Recent Reviews
Review: REIMAGINE: Celebrating 30 Years by Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on May 02, 2022
Reimagining such bright art works is challenging creative exploration. Quoting T.S. Eliot: ". . . the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
What does it mean to reimagine? To imagine again, after having imagined a thing once? What does that mean? Stepping through the door to imagination, that some think of as a storage closet door, one revisits the private universe that everyone has, colored with the crayons of childhood memories, dream fragments, visions, epiphanies, ambitions, primal fears, and the pixillating disintegration of lost passions. Yes, the imagination vault can be bright and creative, but it is …
Review: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by City Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on April 24, 2022
City Theatre's production Edward Albee's four-character masterpiece begins with an absurdist trope that sets a framework for the aches, pains, and humanity portrayed by the talented cast.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is Edward Albee’s 1962 mind-bending and reality-warping play about the nasty interiors of marriages when pretense falls away and somebody, anybody, takes a wrench to the machinery that just sits there smoking. If it explodes, it will scar your retinas. That’s the effect the actors strive for, anyway. Albee plays are always good for that. Wear shades. The play is canonical of the twentieth century Age of …
Review: The Lion King by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on April 24, 2022
Reflections by a reviewer who's never seen THE LION KING: visually impressive, a light-hearted romp well designed for kids (and the kids within adults). Mesrmerizing, occasionally over long, often hilarious.
The Lion King really needs no introduction. The original, a 1994 animated film, was an enormous success both domestically and internationally. Featuring songs by Elton John and lyricist Tim Rice and a musical score by Hans Zimmer, it was released during a time known as the Disney Renaissance. The voicework was done by an all-star cast including Matthew Broderick, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane, Rowan Atkinson, and Whoopi Goldberg. Yet although it …
Review: The Comedy of Errors by The Baron's Men
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 16, 2022
Director Michael Osborn's blocking puts plenty of spin on the characters of THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. It's a bit like a Feydeau farce, without the lechery!
Shakespeare probably wrote The Comedy of Errors in 1594, making it one of his earliest works, but it wasn't published until 1623. He crafted his script with lots of plot elements from Latin author Plautus's Menaechmi (The Brothers Menaechmus)—twin brothers separated at an early age, a comic servant, a jealous wife who mistakes one brother for another, a quack doctor who attempts to cure one brother from supposed insanity, tokens and money given to or …
Review: Selfie, the Musical by Vortex Repertory Theatre
by Rick Perkins
Published on April 11, 2022
The powerhouse band of four players and singers, along with the superb cast of four, made SELFIE, this grooving ensemble, rock the house at the Vortex in Austin!
The title alone made me want to see this show. Got it. Selfies, we all have shared them, all too often. Just today at my weekly Friday meal with my golf buddies, I posted my lunch Especial of Chicken Enchiladas. I was certain the world wanted to see how sophisticated and luxurious my measly wasted life is these days, hey looky: #Enchiladas, Livin’ Large, ya Losers! I felt victorious then; now I’m hiding in …
Review: 9 to 5, the Musical by Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Rick Perkins
Published on April 11, 2022
Who hasn’t seen the hilarious movie starring Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin? Office politics, boorish behaviors and sweet revenge among dear friends, all rolled into a confection of tasty fun for the ages. Dolly Parton sure has hit pay-dirt with her stage musical adaptation, even making an appearance via the large projection onstage. She guides us into the story and comes back for a well deserved encore to send everyone home singing …