MARCH 21, 2008 JUStfOUt
37
on stage
Artists Repertory Theatre presents The Rab
bit Hole, a Pulitzer-winning drama that uses
a velvet scalpel to dissect the most personal
of domestic tragedies—the death of a child,
through March 23. (Call for times. 1516 SW
Alder St. $20447 from 503-241-1278.)
$10428 from 503-242-0080.)
Sally Tomato presents Toy Room, a rock
opera that chronicles the enigmatic perfor
mance artist's chaotic life story, from an
imaginative youth to an abusive marriage,
April 4-6 at Wonder Ballroom. Proceeds
benefit Portland Women's Crisis Line. (7 and
9 pm Friday and Saturday, 1 pm Sunday.
128 NE Russell St. $19 from box office or
Ticketmaster.)
Blue Door Productions presents sketch
troupe The 3rd Floor in That's Entertainment?
A History of Comedy through March 22 at
Miracle Theatre. (8 pm. 525 SE Stark St. $12
from 503-627-9847.)
Cacophony Productions presents The Bible:
The Complete Word of God, in which three
hilarious young men take us on an irrever
ent romp through the sacred text, through
March 29 at Firehouse Theater. (8 pm Thurs
day-Saturday. 1436 SW Montgomery St. $7-
$12 from 503-310-0771.)
Cirque du Soleil presents Corteo, about a
festive funeral imagined by a clown to illus
trate the portion of humanity that is within
each of us, extended through April 13 un
der the blue and yellow Grand Chapiteau.
(Call for times. Southwest Moody Avenue
south of the Marquam Bridge. $35-$85 from
800-678-5440.)
Curious Productions presents Swingers: Live
Improvised Comedy through April 5 at The
ater Theatre. (10:30 pm Saturday. 3430 SE
Belmont St. $10 from 503-432-8633.)
Integrity Productions presents Scotland
Road, about a woman found floating on an
iceberg in the middle of the North Atlantic
who is interrogated about her connection to
the Titanic, through April 5 at Theater The
atre. (8 pm Thursday-Saturday, 4 pm Sunday.
3430 SE Belmont St. $ 15 from 503-286-3456;
Thursdays are “pay what you will.")
Lakewood Theatre Company presents
The Full Monty, gay playwright Terrence
McNally's musical adaptation of the popular
film about unemployed steelworkers who
form an unlikely stripteaser troupe, through
April 13. (Call for times. 368 S State St., Lake
Oswego. $23425 from 503-635-3901.)
Miracle Theatre presents Oyá: Call the
Storm, a bilingual dance theater production
Sharon Knorr Productions presents Why
Can't I Marry the Cute Beatle, a one-woman
show about life and death, love and loneli
ness, growing older and finding the joke in it
all, through March 29 at West End Theatre.
(8 pm Friday and Saturday. 1220 SW Taylor
St. $18422 from 503-699-3309.)
about a feminine warrior of the Afro-Cuban
Yoruba tradition who controls destruc
tive forces of nature, April 4-26. (7:30 pm
Thursday, 8 pm Friday and Saturday, 2 pm
Sunday. 525 SE Stark St. $15420 from
503-236-7253.)
Northwest Children's Theater presents
Go, Dog. Go!— a rollicking free-for-all mu
sical world of crooning canines that dance
and drive—March 22-April 6 at Northwest
Neighborhood Cultural Center. (Call for
times. 1819 NW Everett St. $10420 from
503-222-4480.)
Northwest Classical Theatre Company
presents An Afternoon of One Acts featur
ing Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape"
and Eugene O'Neill's "The Sniper" through
March 30 at Shoebox Theater. (2 pm Sunday.
2110 SE 10th Ave. $5 from 971-244-3740.)
PassinArt: A Theatre Company presents
The Diva Daughters DuPree, a thought-pro
voking dramatic comedy about three Afri
can-American sisters who reunite 10 years
after their parents’ death, through April 13
at Imago Theatre. (7:30 pm Friday and Sat
urday, 3 pm Saturday and Sunday. 17 SE
Eighth Ave. $20 from www.passinart.org.)
Penplay presents Boxes, a unique look at
a young person rebelling against the gen
der identities placed upon us by society,
and Escaping Chinatown, about a
young woman who challenges her
parents' ethnic boundaries and racial
preconceptions, March 28 and 29 at
Conduit. (8pm. 918 SW Yamhill St.
#401. $8.)
Portland Center for the Performing
Arts presents Too Much Coffee Man
Opera: The Refill, the world's first
opera based on a comic book, about
an idealistic hero's quest to win the
affections of a barista, April 4-20 at
Brunish Hall. (Call for times. 1111 SW
Broadway. $23.75428.75 from box
office or Ticketmaster.)
Golden Globe nominee Kaki King (Into the
Wild) performs March 22.
Portland Center Stage presents
A Feminine Ending, an eye-open
ing exploration of ambition, identity
and actualization in Generation XX,
through March 23 in Gerding The
ater at the Armory. (Call for times.
128 NW 11th Ave. $16.50461.50
from 503-445-3700.)
A PROGRAM FOR PEOPLE LIVING
WITH HIV OR AT RISK WHO ARE
INTERESTED IN TALKING ABOUT
WAYS TO PROTECT THEMSELVES
AND THEIR PARTNERS.
Portland Center Stage presents the world
premiere of Sometimes a Great Notion, based
on Oregon author Ken Kesey's wild and woo
ly portrait of an Oregon coastal logging com
munity, April 4-27 in Gerding Theater at the
Armory. (Call for times. 128 NW 11th Ave.
$26.50443.50 from 503-445-3700.)
Profile Theatre Project continues its John
Guare season with Landscape of the Body,
an absurdist drama about the American
dream gone awry, through April 6 at Theater
Theatre. (Call for times. 3430 SE Belmont St.
Sowelu Theater presents Star of Hope,
a hilarious comedy of manners set in the
Midwest, through April 5 at Back Door The
ater. (8 pm Thursday-Saturday, 4 pm Sun
day. 4319 SE Hawthorne Blvd. $12418 from
503-730-9066.)
Staged presents the epic Tony-winning mu
sical Les Misérables with a cast of local stu
dents between 9 and 20 years old March 28-
April 6 at World Trade Center Theatre. (Call
for times. 121 SW Salmon St. $21425 from
971-322-5723.)
White Bird presents a thrilling collaboration
between Urban Bush Women and Compag
nie Jant-Bi focusing on differing cultural
landscapes and shared heritage April 2 at
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. (7:30 pm.
1037 SW Broadway. $20450 from box of
fice or Ticketmaster.)
White Bird presents the West Coast de
but of gravity-defying Brenda Angiel Aerial
Dance Company from Buenos Aires, Ar
gentina, in Air Condition April 3-5 at Port
land State University's Lincoln Hall. (8 pm.
1620 SW Park Ave. $16426 from box office
or Ticketmaster.)
Comedian Belle Barth also used to say, “I don’t mean to
be vulgar, but it’s profitable.”
Likewise, Portland theater producer Don Hom knows
that what’s a little risqué can be parlayed into a big niche.
An original founder of one of the oldest gay-themed the
aters on the West Coast, Hom has more recently turned
Triangle Productions onto off-Broadway shows that have
featured bitches who sing, drag queen beauty contestants,
a rock ’n’ roll tranny and a squeaky-clean boy band from
the days of Ed Sullivan.
Even now as Triangle closes a successful new rock biop
era about the troubled life of former Olympic ice skater
Tonya Harding, Hom is opening the Northwest premiere
of The Jewish American Princesses of Comedy Show.
Wendy Westerville (left) and Francine Raften star in The
Jewish American Princesses of Comedy Show.
Created by Cory Kahaney (NBC’s Last Comic Standing),
the show’s Web site. “You like theater; we like theater. You
The J.A.P. Show’s Stumptown cast features local person
alities Francine Raften and Wendy Westerville. Through
like musicals; we like musicals. We had Barbra Streisand;
you wanted Barbra Streisand.”
personal stories, standup comedy and vintage footage, these
Speaking with New York Press’ Leonard Jacob during
funny girls deliver a hilarious homage to “dirty” Jewish
women comics such as Barth, Pearl Williams, Jean Carroll,
Betty Walker and Totie Fields—women who through their
club acts and adult party records exploded the myth of the
the show’s original run at New York City’s Actors Temple
(“a synagogue by day, a Hell’s Kitchen theatrical hot spot
undersexed, overshopped housewife of the 1950s.
Another niche, perhaps, but one that Kahaney finds
by night”), Kahaney also notes how “Bette Midler took
tons of Belle Barth’s jokes for her act, then drag queens
took them, then cross-dressers. The common theme is op
pression—having your sexuality pushed down.”
tied to the queer community.
“Jewish women have always felt different and gawky
The J.A.P. Show plays through April 12 at CoHo The
ater, 2257 N.W. Raleigh St. Tickets are $18-$23 from
and freaky growing up, and I think they share that with a
503-239-5919 or www.tripro.org.
lot of gay men,” suggests Kahaney in a video interview on
—Timothy Krause
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Triangle Productions presents the North
west premiere of The J.A.P. Show, in which
three Jewish female comics salute the trail
blazing and treasured pioneers of comedy
with their own zany stories and hilarious
standup, through April 12 at CoHo Theatre.
(Call for times. 2257 NW Raleigh St. $18423
from 503-239-5919.)
'If I Embarrass You, Tell Your Friends'
1
1-877-795-7700 (Toll Free)
Stumptown Stages presents Dreamgirls,
a Tony-winning musical that follows the ca
reer of three women from backup singers to
headliners in the '60s, through April 5 at In
terstate Firehouse Cultural Center. (8 pm Fri
day and Saturday, 2 pm Sunday. 5340 N In
terstate Ave. $25427 from 503-381-8686.)
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