Reviews for touring company Performances
Review: Waitress by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on January 24, 2019
Christine Dwyer, as our titular waitress Jenna, has a goose-bump-inducing voice and an onstage aplomb that was neither over-bearing or restrained. It would be silly to say she stole the show, when she actually WAS the show.
“Sugar. Butter. Flour” These three words begin the show and are a common refrain through out the next two acts. It’s a simple and sweet refrain for a simple but not always sweet story. Our titular waitress learns in the first scene that she is expecting and must quickly re-evaluate her life -- but then again not really, because the truth is she has long known what she wants and, perhaps more tellingly, that what …
Review: Paradise by touring company
by Samantha Hendel
Published on January 14, 2019
A visiting “For Profit Prophet” promises a financial revolution if the people of Paradise agree to use a reality TV show to raise money. The townsfolk aren’t completely sold; they’re just good ol’ hillbillies who enjoy their way of life.
Austin Playhouse is hosting LA-based Ruskin Theatre’s bluegrass musical comedy Paradise: A Town of Sinners and Saints through February 3. This is apparently a first for Austin’s #2 commercial stage, housed for several years now at the former Highland Mall. For well over a decade Don Toner, his daughter Lora Toner Haddock, his son Mike Toner and associates have relied on a stalwart company of local artists and a strong clientele of subscribers to …
Review: Love Never Dies by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on November 29, 2018
This is very much a sequel in the Hollywood sense, in that one gets the impression that the producers and creative team sat down and made a list of everything fans loved about THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and then began checking things off that list.
Love Never Dies is Austin’s latest chance to see Broadway theater on their doorstep. First things first, it is a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, which makes it an ambitious production on multiple levels. Not only was Phantom hugely successful, but it still is, and it continues to run all over the world. The official website reports it has played to more than 140 million people in 35 countries in 166 cities around the …
Review: The Book of Mormon by touring company
by Justin M. West
Published on April 24, 2018
If you have yet to see this show, you owe it to yourself. The laughs come fast and furious and straight from the gut, with hardly a moment to spare.
In 2010, you’d have been forgiven for laughing at the suggestion that the 2011 Tony Award winner for Best Musical would discuss such scholarly subjects as magical sex frogs, scrotal parasites, and why one should probably not attempt to engage in coitus with an infant. But, after its premiere in 2011, The Book of Mormon did just that, and had its audiences crying with laughter in the process. The brainchild of South Park creators …
Review: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on March 22, 2018
Frankly, A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER takes its cues from the likes of THE BOOK OF MORMON and AVENUE Q, for a fun-filled night out -- and a family-friendly one aat that.
“Why are all the D’Ysquith’s dying?” The mourners sing in chorus during the opening of Act Two in the Tony-Award-winning A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. And it’s true more than a half of a dozen family members have already been dispatched in the first act alone. But this query can be little more than a rhetorical over-simplification of the play’s classic Shakespearean plot. When young Monty Navarro learns he is no mere Navarro …
Review: School of Rock by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on February 17, 2018
School of Rock is cast pitch perfect, and it's a refreshing break to see a show that is all about having fun and sticking it to the man.
“It’s called growing up, you should try it.” So, says Patty to Dewey Finn, an out of work rock and roll singer and guitarist. Dewey’s just been fired from his last band and has been sponging of Patty’s boyfriend Ned Schneebly, his old, loyal friend and former bandmate. Dewey is at rock bottom, so he does what’s only natural for him: he tries to find a way to sink lower. This he does by stealing …