Recent Reviews
Review: It's A Wonderful Life, a Live Radio Play by Penfold Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 04, 2012
Penfold's It's A Wonderful Life is a charmer and a thoroughly feel-good performance, particularly recommended for the holiday season.
Frank Capra's film It's A Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart captured the yearning, optimism and nostalgia for small-town U.S.A. in 1946, a time when millions of American men were returning from the war. The film made an unpromising start and was considered something of a failure in its first release, but yearly television showings of this black-and-white tale of redemption and grace set it deeply into our collective consciousness. Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed as his sweetheart, Lionel …
Review: Vodka, Fucking and Television by Breaking String Theater
by David Glen Robinson
Published on December 03, 2012
Of greatest enjoyment in Jude Hickey’s performance is his teaming with Joey Hood as Vodka. Together, they acted as a kind of Bobbsey Twins of temptation.
This play, written in 2003, may reach an apex in the new generation of Russian plays. Breaking String Theater Company is getting used to this Russian art explosion, having produced a number of Russian plays in translation, and producing this extremely well written comedy with an exceptional ensemble of some of Austin’s most talented actors. Liz Fisher directs Vodka, Fucking and Television for Breaking String. The only speed bump in the raceway to success for this …
Review: Grotesque and Arabesque - Poe Retold by Weird City Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on November 23, 2012
The stage artists showed profound respect for the literary artist, expressed in the best way they knew how to express it—on stage. At that moment I knew I could trust Weird City with my Poe.
I keep hearing the BLUE Theatre is closed or closing, but I keep going there to shows, despite the construction and demolition all around it. Now Weird City Theatre has installed in it Grotesque and Arabesque: Poe Retold, a bold collection of five one-acts abstracted from five of Poe’s horror stories. The story treatments were written by Weird City Theatre company members or associates, and they arrive on stage as one-act plays just in time for …
Review: Coriolanus by Trinity Street Players
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 20, 2012
Primus inter pares is Charles P. Stites as Meninius Agrippa, the confident, humorous old patrician. Stites makes every syllable and movement count. His presence is so vivid that at times he upstages the whole crowd of players without appearing to move a muscle.
In his March 2010 profile of Austin theatre for World Theatre Day, Austin Chronicle arts editor and theatre artist Robert Faires noted that certain works, including Shakespeare's 'Scottish play' and A Midsummer Night's Dream, "circle round again and again like pop songs in heavy rotation. In fact, Austin theatre companies have a curious tendency to remount all kinds of plays that were staged in the area within the past 10 or so years, as if it …
Review: Can Can: A 1940's Floor Show by Exchange Artists
by David Glen Robinson
Published on November 15, 2012
Exchange Artists remains true to its huge creative energies, and everything it produces offers beautiful gifts to its audiences.
I picked my way through the new development and blocked streets of downtown Austin to find this new bar I’d never heard of, the Palm Door. After hiking blocks, I saw it—it was the building formerly occupied by City Grille, once the best seafood restaurant in Austin. The address is 401 Sabine Street, immediately across the street east of the convention center. I want everyone to find it more easily than I did because the …
Review: Mariachi Girl
by Jessica Marie Padilla
Published on November 10, 2012
Mariachi Girl is a well rounded Theatre for Youth musical enjoyed by all ages, one that asks important questions of its audiences. The musical asked me to remember.
I remember it as if I had suddenly woken from a dream. I was crouching on the living floor, ear pressed to the window like Beethoven, listening to the sound of a tuning guitar, chords on a keyboard, and the distinct hum of the accordion and amplifier. They were bringing my mother a serenade for Día de Las Madres, Mother’s Day. It was my father, grandfather, and whatever friend they could find with a cable and …