Recent Reviews
Review: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 17, 2010
Stephen Jack in the title role sings with simplicity, dignity and feeling. His brothers are a fine assortment of shapes and sizes, constituting a rogue's gallery and men's chorus of singers and dancers of remarkable power.
With Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, the Georgetown Palace Theatre demonstrates once again the blend of professional standards and excitement of community theatre that makes it the premiere venue in the greater Austin area for musical theatre. Webber wrote this piece well before his hit Jesus Christ Superstar, for a school performance in London. The structure hints at that, for when the lights go down, cheery Patty Rowell comes …
Review: Wonderland High by Red Dragon Players, Austin High School
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 15, 2010
Katherine Schwartz's performance of "Supply and Demand" swaggers and amuses with the refrain, "You can have whatever you want -- if you've got the 'Ka-Ching'!" -- recalling a long line of pecuniarist career girls including Sally Bowles.
The Red Dragon Players at Austin High School invest themselves gallantly in this first-anywhere musical theatre premiere. The music by James Merillat in Wonderland Highis challenging and stage-quality, with several clever numbers, cleverly staged. The Players workshopped some of this material last year, according to Billy Dragoo, who runs the AHS program, and they've delivered on his promise to Merillat to stage the piece when he finished it. The book, by Merillat and Jesse Johnson, …
Review: Educating Rita by Sidetrack Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 12, 2010
Michael Stuart is solid, as ever, a great mass of humanity with an intelligent, doleful look in his eyes and restrained, patient comments for his unexpected pupil. Molly Karrasch, on the other hand, sparkled and was an absolute delight.
Educating RIta slipped through with a low profile during its short run at the Larry L. King stage at Austin Playhouse. That off-key, self-effacing approach seems typical of big Michael Stuart, the show's director and the male lead in this two-person production. He did something similar in last summer's theatre off season, sharing the Austin Playhouse stage with Zeb West in David Mamet's A Life In the Theatre. Stuart can do that because within the season …
Review: Bash - Three Plays by Vestige Group
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 12, 2010
Jen Brown and director Bastion establish an incantatory rhythm. As the story proceeds, our sympathy with the victim, stroked with each successive revelation, is turned into mounting alarm.
The Vestige Group is a small band of purists in an unpure world. They believe that theatre, up close and personal, has something to teach about the human condition. Something that you won't get from video or even from books. They like extremes. Celebration, as in the goofily outrageous Gorilla Man or in Lonestar, A Popcorn Throwing Musical or examinations of the lost and desperate, as in Marisol, in Touchand in this grim trio of plays by Neil LaBute. …
Review: Body Awareness by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 10, 2010
The real joke, and the one that makes this such an appealing play, is that the adults around Jarred don't have very clear answers to any of his questions.
Annie Baker's Body Awareness is a well crafted, attractive little comedy with lots of heart. I hadn't really expected that, for the Hyde Park style is more often sardonic, grimly humorous or menacing. After all, director Ken Webster had been using a publicity shot of the cast in which they looked as if they'd been arrested by the Austin Police Department at a wild party. Because of a trip out of town, my first chance …
Review: The Taming of the Shrew, original practices by Hidden Room Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 07, 2010
Ryan Crowder's Katherina is an intelligent woman, neglected and misprised by her father in favor of Hamilton's self-absorbed Bianca.She is tart, rather than sour, and gradually we see her beginning to appreciate Petrucio's attentions.
The excitement and cameraderie were palpable on the opening night of the Hidden Room Theatre's "original practices" staging of The Taming of the Shrew. This was a gathering of Austin's acting fellowship, in the audience as well as among the company. Director Beth Burns and assistant director Stephanie Delk greeted familiar faces; storyteller-actress Bernadette Nason served the refreshments; musician Jennifer Davis of the Baron's Men offered masks for sale at the concession stand. After the house …