Reviews for Georgetown Palace Theatre Performances
Review: Annie, the musical by The Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 28, 2009
You can ride with the escapism and enjoy the dedication of the cast and director Mary Ellen Butler, unwrapping for yourself and them a holiday present.
This holiday season’s production of Annie at the Georgetown Palace is an enormous undertaking. Most principal roles are triple-cast, with actors assigned to Mango, Kiwi or Plum casts. Ensemble roles are double cast, with actors assigned to Strawberry or Blueberry casts. Palace management is proud that 106 actors appear on their stage during the course of 28 presentations, many of those shows outside the Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule usual at 810 S. Austin Avenue in Georgetown.Running a …
Review: Man of La Mancha by The Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 07, 2009
The Georgetown Palace production of Man of La Manchastarts out moody, atmospheric and harsh, and it comes surging beautifully through that dark, difficult second act.
The Georgetown Palace production of Man of La Manchastarts out moody, atmospheric and harsh, and it comes surging beautifully through that dark, difficult second act. The Inquisition is awaiting in the darkness above, and Cervantes is storytelling to save his life and possessions from the thieves and murderers who surround him. In Cervantes' fantastical tale of the deranged Alonso Quijana, the Knight of the Woeful Countenance has lost it. The knight's beloved Dulcinea--Aldonza the prostitute and scullery maid--has …
Review: You Can't Do That, Dan Moody! by The Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 08, 2009
You Can't Do That, Dan Moody is not the sort of happily fictionalized singing and dancing spectacle that is regularly offered at tourist destinations. It's not slick and sometimes the text is leaden, but it is, ultimately, gripping. It's a participatory piece for Georgetowners, both those in the p
You Can't Do That, Dan Moody! offers spectators some cracking drama, particularly in the second half, with riveting re-enactments of brutality by the Ku Klux Klan and of the 1923 trial at the Georgetown courthouse in which district prosecutor Dan Moody became the first in the nation to convince a jury to convict and jail Klansmen.But in intention and form this production is directly in line with the epic origins of theatre. An epic, taken from the …
Review: Driving Miss Daisy by The Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 02, 2009
Each of the actors in the Palace cast is appealing, but the entropy sets in far too soon in this production.
Driving Miss Daisy is about nostalgia and trust, but it is also about entropy. Fortunate or not in this material life, we can all expect to age, to slow, and to become feeble. We may dislike growing old, but we shun the obvious alternative.That major theme should be mirrored in the dynamic of these familiar characters and in the rhythm of the production.We meet dowager Miss Daisy at a peak of annoyance. Momentarily confused a few days …
Review: The Odd Couple by The Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 24, 2009
Simon makes it funny by taking both partners to the extremes of personality and by giving Felix many attributes more characteristic of a woman. Back in the 1960s that was an even bigger laugh than it is now.
Touchstone themes for the Georgetown Palace Theatre are "fun" and "familiar." Probably the most affectionately remembered piece of Neil Simon's 40-year career, The Odd Couple fits both themes exactly. Slobby Oscar Madison and meticulous Felix Ungar are seated firmly in the American consciousness. Simon's play opened on Broadway in 1965 and appeared as a film in 1968. It ran for five years as a television show, 1970-1975. ABC cancelled it at the end of every season but …
Review: Little Shop of Horrors by The Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 13, 2009
This was a Grade A production of a Grade D musical play.
The Georgetown Palace does its familiar high-gloss finish on this production with talented actors, a vigorous show orchestra, and an impressively atmospheric functional two-story set presenting Muschnik's shabby flower shop in the even shabbier surroundings of a NYC "Skid Row." The audience appeared to enjoy the goings-on and the six- and eight-year-olds sitting near me in Row B were fascinated by William Diamond's puppetry as Audry II, the extraterrestrial carnivorous plant out to conquer the …