Recent Reviews
Review: The Barber of Seville by Austin Opera
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 08, 2022
Austin Opera's staging of THE BARBER OF SEVILLE is thoroughly entertaining. You could even turn off the sound and have a good time (but don't do that—you'll miss some of today's most dazzling vocal performers!).
Rossini's The Barber of Seville is—and except for its 1816 opening night, always has been—great fun. Classic comic types are here, familiar from a tradition stretching to the present from early Roman comedies and the commedia dell'arte: a yearning ingénue (the soprano) about to be married off to an unsuitable suitor (a bass); the clever, handsome young man courting her in disguise (a tenor) with the help of a comic trickster (a baritone). Librettist Cesare …
Review #1 of 2: CHICAGO by 2022 touring company
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 03, 2022
Chicago's message: Life is a vaudeville, old chum. Come to the vaudeville!
Why should one bother to see yet another production of Chicago? The musical debuted nearly fifty years ago, in 1975; the film came out in 2002; and the work long ago proliferated among regional, community, educational, and even kiddie theatre companies. CTXLiveTheatre records ten productions of Chicago across the region, including a 2013 national tour, versions by Austin Playhouse, the Georgetown Palace, San Antonio's NESA high school arts program, and even a 2016 staging by …
Review: Blue Man Group by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on November 02, 2022
The Blue Man Group disguises low art as high art for an adoring public. Still, with the vast improvement and innovations in technology in the last thirty years, the ‘toys’ now available to them have a lot more potential.
Whenever possible, I like to go to any and every live production cold. No foreknowledge whatsoever. Of course, this is sometimes difficult with extremely popular works and often impossible if it’s a classic. Now, I wasn’t particularly worried about spoilers when it came to the Blue Man Group, but all I really knew about it was that there would be Blue Men and lots of drumming. I also assumed there would be a lot of …
Review: Hedda Gabler by Silent House Theatre (SH), Waco
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 22, 2022
Silent House Theatre's impressive 21st-century take on HEDDA GABLER demonstrates both their dedication to theatre art and the ample talents they bring to it.
Ibsen's Hedda Gabler appeals to ambitious young theatre companies. Silent House (SH) Theatre in Waco just opened its second season with Hedda, almost exactly a year after the Broke Thespians in San Marcos did the same. The work has a relatively small cast and a single living-room set, and Ibsen created several characters of memorable depth, in addition to the titular Hedda, daughter of the late General Gabler. No less an authority than Wikipedia notes that "the …
Review: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Zach Theatre
by Justin M. West
Published on October 19, 2022
Everything in Zach Theatre's THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY works to perfection. This uproariously hilarious participatory experience is a satire that's not afraid to sink its teeth in. Buy tickets. Now. Only one weekend left!
Ed. note: CTXLT colleague Justin M. West suffered a near knockout from the 'rona but made his way to a keyboard to deliver this review. He regrets the delay. The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity is scheduled to run through October 23, 2022. If you’re the type to skim or just read the first bit of a review to get the gist, this is for you: Stop reading. Buy tickets. Go see this show. …
Review: A Beautiful Day in November on the Greatest of the Great Lakes by The Public Theater
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 18, 2022
The recipe for A Beautiful Day [. . .] is a big helping of sentimentality, a hefty dose of satire, a touch of disdain, celebration in quantity, and, at the very end, the full contents of a vial of dark, glistening hemlock.
San Antonio's Public Theatre has put up cast headshots and bios for Kate Benson's 2015 A Beautiful Day in November on the Greatest of the Great Lakes, but this is the only onstage image published so far—a cast photo, everyone in character and costumed. Benson provides a vigorous depiction of the familiar confusion of a gathering for the sacred family holiday of Thanksgiving. This static, expectant image looks like many a holiday photo, a souvenir …