Reviews for The Vortex Performances
Review: Lear (adapted) by Vortex Repertory Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 22, 2011
Lear's rage against the storm is converted into a confused confrontation with paparazzi, and key narration is projected as sound-bites from MSNBC-style talking heads, proving that style can defeat substance.
Short take: The Vortex version of Lear features several accomplished Austin actors, including most notably Jennifer Underwood in the title role, but director Rudy Ramirez trivializes Shakespeare's great epic of royal folly and delusion. Lear's rage against the storm is converted into a confused confrontation with paparazzi, and key narration is projected as sound-bites from MSNBC-style talking heads, proving that style can defeat substance. Cross-gender casting for the roles of Kent and Edda (Edgar) is puzzling; less …
Review: Sleeping Beauty, musical by Vortex Repertory Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 11, 2010
Going to Sleeping Beauty at the Vortex is like going to watch Mardi Gras in New Orleans, except that it's a bit more chaste and chaperoned.
The Vortex's Sleeping Beauty is a riot of costumes and color, music and dance. Bonnie Cullum and composer-librettist Content Love Knowles keep that cast of 20 swirling in the vortex around the spiral staircase at stage center, animated by Knowles and three other musicians perched high above stage right. Many of the players play double roles. Costumes by Pam Fletcher Friday and Griffon Ramsey are inventive, playful and brilliantly colored, with the witty use of found fabrics …
Review: Oceana by The Vortex Repertory Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 03, 2009
This is a concatenation of sea myths and, frankly, not much of a story. Except for the requirements for gymnastics and a very brief moment of nudity in the closing scene, Oceana could be offered as a school pageant with its agreeable, unremarkable melodies, percussion, and a sea-green message.
There is, indeed, an oceanic feel to the staging of this production. Arriving spectators are welcomed by undulatingt costumed young persons bathed in shifting blue and green lights designed by Jason Amato. The actors are welcoming, slithery, playful and exotically costumed. Director/author Bonnie Cullum extends the compact playing space of the Vortex vertically, transforming it at times into the visual equivalent of an aquarium. She stations her three singing sirens on a high shelf across the back, …
Review: The Secret Lives of the InBetweeners by The Vortex Repertory Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 09, 2009
In all this mess, the most interesting character is None of the Above.
Aaron Brown's musical at the Vortex benefits from a strong cast, Bonnie Cullum's assured direction, and a bouncy score, well executed by a five-piece band including piano, keyboard, guitar/bass, drums and a cello. You can relax and laugh, sympathize with the dilemmas of poor Joe (Jonathan G. Itchon, below) and his acquaintances, and generally have a good time.But as for those Inbetweeners -- they seem to be the target audience for this piece, folks of …
Review: The School for Scandal by The Vortex Repertory Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 01, 2008
Brenna Pritchard, also a talented song-writer, has an animated valentine-shaped face framed with a flapper’s short bob. Hayley Armstrong, with ingenious expression and mime, slithers herself into an entirely convincing sn
Summer theatre programs for young persons are wonderful. I got my own start treading the boards in just such an enterprise. The Vortex Repertory in east Austin has run its tuition-free program for 13- to 17-year-old actors since 1991. The theatre has racked up awards and the participating students have gotten their own rewards, intrinsic and experiential. For this production of Sheridan’s School for Scandal the company of 14 actors worked with Vortex resident artists Betsy McCann and Gabriel …