Recent Reviews
Review: Charley's Aunt by Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 31, 2015
Farces about courting and deception have a fine long history, for what's more amusing that the earnest efforts of the young to wriggle around the constraining conventions of society?
Norman Blumensaadt, artistic director of Different Stages, has over the past 34 years provided a continuing anthology of the theatre, the living equivalent of that imposing row of books in public libraries, The Best Plays of [year]. The series on American dramas ran from the 1930's to 1993 as founding editor John Gasner was replaced by Clive Barnes. Blumensaadt's reach is wider and, if anything, more determined. The Different Stages programs list them all, providing …
Review: The Last Five Years, by Penfold Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on March 29, 2015
David Gallagher’s songs drew applause while Burke’s songs, presented superbly, stimulated thoughtful reflection. But Burke brought down the house in one line in a song declaiming the woes of auditioners.
The Last Five Years is the story of a relationship that proceeds through attraction, dating, marriage and beyond, all in the span of less than two hours in stage time and five years in narrative time. The elapsed time is unimportant to the relationship and the production. The show seems like about thirty minutes and gone too soon. Attribute this to the deft and efficient direction of Michael McKelvey, surefooted and fresh from numerous successes …
Review: The Christians by Lucas Hnath, Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 10, 2015
Christ is pretty much absent from 'The Christians.' One might imagine Him lingering behind the red-robed choir, listening attentively as He certainly has to Christianity's many controversies.
Most of us in Austin are Christians the way the French are Catholics: not at all. Oh, we're decent folks with generally Judaeo-Christian values, most of us. 'Do unto others' and all that. But in terms of faith? You mean, like, believing those tales in the Testaments Old and New? Those are values to be gently but firmly force-fed to children. For their own good, of course. So they can go through the hard process …
The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard, Austin Shakespeare
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 07, 2015
Stoppard's 'Invention of Love' is a deliciously erudite confection, a tour de force in the literal sense that simply outruns the cultural reach of almost everyone in the audience.
A script and production can be, unfortunately, too intelligent. Live theatre is both a private and public art. Producer, director, cast and associates steep themselves in a script with the earnest desire to understand the author's intent, references and milieu, in order to deliver those as clearly and vividly as possible to an audience they already possess or hope to attract. Stoppard's The Invention of Love is a deliciously erudite confection, a tour de force …
Review: She Stoops to Conquer, Austin Playhouse
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 05, 2015
Babs George is Mrs. Hardcastle, a Londoner's nightmare vision of the self-deluded and vain country matriarch. Give the lady credit for pluck, initiative and thespianism
Things do go a little crazy out in the countryside at Hardcastle manor. Hardcastle's oafish stepson Toby Lumpkin (the happily leering Stephen Mercantel) instigates the confusion when he solemnly assures a couple of visiting London dandies that the place is really a country inn run by an eccentric host. But that's only the beginning of the comic deceptions. Oliver Goldsmith's 1773 theatre piece is still going strong, unlike so many of the Covent Garden comedies …
Review: A Streetcar Named Desire, Texas State
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 23, 2015
Regan Goins captured Blanche DuBois's loony desperation and mute appeal. And Tennessee Williams does give her a lot of loony to deal with.
Musical theatre can fill up a space like the theatre of the new Patti Strickel Harrison Performing Arts Center with bounce, noise and spectacle, but I was concerned that the venue would be too cavernous for drama. Especially for drama as challenging as that of Tennessee Williams, that wicked old trafficker in souls in pain and search of redemption. And there was also the simple question of age: in the glitter world of musical comedy, …