Recent Reviews
Review: The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Playhouse San Antonio
by Kurt Gardner
Published on September 21, 2017
The stage versionis a strikingly somber version of Disney’s animated film. The Playhouse has wisely maintained this serious tone, and the result is a mature piece with considerable emotional heft.
The theatrical adaptation of Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame makes its Texas debut at the Playhouse San Antonio in a spectacular production that teems with talent and stunning stagecraft. With a book by Peter Parnell, music by Alan Menken, and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, it’s a strikingly somber version of Disney’s animated film. The Playhouse has wisely maintained this serious tone, and the result is a mature piece with considerable emotional heft. The primary characters include …
Review: Catalina de Erauso by Paper Chairs
by David Glen Robinson
Published on September 20, 2017
A marvelous work of postmodernist theatre, frame-bending and highly metatheatrical, Elizabeth Doss's CATALINA DE ERAUSO bursts with the topsy-turvy irony of postmodern plays.
Catalina de Erauso produced by Paper Chairs is a marvelous work of postmodernist theatre, frame-bending and highly metatheatrical. Playwright Elizabeth Doss takes on a historical theme as she has before (Mast, Poor Herman). But in our time in which history is poorly regarded and even more poorly studied, Doss avoids a conventional treatment of her historical theme. Rather than taking on history as a monolithic truth for source material, Doss sees history as something …
Review: Henry IV by Hidden Room Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on September 19, 2017
What all of us got was a rollicking, loud, action-adventure tale performed in live: Shakespeare amped, glorious, and compelling down to the last tear and blood splat.
At the end of The Hidden Room’s Henry the Fourth by William Shakespeare, the audience pauses to catch its breath. What have we just seen? The many people there on dates may have been expecting a dry reading of a play they read in college. People closer to the theatre scene may have expected a painstaking period drama in exquisite costumes. What all of us got was a rollicking, loud, action-adventure tale performed in live: Shakespeare …
Review: You Can't Take it with You by Classic Theatre of San Antonio
by Kurt Gardner
Published on September 12, 2017
The Classic launches its tenth season with a splendid production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy, still hilarious and relevant after 80 years.
The Classic Theatre launches its 10th season on a high note with a rollicking production of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning comedy You Can’t Take it With You. On opening night, the appreciative audience roared frequently with laughter – a tribute to both the timelessness of the piece and the skill of the actors performing it. Allan S. Ross plays “Grandpa” Martin, the patriarch of the Vanderhof family. A former businessman, …
Review: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying by Woodlawn Theatre
by Kurt Gardner
Published on September 10, 2017
Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows’ 1961 spoof of big business comes to San Antonio's Woodlawn Theatre in a well-mounted production.
Sort of a comic Mad Men with musical numbers, Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows’ Tony award-winning How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying arrives at the Woodlawn Theatre in a typically enthusiastic production. The plot centers around one J. Pierrepont Finch, a window-washer with ambitions to climb the corporate ladder. Using the book “How to Succeed In Business” as his guide, he infiltrates the corporate offices of World Wide Wickets and ingratiates …
Review: The Understudy by Southwest Theatre Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 30, 2017
Playwright Theresa Rebeck has great fun with this cartoonishly cynical look at the business of theatre. She implies that in big league art the megastars and the money men rule, while those very many hopeful and talented artistis looking for a break are willfully deluding themselves.
Playwright Theresa Rebeck has great fun with this cartoonishly cynical look at the business of theatre. Not theatre as we like it and practice it here in Austin, or even as the three vivid and vigorous cast members practice it in this piece. Her theme is that in big league art the megastars and the money men rule, while those very many hopeful and talented artistis looking for a break are willfully deluding themselves. …