08/15/03

"Stomp!": If you're feeling a bit down in the dumps, there are all sorts of ways to perk yourself up. Have Chad, your perky Starbucks barista, make you a double-strength latte. Get your tired carcass off the sofa and ride that bicycle a bit.

Or take in a performance of "Stomp!"

It's been more than five years since the street-smart theatrical sensation last played Portland. While many touring shows begin to look weary after years on the road (Hey, "Phantom," we're talking to you!), this energetic, plotless mix of dance and percussion is anything but long in the tooth. This edition's troupe of six men and two women, who opened a weeklong run Tuesday night at Keller Auditorium, have so much verve that it's hard not to be swept up by the 90-minute show.

And it's the sweeping that grabs you at the start. The dancers take the stage with push brooms, using the sound of the bristles and rapid-fire thwacks of the wooden broom heads to spin complex rhythmic patterns. From there, the company members make music out of just about anything they can get their hands on: bits of rubber tubing, water cooler bottles, broomsticks, oil drums, paint scrapers, hubcaps, cigarette lighters, newspapers, plastic bags and trash-can lids. Interspersed with all the rattle and hum, there's a spirited game of copycat clapping between the dancers and audience, giving the show much good nature to go with its athleticism.

"Stomp!" was created by English percussionists Luke Creswell and Steve McNicholas back in 1991. But with this group of dancers, the material remains fresh and invigorating.

Just the stuff to get you out of that August funk.

Final performances 7:30 p.m. Friday, 5 and 9 p.m. Saturday, 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday; Keller Auditorium, 222 S.W. Clay St.; $10-$48; 503-241-1802. -- Grant Butler

"Born Yesterday": A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Or to quote the grumblings of unethical junkman Harry Brock, "All this trouble on account of a dame reads a book." In this classic comedy set in 1946 Washington, D.C., Brock's doxy, ex-chorus girl Billie Dawn, stirs up trouble when she exposes Brock for what he is -- a crook in cahoots with government bigwigs.

In its seventh annual American Classics theater festival, the Mt. Hood Repertory Theatre Company brings us a delightfully noisy, funny production of the Garson Kanin favorite (George Cukor directed the 1950 film version with Judy Holliday). Sure, the play's dated, but the makeover theme of "My Fair Lady" or "Educating Rita" is never dull, particularly when Billie is played by someone as sharp and sexy as Jacque Drew . Randy Patterson is big, bustling Brock, always on the verge of exploding, and Peter Baker is good as Billie's educator and new boyfriend, investigative reporter Paul Verrall.

As in the old '40s films, the funniest parts are the cameo roles, and director Tobias Andersen has collected some great character actors such as Jerry Lesch and Judy Sloane to play the corrupt Senator Hedges and his wife, Doug Richardson as Brock's helpless right-hand man Eddie, and George Fosgate as Brock's resigned, once-brilliant alcoholic lawyer. The striking period set is by Robert Tollefson. The show plays in the mainstage in repertory with "Talley's Folly" and "Sunday Night by the Philco."

Continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, through Aug. 31. Mt. Hood Community College, 26000 S.E. Stark St., Gresham. $17 adults, $14 students and seniors. 503-491-5950 or www.mthoodrep.org -- Holly Johnson Special to The Oregonian