Recent Reviews
Review: Erma Bombeck: At Wit's End by Austin Playhouse
by Hannah Neuhauser
Published on May 23, 2026
Like Erma Bombeck, whom she's channeling, Sarah Fleming Walker comes across as an ordinary, real-life feminist. Raw. Resilient. And remarkable.
Over the decades, the social construct of “femininity” has been evolving in waves of rage and regression. In the 1910s, suffragettes tied themselves to iron rails. In the 1960s, housewives were tied to ironing. Not everyone was Betty Freidan, whose landmark text The Feminine Mystique called out the supressed anger of modern mothers trapped in domestic dollhouses. Frieden's book was insightful. And insulting. What about the ordinary feminists? Freidan never married. Or had children. Women …
Review #2 of 2: Destination by Jarrott Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 21, 2026
A small play with destinations that are psychological. A father and a daughter work to balance duty with their deepest emotions.
George Ayres' Destination, a small play, fits nicely into the Trinity Street Players' fourth-floor black box theatre downtown at First Austin. On opening night, downstairs there was a bustling fest of LGBQT organizations on the plaza and in the lobby; upstairs, the sense was equally positive but more reflective, for Howard, the focus of the story, is very much at the end of a long lifespan. Destination examines nostalgia, regret, and the tension between duty …
Review #1 of 2: destination by Jarrott Productions
by David Glen Robinson
Published on May 21, 2026
Haiku verses mark plot turns as characters face decisions that set down footprints in the sands of their times. Regret can eat you alive, but in this work it does not.
Agéd love comes out Whiskey from the cabinet Downtown lights whisper. Events, things, even plays may touch our lives and send them right along down new ways. Those epiphanies are more striking because they occur unexpectedly. The impact is most astounding when the stimulus evokes a look at one’s life, not forward, but behind. Look over your shoulder—what shapes of footprints are you laying down behind as you tread these sands of time? destination, the …
An Encomium: Austin Opera and La bohème
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 20, 2026
The triumph of Austin Opera's ravishing LA BOHÈME doesn't surprise, for it mirrors the companys confirmation as a major player on the national vocal performance circuit.
We've just learned that Austin now has a population of more than one million and is the twelfth largest city in the country. How things have changed! Long gone is that slogan Keep Austin Weird and only marginally relevant is its official successor Live Music Capital of the World. To be replaced by—what? Perhaps by nothing at all. Perhaps our town has grown up and gotten to be a city of complexity, creative, and self-awareness, …
Review: The Wiz by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on May 17, 2026
THE WIZ on tour is a musical that's about the music but also has the best possible performers—a sum far elevated above its parts.
“You’ve got to love a musical that’s about the music!” I am actually quoting myself here, as this was my biggest takeaway from the show. That is not to say that music is the substance of the show. It is a highly culturally relevant reimagining of The Wizard of Oz, which does much more than bring a distinct new perspective on a classic. It needs to be pointed out thatThe Wiz is a retelling of …
Review: Overheard on a Train by Cheerful Secrets
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 14, 2026
Who doesn't like a train ride? Even better—one with an entertaining story attached, in which you have your own lines to read.
"Cheerful Secrets," the name of Rebecca Maag's enterprise, captures precisely both her intent and her approach. Her clever projects invite participation, and audiences are gently guided into the happy, amusing revelation of situations and a story. In her latest, Overheard on a Train, she conducts you and your three friends aboard Austin CapMetro's Red Line train at its downtown station on 4th Street. Literally, in this charmingly intimate theatre world, for she is dressed as …