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Portland Revued
‘ ‘O f all
the places , it's been the b e s t * exclaims a cast
member of the Ten Percent Revue, which just finished a
very successful run in Puddletown. Here are more
thoughts and plans of the cast.
B
Y
w
C.
uring its eight performances here,
the Ten Percent Revue played to
over 1,300 people. The Portland
audiences weren’t alone in enjoying the
Boston-based group’s stay. The Ten Per­
cent Revue ranks the Portland shows as
their most satisfying and enjoyable to date.
Tom Wilson Weinberg, composer and
piano accompanist for the Revue, per­
formed in Portland once before, at Reed
College as a solo artist. Although
Weinberg will stay with the Ten Percent
Revue for its next engagements, he plans
to work both on doing more solo perform­
ances and on a more traditional piece
of musical theatre with a gay theme.
Weinberg first brought Ten Percent Revue
to the stage in March of 1985, but “ the
show has been constantly changing ever
since,’’ he says. Not just the cast, but the
songs themselves — witness the song
“ And the Supremes” written in reaction to
the Supreme Court’s anti-sodomy ruling.
“ I like to see the show grow,’’ Weinberg
D
I
M c R A E
says. The show has played New York,
Boston, Provincetown, San Francisco,
Atlanta, and Philadelphia. Weinberg said
that, “ There’s something special about
Portland. I felt really at home. I’d like to
stay longer.”
The Ten Percent Revue next appears in
Syracuse, New York (Weinberg’s home
town), and Amherst, Massachusetts.
Like Weinberg, singer and actress
Helena Snow is also an aspiring play­
wright. After performing in Ten Percent
Revue for eight months, Snow claims she’s
“ not tired of the show at all. It’s different
from other shows because it means so
much. I feel when I go on stage that I have
an enormous present to give the audience.”
Snow commented that the cast was
“ thrilled” about the Portland audiences.
“ They got the jokes,” she said, adding
that some audiences in other cities didn t
catch the innuendos or references. “ For
example, the line ‘I’d keep my labrys in a
sheathe,’ got a laugh. In Atlanta, it went
right over their heads. It’s unanimous. We
all adored being here.”
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Jon Arterton, Helena Snow,
Elliot Pilshaw, and Jenifer Firestone
Tom Wilson Weinberg
Portland was so friendly and open,
Snow said, that cast members were relieved
to find a rude motorist on the freeway one
day. “Somebody here has got to be rude,”
she laughed.
Elliot Pilshaw will have a chance to
experience rude motorists as he drives his
car cross-country from San Francisco to
the East Coast The Portland shows were
the last for Pilshaw, who is the only per­
former w ho has stayed with the Ten Per­
cent Revue since its first performance in
1985. He leaves the show to pursue his
own career as a solo singer.
John Arterton also leaves the show after
the Portland performances. He’s trading it
in on “ New York, Broadway auditions,
and unemployment.” Arterton was adam­
ant about the virtues of Portland. “ I love it
here. The audiences were exciting to play
to, and were aware politically.” Arterton,
on more than one occasion, made inquiries
about relocating to Portland, tempted by
the low cost of living, the opportunities for
gay-oriented theatre and cabaret, and the
friendliness of the people. And perhaps,
by Flossie’s.
“ Of all the places we’ve performed,”
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said Jenifer Firestone, “ Portland’s been
the best — on many fronts. The people
here are really incredible and the audiences
have been really rewarding.” Firestone,
who has worked as a social worker in
Boston, plans to stick with the show and
continue her project of writing a manual
for women who want to go into non-
traditional jobs.
The greatest insight of performing in the
Ten Percent Revue for Firestone has been
that, “ We all have to stick together. Work­
ing and traveling in a group has made me
realize how important it is that gay men
and lesbians work together. It’s not easy,
either with this show, or in politics and
society. But we’ve got to support each
other. That’s the lesson of the Ten Percent
Revue.”
Beyond making 1,300 gay people feel
good about themselves in Portland, the
Ten Percent Revue brought 1,300 women
and men together to interact. Night after
night, men and women mingled together
in a non-political venue, feeling positive
and unified. Jenifer may be right: The Ten
Percent Revue may have been just what it
took to bring us together.
3731 SE H aw thorne
Portland, O regon 232-1010