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Storm Large relives a moment in the throes of heroin addiction in Crazy Enough, her world premiere autobiographical musical playing in the Ellyn Bye Studio at Portland Center Stage through June 7th.

In Portland, all of us (ok, most of us) know Storm Large. She’s one of our favorite local celebrities. But what do we want from her? What do we want from Portland’s own infamous rock diva?

She’s performing in a play, more of a one-lady musical, at Portland Center Stage. Crazy Enough is the story of her life up to now, at age 39. It’s been playing to sold out audiences for weeks. Why are we coming out in droves to see it? With a name like Crazy Enough, we are hoping to see a train wreck. Not a train wreck in the form of a terrible performance, but we are voyeurs. We want the goods behind the gossip. She begins, talking about preparations to go on the reality TV show Rock Star: Supernova. Her friends are interviewed to verify that she is sound of mind enough to be filmed. Her friends lie, at least a little bit, to get her on there. This process is peculiar. Who watches reality TV to watch sane, stable people do rational, unobjectionable things? We’re certainly not coming to PCS to see that.

So do we get to see the spectacle that we came to see? Storm does deliver, for most of it. She doesn’t shame us for our desire to rubberneck, but she also doesn’t allow us to get away without life lessons. Before the show opened, I guessed that the story would involve early promiscuity, hard drugs, and abortion. These and STDs (not included) are the scripted elements of a high-risk drama and the bad girl archetype. Storm has created for herself an image that is reckless and sexy. But as formulaic as some events of the story may be, it is her life (regardless of exaggeration for the sake of the story), and she divulges with vivacity.

Ms. Large is a riveting storyteller of the first three decades of her life. She gives us detailed anecdotal snippets. Her descriptions recount colors, lights, sounds, tastes conversations. Her mother’s Lily of the Valley perfume. The painted asshole of a figurine cat. Horrible growls of drug addled guitar solos.

Her mother was a lunatic feeding off of family drama, and fittingly, she was a child who wanted to be a werewolf, growing up in fear of losing control of herself. Unsurprisingly, she pursued a young life of self-destructive habits culminating in a heroin overdose during an emotionally abusive relationship. This reenactment launches an introspective song “Inside Out,” my second favorite of the evening (“Eight Miles Wide” is obviously the best). She wanted to be larger than life but she’s just going to end up dead.

She survives, backs off the heroin after a horrible withdrawal, tries and fails with humor to launch her music career over several years, falls in love with a married man, and feels her over confident sense of self caving in.

And then she moved to Portland and everything is dandy. The introspective life story ends and all we are left with is the overshadowing curse maternal genetics and unfinished business with her mother. Perhaps we are just supposed to know the story of how she makes it in Portland. But I was disappointed that we didn’t get to hear more about how she became who she is to us, and how that transformed how she thought of herself. Is it enough to be our regional heroine?

Even without the juicy details I wanted, I was still captivated by Storm’s energy and appreciation for the absurd while working through her mother’s death. But the very last moments of the show disappointed me. Before she enters a reprise of “Inside Out,” she very tidily wraps everything up in a trite and forced sounding monologue about loving ourselves in despite and because we’re different and “crazy.”

If this show ever leaves Portland (and I think it’s worth it) it will need to add some information about who she is, especially about her rise to a level of comfort and success. I would also cut out the moral of the story speech.

Crazy Enough
Until June 7
Portland Center Stage
128 NW 11th Ave.