The history of Portland is fascinating and triangle productions! loves historical figures. Past plays and musicals have been produced about Tonya Harding, Gracie Hansen, Divine, Billie Holiday, Darcelle and more. Now they focus on Nancy Boggs with The Nancy Boggs Story: Sex on the River.
Boggs (Caitlin Brooke) was a divorced mother without many prospects in the Portland of 1880 and with her last few dollars she decided to purchase a scow (equivalent to a medium-sized barge today). She built a two-story building above its lower deck to hold a saloon/dance hall and rooms, providing her space to run a floating bordello, the first west of the Mississippi.
The musical introduces not only Boggs, but two other “sirens”–Portland Liverpool Liz (Lisamarie Harrison) whose property is now Peninsula Park, and a lesser-known but still dynamic personality, Mary Cook (Cyndy Ramsey-Rier).
Sex on the River, complete with nine original songs and the Can-Can, runs Thursday, May 12-Saturday, May 28, 7:30 pm. There will also be a 2 pm matinee Sunday, May 22. Tickets ($15-35) available at .