Reviews for Playhouse San Antonio Performances
Review: Urinetown by Playhouse San Antonio
by Kurt Gardner
Published on May 11, 2017
The production is superlative, the cast terrific, and all voices strong. This bizarre concept for a musical is well realized and quite hilarious.
Despite its unsavory title (which even the characters make fun of), Urinetown: the Musical is a family-friendly show that contains a few mild double entendres and some groan-worthy toilet humor. In a dystopian future, a 20-year drought has made private toilets unthinkable. The oppressed populace is forced to pay to use public facilities, all of which are controlled by the megacorporation Urine Good Company (UGC). The literally unwashed masses are waiting their turn …
Review: Disgraced by Playhouse San Antonio
by Kurt Gardner
Published on March 29, 2017
The speed with which the masks of gentility slip off to reveal the hatred that boils just below the surface makes for a powerful and important statement. That’s why this production is essential viewing at this time.
Disgraced, Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning one-act, is a searing indictment of the prejudices we all carry inside of us. Now playing at the Playhouse San Antonio’s Cellar Theatre, the timing couldn’t be more perfect – considering the current political climate. Amir (Suhail Arastu) is a Pakistani-American lawyer on the fast track to a partnership at his firm. He has an American wife, Emily (Kate Glasheen), with whom he shares a swanky apartment on New York’s Upper …
Review: The Secret Garden, musical by Playhouse San Antonio
by Kurt Gardner
Published on February 22, 2017
Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon's modern classic comes to the Playhouse San Antonio in a strikingly revisualized production.
The Tony Award-winning 1991 musical The Secret Garden is a beautiful show with a memorable score that can be adapted any number of ways to good effect. As a case in point, the version now playing at the Playhouse San Antonio takes that idea to heart, featuring a strikingly minimal, impressionistic scenic design in place of the more traditional, foliage- and furniture-laden set that audiences would expect in an Edwardian-era theatrical – and it …
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Review: Fool for Love by Playhouse San Antonio
by Kurt Gardner
Published on January 20, 2017
Playhouse San Antonio's production of Sam Shepard's 1983 work is well-staged, but the piece itself has lost much of its original ability to shock.
So many theatrical works grow in stature and continue to preserve their ability to mesmerize new audiences as the years pass. Unfortunately, such is not the case with Sam Shepard’s 1983 Fool for Love. Though it’s well-directed and performed by a talented cast, Playhouse San Antonio’s production, currently playing in the Cellar Theatre, isn’t ever as edgy as it wants to be. The onstage violence and subversive subject may have been shocking …
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Review: All Is Calm by Playhouse San Antonio
by Kurt Gardner
Published on December 07, 2016
This affecting musical tribute to the soldiers of World War I provides a welcome message of peace just in time for the holidays.
Following one of the most divisive elections in American history, it’s highly appropriate for the Playhouse San Antonio to offer a superb production of All is Calm: the Christmas Truce of 1914 to spread a much-needed message of peace. The Great War was raging in December 1914, and no less imposing a figure than Pope Benedict XV pleaded with the German, French, and British governments to cease fire at least for Christmas Day, but …
Review: A Chorus Line by Playhouse San Antonio
by Kurt Gardner
Published on May 11, 2016
A CHORUS LINE is over 40, but there's still a universal message to be gleaned here -- and the songs all hold up nicely.
Winner of nine Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, A Chorus Line is the ultimate tribute to those unheralded background performers who aren’t necessarily looking for Broadway stardom but are driven by the unquenchable need to perform. Even if some of the references may be starting to show their age (the show is over 40, after all), there’s still a universal message to be gleaned here — and the songs all hold up nicely. Set …