Recent Reviews
Review: Legendary Ladies of the Grand Ole Opry by Zach Theatre
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on April 01, 2021
These performers delivering classic country songs with true heart and soul put to shame today’s top-40 formulaic country songs—with powerhouse renditions and wonderful jokes and anecdotes.
The Grand Ole Opry has a long history dating back to its origins as a radio show on Nashville's WSM, a radio station established by the National Life & Accident Insurance Company on November 28, 1925. George D. Hay, an immensely popular radio announcer, called his weekly show the WSM Barn Dance (the name “Grand Ole Opry” was introduced in 1927). An opry is an Americanized form of the word opera. By the …
Review of Cricket on the Hearth streaming production by Different Stages
by David Glen Robinson
Published on January 09, 2021
Different Stages' imaginative, effective streaming presentation features welcome familiar faces in a a clever interpretation that's close to actual in-person performance. A fine epiphany for Epiphany!
Once again, Austin's Different Stages has found a different stage, and as with many others, has mastered it. The Cricket on the Hearth was billed as a staged reading, but turned out to be considerably more than that. The costumed actors performed very much in character as the early Victorian persons Dickens enlivened to colorful perfection. Their Zoom window backgrounds revealed props or held a few set pieces, and occasional deft touches emphasized connections despite …
Review: Human Resources - the Musical by Mallory Schlossberg and Alexandra Smith
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 24, 2020
Human Resources, crafted in the familiar two-act American musical theatre format, has a lot more of SOUTH PARK than LITTLE SHOP to it; it's far more sardonic than playful. The farflung cast did a bangup job.
These pandemic times have driven us all a little mad; they've also driven directors, performers, and musicians into new digital realms. For what is more personal than theatre performance? Artistic creators can't simply choke off their sources, and performers must perform, or else they begin to die inside. New skill sets needed? Okay, acquire them or invent them. Mallory Schlossberg was at work on the concept and music for the appropriately mad musical Human …
Review: K ! : D D: Ö by Frank Wo/Men Collective
by David Glen Robinson
Published on December 15, 2020
The Frankies evoked childhood wonders and granted time and license for all adults to relive childhood creative play, unlocking memories deeply buried in the true location of Neverland.
Over several performances the Frank Wo/Men Collective (the Frankies for short) has shown the community of dance fans three essential qualities of the group: (1) their creative vision is more than a little absurdist, (2) they are committed to the perfection of technique, and (3) they don’t repeat themselves. Number 3 on non-repeition was uppermost in my mind as I clicked on the hyperlink to join K.!.D.D.O., their new show livestreamed from …
Review: Wildcraft by Bottle Alley Theatre Company, in the Vortex Garden
by Justin M. West
Published on November 21, 2020
WILDCRAFT is a participatory exercise, extremely immersive. Our fingertips relish in the touch of unfamiliar herbs. Our ears parse our host December’s carefully crafted, wistful and alluring oration. Bottle Alley has done something exceedingly special.
2020 has been a year of sacrifice and loss. We’ve traded abundance for scarcity, kinship for solitude, and whim for measured compromise. For those of us with a creative spirit and for whom trips to the theatre were a mainstay of our nights and weekends, the inability to enjoy the arts—or the outright unavailability of them—has served as a poignant reminder that we’ve been taking it all for granted. Joni Mitchell was right. …
Review: (Un)Documents by Teatro Audaz, streaming from the Public Theatre, San Antonio
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 12, 2020
Jesus Valles is breathtaking in his depiction of himself, of his people, and of the rest of us. Anyone who knows and appreciates their world will listen, nod, occasionally gasp, and agree with Jesus.
With a face and shape we’ve appreciated in Austin theatre, throughout the last decade, Jesus I. Valles has established a sensitive, genial, sometimes even bashful persona both in edgy productions from folks like The Vortex and kt shorb’s Generic Ensemble Company and in warm or innovative Latinx works like those of Teatro Vivo. (Un)documents, a one-hour biographical piece written and performed by Valles, cracks open that affable shell to reveal the harrowed boy, …