Reviews for touring company Performances

Review: Disney's Aladdin by touring company

Review: Disney's Aladdin by touring company

by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on February 28, 2023

This touring production of ALADDIN is a runaway smash. The story is relatable and succent; all character choices make perfect sense. Most importantly it’s just really fun.

It's no surprise that the Broadway version of Disney’s Aladdin is from the producer of The Lion King. The productions also share a lyricist in Tim Rice, but other than that they're are quite different.  The Lion King has been a much greater success by a variety of metrics. It won five times as many Tony Awards and has netted more than double the profit. The Lion King is the third-longest-running Broadway show of all …

Read more »

Review: Pretty Woman, the musical by touring company

Review: Pretty Woman, the musical by touring company

by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on January 24, 2023

As they say in the movies, “It must be difficult to let go of something so beautiful.” And this is why people will always return to fairy tales like PRETTY WOMAN.

In its ongoing commitment to bring Broadway to the City of the Violet Crown, Texas Performing Arts and Broadway in Austin presented Pretty Woman: The Musical between January 17 and 22, 2023. Runs are necessarily limited for touring productions, but they are always worth trying to catch and tickets are on sale well in advance. Conveniently, most modern Broadway productions are familiar stories. Upcoming productions include Aladdin, Ain't Too Proud: The Story of The Temptations, …

Read more »

Review #2 of 2: CHICAGO by touring company

Review #2 of 2: CHICAGO by touring company

by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on November 13, 2022

The touring production doesn't attempt to redefine CHICAGO; it does an amazing job of capturing the original spirit of the show: a celebration of life while on death row. A very welcome message at this time.

All the songs are fever dreams of the incarcerated. The set is an homage to the Duke Ellington Band’s scaffolded-style stage. The spotlights dance about like police search lights. The dancing is joyous, raw, animalistic—pure visceral sensuality and unbridled passion. If “writing about music is like dancing about architecture,” then the choreography speaks in sublime sentences that form poetic paragraphs . The music slinks like Eliot’s scampering marmoset.   The show elevates the timeless romanticism …

Read more »

Review #1 of 2: CHICAGO by 2022 touring company

Review #1 of 2: CHICAGO by 2022 touring company

by Michael Meigs
Published on November 03, 2022

Chicago's message: Life is a vaudeville, old chum. Come to the vaudeville!

  Why should one bother to see yet another production of Chicago? The musical debuted nearly fifty years ago, in 1975; the film came out in 2002; and the work long ago proliferated among regional, community, educational, and even kiddie theatre companies. CTXLiveTheatre records ten productions of Chicago across the region, including a 2013 national tour, versions by Austin Playhouse, the Georgetown Palace, San Antonio's NESA high school arts program, and even a 2016 staging by …

Read more »

Review: Blue Man Group by touring company

Review: Blue Man Group by touring company

by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on November 02, 2022

The Blue Man Group disguises low art as high art for an adoring public. Still, with the vast improvement and innovations in technology in the last thirty years, the ‘toys’ now available to them have a lot more potential.

 Whenever possible, I like to go to any and every live production cold. No foreknowledge whatsoever. Of course, this is  sometimes difficult with extremely popular works and often impossible if it’s a classic. Now, I wasn’t particularly worried about spoilers when it came to the Blue Man Group, but all I really knew about it was that there would be Blue Men and lots of drumming. I also assumed there would be a lot of …

Read more »

Review: Hadestown by touring company

Review: Hadestown by touring company

by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on October 06, 2022

HADESTOWN is a bluesy allegory about the hero's journey, a realistic one not at all diminished by defeat. Doing what is right is both the journey and the journey’s end.

  Let us thank the gods for Hadestown! Let us thanks Hades for showing us who are the true gods! And let us thank Hadestown the musical for not only finally giving the trombone its due but reviving and revitalizing modern day Broadway!    Here is a production with its heart in the right place, for it has a devout appreciation for live music in its heart!   If this beginning sounds like the praiseful …

Read more »