Recent Reviews
Review: Circus Girl by Hat Tree Theatricals
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 16, 2013
The most effective and powerful segments of the play were Circus Girl’s dreams in times of deepest despair. They were not visionary or revelatory and certainly not premonitory; they're probably best described as hallucinatory agonies.
Circus Girl, written by Rocky Hopson, is a coming-of-age play like few others. Set in the 1890s in the Midwest and Rocky Mountains, the play proceeds initially like the adventures of one of many “Little Nells” of the dime novels of that time. If those stories had finished with any of the realism and hard times of that age depicted in this play, very few “Little Nells” would have survived to tell the tale. 'Circus …
Review: 12 Angry Men by City Theatre Company
by Jessica Helmke
Published on June 06, 2013
This is lean, stripped-down acting, theatrical work that's basically artistic commentary about a script and a world that still merits performance today.
A View Inside DecidingDecisions. We make them everyday. City Theatre's production of 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose gravely invited audience members to search for truth, as if they were jurors in the murder case. Vividly depicted characters organized around a long wooden table wore their back stories on their sleeves, and actors balanced their portrayals against one another with the guarded cordiality of an intense game of poker. This closed and sequestered group of twelve jurors touched …
Review: Avenue Q by Austin Theatre Project
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on June 06, 2013
The story’s message is as brief and penetrating as the moral of an 80’s sitcom: I’m not OK. You’re not OK and we will just put up with everyone else on the street because we don’t have a choice.
Can You Show me How to Get to Avenue Q? Long past are the days when musicals were solely the domain of prancing pirates and line dancing debutantes. The villains sang in baritone and the hero, a lilting tenor, as he won, lost and re-won the girl in different fantastical settings. There is the theme song, the hero’s lament, the song that exposes the girl’s conflicting feelings, the growling villain’s rant-song, and a choral …
Review: Harvey by Zach Theatre
by Christine El-Tawil
Published on May 20, 2013
Martin Burke’s subtle gestures and affably earnest conversations with Harvey have you almost seeing the giant white rabbit yourself! Burke portrays Elwood’s genuinely friendly nature without out a single false note.
Harvey by Mary Chase at the Zach Theatre, directed by Dave Steakley, is a laughter-inducing good time. It centers around Elwood P. Dowd , a charming, generous and altogether very pleasant man who happens to have an invisible six-foot rabbit named Harvey as his best friend. Martin Burke’s comic performance is flawless, once again. Burke’s subtle gestures and affably earnest conversations with Harvey have you almost seeing the giant white rabbit yourself! Burke portrays Elwood’s genuinely …
Review: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert by touring company
by Catherine Dribb
Published on May 11, 2013
Priscilla Queen of the Desert is a rambunctious montage of 80s chart-toppers and truly magnificent costuming. The national tour which pulled into Austin last week is no exception. Unlike our trailer eateries, Priscilla (a fabulously renovated old bus) supports no hipsters, cowboys or college students typical to the Austin scene, but rather a trio of performers. Two drag queens and a transvestite are traveling through the outback to perform at one of their member's, Tick's, ex-wife's …
Review: Same Time, Next Year by Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 29, 2013
The world of the play is pretty much irrelevant to the contemporary world of instant messaging, hooking up, friends with benefits, living together without sanction of marriage and easy divorces. And to anyone born since the play was first staged in 1975.
Yes, I would be delighted to enjoy a guilt-free assignation once a year with the energetic, sweet and affectionate Virginia Keeley. Fellow actor Bill Barry has had that privilege this month at the Georgetown Palace, at least in our imaginations. Since the six scenes in Bernard Slade's play span the twenty-four years between 1951 and 1975, Barry's averaging just about one imaginary assignation a day. (And by his exuberant count in the final scene, …