dance dancing Burn for You in Act 2 is one of my favorite parts of the show. It’s really amazing to see ballroom dancing being stretched as far as it can go and they dance this piece so emotionally that it really represents where the Burn The Floor dance company are taking ballroom dancing.

You have Ashleigh Di Lello & Ryan Di Lello from 'So You Think You Can Dance' will be along for the Portland show. How did they integrate with the rest of the professional dance company? Why did you pick these two people from the show over others?

I was lucky enough to work with Ashley and Ryan on their first week of So You Think You Can Dance and instantly thought they would be a great addition to the company. What was very attractive to me was the amount of work they had put into dancing as they are a married couple. These two have a magic when they dance together that comes very naturally and is something that you can’t fake. I also knew they would get on with the rest of the company as they are such wonderful people and have a great work ethic.

What's been the biggest surprise for you doing Burn The Floor?

If you had said 10 years ago that a ballroom dancing show would have been capable of playing Broadway and the West End and go on to a national tour of America I wouldn’t have believed it. But this sudden resurgence in ballroom has really enabled us to follow our dream and introduce ballroom dancing to a new generation of people.

How much has social media (Facebook, Youtube and Twitter) impacted the show?

Facebook, You Tube and Twitter have been terrific ways for BTF to reach fans where we haven’t been able to take the show yet. It’s amazing how many people have been following us on Twitter and Facebook as we travel the world.

Burn The Floor runs September 7 – 12, 2010 at the Keller Auditorium as part of the Fred Meyer Broadway Across America Portland. Tickets run $36.55-$79.95

Lion King in Portland

As a musical, The Lion King doesn't measure up to a lot of its contemporaries. Outside its three signature songs "Circle of Life", "Hakuna Matata" and "Can You Feel The Love Tonight", the music of The Lion King is pretty clunky, uninspired and sometimes even awkward. Oddly enough, the music of The Lion King really isn't the star of the show. Many of the musical numbers act as connective tissue between grand scenes awash in color, movement, dance and puppetry. It's this wondrous magic and not the music which makes The Lion King the grand spectacle that it is.

Following fairly closely to the film, The Lion King Musical tells the story of the 'circle of life' of one lion cub from infancy through adulthood including his life challenges and adventures. The story is a fairly dark one where characters are often put into peril. One of the most important things to know about The Lion King Musical may be that is NOT really good viewing material for younger children. At least half of the show contains content that would be very challenging for kids under the age of 7 and some of the scenes are downright graphic. One scene depicts a fairly graphic death onstage, something far more intense than in the animated version.

Being a Disney production with fairly dark themes gives The Lion King a somewhat schizophrenic nature. On one hand we're presented with a show that has wonderful African dance and music numbers, romantic interludes and sensual dance, and on the other we've got cartoon-like characters doing prat falls and fart jokes. As I sat watching The Lion King I wondered who exactly the show was aiming for. Perhaps a bolder move for the show would have been to accept that the production is a musical inspired by the Disney movie but for adults. Swapping out some of the weaker narrative songs with more African dance and puppetry would have gone a long way towards making this a much better show. However, the spectacle of The Lion King is so grand and some of the elements so engaging that it's easy to overlook some of its significant issues.

Putting the story and music aside, The Lion King is simply stunning. Staged with a full cast, a refreshing change from many of the paired down touring company productions I've seen lately, The Lion King literally overwhelms your senses. End to end, The Lion King constantly offers something new visually, like an unending buffet of visual delights. One of the key elements of this visual feast is an inventive fusion of puppetry and costume. The interaction of these two elements with the performers is amazing.

In terms of the performance, the touring company does an amiable job. The strongest performance actually comes from Tony Freeman as Zazu, the sidekick bird to Mufasa, Scar and Simba. Tony Freeman always seems to hit the right notes and has a fantastic and innate understanding of the relationship between performer and puppet. I also really liked Dionne Randolph's take on Mufasa. Randolph exudes strength in his performance and seemed to make the role his own, rather than just mimicking the film role (unlike Brent Harris, who plays Scar as a pure impersonation of Jeremy Irons).

The young performers were also standouts, especially Jamarina Tribble who played the Young Nala perfectly. She had an absolute spark on stage that you wouldn't expect from a performer her age. The only performer I was really disappointed with was Andre Jackson as the older Simba; his vocals often got lost in the orchestration and was never quite up to the level of his fellow performers. Still, no performance, no matter how underwhelming, could slow down this theatrical freight train, which is so visually exceptional that it's easy to forgive and forget anything that doesn't quite measure up.

There's been a lot of hype over The Lion King since its original Broadway debut and much of it is warranted. It is a show that is absolutely worth experiencing, provided you don't bring young kids to it. During the opening performance I heard a number of screaming and crying kids who probably left with a lot less love for the Lion King franchise than when they came in.

The Lion King is part of the Broadway Across America series and runs June 16-July 11th at the Keller Auditorium. Tickets run $26-$125.  We HIGHLY suggest seats in the center section and as close as you can afford. The acoustics in the Keller are awful and the experience of the show from the far sides and higher balcony is less than fantastic.

Stark Staging Hampers The Chosen

Chaim Potok's The Chosen is among several productions this season at Portland Center Stage that are based on a book or had previously been produced as a movie. It's an almost unavoidable reality for theatrical companies to pack their slate with plays that people are somehow familiar with in some way.

Another unfortunate reality of modern theater is that the money available for productions has shrunken. Portland Center Stage's artistic director Chris Coleman has embraced this fact and in many  of his productions this season has worked with negative space and  actor's narrative or pantomime to fill the stage. This tactic worked extremely well for Ragtime and Snow Falling on Cedars but fails miserably with The Chosen.

Based on Chaim Potok's award winning book about two boys from opposite sides of the Jewish spectrum (one Hasidic and the other more secular) whose worlds literally collide with each other, The Chosen is a compelling tale that weaves interesting themes about life, relationships and religion. While the themes in The Chosen eminate from Judiasm and Jewish text, they are in many ways universal.

Aaron Posner's adaptation seems to be more interested in discussing the themes of Chaim Potok's book than focusing on the characters. The play is hamstrung by painfully long monologues which are more in service of communicating ideology than moving the story along.  Posner's adaptation also relies on a device which really doesn't work here: a grown-up version of one of the main characters (Reuven Malter) narrates the story of how he met and befriended the Hasidic Danny Sanders.  This narration constantly takes focus away from the actual characters on stage and makes the play extremely choppy and disjointed.

Matthew Boston does an admirable job as this narrator, but when the play transitions to the actual scenes he seems lost and superfluous on stage.  It's hard to fault him as he does the best he can with what's there, but it simply doesn't work.  Another actor who seems lost on stage is John Rothman, who plays David Malter, Reuven Malter's father.  Sporting an absolutely horrid accent, Rothman, who has done much better work on screen with The Devil Wears Prada and United 93, is just plain dull. In one of the key moments in his character's arch he delivers a passage that was instrumental to inspiring Chris Coleman to bring the play to Portland Center Stage:

We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye. The blink of an eye is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that just might be something.

It's a core theme to the play but it's delivered so poorly that it feels limp in Rothman's hands.  As dull and off as John Rothman is, David Margulies, who may be best known for his role on The Sopranos, was simply electric. Just as the first act seemed to be losing some steam, Margulies lit up the stage with a larger-than-life portral of Reb (Rabbi) Saunders. But even Margulies' delicious performance couldn't save him from the choppy and undisciplined text. His opening monologue goes on so long it loses all the magic and energy that it starts with.

Also putting in solid performances are Carter Hudson as "Young" Reuven Malter and Jonathan David Martin. Their chemistry as the two high school-aged kids whose worlds collide is one of the few things that holds this production together. Had Aaron Posner's adaptation trusted more in these two main characters and their relationship, instead of trying to bolster it with a narrator, this would have been a much better production.

One of my biggest disappointments with Portland Center Stage's production of  The Chosen is Chris Coleman's staging. The starkness of this production overwhelms it. There are several scenes in which there is a clear need for other actors on the stage and their absence gives the production more a feel of a workshopped play than a full production.  At several points the action on stage is split between two locations and it never really worked.  But ultimately the staging is so stripped down and stark that it provides the audience very little to consume. When the play has its slow moments there's nothing else there and this adds to one of the play's biggest problems – it's way too slow and way too choppy.

The first hour of Portland Center Stage's production felt like two and without much spark behind the concept and ideas presented in the play, I found intermission to be a time to stretch and get rid of my restlessness rather than embark in any debate or discussion with anyone. The second act felt equally tough and at the end I was happy to have made my way through it.

It's a shame – somewhere in Chaim Potok's book is a compelling play waiting to be adapted, but this isn't it. Also, I really hope this is the end of Chris Coleman's experiment with space.  I think it has run its course and it is time for Portland Center Stage to find its way back to some more concrete set pieces and casts. The theater of the mind is fantastic, but Coleman needs to remember I'm also paying to see theater on the stage.

The Chosen runs at Portland Center Stage April 6 – May 2, 2010

To say there is a story is bordering on ridiculous, and the lyrics to many of the songs are just as ludicrous. I found myself saying, both at intermission and after the show, that I just don't get it. What is the appeal? Nothing really happens, and there is no character development so we have no one to really care about. The only thing I liked was the first performance of the well-known song "Memory", mainly because it was the first scene to actually have any substance, and the actress singing has a beautiful voice. After about 30 minutes I tried to just focus on the music. The traveling company slightly redeems itself with outstanding vocals from every member of the cast.

If you happen to be a fan of CATS, this Broadway Across America Portland show closes Sunday, March 28, and tickets start at $23.50. I sat in the orchestra ($63.25) and the view was excellent, even if the show wasn't.

Legally Blonde The Musical

It's refreshing, from time to time, to treat yourself to a night of entertainment that is simply fun and lighthearted. This is what you can expect from Legally Blonde The Musical. The 2001 film starring Reese Witherspoon has been adapted for the stage, infused with music and dance, and is touring February 16-21 here in Portland as part of the Broadway Across America series.

The premise is simple: college sorority president and blonde bombshell Elle Woods has everything going for her – perfect clothes, perfect friends, perfect boyfriend/future husband Warner Huntington III, until said boyfriend heads to Harvard Law and dumps Elle for someone more "serious", Vivienne Kensington. Determined to get her man, Elle manages to get herself into Harvard and sets a plan into action to get Warner back. It never occurs to her that she could fail, that no one will take her seriously, or that she might fall for someone else.

The role of Elle Woods is played, for the majority of the Portland run, by Becky Gulsvig. She keeps up with the high energy demands of the role and has a striking resemblance to Reese Witherspoon. For those of you planning to see the show later in the run, I would shoot for one of the performances on February 20 and 21 to see Portland native and Tigard High grad Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone in the role of Elle. I wish I could have seen a show with her to see some local talent.

Most of the rest of the cast are what you would expect from a traveling show. The vocals vary, some performances are stronger than others, and they double and triple up on actors playing multiple roles (not my favorite). When it comes down to it, however, this is a musical based on a fairly silly romantic comedy, so you have to keep that in mind and just enjoy the spectacle. The show does have some very funny and cute moments, like the first time Elle's chihuahua, Bruiser, runs on stage and delivers "lines", the marching band and cheerleaders at Elle's admissions interview at Harvard, the "Take It Like a Man" number during which Elle's law school friend, Emmett Forrest (played by D.B. Bonds) changes clothes on stage behind a tiny changing room door, and the courtroom scene with the entire ensemble singing "Is He Gay or European".

An upbeat, spirited production, and dizzying number of pink costumes, Legally Blonde The Musical is entertainment that lets you just turn off your brain and enjoy.

Legally Blonde Runs at The Keller Auditorium 2/16-2/21. Get more info from the Legally Blonde The Musical National Tour Site.

- @PDXHeather

Snow Falling on Cedars at Portland Center Stage

I honestly didn't have huge expectations for Kevin McKeon's adaptation of David Guterson Snow Falling on Cedars. So many popular books and movies have been poorly adapted for the stage recently and
Scott Hick's 1999 film adaptation of Guterson's best selling book simply left me cold. Imagine my shock when I was blown away by one of the best productions I've seen on a stage in Portland. McKeon's adaptation is simply amazing and coupled with Chris Coleman's pitch perfect direction and uniformly excellent acting, Snow Falling on Cedars at Portland Center Stage is nothing short of a triumph.

Set in the late 40's and early 50's, Snow Falling on Cedars follows the trail of Kabuo, a Japanese American fisherman accused of murdering a fellow fisherman in a small northwestern island town. The play flashes back and forth between the trial and the years leading up to it, covering the interweaving stories of the characters. Smack dab in the center of Snow Falling on Cedars is a look at the Japanese internment camps in America, enacted after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Although Snow Falling on Cedars covers an important point (and arguably one of our lowest points) in American history, the play is more about the relationships and connections between the people involved than the history itself. Olivia Oguma and Vince Nappo play Hatsue and Ishmael, two childhood playmates who flirt with something more. Their relationship comes to a head with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. There's a devastatingly beautiful moment when Hatsue turns to Ishmael and says, "Look at me, look at my face, I have the face of the enemy!" It's within a moment like this between characters that brings everything together and adjoins the greater narrative, the historial context and makes this play work so well.

A lot of credit goes to Kevin McKeon for his masterful adaptation of Guterson's book. McKeon covers considerable ground in his stage play and really has a sense of how to capture and present the soul and essence of the book. McKeon often gives us just enough of a glimpse at something as he weaves back and forth throughout the lives of the key characters. This results in some truly magical moments, and while fleeting, they give us a tremendous amount of insight and connection with the story. One of my favorite moments of the play involves the coupling of Hatsue and Kabuo, a short scene played perfectly, almost magically; I'll surely be thinking back to it a long time from now.

Director Chris Coleman, who has been playing around with inventive and minimalistic staging this year, really hits his groove working with McKeon's adaptation. The staging transitions from scene to scene, emotional note to emotional note flawlessly. At one point we flash between the front lines in the South Pacific to a quiet and tender scene between two of the characters on the field of an internment camp and back again. Coleman's actors never seem lost in the shuffle and he gives them a tremendous amount of faith and trust to carry off some of the most important elements of the play. In one scene two police officers, played by Scott Coopwood and Casey McFeron, pull a body caught in a fishing net out of the water and onto a boat. This entire scene is done using pantomime, and it executed so well you'd swear they had a real body on stage. I couldn't help but think back to Coleman's work on Ragtime and the show-stopping scene where Gavin Gregory (who plays Coalhouse Walker) sits down to play at an invisible piano.

It's this kind of deep trust in the artform and the capacity of his actors that makes Chris Coleman a truly great director, and under his direction, the actors rise to the occasion. Olivia Oguma gives an award worthy performance as Hatsue, carrying her character through a huge life arch from pre-teen to a married woman with kids. Vince Nappo takes his character Ishmael on a similar journey and caps the show with an emotional moment that is simply amazing. Bruce Locke gives the role of Kabuo a rich texturing despite the fact that his character is extremely reserved.

Across the board the performances in Snow Falling on Cedars are excellent even though many of the cast members double and triple up, playing a variety of roles throughout the show. My one and only gripe about the production is its opening. The characters come on and speak in narrative to set things up. It works but not nearly as well as when we see the characters interact with dialogue. Admittedly, this is a minor issue and in many ways is like complaining about the frame on a true masterpiece, which is what this is.

Kevin McKeon's adaptation of Snow Falling on Cedars is so good and Chris Coleman's Portland Center Stage production is so well performed it has the potential to become a truly classic piece of theater. McKeon works magic with Snow Falling on Cedars, crafting a truly contemporary theatrical experience using classic theatrical tools, and in the hands of Chris Coleman the result is simply amazing. Snow Falling on Cedars has the potential to be the kind of show that moves on from its Portland debut to New York and then beyond. It's a truly great piece of theater and is absolutely not to be missed.

Snow Falling on Cedars plays at Portland Center Stage 1/12-2/17. Tickets Start at $35.

For more information:

• Snow Falling on Cedars at PCS
• Production photos on Flickr
• Chris Coleman's production of Ragtime Reviewed

Xanadu The Musical in Portland

It's hard to write a review of Xanadu The Musical with a straight face. Part of me is thinking, "Really, you're going to pick apart a musical based on one of the cheesier films from the 80's?" and in truth there will be some people who click off their brain and just enjoy the brief 90 minute staging of this kitschy musical no matter what faults it has, and that's fine. The problem with Xanadu The Musical is that it actually far, far worse than the movie it's based on.

Adapted from the 1980 film with Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly and Michael Beck, Xanadu is a fantastical story of a Greek demi-god sent to Earth to be a muse for a struggling artist. In the process she breaks some cardinal rules, including falling in love and getting involved with the creative process itself. Peppered throughout the story are some classic songs from the film including "Magic", "Suddenly", "I'm Alive" and the theme song "Xanadu". None of these songs are pure classics in their own right, but they do really capture some of the delicious elements that make the 80's so fun to wax nostalgic over.

Musically this gives Xanadu a fairly solid base. Like Mama Mia, there's enough of a musical foundation for a fun night of musical theater. Unfortunately the music is so subverted in favor of cheap gags and poor staging that it's hard to genuinely enjoy it.

Elizabeth Stanley, who performs the lead role, has a fantastic voice, similar in tone to Oliva Newton-John, with a depth and breadth that truly fills the auditorium. But she so hams it up while singing that it's really difficult to enjoy her genuine talent. When she isn't singing, Elizabeth Stanley's performance is really subpar. For part of the show she sports an absolutely horrid Australian accent. The accent is yet another aspect of the show played as a gag, but it's so poorly executed it's painful.

Stanley's co-star Max Von Esson, who plays Sonny Malone, has such a small stage presence that he's absolutely eclipsed by Stanley. Von Esson reminds me of the kind of performer you see on a cruise ship or at Disneyland. He awkwardly hams it up and then completely under delivers when it comes time to really sing. Von Esson even comes up short in terms of skating – in the grand finale he doesn't even skate. With all the talent out there (including the cast-offs from all the seasons of American Idol), it's hard to believe they couldn't find a better performer to play Sonny.

Of all the other cast members the only other real highlight of the show is Larry Marshall, who has the unenviable task of performing a role originated by the great Gene Kelly. Marshall is one of the only genuinely talented and well rounded performers on stage. He seems to be the only one to be able to balance both the humor and the narrative of the musical and both sings and acts wonderfully.

One of the biggest problems with Xanadu The Musical is that it seems to have a fairly strong disdain for the time period which the film and story are set in. Throughout the show the 80's are often referred to as 'culturally devoid' and references to most of the 80's things are more pejorative than positive. The musical also seems to have a disdain for the very artform of the musical itself. It constantly pokes fun and commentates on the very institution of art that it is. This creates an undertone to the piece which is far from celebratory. Rather than trying to be so self referential, Xanadu had an amazing opportunity to celebrate the absolute over-the-top aspects of the time period and musical theater art form; instead, it seems more interested in bashing it.

The staging for Xanadu The Musical is an absolute mess. Rather than embracing the crazy and wonderful styles of the 80's the stage looks more like a cheap, dull ampithere with columns and risers that accommodate on-stage seating. Having audience members sit on the stage has become fashionable after plays like The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Spring Awakening. In both those productions the placement of these audience members served a purpose. Here it's just another element tacked on to make the show more 'hip'.  These audience members are out of place in this period piece and are only really there to help make the stark staging feel less empty.

My absolute biggest gripe with Xanadu The Musical is how nearly every moment of the show is played for laughs. The show is littered with so many cheap jokes and gags that it leaves very little room for anything else. This completely subverts the characters and the narrative so it becomes extremely difficult to care about anyone or anything in the show. I think it's possible to play Xanadu over the top and still have some genuine moments between characters.

Ultimately Xanadu is one huge opportunity lost. The original movie had an element of huge spectacle which gets completely lost in the adaptation to stage. Xanadu could have been a flamboyant and unrestrained celebration of an era that wasn't ever aware how 'far out' it really was. But, I don't think the creative team behind Xanadu genuinely loves the material or the era they're presenting, I think they saw a good opportunity to mount a Broadway production that would attract a 30something audience who would place very little demands on the play and would appreciate its short running time.

Xanadu plays at the Keller Auditorium January 12-17th. For more info:

• Xanadu on Broadway – The Tour
• Original Xanadu Motion Picture Soundtrack
• Broadway Across America in Portland

(ed note: Portland Opera informs us that Max Von Esson sprained his ancle prior to the performance I saw and so did not skate as much due to it.)

Wade McCollum in Portland Center Stage's The Santaland Diaries

Wade McCollum is one of the select few performers in Portland that makes whatever performance he's in one worth seeing. One of the most entertaining and likable people on stage in Portland, McCollum consistently delivers exciting and engaging performances well worth the price of admission. With Portland Center Stage's production of David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries we get just over an hour of pure McCollum.

The Santaland Diaries follows one fatefully holiday season when Sedaris decided to work as "Crumpet" an elf in Macy's New York Santaland. The play takes place during Sedaris' leaner starving artist period, long before he became a household name for his dry, witty and offen askewed humor. McCollum does an excellent job of capturing Sedaris' wit and humor while making his performance feel very real and immediate. During the first part of the monologue McCollum reaches out to the audience to directly connect what he's saying with people in the crowd. He acts more like a guy telling a wild tale at a party than someone on a stage.

As the piece continues more and more characters enter the story and McCollum literally embodies each with pitch perfect vocal and facial technique. McCollum does more than impersonate people he channels them and this makes this one man show feel like it's populated by an entire cast of characters. One of the risks of McCollum's Jim Carrey like talent is that he'd get so lost in all the characters he'd lose the sincere undertone of the piece. McCollum seems keenly aware of this and adeptly plays a wide range of emotional notes throughout the piece, ultimately leading a crescendo of emotion that feels as genuine and sincere as if it had really happened to McCollum himself.

Sedaris' piece itself is far from perfect. There are definite highs and lows to it. The closer the piece gets to Christmas Eve the more rushed and muddled it becomes. But it does finally hit its mark as it covers the flood of last minute Christmas shoppers all clamoring for their chance to hang with Santa. If you aren't a fan of One Life To Live (which I am not) there are a good number of jokes and references which will go right over your head.

The real reason to see The Santaland Diaries isn't really for David Sedaris' humor or even because it's a nice holiday tale, it's Wade McCollum. McCollum is so eminently entertaining, any time he steps on stage with this kind of electric energy it's absolutely worth seeing and The Santaland Diaries is no exception.

The Santaland Diaries runs through January 2nd at Portland Center Stage. Tickets $44-$49. Due to demand the show won't have any rush tickets.

For More info on The Santaland Diaries with Wade McCollum:

• Portland Center Stage's The Santaland Diaries
• Wade McCollum

You wouldn't think that an existentialist play with three people who emotionally torture each other for an hour and a half would be so enjoyable, but Imago Theater's production of No Exit manages to find the playfulness and absurdity buried beneath the surface of Jean-Paul Sartre's famous play. Staged on a floating, tilting square, Imago's No Exit is a dynamic and constantly moving production.

Imago's No Exit Tilting Stage

Imago's No Exit stage pitches and moves under the weight and movement of the actors. This tilting and movement becomes more angular and dramatic as more actors are added to the mix. Using such a strong device to present the play, Imago ran the risk of having No Exit be a one trick pony. Through the first part of the play the novelty of the tilting stage does generate strong excitement, which tapers off as the play settles in. This transition point is handled extremely well and the staging transforms from a novelty into an essential character in the show. I loved how the moving stage changes the audience's physical perspective on the show; at times, actors seem to float in the air in front of us, and at others they seem to be falling away into the darkness.

Director and set designer Jerry Mouawad seems to be constantly playing with the arrangement of the actors on stage, using that constantly shifting dynamic to enhance the tension and create drama. Mouawad does a fantastic job of coordinating the actors' positioning, lighting and Sartre's text into a piece that far exceeds anything that could be done on a conventional stage. Mouawad also seems to realize how important it is not to rely simply on the technical device of the teetering stage for the success of the show, so he injects a nice undercurrent of humor to balance things out.

Much of the humor in Imago's production of No Exit is generated by Bryce Flint-Somerville who plays the role of the Valet. Bryce's performance of the Valet is a blend of Dr. Daamen Caligari from the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Jim Carrey. It's a delicious mix of near-comic insanity which starts the play off on a fantastic note and carries it through the first half.

Tim True and JoAnna Johnson in No Exit

Bryce's intensity and humor is well balanced by Tim True who plays Garcin, a pacifist writer who is at constant odds with the world and his sense of self. Tim True plays Garcin in near opposite to Bryce as he constantly draws his energy and intensity inwards rather than playing everything out in exageration. True is excellent throughout the production even though he seemed to stumble with his lines a few times throughout the evening. I'll give True the benefit of the doubt here as I saw the production on opening night. I'm sure as he settles into the run these stumbles will vanish and he'll be left with a simply exceptional performance.

Adding a much different kind of intensity is JoAnn Johnson, who plays Inez, an aging, lusting lesbian postal worker who has a flair for the dramatic. "I'm a bitch" exclaims Inez, and Johnson seems to enjoy every last morsel of playing that. At times it felt like Johnson was channeling Gloria Swanson, using her physicality to communicate in dramatic fashion as much as her words. Towards the end of the show Johnson injects something into a very serious moment that is so unexpected and disarming I had a hard time containing my laughter.

Maureen Porter in Imago's No Exit

Maureen Porter rounds out this excellent cast playing a fantastically alive Estelle, a woman who lived to be desired and persued by men. Porter is captivating and when she performs her key monologue you simply can't take your eyes off her. Unfortunately Porter's performance is handicapped by an absolutely horrid blond wig that she wears through out the show. It's Halloween bad and it greatly distracts and detracts from the performance. It may seem petty, but it sticks out so accutely and is really my only gripe with an otherwise fantastic production.

In other hands Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit might be a tough piece to get through. Loose in its narrative structure, extremely morose and tightly confined in a single space, a performance of No Exit runs the risk of making you feel utterly trapped and miserable. There is no schadenfreude in watching three people emotionally torture each other, but Jerry Mouawad and the Imago Theater company have found something immensely entertaining and even absurdly enjoyable within this play. Through its innovative staging and deliciously performed characters, Imago has created a fantastic piece of theater that is extremely enjoyable and absolutely worth seeing.

Imago Theater's No Exit runs October 15th – November 15th [Thursday @ 7:00 ($28); Friday @ 7:30 ($33); Sat @ 2:00 ($33) & 7:30 ($39); Sunday @ 2:00 ($28) Youth/Senior tickets are $3 less.] The theater is located at 17 SE 8th Ave (just south of Burnside).

For more information on Imago Theater's No Exit:

• Imago Theater
• Jean-Paul Sartre
• No Exit
• Imago Theater No Exit Blog

Gavin Gregory in Portland Center Stage's Ragtime

Portland Center Stage didn't take the easy road in selecting Ragtime for their 2009-2010 season. Ragtime is a huge production, with a large cast, quickly changing scenes and children who play two key singing roles. Given the complexity and scale of the show, it's a little surprising that a regional theater company would try to tackle such a large production, especially in a recession when production funds don't flow as freely.

Director Chris Coleman seems aware of the issues of scale in his production of Ragtime and places his trust in his performers and their ability to come together to fill in the spaces where set pieces and backdrops would traditionally be. At first I didn't like the stark staging of Portland Center Stage's Ragtime. G.W. Mercier's design consists of a bare patterned wood floor, a few chairs and four massive swinging doors that open and close throughout the production. That's it. As the production rolled on I found that I did really warm to the set, due in large part to the phenomenal lighting design and pitch-perfect staging of the actors. By the middle of the first act I found myself completely lost in the world of Ragtime.

In addition to the phenomenal lighting, a lot of credit goes to the performers, who absolutely commit to seeing and interacting with objects that aren't there on stage. There's one moment when actor Gavin Gregory (who plays Coalhouse Walker) sits down to play at an invisible piano that is truly magical. There's no doubt that he's playing piano, it's just not there. As the production progresses there are a number of pretty sophisticated transitions which happen seamlessly – no small feat when you have twenty four people on stage.

One of the reasons Ragtime has such a large cast is that it is much more a portrait of a period in American history than a conventional narrative. At its core is a story of a Ragtime piano player and the struggles surrounding the woman he loves, but the show uses this main throughline to tell dozens of little stories. Terrence McNally does a fantastic job pulling E.L. Doctorow's novel together for the stage. All the right pieces are there to present a mural of a pivotal time of change in history. Unfortunately the lyrics aren't as strong as the adaptation.

There are some strong moments musically in Ragtime, especially when the ensemble come together and their interweaving narrative threads unite into a single chorus and there are at least two solo numbers which are strong enough to bring down the house (one performed by Gavin Gregory and the other by Susannah Mars). But none of the songs get stuck in your head and I can't see myself humming anything from Ragtime anytime soon.

In terms of the performance, there's a lot to like about Portland Center Stage's Ragtime. Most notably is Gavin Gregory who is the absolute stand out of this cast. Gregory brings such an amazing emotional presence to stage and is so vocally talented that it's impossible not to be captivated. I'd recommend running out to see this production of Ragtime for Gregory's performance alone. He's that good. Ragtime is an ensemble piece and while Gregory is the standout there are a number of other extremely strong performances including Susannah Mars who is excellent, Danny Rothman who does a tremendous job with a role that could have easily fallen into the background, and Alex Thede, a sixth grader who is an absolute inspiration to any young aspiring actor or actress.

The only performance I didn't care for was Leif Norby who is horribly miscast as Tateh, an immigrant from Latvia who comes to America to find a better life. Norby, decked out in a horridly fake beard, does a caricature of an immigrant that is cartoonish and amateurish. His character goes through a transformation in the show that is played so rough by Norby that it's completely lost, and the following duet between Leif Norby and Susannah Mars is the real low point of the show. The only saving grace of Tateh's storyline is Anna Jane Bishop who plays Tateh's daughter. While she doesn't have a lot of lines, Bishop's stage presence is extremely strong, especially for a ten year old.

Norby aside, the production of Ragtime in its entirely is really something to experience. Director Chris Coleman has demonstrated with Ragtime how a regional theater can tackle a very ambitious production intelligently, thoughtfully and skillfully. There are a lot of choices out there for Portland Center Stage to select from and I'm very pleased to see them aim high and tackle something that other theater companies might dismiss as 'too big' or 'too complex' for a regional theater.

Ragtime is a very satisfying evening of theater, and when you add Gavin Gregory and his performance to that mix it makes it an evening of theater not to be missed.

For more information on Portland Center Stage's production of Ragtime:

• Portland Center Stage Ragtime
• Ragtime video trailer