Recent Reviews
Review: Incorruptible by Gaslight Baker Theatre
by Kara Bliss McGregor
Published on October 04, 2016
Equal parts satire and soul, INCORRUPTIBLE at the Gaslight Baker Theatre in Lockhart will renew your faith in the transformative power of theater. And belly laughs.
Billed as “a dark comedy about the dark ages,” Incorruptible seemed sure to be some amalgam of Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part I and Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. But the latest production at the Gaslight-Baker Theater in Lockhart is neither nonsensical nor ominous. This nimble prodution is delightful. And improbable, set far from our modern reality yet landing right where we live. Incorruptible by Michael Hollinger is a bawdy satire …
Review: THE PRICE by Arthur Miller, Jarrott Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 01, 2016
To whom do these things belong? That question is literal but rapidly becomes metaphorical. Each is condemned to his discontents, Miller tells us; the price is simply what you're willing to pay.
The setting for The Price is heavily symbolic, an attic living space abandoned for sixteen years since the death of its occupant. The half-covered pieces of heavy furniture, the wardrobe with its mirror reflecting emptiness, empty frames, bric-a-brac, a sagging armchair, a piano bench at stage center without a piano, a passageway to an unseen bedroom -- designer Desiderio Roybal avoids clutter but embraces the miscellany of memory. There's a price for all of this, …
Review: ANY NIGHT by Elizabeth V. Newman Productions at City Theatre, September 21 - October 9, 2016
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 27, 2016
Most of all, this is a gripping fable about trust. Face value cannot be assumed. Face is valueless here; faces may be masks or, equally, those who see them may be delusional.
Any night you participate in this disquieting evenng at City Theatre you'll be seeing two actors-- but at least nine characters. Or, to put it a different way, in the eerie ninety minutes you'll be spending in this netherworld, slim and vulnerable Marie Rose Fahlgren will flicker between states of reality as Anna, an earnest and emotional young woman trying to break away from a former relationship. Zac Thomas will be variously geeky stammering …
Review: Twelfth Night by Present Company Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 22, 2016
The cast of this lively and family-friendly TWELFTH NIGHT are among the best devotees of Shakespeare in the city, the ones we are wont to take delight in.
Fun, family-friendly, free and right downtown where all the cool kids shop -- can this be Shakespeare? The clever theatre folk of Present Company have been here before, and this cheerful picnic-style produiction of the comedy Twelfth Night on the easily accessed rooftop terrace of the Whole Foods flagship store at 5th & Lamar in Austin is just as accomplished as their 2014 Much Ado About Nothin and their 2015 Love's Labor's Lost in the same location Austin …
Review: A Shadow Among Strangers by University of Texas Theatre & Dance
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 18, 2016
Lucien Douglas could have captivated us even if he'd performed this piece out at the intersection of San Jacinto and 23rd Street. Razzle-dazzle em -- and let 'em know they've been razzle-dazzled.
Sometimes you just have to show them how it's done. Lucien Douglas, professor of theatre at the University of Texas at Austin, has received plenty of acclaim: the College of Fine Arts award for excellence in teaching in 2012 and the UT Systems Regents' award for the same in 2014. His list of acting credits and theatre accomplishments, summarized in the program leaflet and on-line, would probably be as long as …
Review: Songs for a New World by Oh Dragon Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 15, 2016
Sixteen glittering stories on a twisting and twirling arc are a bit disorienting, but this voyage into the uncertainties of life offers rewards and serendipity throughout the evening.
Oh Dragon Theatre took me by surprise with Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World. As a reviewer at CTX Live Theatre, I'm dedicated to the CTXLT principle of viewing and reviewing live narrative theatre produced in Central Texas -- with 'narrative theatre' specifically defined as "the presentation of a story via the interpretation of a set text." This evening is a lively presentation of Brown's first stage work, …