Odds are, you didn't get tickets to Book of Mormon—opera donors swooped up a ton of tickets in presale, and as soon as tickets went on sale to the general public they sold out more or less instantly.

You'll be able to pay too much for tickets on Craigslist, of course, but there's another option: For every show, Broadway Across America releases a handful of $25 tickets, distributed by lottery. Here's the details:

Entries will be accepted at Keller Auditorium (SW 3rd & Clay) box office beginning two and a half hours prior to each performance; each person will print their name and the number of tickets (1 or 2) they wish to purchase on a card that is provided. Two hours before curtain, names will be drawn at random for a limited number of tickets priced at $25 each. Only one entry is allowed per person. Cards are checked for duplication prior to drawing. Winners must be present at the time of the drawing and show valid ID to purchase tickets. Limit one entry per person and two tickets per winner. Tickets are subject to availability.

That sounds much more civilized than when my best friend and I camped out at the "Civic" for Rent tickets in high school... twice :/

Book of Mormon is playing at the Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay, Tues Jan 1-Fri Jan 4, 7:30 pm, Sat Jan 5, 2 & 7 pm, Sun Jan 6, 1 & 6:30 pm, $25, cash only

Artists Repertory Theatre named their new Artistic Director yesterday: Dámaso Rodriguez, currently co-artistic director of LA's Furious Theatre Company, will take the reins in January. The leadership transition will take six months; Rodriguez and departing AD Allen Nause will work together to select the 2013/2014 season. Rodriquez is quite young—38—and he's racked up some serious accolades already, including the "Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, the Back Stage Garland Award, the NAACP Theatre Award, and the Pasadena Arts Council’s Gold Crown Award," per his website. His first show for Artists Rep will be Ten Chimneys in April.

Here he is on Twitter.

In the absence of further information, I'm pretending they hired Darren Nichols from Slings and Arrows.

I am Alison Hallett... DEAL WITH THAT.

Spank! The 50 Shades Parody is a "comedy-filled musical satire that captures all of the naughty fun of the book," and it opens in February at the Aladdin. [1,000 screaming emoticons]

Local actor Wade McCollum (you've seen him in Angels in America, Batboy: The Musical, and as the original Crumpet the Elf in PCS' Santaland Diaries) just landed the lead in a new touring production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, kicking off in January. (I lost my virginity to that movie, which explains... NOTHING. IT EXPLAINS NOTHING.) Doesn't look like the full tour has been announced, so no word yet if it'll be hitting Portland.

In musical theater news people actually care about, Book of Mormon is still sold out.

via GeekPortland and Artslandia.

I'm not hugely enthusiastic about Susannah Mars' annual holiday show Mars on Life—at least I wasn't in 2006, and I haven't seen it again since—but it's a popular show, and it's bad news that CoHo Productions had to cancel their run because, as they bluntly explained in a press release, they can't afford to fund it. The release cites "current economic instabilities" and "ongoing company reorganization," including a return to an exclusively volunteer-run model; the theater will sit dark until January.

Hopefully the "reorganization" pays off, because Portland's theater scene would be markedly worse off without the CoHo. CoHo Productions is unique among local theater organizations in that all of their shows are co-productions: Companies or individuals bring their projects to the CoHo's board and artistic council, which curates a season, provides a space, and helps produce and promote each show. It's a cool model that typical results in a great variety of shows during the course of a season, and frequently attracts high-level talent looking to do work they're genuinely passionate about. (Examples abound, but off the top of my head: Husband and wife actors Chris Harder and Val Landrum starred together in Sam Shepard's Fool for Love a few years ago; PCS' associate artistic director Rose Riordan opened The Receptionist at the Coho before bringing it to Center Stage; and in 2008, Shelly Lipkin directed a production of The Uneasy Chair that remains one of my favorite Portland shows.)

Back to Mars on Life: Seems like a gracious parting of ways on both sides, at least publicly, with Mars writing on her website:

In late October, Coho Productions notified me that the formerly agreed upon Mars On Life; Holiday Survival Guide was no longer viable due to the company's financial constraints. We will miss the show dearly, and appreciate, so, you wonderful supporters who have attempted to purchase tickets and have contacted me about the difficulty in doing so. Wonderful holidays to all, and we hope to see you next year!

UPDATE from Wm. Steven Humphrey, Mercury Editor-in-Chief, moved up from this morning: As usual Alison is being self-deprecating in her post below—but when she wrote this entry, she didn't know the entire backstory. Here's the real dirt: PCS artistic director Chris Coleman and the PCS board got buttsore about a couple of reviews (probably either this one or this one, or both). In return, about a month ago, they delivered a not-so-thinly-veiled threat to our advertising department, saying they were "thinking" of pulling their ads because the Mercury didn't cover their shows "enough" and when we did, we were "dismissive." Going back over the last year or so—and I invite you to do the same—I found that the Mercury reviewed 80 percent of their shows, and of those reviews they were just about half-positive, half-negative. They were informed of our viewpoint, considered it, and after figuring out we weren't going to be bullied... YANK! No more press invitations or ads for the Mercury.

Don't worry! The loss of PCS ads won't drive the Mercury into bankruptcy. We just think it's sad and lame, because it's obvious what PCS really wanted. They wanted preferential treatment. They wanted 100 percent positive reviews and coverage, because as the biggest theater in town, they think they're entitled to it—never mind the other 50-75 theaters in town who are also doing interesting, exciting work on a much smaller budget, and with less name recognition. (In fairness, this viewpoint is NOT shared by many of the fine actors, directors, marketing people, and technicians who work at PCS—from what I understand this came straight from Coleman and the PCS board.)

Soooo... congrats, other smaller theaters! A nice plump hole just opened up for you in the arts section of the Mercury. And as for our readers, you can continue to expect and read the tough, fair, trustworthy reviews that have made our Alison Hallett the most respected theater critic in town.

ORIGINAL POST BY ALISON HALLETT:

I just received an email informing me that the Mercury is no longer invited to review shows at Portland Center Stage. Or, technically, that I will no longer be offered press tickets to their shows, but if I want to purchase tickets to write about a production, I'm welcome to do so.

I can't say I'm hugely surprised by this—I'm often very critical of PCS' shows and of artistic director Chris Coleman, and it has long seemed a strange aspect of my job that I'm basically invited into peoples' homes in order to criticize the decor. Theater reviews potentially benefit companies in two ways: Publicity and promotional materials. PCS is presumably confident enough in their publicity apparatus at this point that they no longer feel they need the boost that coverage and listings in the Mercury provides, and there are enough websites these days that'll write glowing reviews in exchange for free tickets that sifting through my reviews to find the one sentence they can put on a flyer probably just doesn't make sense. The era of newspaper critics leveraging influence for access is over—companies no longer need to rely on a cranky critic to mediate their relationship with the public. At this point we're just very opinionated vestigial limbs.

It's a bummer, though. I've been seeing shows at PCS for a long time—I saw their Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead when l was 16, and it's pretty much why I became interested in theater in the first place. And for once in my life I was actually looking forward to a holiday show, as one of my favorite actors in town, Darius Pierce, is taking over in Santaland Diaries this year. But unless PCS changes their stance on "any press is good press," the two of you who actually read our theater coverage won't be seeing any coverage of Portland's biggest company any time soon.

Canadian paper The Globe and Mail has an article about recent collaborations between musicians and theater artists, titled "Can indie rock save musical theatre?" The headline seems to suggest that musical theater is in need of saving—is it?—but the article itself makes the more balanced case that musicians and theater artists have much to learn from and offer one another, both financially and from a performance standpoint. The piece offers a handful of high-profile examples of these sorts of collaborations, including the New Pornographers' Dan Bejar's adaptation of a Sheila Heti novel. The article got me thinking about similar collaborations in Portland, of which there really haven't been that many. The only things that come to mind immediately are Oregon Children's Theatre's recent musical The Storm in the Barn, which had great music by Black Prairie; and Storm Large's one-woman show at Portland Center Stage, which came out of Large's experience fronting a bar band. In a somewhat similar vein, Action/Adventure's so-far sold out run of Fall of the Band invites a different musical guest to perform each weekend, though that's less a collaboration than a guest appearance. (I feel like I'm forgetting something.)

I have long been slightly desperate to see more collaborations between Portland's theater community and other parts of the arts community. Things do come up now and then—the Portland Opera has forged bonds with the comics scene, which is odd but great; comics artist Joelle Jones recently drew the backgrounds for The Lost Boys - Live!; the Oregon Ballet's spring program earlier this year featured costumes by local designer Adam Arnold, and OBT has also branched out to pair dancers with local musicians like Weinland and Laura Gibson. But while Portland's got plenty going on both musically and theater-wise, it's rare that it happens on the same stage.

There's a lot to see on Portland stages this weekend. You can check out our arts calendar for the full lineup, but there are some highlights:

Since you most likely failed to get Book of Mormon tickets (those were pre-sold like crazy, and once tickets were available to the general public they sold out almost immediately), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is your next bet for a fun, irreverent musical. It's an "emo rock musical" about the founding of the democratic party, which casts Andrew Jackson as a tight-pansted rock star prone to statements like "I'm gonna fucking shit all over you guys with my brand of maverick, egalitarian democracy!." It's a very funny show with some catchy songs, though Portland Playhouse's production doesn't fully trust the audience to catch what is clearly pointed satire, and the balance of humor and historical hand-wringing feels off. (To anyone who's seen it: Was that too-earnest acoustic guitar song at the end in the original musical? THAT was unearned.)

There are only a couple weekends left to catch Lost Boys: Live!, starring my boss Wm. Steven Humphrey along with the crew who brought you Roadhouse: The Play. I haven't seen it yet, because I am a terrible employee, but everything I've heard has been very positive, including our review.

You might remember Fall of the House from a few years back—it was a popular, long-running serialized show about a handful of Portlanders who shared a house. (HIPSTER SOAP OPERA. There, I said it.) Fall of the Band is the same idea, but about a band! The company—Action/Adventure, with whom I have considerable conflicts-of-interest, BTW—has enlisted a handful of local musicians to contribute to the music-heavy show, including Ryan Sollee of the Builders and the Butchers. We previewed it here.

The Miracle Theatre's annual Day of the Dead show has some strong performances. After getting a bit of space from Raiz, I realized that my response to it was definitely colored by the fact that "theater-as-ritual" really isn't my bag; if it's yours, you'll like this.

CoHo's got a great little show called Body Awareness, which is about feminism, love, Asperger's, objectification... but funny!

In the "shows we haven't seen" category Body of an American is still running at Portland Center Stage ; Artists Rep is running August Wilson's Seven Guitars; Vertigo's got Tony Kushner's adaptation of Mother Courage; Oregon Children's Theater is diving into politics with Duck for President... and there's more listings right over here.

Tomorrow night at Disjecta, Wordstock and the IPRC are holding the annual Text Ball, a night of readings, music, and mingling. Attendees are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite font. Entry is $15 at the door, $12 in advance. More from the organizers:

This year's theme is “The Graphic Details" and the evening will be hosted by Portland Man About Town, AC DICKSON! Back Fence PDX producer/host B. FRAYN MASTERS will host a mini show of live, unscripted storytelling by

* Graphic novelist NICOLE GEORGES
* Local luminary and illustrator CARSON ELLIS
* The always-hilarious MATT BORS

Rounding out the evening will be a slide show by ARTHUR BRADFORD, a brand new animated short by MATT BORS, and JULIA KOBOS will heat things up with a quick and dirty hip hop number followed by a set from DJ Rescue (ZIA McCABE from the Dandy Warhols).

We'll have dessert, word games, dirty limericks, and a silent auction, rounding the evening off with a costume parade of all our graphic glory.

Disjecta is at 8371 N Interstate Ave. Doors open at 7 p.m. The Text Ball is Saturday which is tomorrow night. All proceeds benefit the IPRC.

• The Lost Boys- Live! is not one of the most-produced plays in the US. YET.

The Theater Communications Group just released a list of the most-produced plays in the country for the 2012/2013 season, based on information provided by its members. At a glance, Portland's seeing three of the ten this year, plus there are a couple that ran in town last season. (Red, Next to Normal.) Obvious choices, or a finger on the pulse of contemporary theater? Let's go with a little bit of both.

Portland Center Stage is presenting both Matthew Lopez's The Whipping Man, a play about two recently freed slaves who share a Passover meal with their old master just after the Civil War; and Bruce Norris' Pulitzer Prize-winning Clybourne Park, a show about race in America that's set in the same Chicago house as Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun. (The classic Raisin also made the list, for the first time since TCG has been keeping records—based on a cursory Googling, the two shows are running in repertory at least at Milwaukie Rep and PlayMaker's Rep in North Carolina.)

Portland Playhouse picked up Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, a musical about the founding of the Democratic Party that I'm quite looking forward to, especially since I was in the critical minority in finding Portland Center Stage's Sweeney Todd self-serious and boring. Andrew Jackson opens at Portland Playhouse next weekend.

One show that's not on the list, because only two theaters in the country are producing it—because it hasn't yet been vetted by the New York Times and the Pulitzer committee—is Hopey Changey Thing, which opens this weekend at Third Rail. It's the first in a four-show cycle about how four years of American politics affect one family. Third Rail will perform a play a year for the next four years, with the same cast—it's an ambitious project, and the kind of risk I'm always excited to see local companies take.

And for those of you who refuse to see a play unless there's a vampire on roller skates in it, The Lost Boys- Live! opens this weekend, from the same folks who brought you Road House: The Play.

Here's TCG's full list of most-produced plays in the 2012/13 season:

Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire (17); Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris (15); The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez (14); Next to Normal, by Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt (13); The Mountaintop by Katori Hall (12); Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies (10); Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz, (10); The Motherfucker with the Hat by Stephen Adly Guirgis (9); A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (8); Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson by Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman, (8)

After an hour and a half sweating in the sun at Cathedral Park yesterday, the beginning of Trek in the Park's fourth episode coincided almost perfectly with the sun dipping behind the St. Johns Bridge, providing welcome shade for most of the crowd. For the second year in a row, Mayor Sam Adams was on hand with a mayoral decree, this time dubbing August 19 "Trek in the Park Day." (Does he just think it's funny to make these proclamations? I think he might.) And of course, our social media-happy mayor commemorated the occasion with a foursquare check-in and photo:

• SAM ADAMS

The show itself was fun, as always, and I think the move to a bigger venue (from Woodlawn Park) improved the experience for a lot of people. (Fair warning, though, if you opt for the shade at the way back of the bowl, you're not gonna be able to hear.) The show runs one more weekend at Cathedral Park: Saturday and Sunday at 5 pm. If you're thinking of going, read Bobby's Unofficial Tips 'n' Tricks Players Guide.

Portland Center Stage's annual JAW: A Playwrights Festival—in which scripts selected from hundreds of submissions are subjected two weeks of intensive workshopping, then presented, for free, in a weekend of staged readings—is one of my most-anticipated cultural events every summer. (Also on that short list: Pickathon and Trek in the Park, both happening next weekend.)

JAW kicks off tonight with a show called "Made in Oregon," eight short plays from Oregon playwrights, and continues through Sunday. I wrote an article in this week's paper breaking down the scripts and playwrights featured this weekend, but here are the shows I'm most interested in:

San Diego by Adam Bock—Bock wrote The Receptionist, one of my favorite Portland productions over the years for its neat balance of humor, office-life observations, and an unexpected banality-of-evil conclusion that took aim at post-9/11 info-gathering techniques. I'm really curious to see what his new show looks like.

Broken Stones by Fin Kennedy—A show about the looting of the Baghdad Museum during the Iraq War, and the illicit antiquities trade in general. UK playwright Finn Kennedy wrote How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, a really smart, interesting show that ran at PCS a few years ago.

The People's Republic of Portland by Lauren Weedman—Okay... my interest in this one-woman show is driven more by morbid curiosity than anything else. Already part of PCS's 2012/2013 season, I'm just not sure what else there is to say about how ridiculous Portland is.

Here's the full schedule of weekend events.

I don't know how I slept on the short-lived Canadian TV show Slings and Arrows; I'm a theater critic, for God's sake. But I don't think you have to know or care anything for live theater in order to appreciate Slings and Arrows, which neatly balances mockery of the silly aspects of the theater world with an illustration of what live theater is like when it's actually good. (A useful comparison: It's to the theater world what Friday Night Lights is to football, meaning you don't have to care at all about the show's ostensible subject matter in order to love it. Another useful comparison: Like The Larry Sanders Show, it simultaneously skewers the goofiness of the showbiz world and provides an insightful window into how it operates. Yes, those are two of the best TV shows of all time. Yes, Slings and Arrows is that great.)

The show was co-created by former Kid in the Hall Mark McMinney, and ran from 2003-2006. It's set at a large Canadian Shakespeare festival, and each season focuses on the production of one play: Hamlet in the first season, Macbeth in season two, and King Lear in season three. Part of the fun of the show, if you're into that sort of thing, is tracking how Shakespearean motifs are integrated into each episode; other parts of the fun include attractive people trying to nail each other (pre-fame Rachel McAdams is sooo cute), cranky old gay couples being adorable, artsy theater types butting heads with their bottom-line oriented corporate sponsors, and theater people struggling to contain their enormous egos long enough to get some actual work done.

I started season 2 last night and I'm told it just keeps getting better—which is hard to believe, because season 1 is brilliant. (With the exception of the pilot, which is a bit rocky, tone-wise.) It's on your Netflix Instant. Go watch it. Do it.

Over the weekend, I caught two Third Rail-sponsored screenings of National Theatre Live, the program out of London's National Theatre that records theater performances and then rebroadcasts them around the world. A pre-recorded version of a live show sounds hokey (and expensive, at $20 a ticket), until you consider the level of talent the National Theatre attracts: On Saturday afternoon I saw Frankenstein, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock!) and Johnny Lee Miller; on Sunday, the Tony-winning comedy One Man, Two Guvnors, starring James Cordon (Doctor Who!).

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The Portland theater community's annual awards show was on Monday at the Crystal Ballroom; I'll post the full list of winners after the jump, but here are a few quick thoughts.

I didn't particularly care for Artists Rep's production of Next to Normal, but I thought high schooler Meghan McCandless was terrific in her role as the stressed out daughter of a woman with bipolar disorder—glad to see she picked up Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for it.

I didn't see Andy Lee-Hillstrom in The Centering, for which he won Best Solo Performance, but he definitely should've gotten a Supporting Actor nod for his turn in Caryl Churchill's Cloud 9 at Vertigo.

One of the most memorable performances of the year, for me, was Andrew Bray in Red Light Winter; disappointed he didn't get a nod.

I think the Miracle Theatre is great; I didn't think Oedipus El Ray was a great show, and am slightly surprised that it won best production. (I actually preferred Boleros for the Disenchanted, earlier in the season.)

Some of the best performances I saw last year were from the supporting cast in Angels in America: Gretchen Corbett, Lorraine Bahr, and Ebbe Roe Smith. One of them should have won SOMETHING.

I didn't fully love the writing in Camille Cettina's book-based Mr. Darcy Dreamboat, but her performance was strong and probably deserved a solo-performance prize.

Winners after the jump!

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