Recent Reviews
Review: SIX, the musical by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on January 24, 2026
SIX of them. Diva queens, fast and funny, sometimes hard to follow, deliver goose-bump-inspiringly musical performances to create the soundtrack for thousands of future sleepovers.
Like most touring shows, SIX, created by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, is a powerhouse production with a giant fan following and a slew of awards including Tonys for Best Costume Design in a Musical and Best Original Score (Music and Lyrics). Marlow and Moss wrote SIX during their final year at Cambridge to offer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Inspired in part by a Beyoncé performance, Marlow proposed a retelling of the lives of …
Review: The Look of Love by touring company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on January 19, 2026
Mark Morris has always known what the world needs now, and this evening of innovative dance to Burt Bacharat's music is his latest monument of U.S. dance.
The Look of Love, choreographer Mark Morris’s long-touring dance and music show, is a monument of popular music and postmodern contemporary dance. The show, presented one night only at the Bass Concert Hall, the main facility of Texas Performing Arts on the UT Austin campus, amazed us with its artistic directness, and dances set to iconic works of popular music. The show was based in simplicity—walking paces, repeated arm gestures, straightforward entrances and exits---the kind …
Review #2 of 2: Man of the People by Different Stages
by Hannah Neuhauser
Published on January 13, 2026
Dolores Diaz’s writing is utterly compelling as she depicts Dr. J.R. Brinkley’s perverse contribution to society, which bordered on the brink of insanity.
What information are you willing to stomach to believe in a future? Different Stages’ production of Dolores Diaz’s Man of the People dramatizes true events. In national radio broadcasts from 1917 to 1937 charlatan "Dr." J.R. Brinkley advertised his fraudulent treatments and medications to hopeful listeners desperate for a cure. This gripping story is rife with comedic bewilderment and tragic comprehension. Through its emotionally charged performances and interspersing of historical archives, Man of the People …
Review #1 of 2: Man of the People by Dolores Diaz, Different Stages, Austin
by David Glen Robinson
Published on January 12, 2026
Find joy in the performances of the cast of MAN OF THE PEOPLE. They are, without exception, worthy of your adulation.
Occasionally one witnesses a play onstage so exceptionally good, with superbly written dialogues given by excellent actors fully embodying their characters, that the play transcends the stumbling blocks of production insufficiencies. Such a stage presentation is Man of the People by Dolores Diaz, directed by Mary Alice Carnes and produced by the venerable Different Stages. The actors deliver a multifaceted story that performs open heart surgery on the human condition and walks away leaving it …
Review: The Duke Ellington Nutcracker by ATX Artists for Social Impact
by David Glen Robinson
Published on December 24, 2025
Two new companies, a refurbished venue, Ellington's jazz version of The Nutcracker -- with lots of innovation!
New things bring the excitement. Capital Contemporary Ballet and ATX Jazz Orchestra, both new, know this and have brought an innovative rendition of The Duke Ellington Nutcracker to Austin. The show gave us Ellington's jazz performed live and contemporary ballet performed skillfully and with considerable humor. The combination is a natural because the revered work was originally a suite of music for ballet composed by Tchaikovsky. Ever the musical innovators, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn …
Review: Beauty and the Beast by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on December 12, 2025
The touring version of Beauty and the Beast is Disney comfort food: tamiliar, targeted, and as comforting as fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.
Beauty and the Beast is a beloved Disney fan favorite that despite the addition of a few new songs does not stray very far from the original animated film. Like many Disney properties, the words “beloved” and “fan favorite” do not go nearly far enough. Just saying the title of this piece will get you the question, which one? Based on a 1740 fairy tale written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve (later revised and published …