Recent Reviews
Review: Prodigal Son by Jarrott Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 29, 2017
Sam Domino is the reason to go see PRODIGAL SON, for his focus, breath-taking mastery of Bronx dialect, astonishing physicality and and body consciousness.
Sam Domino is the reason to go see Prodigal Son, staged by Jarrott Productions at the cozy Trinity Street Theatre on the fourth floor of downtown's First Baptist Church at 901 Trinity Street. Domino has the brooding power and presence you might associate with James Dean, the young Brando or Paul Newman. Moody, isolated, struggling to find a moral compass in an alien environment, his character James Quinn incarnates the outsider teen who probably …
Review: A Chorus Line by Texas State University
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 28, 2017
Let's applaud long and hard to signal our appreciation for these beautiful aspiring performers. We wouldn't wish such agonies upon any of them. Unless, of course, they insist. . . .
One reason A Chorus Line endures is that it captures for us the intense ephemeral nature of theatre and dance -- by portraying the anxiety of performers who've trained to the highest level but are subject to the arbitrary whims and preferences of a director or backer of a show. It's a peek behind the curtains of Broadway and Baghdad-on-the-Hudson. It's a glimpse of the ever true: for every dancer or actor successfully strutting …
Review: Gibberish Mostly by Ground Floor Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on September 24, 2017
GIBBERISH MOSTLY by local playwright Max Langert shows us autism from the inside. The script has an economical sound and feel but leaves the audience weeping through the last half of the 90-minute story.
Gibberish Mostly is a wrenching play by local playwright Max Langert showing us autism from the inside. More than that, it is a gem of a play directed by Lisa Scheps to celebrate the reopening of Ground Floor Theatre (GFT) after 20 months of the City of Austin's blockage for permit violations and interminable waits for new permits. Through it all, the GFT owners, Lisa Scheps and Patti Neff Tiven, have been unwavering in …
Review: The Wolves by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 24, 2017
Sarah Delappe's THE WOLVES replaces the familiar HPT aesthetic with a fast-moving, fast-talking earnest and boisterously naïve discovery of life's possibilities. These wolves are a girls' indoor soccer team dedicated to the sport and the exuberance of their own physical movement.
The Hyde Park Theatre has new contents these days, and the vitality of the Wolves soccer team comes close to blasting the roof off the building. We're used to a different brand from HPT's Ken Webster and allied Austin theatre companies, more along the lines of quiet unflinching examination of the quirks and dark corners of middleclass life in these United States. The Wolves by Sarah Delappe replaces that aesthetic with a fast-moving, fast-talking …
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 …