Recent Reviews
Review: The Afterparty by Shrewd Productions
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 29, 2018
As Rommel Sulit comments as Aristophanes, “No, the universe can’t be understood. That’s why we use metaphor.” Reina Hardy's THE AFTERPARTY evokes our love and fascination with the universe that shines down upon us.
The Afterparty by Reina Hardy plays now at the Vortex on Manor Road for one more weekend, until June 30th, 2018. Reina Hardy doesn’t merely flirt with magical realism this time, she dives into it. Shrewd Productions, led by Shannon Grounds, follows her off the diving board into the great theatre pool. They have a huge success, meeting all the challenges presented by a highly unusual play. And The Vortex is a nurturing presence every step of the way. Here …
Review: John Wilkes Booth's RICHARD III by Hidden Room Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 25, 2018
Director Beth Burns has gathered close around her a company of like-minded theatre artists who polish obscure gems and set them to shine on stage. Their revival of John Wilkes Booth's RICHARD III is dazzling and thrilling.
Booth’s Richard III is Colley Cibber’s Richard III with actor/director/theatrical impresario John Wilkes Booth’s inflections. Yes, John Wilkes Booth. His radicalizing take on Richard III was found in his director’s prompt book for the play, unearthed in the massive geological literary deposits of the Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin. The excavator was curator Eric Colleary, who recognized the significance of the find and communicated it to Beth Burns, Producing Artistic Director of The Hidden Room. The rest …
Review: Ruddigore by Gilbert & Sullivan Austin
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 20, 2018
G&S Austin lays down a very smooth production of RUDDIGORE, with the advantage of recruiting probably the best singers in the Austin region. This year the star is tenor Danny Castillo.
Gilbert and Sullivan’s Ruddigore, or The Witch’s Curse, now playing at the Worley-Barton Theater at Brentwood Christian School off north Lamar Boulevard, sparkles as a well-produced and well-performed gem of light opera. The show is the yearly grand production of Gilbert & Sullivan Austin, a largish cabal of G&S fanatics under the control, barely, of Artistic Director Ralph MacPhail, Jr. The music, as always, is under the superb direction of Jeffrey Jones-Ragona. Known simply as Ruddigore, the light …
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Review: Little Bird by Heartland Theatre Collective
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 15, 2018
LITTLE BIRD offers, like a gift, a gentle imagining of childhood innocents who are oblivious of the brooding evil that surrounds them.
Nicole Oglesby's Little Bird offers, like a gift, a gentle imagining of childhood innocents who are oblivious of the brooding evil that surrounds them. Willa and Peg are thirteen-year-old girls, best friends, trusting in one another and their Texas bayou surroundings. Willa's discovery of a litle bird fallen from its nest at first seems a randon incident, one that we probably all hold from childhood -- Willa gathers the creature in her hands but is …
Review: STATIC: An Evening of Casey Wimpee Transmissions by Theatre Synesthesia
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 10, 2018
Playwright Casey Wimpee writes dialogue so stessed that it’s practically projectile. It’s vivid, unpredictable, at times horrific. Perfect actor bait: these performers, all devoted to the power of language, must have shivered in anticipation when first reading this script.
Theatre Synesthesia keeps you in dim light looking down into the pit for Casey Wimpee’s Static, which seems entirely appropriate. The playwright’s vision for these short pieces is not unlike that of Dante looking down into lower circles of hell. You’ll be visiting first with a manic soul who doesn’t at first realize he has passed away. Instead of the poet Virgil as his guide, Brett Howard will have Nicolas Kier as a hectic …
Review: Sunday in the Park with George by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 06, 2018
Artistic director Dave Steakley makes SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE an explosion of sound and image. The Zach Theatre applies its talents and vast resources to fill that virtually bare stage with a work so intense that it verges on an experiment in synesthesia.
The Zach Theatre's staging of Stephen Sondheim's 1984 musical Sunday in the Park with George offers a tempting treat. Sondheim's oeuvre is extensive and varied, and I've had the opportunity to sample it only from time to time. Of course there are the most popular pieces, including West Side Story with Bernstein, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Into the Woods with James Lapine, so familiar that they now seem obvious; and …