Recent Reviews
Review: Relative Space by DA! Theatre Collective
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 13, 2008
There’s lots of back and forth among members of the company, all of whom get serenely happy grins and enjoy banter both verbal and physical among them
Like an extra gift crammed down into the toe of your Christmas stocking, Relative Space is deftly tucked into the off-hours at Hyde Park Theatre on 43rd street. It’s rare that you can get to enjoy theatre or dance on a Sunday-to-Wednesday cycle, unless some touring company cruises through town in that usually “dark” period. This short frolic rolls at 5 p.m. on Sunday and 8 p.m. each following evening, time-sharing the playing space with …
Review: It's A Wonderful Life, a Live Radio Play by Austin Playhouse
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 08, 2008
You’ll grin when J. Ben Wolfe morphs from quavering Angel Second Class Clarence Oddbody to the exuberant immigrant Mr. Martini to George’s youngest son. Wolfe has twelve assigned roles plus participation in crowd scenes
Here’s a warm, vivid and imaginative presentation that’s a time machine back to simpler pleasures.As part of the audience for a 1946 radio presentation of It’s A Wonderful Life, you enjoy the magic of radio drama. Five actors do double duty – as multivoiced interpreters for that imaginary radio audience out there, and as an ensemble of 5 radio pros working a script in front of you. Yes, they're holding scripts -- but under Lara …
Review: Still Fountains by Michael Mitchell
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 08, 2008
Michael Mitchell successfully creates movement, rhythm, and conflict for this odd bunch. Dialogue is spotty but at times very punchy. Far too often, the writing and plot devices are far too precious.
Glum and dreary exercises in male homosexual misery, these two plays by Michael Mitchell now playing at the Salvage Vanguard seem curiously dated. Maybe early Tennessee Williams? The first play, Highway Home, brings together two brothers, each probably a homosexual frustrated in his own way, with their nephew Blake (Jude Hickey) and his new wife Alison, an African-American attorney (Gina Houston). The occasion is the long-delayed death of their mother.Sourly garrulous Shannon stayed and wiped …
Review: Gorilla Man, musical by Vestige Group
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 06, 2008
Will Billy give in to his inner ape? What happens when the Gorilla Man meets Betty Boop once again? Poor Alice never gets tied to the railroad tracks, but can she ever find true happiness?
Gorilla Man plays in a hang-loose theatre space Thursdays through Saturdays. The guys at the Creekside Lounge are more used to your typical 6th & 7th street music scene than to the romping of thespians, but they were good natured about hosting the show.I arrived right at the posted time of 7:30 a.m., and I went directly into the bar. They directed me to the apparently unheated space next door, where some twenty folding chairs …
Review: Working by Austin Museum of Art
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 04, 2008
Dave the misfit found and expressed his genius through his entrepreneurship; the Latinos pursued dignity and found it; the waitress exults in serving without being servile.
At one point during the performance in the Congress Avenue gallery of the Austin Museum of Art an actress portrayng a waitress sang out, “Right this way, party of 32!” Maybe we were more numerous, but I don’t think we got up to fifty.This was an intimate performance – five actors doing three monologues and a duologue, standing in the gallery before the photographs taken by Brazilian economist and social activist Sebastião Salgado. Arriving half …
Review: Sylvia by Austin Playhouse
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 29, 2008
After setting up that impasse, Gurney funks it. He ends the action and brings two of his characters onstage to speak directly to the audience. Their pair of whimsical, regretful little speeches dissolve the premises of the dilemma and essentially remove the enchantment that allowed Sylvia to talk.
On first impression, A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia, now playing at the Austin Playhouse, comes across as brainless, harmless fun, mostly thanks to the gleeful, energetic actress Andrea Osborne, portraying Sylvia, the stray dog found in a New York City park. Sylvia’s playful, adoring behavior completely captivates Greg (David Stahl), the middle-aged empty-nester who has relocated from the suburbs to the city, where he and his brainy wife Kate have found new jobs and a new life. …