Reviews for City Theatre Company Performances
Review: The Importance of Being Earnest by City Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 28, 2015
Kara Bliss's Lady Bracknell has just the right no-nonsense insistence along with the humorlessness that makes the character so comic.
Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is so exquisitely written that it will probably never fall out of fashion. Wilde mocks fashion and the fashionable; he presents us with chaps who are guileful but goodhearted deceivers and young ladies dizzy with self importance and good manners. And of course there's Aunt Agatha, the ultimate dragon lady, arbiter of all that's good taste and acceptable in polite society. The script is balanced, well plotted, vivid …
Review: Waiting for Godot by City Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on May 25, 2015
Every production of 'Waiting for Godot' now is all about how it is produced; City Theatre’s production stands up well to any production of it, perhaps anywhere.
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett may be the best literary statement of post-World War II angst in existence, and it's an influential expression of where we remain philosophically in the post-Holocaust Nuclear Age. Playing now at City Theatre in east Austin, it's a monument of 20th century modernist theatre produced frequently in the current era, a work never to be missed when presented nearby. Most dedicated theatregoers know the story: the play comes to …
Review: Psycho Beach Party by The City Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on July 01, 2014
Psycho Beach Party is Charles Busch’s parody of California surfer culture, and, more particularly, surf movies. And there’s nothing like a sunny, open beach for a horror/mystery story, right? If you think this approach is slightly bent, then you get Charles Busch, and welcome to his world of playwriting and theatre. City Theatre, led by Andy Berkovsky, really gets it, and treats Psycho Beach Party just right. Their production is hilarious, and in this reviewer’s …
Review: A Delicate Balance by The City Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on May 08, 2014
City Theatre has taken on the challenge of producing Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance in this their eighth production season. Andy Berkovsky and his production team are gaining a reputation for boldness in taking on such challenges. Albee fans will flock to City’s shopping center theatre on the east side to see this one and they will be pleased with the results. In his program notes guest director Fritz Ketchum points out the mysteriousness of …
Review: The Odd Couple by The City Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on March 24, 2014
Putting together a theatre season boils down to nothing but choices, and for eight years Austin's City Theatre has created worlds of delight for theatergoers. Earlier this season the company gave us the uproarious Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling, as evergreen as Christmas and Hanukkah, and The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez, a drama that taught us that every being seeks his own Promised Land. Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, City's current production, is famous …
Review: The Whipping Man by The City Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on February 17, 2014
Matthew Lopez’s esteemed play The Whipping Man takes on race, America’s central issue from Appomattox until now. The participation of Jewish Americans in slavery and emancipation puts a wry and tragic twist on it all. Director Stacy Glazer and Production Designer Andy Berkovsky deserve commendation from the git-go for their boldness in addressing issues that have been with us for millennia. The competent cast worked very hard to make this beast roar. Here’s the thing: …