Recent Reviews
Review: The Servant of Two Masters by Penfold Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 19, 2011
This is a zippy, funny, fast confection, with all the energy of improv and the grace of comic ballet. It's not a musical, although a rank of musicians provide incidental accompaniment. Words and gags fly like Frisbees.
I always enjoy watching the handsome and talented Penfold Theatre folk. Not only onstage in their accomplished presentations, of which The Servant of Two Masters directed by Beth Burns is only the latest shining example, but also as with considerable skill they build their presence and reputation. Austin attracts graduates of theatre programs the way that Nashville attracts banjo pickers, and with not much effort I could name you half a dozen groups of friends …
Review: The Green Bird by Adriana Montenegro
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 16, 2011
Adriana Montenegro's version at the Cathedral of Junk won't win awards in those categories, for it has the cheerfully conspiratorial feeling of just what it is: a group of friends who've decided to put on a play at a really funky location.
Adriana Montenegro and friends have a good time presenting The Green Bird at the Cathedral of Junk at 4422 Lareina Street in South Austin. If you like many others in Austin haven't visited Vince Hanneman's towering backyard construction of strangeness, this free show for Thursday through Saturday evenings would be an apt occasion to repair your shortcoming in Austin lore. Artist/proprietor Hanneman has hosted theatre events before, including notably the annual theatrical comedy by the …
Review: You Wouldn't Know Him/Her, He/She Lives in Austin/Edinburgh by Hidden Room Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 11, 2011
Hidden Room and its partners haven't solved the problem of losing audiences to Netflix streaming, chatrooms and Facebook, but they've provided us with a fiction that seeks to deal with the new reality.
Austin's Hidden Room Theatre and its British partner Look Left Look Right ran this intercontinental production for the first time last March, linking Austin and London in a breathless Skype video dialogue between fictitious lovers Ryan Peterson and Elizabeth Watson. You Wouldn't Know Him/Her is an intriguing bauble, a digital spinning top and crystal ball that draws audiences into the fiction that they're assisting and supporting these young folk trying to overcome the challenges of …
Review: Boudikka, the Warrior Queen by Philip Kreyche
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on August 07, 2011
This play has clear-cut heroes, victims, and villains but, unfortunately, not much depth, giving it an air of pantomime.
The story of Boudikka, a Celtic Queen who leads an uprising against the colonial Roman Empire, might be summed up by a Hollywood exec like so: “It’s like Braveheart but with a woman!” Roman historian Tacitus preserved the history of Boudikka, commonly spelled Boudicca, and Cassius Dio later expanded on it. Boudikka was accounted to be a fair and wise ruler who essentially followed her deceased husband's philosophy that it was best to play ball …
Review: Urinetown by SummerStock Austin
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on August 01, 2011
This is one of the most seamless productions I have seen in the 2011 season in Austin. Every minute is filled -- with a laugh, a sigh, or more preponderantly a toe-tapping musical number. While each song embraces a different musical style, all are unapologetically over the top.
You’re In It Now: Stepping Gingerly into Urinetown: The Musical Two minutes into the opening number of Urinetown, I felt my heart give a quiet groan: was I really about to witness two straight hours of potty humor? There must have been at least twenty different sweetly sung references to micturition in the first two minutes alone and with "p" being such an easy letter to rhyme, it could go on as long as rest-stop …
Review: The Imaginary Invalid by City Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on July 27, 2011
You won't find any solutions to current health care issues, other than the truism that laughter is the best medicine, but you will certainly lose your worries about them during the lively two hours of this performance.
The 85-seat house at the City Theatre was agreeably full on the opening Friday of Karen Sneed's staging of Molière's The Imaginary Invalid. A full house of attentive spectators is always a boost to the cast. Amusement is amplified and reactions build. The natural curiosity of the audience becomes rapport with actors and characters. Comedy, by provoking shared laughter, binds the members of each evening's audience indefinably, in a fashion that differs from night to …