Oregon’s most famous bad girl may be finally embracing her own legend.

“Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera” opened in Portland Thursday night -- and Tonya Harding herself was in the audience.

"Wow. Did my life really look that bad?" Harding said after the show. "But you know what? They did a really great job."

In 1994, the Portland-born skater Harding was competing for a spot on the U.S. Olympic figure skating team when a club-wielding assailant hit competitor Nancy Kerrigan in the knee, forcing her out of the competition. Video showed Kerrigan grabbing her knee and wailing "Why me, why me?"

AP photo

Kristen Sergeant, as Tonya Harding, left, and Margaret Hunter, as Nancy Kerrigan, right, practice their fight choreograph before a dress rehearsal of "Tonya and Nancy: The Opera," in Cambridge, Mass.

The rock opera was put together by Elizabeth Searle, Michael Tioli and artistic director Don Teoli, of Arlington, Virginia. It follows Harding and Kerrigan through their careers from before and since the infamous knee-whacking.

Searle said she did not consult the two skaters about the opera, but it was pieced together from news, tabloid reports and actual quotes from the two skaters. It debuted with a run on the East Coast before the Portland shows at the World Trade Center theater were announced.

Since Portland was launched into the international media spotlight during the case, Harding has also been in the news on several occasions, including a sex video of her and former husband Gilooly on their 1990 wedding night, an assault arrest in 2000 where she attacked a boyfriend with a hubcap and a drunk driving conviction and subsequent parole violation.

In 2007 Harding told police four men and a woman tried to break into her car and steal it. In his report, the deputy wrote that Harding's account was "very implausible," and her odd behavior was blamed on a new prescription medication she was taking.

But there were positive moments too -- like the time Tonya was given credit for helping get medics to the scene when a fellow video poker player suffered a medical condition at a Southwest Washington tavern. And the time Tonya punched Paula Jones’ lights out at a celebrity boxing match on television in 2002.

Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, was accused of hatching the original plan. The investigation also eventually netted convictions of Shane Stant, the actual attacker, and Stant's uncle, Derrick Smith, who drove the getaway car.

For her part, Harding has always said she didn't know of the plan. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder an investigation into the assault and was banned from U.S. Figure Skating Association competitions for life.

The International Committee of the U.S. Figure Skating Association went on to grant Kerrigan a spot and she recovered in time to win a silver medal at the winter Olympics. She also went on to act as a spokesperson for Disney.

Songs such as "Whip Her Butt", and “Estacada” (Sample lyrics: “When you wake up sleeping in your car in Estacada, cause your house is surrounded by reporters and the FBI…) lead some reviewers to call it Portland’s own “Blades of Glory.” The events in this case, however are all true.

The show runs from February 21-March 9.