Recent Reviews
Review: Almost, Maine by McCallum Fine Arts Academy
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 06, 2010
Students did these pieces with energy and confidence, making the most of the humor. The ensemble curtain call was cleverly staged.
For the school's opening On Tour! production, student directors Ansley Lee and Sierra Tothero from McCallum Academy's theatre department took over the Blue Theatre, out behind the Goodwill warehouse on Springdale road. It was a friendly and successful conquest, with manager Jennie Gravenstein running concessions and generally helping out in the excited rush. Almost, Maine by John Cariani is a whimsical set of sketches about folks in the icy northern reaches of the United States. He's looking …
Review: Agnes of God by City Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 04, 2010
Evil exists. Pielmeier's examination of it here is glancing and exculpatory, as is often the case in our secular society. Each of these women is a victim in some sense, and in Pielmeier's world without greater meaning there appears to be very little consolation for any of them.
Agnes of God is a dark piece, in a dark place in the soul and in the universe. The three gifted actresses in this cast are glittering points of an enigmatic constellation in that darkness. A crime has been committed in a convent. Jennifer Underwood, admant and authoritative as the mother superior, clashes with Dawn Erin's Dr. Livingston, the skeptical, chain-smoking psychiatrist appointed by the court. Laura Ray's performance as a stressed and confused …
Review: The Dream (adapted from A Midsummer Night's Dream) by Austin Shakespeare
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 04, 2010
The Dream is Shakespeare lite, and it presents an attractive magic world for your evening in the park. There's no admission charge, so you're getting a whole lot more than you pay for.
This is Shakespeare for a summery night in Zilker Park. The slope above the Hillside Theatre is wide and gentle, the perfect place to sprawl out on a blanket as the stars come out, the players play, the music sounds, and the action flits before you. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a favorite, in part because it is sweet and not particularly demanding. Shakespeare runs masques with the Duke's court, with the fairy court, with …
Review: Our Town by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 23, 2010
'Our Town' is both their town -- Thornton Wilder's Grovers Corners, New Hampshire, 1904 - 1913 -- and our town, Austin in 2010.
Our Town is both their town -- Thornton Wilder's Grovers Corners, New Hampshire, 1904 - 1913 -- and our town, Austin in 2010. Dave Steakley and the large, talented cast at the Zach have a good time with the clever palimpsest of modern Austin that they use to reinvigorate a text that many of us first read in high school. It works, too, at least most of the time. This styling reminds us gently, insistently …
Review: Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Austin Playhouse
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 22, 2010
On viewing this Austin Playhouse staging, the thrill was gone, It seemed to me that Steve Martin, like his character Picasso, was seeking too hard to amaze.
Kimberly Barrow as the enamored Suzanne comes to the "Lapin Agile" -- the "Nimble Rabbit" -- bar-bistro, looking for Pablo Picasso, the man who enraptured her by drawing a dove on the back of her hand and then having his way with her. She learns, eventually, that maybe the second time is not as good as the first. I can share that feeling. I reviewed Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile last year as done by the …
Review: You Can't Take it with You by Trinity Street Players
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 22, 2010
Roland Johnson, at center as the patriarch Martin Vanderhof, surely must be playing himself. If not, his deadpan comic performance is an off-the-charts triumph.
Director Rev. Ann Pittman and the Trinity Street Players have put together an accomplished, warm and funny production of Kaufman & Hart's You Can't Take It With You at the 4th floor black box theatre of Austin's First Baptist Church, 901 Trinity Street, downtown.This affectionate study of a family of distracted amateur would-be artists and entrepreneurs bears the title You Can't . . . but the message is clearly You Can. You can be an artist, a writer, a dancer, a fireworks …