Recent Reviews
Review: The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare, Something for Nothing Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 23, 2016
A key theme in this graceful staging of The Winter's Tale is that of authority -- both its just exercise and the due deference of those subject to it. But do not worry: All turns out well and the lost is found.
Station Eleven, a 2014 novel by Canadian author Emily St. John Mandel, set at an unspecified future date after Western civilization has collapsed, features an itinerant group of actors making their way in covered wagons across the dangerous regions of the depopulated northeastern UInited States. They pull into hamlets widely scattered in that wilderness and earn their food by performing Shakespeare's plays for inhabitants otherwise completely deprived of literary culture and wider social contact. …
Review: The Gondoliers, or The King of Barataria by Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 19, 2016
THE GONDOLIERS has superb voices, wacky humor full of puns and droll stupidities, and its general topsy-turvyness leaves audiences howling with laughter.
The measure of any opera is the music, particularly the singing. In smaller urban markets such as Austin, the singing talent pool might seem somewhat restricted, as operatic voices are rare in the human species. Too often elsewhere in Austin’s musical theatre community, a production with a large cast may have only three to five singers good enough to tread the boards of a musical production. In contrast, all of the singers in The Gondoliers are talented, …
Review: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by En Route Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 16, 2016
Strong emotion and struggle sweep us up, for the action is taut and compelling throughout. CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF is a lost world brought to life and made acutely relevant.
Austin's May rains raised more mosquitoes that you'd find in a Louisiana bayou, so En Route Productions ran the first weekend of its subtly powerful Cat on A Hot Tin Roof at the Off Shoot, the Rude Mechs' rehearsal studio in East Austin. That wasn't as difficult as you might think. Tennessee Williams' 1955 Pulitzer Prize winner takes place in a single setting, and C.B. Goodman's simple box set was made to be portable. The production …
Review: Missionary Position: Pleasure Journeys for the Intrepid Lady Explorer, Season 3 by Glass Half Full Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 13, 2016
Humor ranges from the dry and subtle to outrageous slapstick, based on real global expeditions by intrepid lady explorers of la Belle Epoque.
Glass Half Full Productions presents their last production at Salvage Vanguard Theatre from June 3 - 18, 2016. Missionary Position: Pleasure Journeys for the Intrepid Lady Explorer is the third chapter in the series, featuring producing artistic director Caroline Reck as intrepid explorer Amelia Weatherbeaten and Cami Alys as her American sidekick Eleanor Dangerbottom. These two characters in play are worth the price of admission by themselves, but they never fail to bring in a wealth …
Review: Pageant, the musical by City Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 10, 2016
The contestants of the Glamouresse Pageant are headed into their fourth and final weekend with reports of full houses. They deserve them.
Pageant is pure fun, a lively evening with the silly sparkle of a twirling disco ball. Robert Longbottom's concept is simple. Take the loony artificiality of a beauty pageant and stage it with male actors to emphasize the absurdity of the activity. Beauty is big business, folks, and the promoters know it. The history of American beauty pageants is long and strange, complete with grinning M.C.s, swimsuit struts, talent competitions and interviews before live audiences. It …
Review: One Man, Two Guvnors by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 08, 2016
ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS is full of glee and surprises. It will tickle your funny bone without taxing your brain, making fun of greed, lust and cluelessness -- eternal aspects of the human condition.
The Zach Theatre's delivery of Richard Bean's zany rewrite of classic commedia dell'arte is great fun, full of circus glee with turns as unexpected and amusing as blasts of a confetti cannon. With One Man, Two Guvnors director Abe Reybold puts Goldoni's tricky servant Trifaldino into the ever charismatic and fat-suit-padded body of Martin Burke, the funniest actor on Austin's legitimate stage. Burke's radiant persona and confident ability to play directly to the audience make him a …