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The city of Eugene has lined up lots of family-friendly dance happenings as part of its EUGfun festival in August. Continue reading
Set in 1928 Arizona, The Shedd’s revival of Whoopee! is populated by rootin’ tootin’ cowboys, rich tourists and the occasional hypochondriac. Based on the 1923 play The Nervous Wreck, this goofball musical comedy by Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson was made famous by both the Ziegfield Broadway production of 1928 and the 1930 Eddie Cantor film. In the vaudeville era, shows like Whoopee! cobbled together already popular tunes with a loose plot, peppering zany narratives with plenty of jazz standards and daffy jokes. And it’s still a winning combination. Continue reading
VLT casts Anne of the Thousand Days as a post-apocalyptic feminist tale of Tudor intrigue William Faulkner once suggested in an interview that the essential ingredients of any good drama are family, money and murder. This might help explain our ongoing obsession with the House of Tudor, those ingrown English monarchs whose rule included ample instances of greed, intrigue, betrayal and bloody battles for the rights of primogeniture. Continue reading
After four years and three venues, G.L.A.M. arrives at its grand finale and celebration, a pink party at Luckey’s Club Saturday, Aug. 1, to send off the whole G.L.A.M. family in style. The drag show Eugene has grown to love began as Gays, Lesbians And More, offering a positive venue to queer folks and their allies. “It was about people who didn’t have a space,” says producer/emcee Anthony Barber, aka Diva-Simone Slaughter, who has performed in Eugene since “Baby Got Back” was the flavor of the week. Continue reading
You think your dad has outrageous stories? According to Edward Bloom, the years before he became a salesman were filled with heroism, giants, witches, mermaids and indentured servitude in the name of love. Continue reading
With 20 songs and the precedent of a 1983 film starring Steve Martin and Bill Murray, Little Shop of Horrors isn’t the easiest musical to pull off. But Red Cane Theater, home of the Phoinix Players, succeeds in telling the story of the Venus flytrap from Hell on Skid Row. Continue reading
We hear that the Oregon Country Fair new movement arts program will feature performances and workshops on a dedicated stage, the spiffy new Dance Pavilion, during the weekend (July 10-12) of the OCF. Look for Salseros Dance Company, the Connexus dance collective, Track Town Swing Club, Danceability and more. A full schedule is available at oregoncountryfair.org. Continue reading
Comedian, author and actress Jen Kirkman is known for appearing on Chelsea Handler’s talk show Chelsea Lately and for being one of the first comedians to sign up for Drunk History. In 2013, Kirkman released the New York Times bestselling memoir, I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales from a Happy Life Without Kids. Continue reading
First, the bad news: Cottage Theatre’s excellent production of David Auburn’s Pulitzer-winning drama Proof ends its run this weekend, so you’ll have to scramble to get tickets. The good news, then, is that, should you land seats, you will be treated to one of the finest local productions of the year. Directed with a sure hand by Alan Beck and featuring a small cast of talented local actors, this production achieves an almost perfect balance of emotional resonance and technical finesse. The play is so engaging and moving, so rich and dynamic, it feels like a dream. Continue reading
In the canon of musical comedies, it doesn’t get much better than How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Playing this weekend at The Shedd, this hilarious 1961 musical slyly satirizes the midcentury corporate American workplace, as its hero, J. Pierrepont Finch, a humble window washer, ascends the rungs of the corporate ladder by not really doing anything. Continue reading