Recent Reviews
Review: The Children by Jarrott Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 01, 2019
THE CHILDREN offers, once again, evidence of Jarrott's discerning taste in contemporary drama. By taking us away into these characters' isolation, this production brings us very much back into the human fold.
Darkness hovers over the plot, the set, and the concept of Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children, mounted appropriately in the Trinity Street Players’ black box theatre on the fourth floor of First Austin, a Baptist church. Jarrott Productions’ choices for this space have consistently taken the moral focus of those hosting institutions. No, not the theology. Kirkwood’s script, like many other productions in this space, examines the human condition and difficult choices facing responsible individuals …
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Review: Severe Weather Warning, A Wild Comedy by Theatre en Bloc
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 30, 2019
With the heart-to-heart exchanges, partying, group dynamics and discoveries, Elizabeth Doss's SEVERE WEATHER WARNING entertains but at the same time examines the dilemmas in this society of being a grown but not yet middle-aged woman.
Elizabeth Doss's Severe Weather Warning uses the trope of friends meeting for an annual reunion to plant us at a decisive date in the friendships of these four women, a decade and a half after they attended school together. It's a familiar plot device -- used, for example, by Hope, Jones and Wooten in their 2008 The Dixie Swim Club, a community theatre favorite, or in the 1978 Same Time, Next Year by Bernard Slade, done by community …
Review: The Ballad of Klook and Vinette by Zach Theatre
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on April 29, 2019
A continuous song interspersed with plot, this BALLAD has writing that's incredibly on point, and these characters are like two meteors colliding in the vast, dark emptiness of space.
The Ballad of Klook and Vinette tells the tale of a modern love story of “lost souls” trying to find happiness after trying times. The story is regaled through a well-balanced mix of dialogue and original R and B tunes that run the emotional gamut from breezy, to seductive, to playful, to heart-wrenching. It begins with a solid dose of comedy as two strangers banter back and forth, slowly realizing that though they do not know …
Review: The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Texas State University
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 29, 2019
James Lapine's rewrite of the film reaches toward the seriousness of grand opera. The craft and art of the Texas State program elevate it impressively.
You're unlikely to see a musical production of this scope and flourish on Broadway these days. In fact, the stage version of Disney's 1996 animated film was produced and premiered in Berlin in 1999, where it had a successful three-year run. It didn't get to America until 2014, but Broadway wasn't in the cards. The Disney folks were convinced that the popularity of the film wouldn't be great enough to haul enough tourists into …
Review #2 0f 2: Matilda, the musical by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 20, 2019
MATILDA, THE MUSICAL is a bit of a mess in the telling, especially if you've read Dahl's tale either to yourself or to a younger generation, but it's a whirlwind of entertainment. Congratulations to all those young talents on stage valiantly interpreting the story.
Austin's Zach Theatre has thrown all of its considerable artistry into the stage musical version of Roald Dahl's Matilda, and the result is a big bright shining noisy ball of fun. Directors Nat Miller and Abe Reybold scooped up young performers from the theatre's pre-professional company to assemble two casts, orange and blue, for the spectacular and demanding dancing and clowning that create this fantasy world. The young artists hit their marks and create …
Review #1 of 2: Matilda, the musical by Zach Theatre
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on April 13, 2019
Whether you know Roald Dahl's 1988 children's novel or not, this present production is a fervent tribute to his vision of inanity.
The Tony- and Olivier-award-winning Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical! is playing at Zach’s Topfer Theatre until May 12th. It is not part of their ongoing Theatre for Families series, as one might expect, but the company recommends it for ages 6 and above. Presentations in Theatre for Families generally have earlier showtimes, shorter runtimes, and longer runs (Wake Up, Brother Bear!, aimed for the very young, opened at Zach Theatre North last October, has just …