- Heidi Blickenstaff, Runako Campbell and Morgan Dudley in the touring production of "Jagged Little Pill," which is headed to Portland this fall.Matthew Murphy

A murder. A funeral. A trial. A carnivorous alien plant, and a budding pro-wrestler. Give it up for the artistic directors of Portland area theater companies, who’ve truly gone to the mat to bring you a compelling roster of shows this fall. All main events, no undercards. In this battle royal for your attention and attendance, it’s a win-win in every corner of the ring.

“The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong” — Triangle Productions

Planning a murder is hard enough. But mounting a light-hearted, high-velocity murder mystery farce is a test for even the surest-footed director.

We’re positive Triangle Productions founder Don Horn is up to the killer task for the company’s fall opener, a worldwide stage hit spoofing classic whodunits. Overacted, under-rehearsed, mistimed – “The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong” is a play that doggedly earns its title. A cast of local comedic pros – Joe Healy, Lisamarie Harrison, James Sharinghousen, Alex Fox, Melissa Whitney, Gary Wayne Cash, Jason Coffey and Dave Cole – goes all-knives-out for this 75-minute show that will test your powers of deduction without trying your patience.

Sept. 8-24, The Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza, 1785 N.E. Sandy Blvd., trianglepro.org

A multiverse of mother-daughter issues is explored in “Lumen Odyssey,” a late summer trek into speculative fiction. Written by Imago Theatre founders Jerry Mouawad and Carol Triffle, the spacy, world premiere play orbits around an Earth-bound daughter who teams up with her planet-hopping mom to explore the cosmos – and rediscover familial bonds. Wild? Weird? Sure. This gal-pal “Guardians of the Galaxy” also sounds more joyously original than anything Marvel burps up for the big screen this summer.

Sept. 9-17, Imago Theatre, 17 S.E. Eighth Ave., imagotheatre.com

“The Hombres” – Artists Repertory Theatre at Portland Center Stage

How do we detoxify toxic masculinity? Mindful breathing and the sun salutation may offer a promising start.

In Tony Meneses’ riveting comedy, straight Latino construction workers drop their trowels, drills and putty knives to perfect their tree, downward dog and plow poses with guidance from a gay Latino yogi. As the vinyasa and coconut water flow, unlikely friendships form in the little yoga studio located, according to the play, “somewhere off the New Jersey Transit line.”

Grounded in truthful interactions, and staged in the comfy Ellyn Bye Studio at the Armory, “Hombres” manifests its own sturdy, centered path to everyday enlightenments.

Sept. 10-Oct. 9, 2022, Ellyn Bye Studio at the Armory, 128 N.W. 11th Ave., artistsrep.org

“The Evolution of Mann” – Broadway Rose Theatre Company

You don’t have to be single, sad and desperate to hook up to enjoy Broadway Rose’s upcoming romantic charmer. After attending a wedding a month for a year, moonstruck Millennial Henry Mann is looking for his own lifelong Netflix-and-chill-a-thon partner. Isaac Lamb directs this intimate, 2018 off-Broadway delight. The songs and story by Douglas J. Cohen and Dan Elish echo things you’ve seen, heard and adored in “The Last Five Years,” “Company,” and “Marry Me a Little” – but zhuzhed-up for the iPhone age.

Sept. 22-Oct. 16, Broadway Rose Theatre New Stage, 12850 S.W. Grant Ave., Tigard, broadwayrose.org

“Chicken & Biscuits” – Portland Playhouse

Portland Playhouse dives into its 15th season with Douglas Lyons’ comfort-food comedy set in a fictional Black church. It’s a wholly fitting season opener for the theater company that’s made its home in a renovated, 118-year-old former church in Portland’s historically Black King neighborhood.

Because funerals are guaranteed laugh factories, Lyons sets his story of squabbling sisters, husbands, sons and daughters during the service for the Jenkins’ family patriarch. There’s also a mysterious mourner. In other words, all the ingredients needed for a deliciously dishy feast.

Sept. 28-Oct. 30, Portland Playhouse, 602 N.E. Prescott St., portlandplayhouse.org

- "Audrey II" from Kirk Mouser will appear in "Little Shop of Horrors" at Stumptown Stages.Intermission Productions

“Little Shop of Horrors” – Stumptown Stages

Creating and staging “Audrey II,” the bloodthirsty botanical star of composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman’s rock ‘n’ roll musical “Little Shop of Horrors,” can prove a challenge for smaller organizations with tighter budgets. But Stumptown Stages is determined to stay off the blogs dedicated to the many failed plant monsters local theater companies have come up with for their productions.

For their upcoming production at the Winningstad Theatre, the company acquired a beauty of a beast. And Artistic Director Kirk Mouser says his team is following strict (and tongue-in-cheek) protocols to keep their monster healthy and horrifying, including, Mouser says, “moderate sunlight and daily watering; horticulture background checks for staff; and daily flossing of fangs.”

Here’s Stumptown’s ace in the hole – or – flower pot: A seasoned puppeteer from Portland’s beloved and defunct Tears of Joy Theatre company will be working all of Audrey II’s macabre machinations.

Oct. 7-30, Winningstad Theatre, 1111 S.W. Broadway, stumptownstages.org

“The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity” – Profile Theatre

For his action-packed satire, playwright Kristoffer Diaz drops us inside the ring and behind the scenes of a rising wrestling promotions company, pinning down stereotypes and pile-driving home their ridiculousness. Sure to be the sweatiest show of the season, (unless Oregon Shakespeare Festival performs “The Tempest” in singlets!) this finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama will have you cheering, chanting, but not booing, from the bleachers.

Oct. 4-23, Imago Theatre, 17 S.E. Eighth Ave, profiletheatre.org

“F***ing A” – Shaking the Tree

First things first. If you can’t decipher the editorially softened title for Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks’ play, then retire your Wordle game.

Second, the play is about abortion. But it is not a hot take on the June U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. Parks began writing this darkly comic fable in the mid-1990s, with the completed version landing off-Broadway in 2000.

The second part of Parks’ “The Red Letter Plays,” a dramatic duo inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s” The Scarlet Letter,” “F***ing A” is a ferocious bit of futurism, unsubtly doubling as bone-chilling contemporary criticism.

Parks imagines a Constitution-free republic where Hawthorne’s Hester is an abortionist, and a mom whose son is serving time for a minor offense. As Hester’s quest to free him fails, vengeance replaces hope.

Gore, gallows humor, political scheming, secret languages and 10 musical numbers all blend into an Expressionist tragi-comedy vibing with both the midterm elections and Halloween.

Oct. 8-Nov. 5, 823 S.E. Grant St., shaking-the-tree.com

Richard Thomas plays Atticus Finch and Yaegel T.Welch plays Tom Robinson in the touring production of "To Kill a Mockingbird."Photo by Julieta Cervantes

“To Kill a Mockingbird” – Broadway in Portland

Seriously. A drama coming to the 3,000-seat Keller Auditorium is no minor matter. Non-musicals rarely tour nationally, and the Keller hasn’t hosted a drama since “War Horse” galloped through the venue for a six-show run almost 10 years ago.

“West Wing”-writer/creator Aaron Sorkin somehow found time between streaming projects (”The Trial of the Chicago 7″; “Being the Ricardos”) to tackle Harper Lee’s 1960 literary classic – and tangle with her prickly estate over ownership rights and script changes.

Those changes? Re-structuring the story around the trial; updating the tone; and digging deeper into what makes fearless litigator Atticus Finch tick.

“In the book you’ve got a guy who’s got all the answers,” Sorkin told The Hollywood Reporter, “and in the play you’ve got a guy who’s wrestling with the questions.”

Oct. 18-23, Keller Auditorium, 222 S.W. Clay St., portland.broadway.com

Sophie and Jonah are two Peeping Toms. The good news is that they only have eyes for each other. The pair sparks a video romance via a repurposed baby monitor, and then awkwardly attempts to take their nascent love offline, IRL.

Equal parts sweet, sexy and unnerving, Phil Porter’s stripped down rom-com first hit the stage in 2014, as digital apps swept up (and left and right) the dating scene. Now, since Skyping and Zoom-calling our way through the early part of the pandemic, this voyeuristic take on love feels even more timely, relatable and less creepy.

Nov. 4-20, CoHo Theatre, 2257 N.W. Raleigh St., thirdrailrep.org.

- Kristina Wong stars in "Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord" at Portland Center Stage.Photo by Tom Fowler / Courtesy of Portland Center Stage

“Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord” – Portland Center Stage/ Co-production with Boom Arts

Propelled by art, activism, and cabin fever, comedian and New York Theatre Workshop “Usual Suspect” Kristina Wong turned her apartment into an atelier, creating COVID couture (face masks from sheets and bra straps) during the first weeks of the global shutdown. Wong stars in the solo show she wrote, recounting how she and her fellow sewers-in-solitude, nicknamed the “Auntie Sewing Squad,” soon produced thousands of masks while contending with anti-Asian harassment and violence, COVID spikes, political chaos and, well … read a paper.

Nov. 5-Dec. 18, Ellyn Bye Studio at The Armory, 128 N.W. 11th Ave., pcs.org

“Jagged Little Pill” – Broadway in Portland

“Jagged Little Pill” is coming here to remind us of the mess Broadway has too often made of Gen X musicals. For every “Green Day’s American Idiot” there’s a “Holler If Ya Hear Me,” the Tupac Shakur musical that closed after one month.

Now, with adaptations of “Almost Famous” and “Back to the Future” set to hit The Great White Way, there isn’t much more pop cultural material producers can mine from the MTV / Latchkey Kids. (“Beavis and Butthead Do Sondheim,” seems like Broadway’s next logical Gen X attempt.)

For the stage version of Alanis Morissette’s monster 1995 alt-rock album, the singer/songwriter’s angst-fueled tracks are filtered through a present-day suburban family facing racism and drug addiction.

The Broadway musical won two Tony Awards. What’s more, the show, based on a Grammy Award-Winner for Album of the Year, also nabbed the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. Isn’t it ironic?

Nov. 15-20, Keller Auditorium, 222 S.W. Clay St., portland.broadway.com

— Lee Williams, for The Oregonian/OregonLive

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