Recent Reviews
Review: Mary Stuart by Austin Shakespeare
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 14, 2010
But this evening in that haunting space belongs entirely to the queens. Helen Merino as Mary Stuart and Pamela Christian as Elizabeth are foes and yet so alike -- as Schiller reminds us when Elizabeth snaps bitterly at the kneeling Mary, "I could have easily been in your place."
Mary Stuart in Austin Shakespeare's staging at the Rollins Theatre provides a powerful, cathartic experience for the spectator. Schiller's drama gives us two sixteenth-century queens, each with a claim to the English throne, wrapped in tangled interests of state and church, trapped together like scorpions in a bottle and surrounded by plotters, counselors, and mendacity. This Mary Stuart plays like Shakespeare, with actors in stylized Elizabethan garb moving in a long court laid between ranks …
Review: Excuse Me While I Change by Michelle Cheney
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 11, 2010
Cabaret entertainment requires wit and personality. She hangs those clever songs on a life story and a theme. In the program she quotes Katherine Mansfield.
Michelle Cheney has a lot of fans and friends in this town -- enough to fill up the 85-seat City Theatre in direct competition with the Superbowl. Mind you, the feminine persuasion was visibly in the majority, probably having abandoned their men friends to the Nachos, beer and television as they went off to enjoy Michelle's patter, song, wit and costume changes.Michelle Cheney has often appeared on Austin stages, but she made an early confession: …
Review: Buried Child by The City Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 09, 2010
Keylee Koop as the ingénue Shelley is the only healthy one here. This L.A. girly-girl does her best to deal with this world of relentless downers, but she, too, gets to a point when she’s goaded to the attack.
Tom Waits’ discordant, sardonic music is a perfect match for Sam Shepard’s Buried Child. The program gives no credit for sound design, but City Theatre's artistic director Andy Berkovsky tells me that director Caleb Straus made the choice. Like Tom Waits, Shepard brings us into a world of discord and grotesque despair. Shepard creates a distorted vision of the all American rural idyll. Think you’ve had a tough time visiting the prospective in-laws? Forget it. …
Review: John and Jen by Penfold Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 08, 2010
Andrew Cannata has the job of growing up twice in this script. The first act features some charming and evocative brother-and-sister play before Jen leaves home. In the second act Cannata's distress with his Mom is presented.
Working with Michael McKelvey of St. Edward's University, the budding Penfold Theatre has occupied relatively unexploited theatre territory in Austin: the contemporary intimate musical. John & Jen has a genre resemblance to their pioneer show The Last Five Years. Two actors in an intimate space, with most of the story told in song and complex, sophisticated accompanying music. On his website, composer Andrew Lippa calls it a "chamber musical." The music is scored for keyboard, …
Review: The Flaming Idiots by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 05, 2010
It's all juggling and comedy, and it's all spectacle. Don't expect any narrative other than the quirky bounce of their funnymen personalities.
They juggled and joked together for 20 years, and now they're back, while they can still do it. In his program note, Rob Williams -- the beaming little guy in the yellow shirt -- says that the Zach gave them the step up from renaissance fairs and comedy clubs to the world of regional theatres, network television and off-Broadway. They disbanded in 2004 but last year resurrected the act, playing in Edmonton, Canada, then moving …
Review: The Elephant Man by Emily Ann Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 04, 2010
The confinement of the playing space emphasizes the confinement of the characters -- not only that of Merrick in his lamed body and hospital refuge but also those constraints placed upon others by their social roles and their institutions.
Director Bridget Farias and the EmilyAnn Theatre crew in Wimberley are running The Elephant Man Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for four weekends in January and February, an intrepid undertaking for a community-based arts group in a town with a population of only about 4,000. More impressive than their raw courage in taking on a tough script and slow-motion tragedy is the fact that they carry it out with grace and depth. The company creates a …