As the days grow darker, Oregon stages are about to glow with a lustrous crop of shows, many of which are musicals with darker tones than the sunnier fare (Jersey Boys, My Fair Lady) that theatergoers enjoyed this summer.

Both Portland Center Stage and Twilight Theater – as well as The Greenhouse Cabaret in Bend – are presenting Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, a macabre tale involving a murderous barber and meat pies. Meanwhile, Stumptown Stages’ Kiss of the Spider Woman blends the real-life brutality of political repression with the mystical power of the imagination to provide escape. And while Amélie at Portland Playhouse is a hopeful story of connection, this nuanced romance also carries a note of sadness.

When I was a kid, I listened to my parents’ original cast recordings of midcentury musicals until I had all the lyrics memorized. Then I’d pretend to be all the characters, like Fraulein Maria swinging her carpet bag through the streets of Salzburg, or Professor Harold Hill convincing the folks of River City that they had trouble with a capital T.

Imagination and musicals go together. Perhaps it’s because in real life people don’t break out into song and dance en masse. If only! Also, good music conjures deep emotion. When Eliza Dolittle sings “I Could Have Danced All Night,” she becomes more than a comical character with a cockney accent – she’s any young person on the cusp between romantic dreams and reality.

While Sweeney, Kiss of Spider Woman and Amélie are as different from each other as they are from those older musicals, the three plays share a common thread: In each of them, the world of the imagination is key to the story.

Random Acts of Kindness: “Amélie” at Portland Playhouse

“‘I don’t know if people know how sad it is,’” a French friend told Brian Weaver, the producing artistic director of Portland Playhouse, about the 2001 French movie Amélie.

Weaver sees the sadness, too. In a recent phone conversation, he said that while he’s drawn to Amélie’s sense of mischief and delight, her story is neither simple nor sappy. In the musical, he notes, “the last song, which is gorgeous, both acknowledges the joy of finding a  person you’ve been looking for your whole life and at the same time holds the truth that it will end.” In his view, “The presence of loss, the presence that we’re born alone, we die alone” is there, along with the wonder of finding love … or, in its absence, cracking the crust of a crème brulée with a spoon.

What makes the story magical is the way Amélie ultimately uses her imagination to interact with others. Concocting elaborate schemes, like returning a tin of childhood toys to a man who’s become estranged from his family, she embarks on what Weaver calls “a sort of treasure hunt to find ways to help other people, which opens up her inner world.”

“This is true in the musical and the film,” Weaver says, and it taps into something that’s true for everyone: “We only get little glimpses of each other … but each person is walking around with their own universe of imagination and intrigue.”

In Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s film, Amélie’s interior life is depicted with warm hues that give each shot a fairytale look, whether it’s the red and gold wallpaper in her Montmartre apartment or the reflection of glowing green trees in the water where she skips stones. “Something about the film that’s so wonderful,” Weaver says, “is all the textures and the visuals and how dense it is, and in our small neighborhood playhouse on a fairly small stage, it’s very visually and aurally dense.” 

Weaver adds that many of the play’s textures come from its music, which was written by Daniel Messe and Nathan Tysen. Even more enticing, his cast of twelve performers all play their own instruments. “It’s not just like people walking around with a couple of shakers and guitars,” Weaver says. “I mean, we’ve got a cello, two violins, an upright bass, a trumpet, a saxophone, a glockenspiel, a marimba, a flute, and so the layered complex world [of the play] is in a lot of ways made with music.”

Although the film presented a Paris primarily populated by white people, Weaver’s diverse cast includes Lauren Steele (recently seen in PCS’s Clyde’s and last year’s Hair) as Amélie. “Lauren Steele is a star,” Weaver says. “She draws you into her secret world as if you can look deep inside what it means to be human, including all of the joys, the questions, the complexity. … Some people do that by preaching; she does it by presence.”

The stellar cast also features Emmanuel Davis, Jimmy Garcia, Sammy Rat Rios, Susannah Mars, and Benjamin Tissel, playing—get this—Elton John, who appears in one of Amélie’s fantasies.

“Amélie” plays at Portland Playhouse, Oct. 2-Nov. 10.

 Stumptown Stages’ “Kiss of the Spider Woman”

Like Amélie, Stumptown Stages’ production of the Tony award-winning Kiss of the Spider Woman at the Winningstad Theatre is a musical that explores the inner life of its characters. But in this case, the characters are trying to survive the direst of circumstances.

“I know many people think of musicals as an escapism from reality … but my hope is that you will also see this as a story that serves as a catalyst to empathy, compassion and liberation,” Francisco Garcia, who co-directed the musical with Illya deTorres, wrote in a recent email.

The musical, with a book by Terrence McNally and a score by the Cabaret team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, features two cellmates in a Buenos Aires prison. Valentin (Illya deTorres) is a Marxist revolutionary, and Molina (Roman Martinez) is a gay window dresser who uses his imagination – and the world of old movies – to escape the brutality of the prison.

While the two men’s ultimate bond is moving, the story takes place during a horrific point in history. “Set in the backdrop of Argentina’s Dirty War during 1975, many of the themes such as LGBTQI+ persecution and political repression under extreme dictatorship are still just as relevant today as when it was first written,” says Garcia. “In that sense, there is a timeless feel about it. That there are still people out there having to fight and die for what they believe in during the most insufferable of circumstances and persecution.”

The casting for Stumptown’s production was especially important to Garcia: “It is seldom done regionally and to have a cast made of predominantly Latinx and BIPOC local performers is really something special.”

Garcia notes that the original Broadway cast was white, except for Chita Rivera, a casting choice that he says “seemed to be the norm” for most theaters. “So to be able to have a cast made up of so many Latinx cultures (Argentinian, Puerto Rican, Chilean, Cuban, and Mexican) in our production really is a beautiful thing.” What’s more, he says, “The  musical/dance numbers and the tour de force performance of the stunning Julana Torres as the Spider Woman, a role that she seems like she was born to play” make the play “unlike any musical currently playing in Portland right now.”

“Kiss of the Spider Woman” kicks off Stumptown Stage’s 20th seasonOct. 4-27.

A close shave: “Sweeney Todd” at Portland Center Stage

If Amélie and Kiss of the Spider Woman are about dreamers, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street depicts our fascination with nightmares.

As entertainment, the tale of the vengeful barber who kills his customers and Mrs. Lovett, who then bakes the victims in meat pies, has a long history. In 1845, the character appeared in a short story called The String of Pearls: A Romance by Thomas Prest. Published as a serial known as a “penny dreadful” – the era’s term for cheaply made thrillers – the story made its way to the stage the following year when George Dibdin Pitt featured the characters in his 1847 play The String of Pearls: The Fiend of Fleet Street, which was billed as “Founded on Fact.”

Whether that was true or not, an article on PBS’s website points out that a deadly barber would have hit a tender nerve with English audiences, since barbers historically performed medical procedures. In fact, the practice was so common that King Henry VIII even made a 1540 royal decree forming one trade guild for both barbers and surgeons, an association that existed for more than 200 years. Hence, the thought of a barber who drew blood was just horrific and believable enough to make the Victorian story all the more thrilling.

The first film version came out in 1936, and there was even a 1959 ballet presented by the Royal Ballet. After seeing Christopher Bond’s 1973 play, Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for his musical, which opened on Broadway in 1979 and won multiple Tony Awards, including Best Musical. According to Richard Eder’s review in The New York Times, the play is “in many ways closer to opera than to most musicals” because of Sondheim’s “endlessly inventive, highly expressive score.”

Could the contemporary rise in popularity of horror movies make Sweeney more appealing than ever today? Jen Yamato recently wrote for The Washington Post, “For more than a century, even through a pandemic, horror films have been frighteningly good business, which says a lot about the adrenaline-spiking ways humans love to be entertained.” And movies with dark humor have a special appeal. Yamato says, “The best horror films are getting bolder, funnier and more creative.”

With PCS’s associate artistic director, Chip Miller, directing and choreographing the show, it seems a good bet that their meticulously designed production will meet Yamato’s criteria for dark entertainment. Miller, in an interview with PCS Literary Manager Kamilah Bush, says they relish collaboration with their creative team. For example, they always tell set designer Britton Mauk, “‘[B]uild me a playground and I will use every inch of it.’”

Unlike Eder, who believed Sweeney had no social message, Miller says there is. “Fleet Street is a society that is failing to function. That feels really relevant. We sit in a moment where walking down the street I see more rage in the world — more rage at systems, at inaction, at injustice.”

The musical stars Miguel Ángel Vásquez as Sweeney and Delphon “DJ” Curtis Jr., as Mrs. Lovett.

“Sweeney Todd,” in previews through Oct. 4, opens Oct. 5 and continues through Nov. 3 at Portland Center Stage.

Artists Rep’s “The Event!”  

Kicking off Artists Repertory Theatre‘s season of “Homegrown and Portland-Made” shows, The Event! promises to be “a playful experience (maybe with a slight naughty twinkle) filled with surprising twists and turns.”

The show is set in the fictional Oregon town of Cabbotville  and follows Misty, a news reporter determined to solve the mystery behind a 100-year-old play … and its connection to the disappearance of Rudy, a queer kid who may have flown off on a magical ostrich or been kidnapped by aliens. Luan Schooler, ART’s director of artistic programming and the director of The Event!, calls the show “an ebullient, playful, big-hearted experience” and “a cheery oasis in stressful times. “

Presented in ART’s lobby space, The Event! is interactive, but have no fear: Audience members get to choose whether they want to participate. Those who do want to join in might read a line in the play, add a piece of costume to an actor, or even dance.  

The script is a collaboration by Lava Alapai, Linda Alper, Anthony Hudson, Daniel Kitrosser, Susannah Mars, Josie Seid and Luan Schooler, with Mars and Seid also writing the songs.

New and returning performers include Ashlee M Radney, Gail Dartez, Bobby Bermea (Skeleton Crew, Between Riverside and Crazy, Exiles), Kailey Rhodes (An Octoroon, Teenage Dick, The Importance of Being Earnest), Anthony Green Caloca, Alissa Jessup, Leah Cohn, Dan Sweet, Jeffrey Eastman, and John Kammerle.

“The Event” plays at Artists Repertory Theatre Oct. 13-Nov. 10.

Also opening through mid-October

— The Greenbrier Ghost haunts the Siren Theater on Portland’s North Mississippi Avenue  Oct. 3 – 13 in a production by The Broken Planetarium. See Bobby Bermea’s ArtsWatch story about the show’s background and rehearsal process here.

 — Arsonist at Fuse Theatre,  Oct. 10 – Nov. 3. A father-daughter arson team burns more than buildings: Their relationship is also in ashes. Arsonist explores grief, redemption, and the bond between parent and child. “Jacqueline Goldfinger’s play is a dark and brooding ghost story that also manages to be extremely heartwarming and poetic,” says Artistic Director Rusty Tennant.

The final show of Fuse’s 2024 season, Arsonist stars Rae Davis and Peter Schuyler and is directed by Sophina Flores. If it’s even half as good as Fuse’s The Play About My Father, which was on stage last spring, then this is one to see.

— Mikki Gillette’s No More Candy. As Bob Hicks wrote in ArtsWatch last May, “Mikki Gillette is a playwright on the rise, in and out of the queer theater world.” On the heels of Fuse Theatre Ensemble’s staging of her Blond on a Bum Trip, Salt & Sage is presenting the world premiere of Gillette’s play No More Candy at 21ten Theatre Oct. 11-27.

The drama, which Gillette calls “a queer, feminist, punk rock love story,” features two college students, one trans and the other cis, who form a powerful bond that leads them to face past traumas and confront “the people and systems that have abused them.”

Gillette, an award-winning trans woman playwright, was named one of Portland’s 25 Most Influential Artists by Willamette Week in 2022. “Mikki is a bold playwright,” Salt & Sage’s artistic director Asae Dean told WW’s Ray Gill Jr. then. “If you work with Mikki, you know her as a mild-mannered and gentle person. If you know Mikki’s work, you know a wide range of characters who boil over with rage, are frozen with indecision, beset with anxiety, etc. She writes these richly observed ensemble pieces that refuse to romanticize anyone while holding a real tenderness and care for everyone.”

— Footloose: the Musical, at Pentacle Theatre in Salem, Oct. 11 – Nov. 2. Based on the movie, Footloose follows a kid from Chicago who teaches a small town about the healing power of dance. The musical includes new songs, plus the hits from the Oscar-nominated score.

— Blue Marigold, at NW Children’s Theater, Oct. 12 – 27. Sammy Flores seems like an average teen navigating a new home, a new school, and a mom who doesn’t seem to understand her. Everything changes, though, when she discovers her secret superpower from the Land of the Dead. A mystery/action thriller/high school drama mash-up, Blue Marigold is part of the TYA BIPOC Superhero Project. See it at NWCT’s new home, The Judy Kafoury Center for Youth Arts (aka “the Judy”). Best for ages 10 and up.

And opening later this month …

— Broadway in Portland gets Wicked, Oct 16 – Nov 3. Wicked is a tale of two witches that’s been on Broadway since 2003. The touring production is recommended for ages 8 and up, with no children under 5 admitted. Onstage at Keller Auditorium as part of the Broadway in Portland series.

— Canciónes de la Familia commemorates the dead, Oct. 17 – Nov. 10. Continuing an annual tradition, El Centro Milagro commemorates the dead this year with a production of  Canciónes de la Familia, directed by Clarrissa Rodriguez. The play, which Milagro calls an “ensemble devised piece,” is a celebration of chosen families as well as a journey of self-acceptance with music. Performed in English with some Spanish.

— Sweeney Todd at Twilight Theater,  Oct 18 – Nov 10. The inventive Twilight Theater Company, which last season took on Brecht’s tale of fascism, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, as well as Christmas in Christmasville, a hilarious Hallmark parody, is bound to give the musical a new twist. Directed by Tony Bump.

— Is You Is, a collaboration of Bag & Baggage and Broadway Rose, Oct 19 – 27. A concert production of the new musical by L.C. Bernadine and Erik Olsen, Is You Is explores the false ideas about “racial types” promoted by the “Races of Mankind” exhibit at Chicago’s Field Museum. Directed by Nik Whitcomb, who also performs in the play, which will be on the Broadway Rose New Stage in Tigard.

— UBU America, a staged reading series at Shaking the Tree Theatre, Oct. 24 – Nov. 2. With six shows in two weeks, UBU America is bound to engage the imagination and stir conversation. On the bill is UBU REX by Alfred Jarry, directed by Shaking the Tree’s artistic director Samantha Van Der Merwe; Evocation to Visible Appearance by Mark Shultz, directed by Rebby Yuer Foster; POTUS by Selina Fillinger, directed by Kayla Hanson; The Crucible by Arthur Miller; directed by Van Der Merwe; Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery, directed by Yuer Foster; and UBU ROAR by Brenda Withers, directed by Bobby Bermea.

— Infinite Life, at Third Rail, Oct. 25 – Nov. 10. Annie Baker’s play Infinite Life takes place in a Northern California fasting clinic that promises to cure five women of everything from infections to cancer. Directed by Rebecca Lingafelter, who helmed last spring’s wonderfully unhinged A Seagull for PETE. Performance are at CoHo Theatre.

— Sweeney Todd, at The Greenhouse Cabaret in Bend, Oct 25-Nov 23. Why not sample all the Sweeneys? Nicknamed “Teeny Sweeney,” this version by The Greenhouse Cabaret in Bend includes a cast of 11 actors.

Continuing shows

— Always … Patsy Cline, Broadway Rose’s fourth production of the popular musical play about the friendship between the country singer and her biggest fan runs through October 13. It’s sold out, but you can call 503-620-5252 to ask about cancellations.

— Murdered to Death, an Agatha Christie spoof that takes place in a manor house, will continue at Magenta Theater in downtown Vancouver, Wash., through October 13.

— R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), which Bob Hicks featured in DramaWatch last month, is Karel Čapek’s science fiction play onstage at Lakewood Theatre through October 20.