Recent Reviews
Review: The Baker's Wife by Alchemy Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 13, 2023
There's always pain within comedy; in THE BAKER'S WIFE with beautiful performances by Sarah-Marie Curry and Sebastian Vitale pain teaches us something.
There's an achingly beautiful love story at the center of The Baker's Wife. Sebastian Vitale as Aimable Castaignet the baker, newly arrived in the tiny village of Concorde, is quiet, a bit battered, and absolutely devoted to his young wife. Sarah Marie Curry's Geneviève was battered emotionally somewhere else along the way and rescued by the baker, much older; she's withdrawn, correct with him but short-spoken with others in Concorde. Love yearns in both directions …
Review: The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 by City Theatre Company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on May 10, 2023
A treat for those familiar with 1930's movies, THE MUSICAL COMEDY MURDERS OF 1940 was stuffed with odd characters and over-the-top dialogue. Deft casting rewarded by evoking giggles and guffaws.
The time: December 1940. The city: Chappaqua, New York. The scene: The Library. The characters: Helsa Wenzel, Elsa Von Grossenknueten, Michael Kelly, Patrick O'Reilly, Ken De La Maize, Nikki Crandall, Eddie McCuen, Marjorie Baverstock, Roger Hopewell, and Bernice Roth. Or, put another way, a maid, an eccentric mansion-owner, a cop, a singer, a director, a chorus-girl, a comedian, a Broadway producer, a composer, and a lyricist walk into the room . . . …
Review: Indecent by Austin Playhouse
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 09, 2023
Austin Playhouse's astonishingly accomplished production of INDECENT is a fully mermerizing experience that one wants never to end.
Director Lara Toner and the many artists of Austin Playhouse bring their audience into a fully mermerizing experience with their astonishingly accomplished production of Paula Vogel's Indecent - the True Story of a Little Jewish Play. In their hands and hearts, the work transcends theatrical experience; they create a multilayered emotional, intellectual, and historical experience peopled with vividly convincing characters and set within a world that no longer exists. The world of Yiddish-language theatre is …
Review: The Pearl Fishers by Austin Opera
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 03, 2023
The audience for the lyrical THE PEARL FISHERS floats on the inebriating rush of Bizet's music. The production's send-up of the libretto's orientalism is subtle, clever, and kind. Will Liverman stands out among the four immensely talented leads.
Georges Bizet's 1836 Pearl Fishers (Les pecheurs de perles) is as good an illustration as opera scoffers will ever get of the fantastical irreality of the art form. Having received the Prix de Rome, a sort of one-year fellowship to study in the Eternal City, because of some quirky funding stipulations, Bizet received an offer from the Théâtre Lyrique of Paris to compose the score for a bizarre script set in virtually unknown Ceylon (modern …
Review: We're in your Future by Alyson Dolan
by David Glen Robinson
Published on May 03, 2023
We’re in Your Future encourages us to support and savor the transitory magnificence of high art born of talent, sweat, and training. We hope that Alyson Dolan and friends remain regularly present in our futures.
Just when this reviewer thought he’d seen every possible move in modern/contemporary dance, along comes We’re in Your Future by Alyson Dolan. Dolan produces shows calling on the talents of her friends, students, and colleagues. And the dances are invariably sublime, not to be missed. A major plus point for her dance shows is the Café Dance venue in west Austin, a small, warm, truly intimate space with a marley dance floor from wall …
Review: Mother of the Maid by Jarrott Productions
by David Glen Robinson
Published on April 29, 2023
Jeanne d'Arc's mother Isabelle faces the extreme test of faith of losing her child due to events she cannot understand. Isabelle's is a tale of strength, survival, perseverance, and searching for the transcendent.
You already know how it ends. Here it is, no spoiler: Joan of Arc, teenager, war leader, visionary, sheep herder, innocent, über feminist, and pivot of history, suffered execution by burning at the stake by the French and the English, May 30, 1431. The high drama of her story in Mother of the Maid by Jane Anderson is foregrounded by the story of Joan’s mother Isabelle d’Arc. Anderson’s play focuses upon Isabelle in the extreme …