Recent Reviews
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 …
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 …
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 …
Review: Lonestar, A Popcorn Throwing Rock Country Musical by Vestige Group
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 24, 2009
Boiling it down a bit further, one could say that the actors in the drama were attempting to communicate a story, while the musicians and overridden singers were obscuring the story by raising a ruckus beyond words.
Wow, guys, this was a mess.Melodrama meets country rock band and invites beer drinkers to interrupt the whole thing at will with popcorn, catcalls, and even, on one particularly wild night, someone's shoe thrown from the audience.Dr. Dave my retired college professor friend and I paid for the Wednesday night VIP seats, only there weren't any. We were kindly removed from the high table next to the stage, which turned out to be the location …
Review: The 1940s Radio Hour by Austin Community College
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 23, 2009
At the very top of this game is Katie Walther playing "bad girl" Ginger Brooks. 'Blues in the Night,' that Peggy Lee favorite, is the shining moment of the show -- all the more so because she has the confidence to do it straight and then with the backing of all the male players.
I knew that The 1940s Radio Hour done last week at the One World Theatre by the Austin Community College Choir would provide us a time machine to amusement. The surprise for me was the dipsy-doodle movement of that flight through time.I went to the 11:30 a.m. performance, enjoying the novel sensation of driving in daylight to a theatre performance. I got there half an hour early, picked up my ticket, hiked upstairs to the …
Review: The Skin of our Teeth by Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 18, 2009
This is wild stuff -- a history of humankind as embodied by the Antrobus family, with a mad mix-up of times, epic figures, surreal settings and primal myths.
Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth is 67 years old but it plays as if it had been written and workshopped last week by one of those Austin indie arts groups of which we are so proud. It's wild stuff --a history of humankind as embodied by the Antrobus family, with a mad mix-up of times, epic figures, surreal settings and primal myths. Refract that story through the lens of a dramatic structure that …