STAGE

Act a Lady

In a small Midwestern town, the local Elks put on a French melodrama—in drag—for the entertainment of the local children. It's all in good fun, but the three actors get maybe a little too involved in their characters, and on opening night things start to get a bit odd. While the show isn't particularly effective in helping us to reach a new understanding of gender roles, it does succeed in praising the joys of theater, both as an escape from our dreary everyday lives and as a transcendent art form that can win the heart of even the most stolid puritan. BEN WATERHOUSE. Studio Stage, Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 7:30 pm Tuesdays-Fridays, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturdays-Sundays, noon Thursdays. Closes March 11. $16.50-$41.50.

Annie

[SHORT RUN] This year's touring production of the musical morality play for optimists stops in Portland, thanks to Fred Meyer Broadway Across America Portland (seriously!). Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 241-1802. 7:30 pm Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday, 1 and 6:30 pm Sunday. Closes Feb. 25. $23-$68.

Bark!

Eager actors aren't enough to stop the conceit of dogs singing about the joys of "whizzin' on stuff" and rapping about the superiority of mutts from getting old 10 minutes into this plotless show. BEN WATERHOUSE. Triangle Productions at Artists Repertory Theatre Second Stage, 1516 SW Morrison St., 239-5919. 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes March 10. $22-$30.

Chateau Joyeux

[CLOSES SATURDAY] A laid-back comedy of manners about three estranged relatives looking for reconciliation at the family chateau in postwar France. BEN WATERHOUSE. CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 220-2646. 8 pm Thurday-Saturday. Closes Feb. 24. $20-$23.

Goa

[NEW REVIEW] Portland playwright Renee Chinquapin crams a lot of issues into her short play about four young travelers sharing a hostel in Goa, India. Two couples from four different nations square off on issues like war, rape, love, sex and incest, to name a few. Surprisingly, they nearly pull it off—what the characters have to say is fresh, contemporary and lyrical. But one has to wonder whether a group of rave-loving hippies is the ultimate vehicle for such powerful messages. Sluggish, hard-to-believe drug and sex scenes only slow things down. Nonetheless, Goa is an intense little play enlivened by a capable cast of young actors and the lingering feeling of disconcert you take home at its conclusion. STACY RIGER. Tabuki Theatre at the Back Door Theatre, 4321 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 284-6392. 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays. Closes March 3. $10.

Grease

[OPENS FRIDAY] Kirk Mouser directs the ultimate in baby-boomer indulgence: the favorite musical of the cult of adolescence, performed by a cast—including The Oregonian's Margie Boulé—old enough to be Sandy and the gang's parents. Stumptown Stages at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N Interstate Ave., 381-8686. 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Opens Feb. 23. $18-$25.

Henry the Fifth

[NEW REVIEW] The young king of England, played with remarkable vigor by the aptly leonine Leif Norby, goes wife-hunting in France with an army at his back and kills anything that moves. Grant Turner's shoestring, black-turtleneck production is refreshingly free of Bardolatry, and the mostly amateur cast does a fine job wrestling with one of Shakespeare's more ungainly plots. A few less-than-stellar performances bog down incidental scenes, and ringside seats in the tiny Shoe Box Theater are uncomfortably close to the sword-swinging action, but the king is the thing here, and he is magnificent—fighting and flirting with equal zeal. Wacky William may not have known whether the story was a gut-buster or a tear-jerker, but, hey, that's why we call it history. BEN WATERHOUSE. Northwest Classical Theatre Company at the Shoe Box Theater, 2110 SE 10th Ave., 262-5503. 7 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes March 11. $12-$18.

Hot 'N' Throbbing

[CLOSES SUNDAY] Paula Vogel's riff on sex and violence is like plain spaghetti: It has potential, but without the right sauce and seasoning the whole dish is just bland and disappointing. PAIGE RICHMOND. Arts Equity at the Main Street Theatre, 606 Main St., 360-695-3770. 7:30 pm Thursday-Friday, 2 pm Feb. 25. Closes Feb. 25. $8-$24.

Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business

[CLOSES SUNDAY] The world's funniest kindergartner decides her baby brother is a monkey, and puts on a musical to celebrate. Northwest Children's Theater, 1819 NW Everett St., 222-4480. 7 pm Friday, 2 and 7 pm Saturday, 2 pm Sunday. Closes Feb. 25. $16-$20.

Menopause the Musical

[OPEN-ENDED RUN] A silly, hackneyed, trite and perplexingly popular musical revue about hot flashes, weight gain and dildos. Winningstad Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 224-4400. 7:30 pm Wednesdays-Fridays, 2 and 5:30 pm Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Selling six weeks out. $33+ (Ticketmaster).

Private Lives

[OPENS FRIDAY] Noel Coward's well-loved comedy of manners, updated and performed with a rotating cast of six actors. Integrity Productions at Theater! Theatre!, 3430 SE Belmont St., 286-3456. 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 4 pm Sundays. Opens Feb. 22. $15. Thursdays are "pay what you will."

Romeo & Juliet

[CLOSES SUNDAY] A modern-dress, rock-'n'-roll production of the teen suicide classic. Blue Monkey Theater Company at the West End Theater, 1220 SW Taylor St., 777-4506. 7 pm Friday, 2 and 7 pm Saturday, 2 pm Sunday. Closes Feb. 25. $20, $10 students.

Sonia Flew

[CLOSES FRIDAY] With pleasing symmetry, playwright Melinda Lopez compares the difficulties of life in Cuba during the '60s with life in America post-9/11, exposing the emotional turbulence that both experiences provoke in one woman. STACY RIGER. Miracle MainStage at Milagro Theatre, 525 SE Stark St., 236-7253. 7:30 pm Thursday, 8 pm Friday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday. Closes Feb. 24. $12-$20.

The Sweetest Swing in Baseball

[NEW REVIEW] Actress Lauren Blair returns to Portland Actors Conservatory as a guest artist, beefing up a somewhat flimsy script about an artist named Dana who tries to kill herself after an unsuccessful gallery opening. Blair plays the role with humor and chutzpah, forcing you to actually care, while actors James Oscar and Lior Zadok provide support with detailed performances as fellow patients at a mental hospital. There the three form an unlikely trio (or quartet, if you count the persona of Darryl Strawberry, whom Dana invokes in hopes of lengthening her stay). STACY RIGER. Portland Actors Conservatory at the Firehouse Theatre, 1436 SW Montgomery St., 274-1717. 7 pm Wednesdays-Thursdays, 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays. Closes March 5. $5-$25.

The Thugs

Portland Center Stage's first-ever late-night show is a tightly wound riff on the misery of low-level office work—in this instance a room of temps at a law firm—and the ominous potential that large office buildings have gained since 9/11: The job's bad enough, but what do you do when people start disappearing? BEN WATERHOUSE. Portland Center Stage at the Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 10:30 pm Fridays-Saturdays. Closes March 10. $21.50.

Vanya

[EXTENDED RUN] Canadian playwright Tom Wood's adaptation sets Chekhov's story of love, arrogance and desperation in 1920s Alberta, where the lives of depressed farmer Vanya (Allen Nause) and his niece (Valerie Stevens) have been overturned by the arrival of Sonya's aging father and his languid, twentysomething second wife (Krista Vendy). Vanya falls head over heels for her, as does an overworked local doctor (William Hurt). Oscar winner Hurt lives up to his reputation and the rest of the cast give fine performances, but Vendy—a talentless Australian soap star trying to make it in the States—is so irksome that it's difficult to imagine that even the randiest old bachelor could find any charm in her. Her performance is so bad that her presence onstage drives the show dangerously close to farce. BEN WATERHOUSE. Artists Repertory Theatre Main Stage, 1516 SW Alder St., 241-1278. 7 pm Wednesdays, 2 and 7 pm Thursdays, 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays, 2 and 7 pm Sundays. Closes March 4. $24-$64.

Who Stole My Dead Husband?

[EXTENDED RUN] Lou Pallotta's comedy about growing up Italian-American continues through March. Madison's East Wing, 1125 SE Madison St., 800-966-8865. 7:30 pm Fridays-Saturdays. Closes March 31. $57-$67, includes dinner.

COMEDY

The Liberators, Improv

Some of the best improvised comedy you'll catch in Portland, this group will make you laugh so hard your pee will be liberated. Comedy Sportz, 1963 NW Kearney St., 236-8888. 10:45 pm Friday, Feb. 24. $5.

CLASSICAL

Marian Inspirations

For her Portland Baroque Orchestra appearance, alongside Canadian countertenor Matthew White, Angela Niederloh sings Il Pianto di Maria, a dramatic sacred cantata so powerful that it was long attributed to Handel. Scholars have since handed it off to a younger, lesser known composer, Giovanni Battista Ferrandini, which doesn't make it a lesser piece—just a less famous one. Also up: the much-loved Vivaldi Stabat Mater and Violin Concerto, and Alessandro Scarlatti's Salve Regina. PBO artistic director Monica Huggett directs. First Baptist Church, 909 SW 11th Ave., 222-6000. 8 pm Friday-Saturday, Feb. 23-24. Kaul Auditorium at Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. 3 pm Sunday, Feb. 25. $15-$39.

From the Far East

Chen Yi, among the fast-increasing number of classical composers toeing the East-meets-West line, produces music that stands out for its vibrancy and color, superb orchestration and striking originality; she speaks a hybrid musical language entirely her own. Yi's composer husband, Zhou Long, also enjoys a strong reputation, and choral works from both composers are featured on Choral Arts Ensemble's ambitious program of music from or inspired by Eastern cultures. First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th Ave., 488-3834. 7:30 pm Saturday, Feb. 24. 3 pm Sunday, Feb. 25. $5-$15.

Brasilia

Among the fast-increasing number of pop groups following the jazz-meets-Latin-music trend, Brasilia stands out for its trite arrangements, strident vocals and flat-line interpretations. Oregon Symphony, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 228-1353. 7:30 pm Saturday and Monday, Feb. 24 and 26, 3 pm Sunday, Feb. 25. $29-$80.

John Mery

The Chilean classical guitarist, a Portland resident since 1999, offers a varietal program of new and old works. Portland Classic Guitar, 11923 SE McLoughlin Blvd., Milwaukie, 652-1418. 8 pm Saturday, Feb. 24. $20.

Music from China

The highly acclaimed NYC-based ensemble sweeps into town for a night of traditional and new music from China, on extraordinary indigenous instruments from that country: the erhu, pipa and sheng among them. Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Ave., 226-0973. 7 pm Monday, Feb 26. $10-$15.

Hammers and Sticks: A Piano and Percussion Riot

If George Crumb's music is on the program, then masks, mallets, cooing and crying may be involved. Or, as in his haunting Music for a Summer Evening: Makrokosmos III, it's simply beautiful, otherworldly music. Fear No Music co-founder-pianist Jeff Payne and ensemble members Mika Sunago (piano) and Gordon Rencher (percussion) and guests perform works of Crumb, Tomas Svoboda and other new music mavens. Wieden & Kennedy Building, 224 NW 13th Ave., 227-3127. 3 pm Sunday, Feb. 25. $5-$15.

DANCE

Of Vice or Virtue...

If you didn't get enough seven deadly sins last week with the Oregon Symphony, Sonya Duffin's self-described "artistic jazz dance" Pure Dance Company is serving up sinners and saints in a night of new dances. Clackamas High School Theater, 14486 SE 122nd Ave., Clackamas, 704-8289. 7 pm Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 24-25. $10.