Recent Reviews
Review: Season's Greetings by Red Dragon Players, Austin High School
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 15, 2009
Every actor in this cast delivered a strong, nuanced performance. Aubrey Elenz as the needy, frustrated Belinda carried much of the overt action of the play -- not only as hostess but also as the most visibly vulnerable of these characters, all of them in need of love.
Their institution is ancient by Austin standards, with 80 years of theatre history under its present name, but the Red Dragon Players themselves are younger than most thespians in the town. They perform at Stephen F. Austin High School, at 1715 W. César Chavez near Mo-Pac, in the Praes Theatre, an impressive and well-equipped space with stadium seating three-quarters of the way around the playing area. The Red Dragons' Season's Greetings by Alan Ayckbourn played the first two …
Review: Laughter on the 23rd Floor by The City Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 13, 2009
It's a vigorous, entertaining, vulgar, unpredictable evening, one that will blow away any stereotype you may have of Simon as a warm and fuzzy middle-of-the-road comedy writer. This has the authenticity of experience, with all the jagged edges that implies.
There's no assembly more live-wire, unpredictable and funny than a room full of comedy writers. In Laughter on the 23rd Floor by Neil Simon, director Andy Berkovsky and a wild, accomplished cast mint anew the eccentrics of the early days of television.Word has gotten around about this show, which opened in November, took a long weekend's break for Thanksgiving, and will now be on the boards until just before Christmas. I planned to slip in on a …
Review: Dionysus in '69 by Rude Mechs
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 05, 2009
Dionysus in 69 is more successful as a 'way-back machine than as an edition of Euripides, for the high-spirited, satirical use of a triple time line gets in the way of the original.
The Rude Mechanicals' Dionysus in 69 is a charming exercise in illustrative theatre historiography, one that captivates us by illustrating how sincere, how naive and how lucky we were to be living back in the dark, dark days of 1968.Back in 1968, the Performance Group's interpretation of Euripides' The Bacchae resounded with the times. Their canny staging of the ancient classic about violence, ritual, unknowing and ecstasy scandalized conventional citizens and captured the imagination of the young -- that …
Review: Petra's Pecado by Teatro Vivo
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 04, 2009
Petra's world is like that of playwright Rupert Reyes' youth: Manor, Texas, a community in which all the Spanish-speaking families knew one another. Petra is the simple, virtuous woman owner of a tortilla bakery.
First, a gentle admonition to the transcribers at the Austin Statesman: the title is not "Petra's Pescado" (Petra's Fish). Teatro Vivo's newest presentation is Petra's Pecado or "Petra's Mortal Sin," which makes for quite a different kettle of fish. And it's not "Petra's Picado," (Petra's Nose-dive in Iberian Spanish), the version offered by the Salvage Vanguard in its weekly e-mail. This is Teatro Vivo's flagship play, the first of three "Petra" works written by Rupert Reyes. In the summer of …
Review: The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge by Gaslight Baker Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 01, 2009
The title of Brown's piece is misleading, for Scrooge is the plaintiff. Gary Yowell, stiff in his sideburns and scroogely disappointment, is pursuing damages for mistreatment, kidnapping, and personal humiliation.
Ebenezer Scrooge is everywhere around Austin this Christmastide. At his fictional debut in London in 1843 the old curmudgeon endured a long, long Christmas Eve but came through transformed and redeemed, much to the delight of the reading public early in Victoria's reign. Dickens intended the novella as an uplifting scold and a humanitarian lesson --and a money-maker. He didn't make much from it, particularly once unscrupulous publishers started churning out unauthorized editions. Within a year …
Review: Annie, the musical by The Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 28, 2009
You can ride with the escapism and enjoy the dedication of the cast and director Mary Ellen Butler, unwrapping for yourself and them a holiday present.
This holiday season’s production of Annie at the Georgetown Palace is an enormous undertaking. Most principal roles are triple-cast, with actors assigned to Mango, Kiwi or Plum casts. Ensemble roles are double cast, with actors assigned to Strawberry or Blueberry casts. Palace management is proud that 106 actors appear on their stage during the course of 28 presentations, many of those shows outside the Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule usual at 810 S. Austin Avenue in Georgetown.Running a …