Oregon Ballet Theatre's Gavin Larsen and Artur Sultanov in Christopher Stowell's The Sleeping Beauty. IMAGE: Andy Batt

STAGE

As the Knife Turns

[CLOSES SATURDAY] A "murder mystery cocktail party" designed for those who can't afford $65-a-plate dinner theater. Would you like a switchblade in the back with that lemon drop? Ferris Wheel Productions at Blue Dragonfly, 1195 SE Powell Blvd., 234-2585. 6:30 pm Saturday. Closes June 9. $12-$15.

Bad Dates

[CLOSES SUNDAY] You've seen most of this one-woman show before: A single mom who runs a New York restaurant tries to get back into the dating game and—surprise!—has a series of miserable experiences. The story, jokes and fetishistic shoe fixation are the same off-the-shelf Hollywood stuff you'd find in any big-screen romantic comedy, which, considering that playwright Theresa Rebeck helped write Catwoman, isn't all that surprising. Fortunately for Portland, Carol Halstead tackles the role with gusto, turning what would otherwise be a tiresome 90 minutes of costume changes and man-hating into a pleasant enough evening filled with more laughs and joy than this script has any right to produce. BEN WATERHOUSE. Portland Center Stage at the Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. Noon Thursday, 7:30 pm Wednesday-Saturday, 2 pm Saturday and Sunday. Closes June 10. $16.50-$41.50.

28th Annual Drammy Awards

[SPECIAL EVENT] Andrés Alcalá MCs this year's awards for outstanding achievement in local theater. Interesting members of the public are encouraged to attend. Dress extravagantly. The Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., drammy.info. 6 pm Monday, June 11. Free.

Floyd Collins

[OPENS FRIDAY] Jon Kretzu directs Kirk Mouser and Susannah Mars in this OBIE-winning musical about a man stuck in a hole. Stumptown Stages at Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N Interstate Ave., 381-8686. 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Opens June 8. $22-$27.

Good

[OPENS SUNDAY] See preview, below. Sojourn Theatre at Wentworth Subaru Service and Parts, 130 SE 7th Ave., 971-544-0464. 8 pm Thursdays-Sundays. Opens June 10. $10-$15.

Grease

In this "30-year reunion" production, director Kirk Mouser focuses on the camp and corn in what could be a very moving and disturbing play, but that's OK—the band is great, the songs are well performed, and Amy Palomino's choreography is up to her usual high standard. But despite a few excellent performances and the killer material, the show isn't very much fun. The cast's energy drags painfully between songs, and the white hair and bald pates make it awfully difficult to suspend disbelief. The cast is obviously having a blast; if the same could be said of the spectators, this would be a great production. It isn't. BEN WATERHOUSE. Stumptown Stages at the World Trade Center Theatre, 121 SW Salmon St., 381-8686, stumptownstages.com. 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays. Closes June 30. $22-$27.

Oklahoma!

[CLOSES SUNDAY] Corn as high as an elephant's eye, etc. Dan Murphy directs. Lakewood Theatre Company at Lakewood Center for the Arts. 368 S State St., Lake Oswego, 635-3901. 8 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 and 7 pm Sunday. Closes June 10. $26-$28.

Orson's Shadow

A rueful blend of glamour, regret and self-deception, Austin Pendleton's play gets a passionate treatment from director Jon Kretzu's cast—perhaps more than the stage-door anecdote deserves. Celebrity critic Kenneth Tynan (Michael Mendelson) stammers and struts his way through innumerable cigarettes while attempting to forge a bond between old rivals Orson Welles (Todd Van Voris) and Laurence Olivier (David Carey Foster) over a stage production of Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros. All sorts of Kane is raised, the banter is as nonstop as Welles' postprandial snacking, and while the material occasionally threatens to slip into farce ("Larry" Olivier is ill-conceived as a stereotypical diva), the second act congeals agreeably around the mutual melancholy of Van Voris and Foster. But the production is stolen by Susan Maginn as Vivien Leigh. Maginn taps into Leigh's calculated mania with an ease that never feels calculated or manic. AARON MESH. Artists Repertory Theatre Main Stage, 1516 SW Alder St., 241-1278. 7 pm Tuesdays-Thursdays, 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays, 2 and 7 pm Sundays, 11 am June 9 and 16. Closes July 1. $15-$42.50.

Picasso at the Lapin Agile

[NEW REVIEW] It's difficult to imagine a play about a chance meeting between two of the 20th century's greatest (and most serious) minds could be so hilarious—until you remember it's crafted by a more contemporary genius named Steve Martin. And Dusty Richards clearly channels that "wild and crazy guy" as the young Picasso, drunkenly grappling with a sweet but insistent young Einstein (Joey Lebard) about the relative merits of science and art. And then there's that messenger from the future with the sequins and the blue suede shoes. Director Llewellyn J. Rhoe and Arts Equity make the trans-river trip north to Vancouver well worth your time and gas money. WILLIAM CRAWFORD. Arts Equity at the Main Street Theatre, 606 Main St., Vancouver, 360-695-3770. 8 pm Thursdays-Fridays, 2 pm June 10 and July 8. Closes July 8. $8-$24.

Small Tragedy

[OPENS FRIDAY] A bunch of amateurs put on a production of Oedipus. Chaos ensues. Portland Actors Conservatory at the Firehouse Theatre, 1436 SW Montgomery St., 274-1717. 7 pm Wednesdays-Thursdays, 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Opens June 8. $15-$25.

Uncommon Women and Others

An episodic retelling of one year in the lives of seven seniors and one freshman at Mount Holyoke College in the early '70s, Wendy Wasserstein's first professional play is a smart, entertaining show about the terrifying transition from academic life to reality. Director Julie Akers assembled a remarkably talented ensemble of local actresses for this production, including Val Landrum as Rita, a sex-obsessed and directionless would-be writer, and Laura Faye Smith as Leilah, a nervous, hardworking student who turns to anthropology as an escape from a culture she finds stifling. There's not a weak link to be found among the ensemble, who trade barbs and reminiscences on a refreshingly minimalist (and nicely lit) set. BEN WATERHOUSE. Profile Theatre Project at Theater! Theatre!, 3430 SE Belmont St., 242-0080. 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes June 17. $10-$28.

What I Heard About Iraq

[ONE NIGHT ONLY] Sean Levy's real-life drama about the present war returns for one more night. Readers Theatre Repertory at First Unitarian Church, 1211 SW Main St., 788-5366. 8 pm Friday, June 8. $5-$20.

Wonder of the World

[OPENS FRIDAY] Maniac playwright David Lindsay-Abaire (Fuddy Meers) crafts his usual weirdness, this time at Niagra Falls. Integrity Productions at Theater! Theatre!, 3430 SE Belmont St., 286-3456. 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 4 pm Sundays. Opens June 8. $12-$15. Thursdays are "pay what you will."

Comedy

Coolio's Homeland Security System, sketch comedy

Renob Control's latest sketch show includes dance, mime and puppets. Theater! Theatre!, 3430 SE Belmont St., 750-5363. 10:30 pm Fridays-Saturdays. Closes June 16. $7-$9.

Theatresports, improv

The Brody is back! Theatresports resumes for the first time since December. Brody Theater at the CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 224-0688. 10:30 pm Saturdays. Closes June 23. $8.

Classical

Old Church Sack Lunch Concert

Trios by J.S. and C.P.E. Bach and others are performed by Portland musicians Mary McCarty, flute; Dale Tolliver, cello; and Michael Barnes, piano, in this informal concert. The Old Church, 1422 SE 11th Ave., 222-2031. Noon Wednesday, June 6. Free (with donation).

Greater Love

For many years, Bruce Browne ruled the Portland choral scene as a revered teacher, pedagogue and conductor. Since his recent retirement from Portland State University in 2005-06, Browne's departure has left a hole in the heart of Portland's choral community, and a question mark looming above the choirs at PSU. Stephen Coker, who comes to PSU from positions at Cincinnati College's Conservatory of Music and Oklahoma City University, leads the PSU Chamber Choir in an ambitious and wide-ranging program including the music of John Ireland, Haydn, Rheinberger, Charles Ives, Ned Rorem and Jeffrey Van. St. Mary's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 1716 NW Davis St., 228-4397. 8 pm Wednesday, June 6. $6-$12, free for PSU students and staff.

An Evening with Nicholas Crosa and Evan Solomon

Violinist Nicholas Crosa and Juilliard-trained pianist Evan Solomon present a recital including sonatas by Mozart and Saint-Saëns and more popular works by Sarasate. Kaul Auditorium at Reed College, 3202 SE Woodstock Blvd., 224-4400. 7:30 pm Thursday, June 7. $10-$20.

All-Beethoven Concert

Portland Chamber Orchestra celebrates 60 years of music-making by teaming up with that granddaddy of Portland choral ensembles, the Portland Symphonic Choir, to perform those granddaddies of choral/orchestral repertoire: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Choral Fantasy, with first-rate features soloists like Angela Niederloh and Charles Robert Stevens. See box, page 66, for more details. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 771-3250. 7:30 pm Saturday, June 9. $16-$60.

Metropolitan Youth Symphony Season Finale

Watch out, China! Sure, some of the most prodigious young classical musicians are routinely trained overseas and shipped to the States, but Portland's got a boatload of talented youngsters to boast of, and our very own Metropolitan Youth Symphony is shipping more than 100 of its finest to the Far East this July for a spate of concerts in Beijing, Shanghai and more. Before they head out on their Eastern excursion, conductor Lajos Balogh leads the Symphony Orchestra in works of Sibelius and Eric Coates, as well as young cellist Max Kutler in the first movement of Elgar's Concerto for Cello in E. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 239-4566. 3 pm Sunday, June 10. $6-$32.

Dance

OBT Summer Program

Christopher Stowell's increasingly ambitious Oregon Ballet Theatre pulls no punches in this, their season-finale program. Stowell's new take on Act III of Tchaikovsky's gorgeous Sleeping Beauty, inspired in part by the original choreography of Marius Petipa, features some of OBT's finest principal dancers in solo and pas de deux turns and Yuri Possokhov's fairytale-illustration-inspired Firebird, an audience favorite from 2004, returns with the scorching asymmetric rhythms of Stravinsky's 1945 Firebird Suite. Two important notes: Paul DeStrooper dances a farewell Ivan in the June 10 Firebird as he leaves OBT to take the reins at Canada's Ballet Victoria; and, after a winter full of piped-in orchestrations, we gladly welcome back the full OBT orchestra under Niel DePonte to play both lush scores live. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay Ave., 222-5538. 7:30 Friday and Sunday, 2 pm Saturday-Sunday, June 8-10. $16-$105.

Peter Pan Ballet

Portland's own Classical Ballet Academy offers an all-student ballet reinterpretation of everyone's favorite flying fairy, the lovable Peter Pan. St. Mary's Academy, 1615 SE 5th Ave., 890-6101. 2 and 7 pm Saturday, June 9. $10.

Cascade Heights Children's Dance Ensemble

Rebecca Frost Mayer is a former Jefferson Dancers member who went on to study and perform in Boston before traipsing back home to Portland. She now teaches at Cascade Heights Public Charter School and, just last year, founded their dance program. Her new ensemble, comprised of second through sixth graders, makes an auspicious debut showing this weekend with "Footprints," joined by guest artists from the Agnieszka Laska Dancers in new works by Frost Mayer and her students. West End Theatre, 1220 SW Taylor St., 226-7743. 4 pm Saturday-Sunday, 7:30 pm Saturday, June 9-10. $5.

Glory Be

That maverick performance artist Molly Jaeger premieres a new solo show incorporating storytelling, Gershwin tunes, movement and dance that's out to "console the bitter and goad the smitten." Whatever that means. Performance Works NorthWest, 4625 SE 67th Ave., 971-212-2554. 8 pm Saturday-Sunday, June 9-10. $10.