Reviews for Austin Playhouse Performances
Review: Monroe by Austin Playhouse
by David Glen Robinson
Published on September 12, 2018
Dr. Lisa Thompson's MONROE with its sharp script gives life to a dark period in our recent history, filling it with hope, struggle, drama, and humor. Monroe gives us a privileged, authentic look at lives hitherto unrevealed.
Once again, Austin is privileged to host a world premiere play, Monroe by Lisa B. Thompson. The Monroe of the title is Monroe, in northeastern Louisiana. At the time of the play, 1946, Monroe and its surrounding parish held the dubious distinction for the period 1877-1950 of suffering the fifth highest number of lynchings in the United States And yes, this play is about that. As Playwright Thompson writes in the program notes: “…my …
Review: Lucky Stiff by Austin Playhouse
by David Glen Robinson
Published on May 27, 2018
LUCKY STIFF's silly run-around plot is a showcase vehicle for powerful songs by some of Austin’s best singing and performing talent. It will appeal to everyone who has musical theatre as a guilty pleasure.
Lucky Stiff by Ahrens and Flaherty, now playing at Austin Playhouse in ACC Highland in central Austin, is a light and frothy musical entertainment, not even a murder mystery, although it is about the last will and testament and vacation of a murder victim. And it is still not a murder mystery even when Boni Hester slings around silver-plated and gold-plated revolvers throughout the show. Her high heels alone are sufficient to do all the killing …
Review: Bloomsday by Steven Dietz, Austin Playhouse
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 22, 2017
Compounded of equal parts of nostagia, romance and whimsy, BLOOMSDAY is a clever tale that takes the classic romantic comedy into the fourth dimension and multiple beyonds.
If you're one of the legions who have started to read James Joyce's Ulysses and eventually abandoned it, take heart: Steven Dietz's Bloomsday is tied to that massive novel only by the lightest of gossamer threads. Compounded of equal parts of nostagia, romance and whimsy, it's a clever tale that takes the classic boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-finds-girl into the fourth dimension and multiple beyonds. Following theatrical convention, we're introduced to a trip down memory lane by Robert, …
Review: The Explorers' Club by Austin Playhouse
by David Glen Robinson
Published on April 19, 2016
Laughs are almost non-stop, but many are provoked by condescension and name-calling of world cultures and historical periods -- and the explorers finish with their privileges intact.
The Explorers Club by Nell Benjamin is a relatively new American comedy, nominated for the Drama Desk Best Play Award in 2014. Benjamin’s wit takes on a series of largely English characters ranging from stuffy to stiff in a club in London in 1879. These are high Victorian times, and a little wit suffices to bring out an abundance of comedic material. Austin Playhouse with its talented cast puts on an exceptionally funny …
Review: Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar, Austin Playhouse
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 20, 2016
Powerful but subtle J. Ben Wolfe as Amir Is almost a tragic hero, but playwright Akhtar implies that Amir's an ugly template for Muslims.
J. Ben Wolfe is a powerful but subtle actor, and that's just what's required in Ayad Akhtar's brooding drama Disgraced. This ninety-minute one-act in four scenes delves deep into the psyche of Amir, the protagonist, who's a tense, talented and aspiring attorney in a New York law firm specializing in big-money litigation. Amir is handling big issues, both at work and in his personal life. His family immigrated from Pakistan when he was eight years …
The Devil and the Details: A Review of Austin Playhouse’s The Philadelphia Story
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on December 11, 2015
The spell has been cast. It would be folly to single out any individual performer in this review, since the cast as a whole is so delightful.
The atmosphere is tense but not too tense: family members mill about the living room preparing for the second wedding of the eldest daughter. The nervousness is almost rote, stakes not being quite as high as, say, those for a first wedding. The mother titters about with last minute details.The bride to be makes declarative but none-too bold statements, and the butler is prompt and complacent. Nearly all of them take a moment to bark at the …