Reviews for touring company Performances
Review #2 of 2: Disney's Frozen by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on June 20, 2024
The brave sisters of FROZEN inhabit a somewhat confused plot, but the score and voices are magnificent. Caroline Bowman's singing as Elsa incites goosebumps. Great puppetry, dancing, and special effects throughout.
I’ve never seen the movie Frozen. Chalk it up there with all of my other Disney cinematic crimes of neglect which began when I, with adolescent bravado, opted not to see The Little Mermaid. I did know and love the song “Let It Go,” a complete banger. I must also admit I hadn’t seen The Lion King movie before I saw the Broadway version and I wasn’t too lost. Frozen, on the other hand, is …
Review: Disney's Frozen by touring company
by Vanessa Hoang Hughes
Published on June 10, 2024
FROZEN's songs and spectacular action made excited kids bounce in their seats and grown adults cheer as if they were six years old again.
Disney’s animated film Frozen is a core memory for me and for the rest of Gen Z. It was released in 2013, and I’ve been a die-hard fan ever since. I have many fond memories of singing and twirling around to “Let it Go” in front of the TV when I was small. The movie shaped our childhoods. A cultural and social phenomenon, Frozen was inevitably turned into a Broadway musical. It went on tour …
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Review: Girl from the North Country by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on May 10, 2024
Characters in Conor McPherson's rework of Bob Dylan's music are like hungry ghosts who broke free from his songs and now wander eternally, unable to remember their sins.
Bob Dylan’s people approached Irish playwright Conor McPherson with the concept of crafting a musical based on songs by our folksy Nobel Prize winner. Girl from the North Country is the second time this concept has been brought to the Broadway stage. The first was Twyla Tharp's The Times They Are a-Changin' in 2006. By all critical and financial accounts Tharp’s attempt was a definitive miss. It was assailed for being full of spectacle but of little …
Review: Wicked by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on March 27, 2024
This WICKED TOUR keeps the dazzle while the leads remake and deepen the frenemies Elphaba and Glinda. Not just good and evil; this story calls into question the stories of history.
It seems a little odd to write an introduction to such a well-known musical phenomenon as Wicked, especially here in Austin in which despite the play’s already huge popularity it was touted by a media storm that included billboards, television commercials, and a bombardment of social media ads. Yet nowadays with ads tailored made for the individual thanks to invasive communication software, that could be just me. As I write this, my computer is probably …
Review: Beetlejuice by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on February 16, 2024
David Korins's set design is amazing, but Eddie Perfect's music is a maelstrom of meandering melodies muddled together.
The name Beetlejuice was derived from Betelgeuse, the second brightest star in the constellation of Orion. yet for many a fan it is the brightest star in the Tim Burton cinematic universe. The idea for the movie came to writers Michael McDowell and Laurence Senelick when they were at home trying to write a screenplay inspired by Ghostbusters and Poltergeist but were increasingly annoyed by their family members. Thus came the clever idea of ghosts …
Review: Tina - The Tina Turner Musical by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on January 20, 2024
TINA is full of exuberance, energy, and hits (it's a jukebox musical, after all). The cast does a wonderful job. The script is slanted so Tina's victories are without exception either Pyrrhic or monetary.
In 1967 Tina Turner was both the first African American and the first woman to be featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Her story is well known to many. Born Anna Mae Bullock, she rose to stardom early in her career after joining Ike Turner’s band the Kings of Rhythm in 1956 at the age of seventeen. Her marriage to Ike Turner was marked by sixteen years of physical and emotional abuse, from …