Recent Reviews
Review: Are You Alive? by Debutantes and Vagabonds
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 18, 2009
The six sketches presented by D&V were mostly unoriginal and sophomoric. The opening and closing pieces by Greg Romero suggest strongly that he has a nasty obsession with bondage, mistreatment, and body fluids.
This evening was a predictable success for music and a huge disappointment for theatre.Debutantes and Vagabonds, active since 2007 according to the history posted on MySpace, got a nice shout-out in March on Austin.com for their piece "A Brilliant Revolution." Ryan E. Johnson called it "hands down the funniest piece I've seen at FronteraFest." So I was expecting something special for this "collection of macabre theatre." D&V secured the Rollins Theatre at the Long Center for a three-night run made possible in part …
Review: Little Shop of Horrors by The Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 13, 2009
This was a Grade A production of a Grade D musical play.
The Georgetown Palace does its familiar high-gloss finish on this production with talented actors, a vigorous show orchestra, and an impressively atmospheric functional two-story set presenting Muschnik's shabby flower shop in the even shabbier surroundings of a NYC "Skid Row." The audience appeared to enjoy the goings-on and the six- and eight-year-olds sitting near me in Row B were fascinated by William Diamond's puppetry as Audry II, the extraterrestrial carnivorous plant out to conquer the …
Review: Romeo and Juliet by Austin Shakespeare
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 10, 2009
Director Ciccolella freezes the quinceañera in mid-dance for their mutual courting and first two kisses. They have stepped out of the flow of time, just as they have stepped out of the bounds of convention.
The Romeo and Juliet playing this month in Zilker Park is a perfect evening of summer Shakespeare. A play we all know, streamlined, given an apt and intriguing twist, with a production outdoors. The Sheffield Theatre is in fact just a stage situated below a bowl-shaped meadow. We the spectators are invited to sprawl on our blankets or bring our own folding chairs. The stage is wide, the players are amplified, and the full moon …
Review: The Tempest by The Baron's Men
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 07, 2009
The light wanes, the river quiets, and the lighting shifts. Torches around the playing space and discreet amber lighting from high above convert the meadow into Prospero's domain.
The energy and the innovative staging of The Tempest by the Baron's Men go a long way toward overcoming the considerable disadvantages of their "green world" theatre."Castleton" lies in a narrow meadow along the lake, just west of the 360 bridge, and owner Richard Garriott has furnished it with quaint cabins, fancifully decorated. It reminded me very much of the "cabin camping" practiced in Scandinavia, where a family leases a tiny dwelling instead of pitching a tent.The …
Review: House by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 04, 2009
Very early and without a word Webster differentiates between his spectators. First are those who embrace the incongruities with delight -- the ones who yelp with short, delighted laughs.And then the others, with empathy, who sense the danger in this character.
Ken Webster's Victor is in control from the first instant of this piece. Lights dim and he flings open the doors to the theatre, entering to waves of recorded applause. Victor's expression is sardonic, dismissive, impatient. He gestures and cuts off the applause, then launches into a stream of consciousness monologue about group therapy. He is scathing, sarcastic, in control, telling us about the misfits and about the facilitator Just Call Me Joe -- "and I will …
Review: Sunday in the Park by Bastrop Opera House
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 29, 2009
These are the agreeable melodies you might find on player piano rolls or, once upon a time, in the yellowing music sheets inside Grandma's piano stool. The large cast performs them with affection, in a succesion of tableaus and skits without spoken dialogue.
Bastrop's serenely strolling musicale Sunday in the Park recalls that quaint Victorian device, the cardboard puppet theatre -- an elaborate dollhouse stage in which children could push forward stylized cardboard cutouts, imagining dialogue and story. In this production, Engela Edwards of Easy Theatre, Bastrop Opera's long-serving general director Chester Eitze and choreographer Laura Goff create for us a never-land version of an America small town, circa 1915. They draw on songbooks of the era, lightly and whimsically …