GREASEIn Portland (Oregon) April 21 – 26The one that you want is back! GREASE, Time magazine’s 2007 pick for “#1 Musical of the Year,” is rockin’ into Portland and across the country in this new production direct from Broadway.
Take a trip to a simpler time of poodle skirts, drive-ins, and T-birds. “Bad boy” Danny and “the girl next door” Sandy fall in love all over again to the tune of your favorite songs: “Summer Nights,” “Greased Lightning” and “We Go Together” as well as additional songs from the hit movie: “Grease Is the Word,” “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “You’re the One That I Want.”
So throw your mittens around your kittens and hand jive the night away with the show that’ll make you want to stand up and shout, “A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop A-wop-bam-boom!” It’s GREASE! Warm-up DJ Vince Fontaine, from fictional Radio Station WAXX -- played by the deliciously double-jointed, fast-talking Dominic Fortuna -- is worth the price of admission alone! You will lose count of the number of local jokes he makes, especially the ones poking gentle fun at the town of Scappoose.
Everyone in the cast is totally SWELL, including Eric Schneider as "Danny Zuko" and Emily Padgett as "Sandy Dumbrowski." Fifth season "American Idol" TV winner Taylor Hicks ("Teen Angel") makes quite an entrance in a levitating ice cream cone. The floating device opens like a clamshell to reveal Mr. Hicks wearing more sequins on a man's suit than I can remember seeing since Liberace was alive! His voice is smooth on "Beauty School Dropout." Don't leave early because Hicks re-appears to croon his final song at the very end.
Of course, there was a first-night standing ovation for "Grease." It's all in the spirit of fun and -- for those of us audience members with a bit of mileage on our individual odometers -- a rare look at our memories, including one flashy, racy red Ford Thunderbird I KNOW I rode in decades ago. Ah, yes, those were the days we thought would never end!
Get your tickets now!
All performances are at the Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay Street at 3rd Ave, in downtown Portland:
April 21 - 26, 2009 Eight shows only! Tuesday-Friday at 7:30pm
Saturday at 2pm & 7:30pm
Sunday at 1pm & 6:30pm
Tickets: In person: The Hampton Opera Center, 211 SE Caruthers St, Portland, OR 97214
By Phone: 503.241.1802, or toll-free at 1.866.739.6737 (M-F, 9a-5p)
For more information:
http://www.portlandopera.com/broadway/2008-2009 Ellen Kimball is a TV and radio pioneer. She was selected as a co-host of a local, live children's television show at WTVJ-TV, now the NBC affiliate Ch. 4 in Miami, Florida, during her freshman year in college. She has been working in broadcasting for more than five decades. Ellen is one of the first women in the U.S. to host her own daily radio call-in talk shows at major market stations in Miami and Boston. She and her husband moved to Beaverton, Oregon in 1998. Ellen currently contributes her reviews on films, theater and other entertainment to KGW.com, the website of Ch. 8, the NBC affiliate in Portland, Oregon.Friday, April 17, 2009
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