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7.2000
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P O R TLA N D GAY MEN'S CHORUS
PO R TLAN D L E S B IA N CHOIR
Presents
BRIDGES VO CAL EN S EM B LE
The great not-so-white-hot way
A Portland theater director reviews
the current Broadway season
by
Three Great Choruses!
S
One Great Concert!
Don't miss the show as
Portland's three premier
gay choruses come together in a
concert of pride and musical accomplishment!
N A T I O N A L
ENDOW MENT
F O R THE A R T S
Sat., July 15, 2000 • 8:00 p.m.
R t g tonal A r t s &
Cultura Council
Sun., July 16, 2000 • 7:00 p.m.
;ftn.
American Airtnes
PCC Sylvania Performing Arts Center
12000 SW 49th Avenue, Portland
Financial
Advisors
Tickets $20/$15/$12
FA S7IX X 224-T 1
arc
WWW.PDXGMC.ORG
A cast of two v dozen radiant, ■.
p h y s ic a lly g o rg e o u s dancers
brilliantly tap into both the joy
and the winking naughtiness of
FO S S E ...so h o t so sensual."
ORIGINAL 8ROAOWAY CAST RECORDING AVAILABLE ON R C X V f c T O R
P h o to
C atherine A s h m o re
-Hedy Weiss
Chicago Sun-Times
ummertime, and the
New York theater sea
son is exciting and
exhilaratingly sultry.
For more than 20 years, one
of the highlights of my year
has always been my annual
trip to London and New
York, soaking up as much
theater, dance and music as
humanly possible. These trips
are very special and invalu
able to me as a source of
artistic inspiration and
renewal. While some seasons
are better than others, it
never ceases to amaze me
how varied and stimulating
the arts scene is in these two
culturally rich cities.
The current New York
theater scene is a bit low-key
and disappointing, but then
the glorious highs of last sea
son are hard acts to follow.
Last year’s return of drama to
Broadway generated a power
ful current that electrified
the entire community. Any
Jon Kretzu takes a busman’s holiday
season offering the multiple
thrills of Warren Leight’s
splendid family drama Side Man, Connor
a moving study of the town and citizens of
MacPherson’s haunting play The Weir, Brian
Laramie, Wyo., and how their lives were
Dennehey and Elizabeth Franz in Death of a
touched and altered by the Matthew Shepard
Salesman, Kevin Spacey and company in The
tragedy. Kaufman and his fine acting ensemble
Iceman Cometh and Dame Judi Dench in Amy's
spent nearly two years interviewing the people
View — plus the sheer adrenaline rush provided
of the town, getting to know them in such inti
by the original casts of the revivals Fosse,
mate detail that what emerges is a work of uni
Cabaret and Chicago — is a unique theatrical
versal relevance. The work’s quiet impact
event.
comes from its exploration of how a single,
This year’s Broadway drama season is dismal
horrific act of violence can both tear a town
indeed, with the highlights few and far
apart while also bringing a community together
between. Claudia Shear’s salute to Mae West,
in both shared strength and pride.
Dirty Blonde, is a tough ticket (1 couldn’t man
As we get to know the citizens of this little
age it), as is Michael Frayn’s Tony-winning
town and watch their prismatic reactions to
Copenhagen, a play whose esoteric charms elud
this unthinkable crime and its aftermath, we
ed me when I saw it in London last year. There
get caught up in the play’s powerful exploration
also were well-received revivals of O ’Neill’s A
of basic human truths such as hate and human
Moon for the Misbegotten and Tom Stoppard’s
ity, death and renewal, chaos
The Real Thing, which I also saw in London
and community. Lovingly per
and found to be chilly and
formed by the multitalented
emotionally distant.
ensemble who created it, The
Laramie Project is an Our Town
he off-Broadway
for our time.
drama season is
sparked by Donald
s has often been the
Marguilies’ clever and
case in recent years,
undeniably engrossing
things are somewhat
Pulitzer Prize-winner
brighter on the Broadway
Dinner with Friends,
musical front, even if there
which is so well-written
is no end in sight to the
that it almost disguises the
past decade’s dearth of
fact that its just a really
exciting new musicals.
good episode of Thirty -
This season brought us
something onstage.
the chamber-sized deli
Another highlight of the
cacy of James Joyce’s
current off-Broadway season
The Dead, two compet
is The Laramie Project, a
ing versions of the
powerful new play by Moises
mordant 1920s epic
Kaufman and the Tectonic
poem The Wild Party,
Theatre Project, who created
and Marie Christine, a
the highly successful Gross Inde
New Orleans voodoo
cency: The Three Trials O f Oscar
version of Medea. None of these
Wilde.
new works lasted out the season, and, based on
Rather than simply being a docudrama re
their original cast recordings and critical
enactment of the events, The Laramie Project is
reports, few deserved to.
T
1999 Tony A w a rd W in n e r! B e s t M u s ic a l
1
its.
Fred Meyer
JULY 18-23
bycS (503)241-1802
Tickets available at ail
KELLER AUDITORIUM
FORMERLY CIVIC AUDITORIUM
or (503)790-ARTS
outlets including Gl Joe s Meier & Frank Lamb's Thriftway PCPA & Portland Opera
Groups of 20 or more SA VE' '503' 321 -525
'honruu
J o n K retzu
. V A * portlan dooera. 3 ' g • A * * n r o a 3 . v 3 o e f!es com • >b,vw ticKetmaster com orego"
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