Recent Reviews
Review: And Then There Were None by Austin Playhouse
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 09, 2013
You've arrived at an estate on an otherwise uninhabited island somewhere off the English coast along with nine strangers. Your host hasn't shown up. The weather has been steadily deteriorating. You spend the first hours tentatively making the acquaintance of this odd collection of mostly upper middle class individuals. The polite tedium is shattered when a voice from the next room sternly names each of you and accuses each of homicide. Ten lines of doggerel …
Review: The Undoing of Nonet by The Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on December 06, 2013
The Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company (KDHDC) is said by many to be the best modern dance company in Austin, and it also receives notable positive mentions statewide. Part of this reputation is built on the company’s athletically powerful performances and embrace of abstract communication, a hallmark of all modern dance inherited from Martha Graham. And while much of modern, or contemporary, dance in the 21st century has moved more toward narrative story dances or drifted …
Review: Arsenic and Old Lace by Different Stages
by David Glen Robinson
Published on December 01, 2013
Different Stages is mounting Joseph Kesselring’s Arsenic and Old Lace at the Vortex Theatre in East Austin from November 22nd to December 14th. It is something of a comedy standard and comes highly recommended. As Director Blumensaadt stated during his curtain speech, Arsenic and Old Lace is from the 1940s, produced on Broadway in 1941. It is also listed as a comedy classic, and that it certainly is, a period piece with sharp dialogue throughout …
Review: Arsenic and Old Lace by Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 01, 2013
Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring is one of those whimsical comedies that just won't die. The playwright wins our sympathies with a pair of comforting maiden aunts, their capable journalist nephew Mortimer and a sweet parson's daughter. He then plays a series of clever modulations in madness -- from the harmless to the surprising to the pathological. The play and the Jimmy Stewart movie are familiar, so this review's not likely to spoil it …
Review: Steel Magnolias by The City Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on November 24, 2013
Chinquapin Parish comes to the City. To the City Theatre, that is, in the form of Robert Harling’s superbly written modern classic, Steel Magnolias. Theatre fans cannot see this masterpiece frequently enough; they must review it often to catch the fast-flying wicked barbs, double entendres, bon mots, and just plain corny jokes that fill its two hours and ten minutes. It feels like about one hour because laughter makes one lose all track of time. The …
Review: You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown by The Wimberley Players
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 23, 2013
The polish, confidence and dash of the choreography and song in You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown reinforce the cartoonist's basic message: Life can be beautiful if we reduce our concerns to the most elemental ones.
As fresh as the ink of the morning paper on a bright fall day, the Wimberley Players' staging of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown is big, bold and beautiful. And so is the cast; director Jim Lindsay has handpicked some of the most attractive talent from the region. Did you know that this musical by Clark Gesner is approaching its 50th birthday? You'd never know it from this production. The original version was done in 1967, …