Recent Reviews
Review: Waiting for Godot by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 21, 2024
Hyde Park Theatre proves once again that it's not obligatory for drama to entertain or distract. It's vital, sufficient and salutory for theatre art to look straight into the abyss.
It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That was Winston Churchill in an October, 1939 radiocast discussing the newly announced pact between Germany and Russia, but his cryptic formulation could be applied as well to Samuel Beckett's 1948-1949 En attendant Godot, written in French and produced in Paris in 1953. Beckett's English-language translation of his own work was staged in London …
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Review: Shucked by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on December 18, 2024
The touring musical SHUCKED is so extremely middle of the road (and corny) that it suggests the mindless entertainment that ChatGPT may eventually be capable of churning out.
Oh Henry, you were indubitably a champ, but the ears are buzzing all along the rows that the best punster of them all was James Joyce, so, we should of course rejoice and applaud in O Henry’s efforts to not only stalk his predecessor but o’er take him across the bow and shuck him aside like a tasseled and braced silk suit leaving a mere husk where before the tillers once held strong. While …
Review: Peter Pan by touring company
by Vanessa Hoang Hughes
Published on December 13, 2024
The PETER PAN tour's a fun-for-all production with stunning performances, awe-inspiring theater magic, and a vivid story the entire family will remember.
Magical boy Peter Pan flies into the bedroom of ordinary kids Wendy, John, and Michael to take them on a riveting journey to a fantastical place called Neverland. This new adaptation touring the US is an exciting rewrite of the 1954 musical that featured Mary Martin and Cyril Richard. Writer Larissa Fasthorse of the Lakota nation and director Lonny Price have created a production that keeps all the charm and nostalgia of the original, reviving …
Review: A Christmas Carol 2024 by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 12, 2024
For better or worse, everyone should see this quintessential Austin Christmas experience at least once before they die!
Zach Theatre's rocking A Christmas Carol is an evening of delighted joy and celebration, as always—or, at least, as it has been throughout the past decade. Producing artistic director Dave Steakley's rethink of the Dickens cautionary tale has little of sin, gloom, avarice and death about it. It's anchored with the charismatic talents of Kenny Williams and Roderick Sanford, back again to charm us not only with their extraordinary voices but also with Williams' bouncy insouciance …
Review: HAMLET by Trinity University, San Antonio
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 14, 2024
The Trinity University cast of 39 had no doubts at all about the language, the length, or the deep themes of Shakespeare's most famous work. Anna Kate Vaughan's Hamlet is contemporary, swift, articulate, and intentional.
Trinity University's Dr. Stacey Connelly has taken on an audacious challenge: staging Shakespeare's Hamlet for the first time in the theatre program's 56-year history. This is Shakespeare's longest play, with texts published postumously in quarto and folio editions that hardly matched at all. Combining these, editors constructed the revered "complete text." Connelly appears to have staged that version, which runs three and a half hours, including about twenty minutes of break for intermission and scene …
Review: Brand by Lighthouse Theatre
by Charles Ney
Published on November 09, 2024
Lighthouse Theatre faced the many challenges of BRAND, Henrik Ibsen's rarely performed first drama. Zach Gamble in the title role and director Chase Wooldridge dug deep, and their work with the capable cast paid off beautifully.
What a pleasure to see a rarely performed Ibsen play fully mounted. In all my theatre travels, I have never encountered Brand, the playwright's first work. So what a treat it was to have the chance to see this piece on stage! As I watched this production unfold, I realized why this piece is so rarely done. The challenges are many. At the core is an icy uncaring protagonist who lives by the motto …