Recent Reviews
Review: Liberté, Égalité, Adoptée by Maggie Gallant, FronteraFest at The Back Pack, January 19 - 31, 2016
by David Glen Robinson
Published on January 20, 2016
Maggie Gallant's true courage in this first-person show is awe-inspiring.
The true courage of any one-person show performer is awe-inspiring. To pull it all off successfully in performance doubles the kudos thrown to the performer. Maggie Gallant runs the table in her Liberté, Egalité Adoptée, showing at various times through January 31st at Ground Floor Theatre in east Austin as part of the Fronterafest Long Fringe festival. This show compares favorably to last fall’s Naked as a Gaybird, Jay Byrd’s skilled and well-received one-man …
Review: Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar, Austin Playhouse
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 20, 2016
Powerful but subtle J. Ben Wolfe as Amir Is almost a tragic hero, but playwright Akhtar implies that Amir's an ugly template for Muslims.
J. Ben Wolfe is a powerful but subtle actor, and that's just what's required in Ayad Akhtar's brooding drama Disgraced. This ninety-minute one-act in four scenes delves deep into the psyche of Amir, the protagonist, who's a tense, talented and aspiring attorney in a New York law firm specializing in big-money litigation. Amir is handling big issues, both at work and in his personal life. His family immigrated from Pakistan when he was eight years …
Review by Dr. David Glen Robinson (#3 of 3): FALLEN ANGELS by Noël Coward, Different Stages, January 8 - 30, 2016
by David Glen Robinson
Published on January 17, 2016
The design credit to Paul Gilbert as cook for the champagne-splashed supper in Act II seemed highly appropriate and very well deserved.
Different Stages, one of Austin’s longest running theatre companies, presents Fallen Angels by Noel Coward, at Trinity Street Theater inside the First Baptist Church of Austin on Trinity Street. The play dates to 1924, and it is one of several Coward plays that remains in the regular theatre repertoire. Different Stages takes a fresh and lively approach to all its productions, and Fallen Angels is no exception to the rule. For those newly exploring theatre, the …
Review by Michael Meigs (#2 of 3): FALLEN ANGELS by Noël Coward, Different Stages, January 8 - 30, 2016
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 13, 2016
The lightheadedness and the lightheartedness of these women friends is charming. Director Norman Blumensaadt moves them smartly and cleverly about the stage.
Comedy is fundamental to the human condition. We laugh at the unexpected if it's pleasurable, and we laugh at the incongruous. Often the comic moment in art depends upon a certain distancing: it's funny when a clown slips on a banana peel but it's not funny when we do the same thing. And comedy can be cruel. Satire exposes and intensifies that which we find ridiculous. We poke fun at the pretentious, those who think …
Review by Brian Paul Scipione (#1 of 3): FALLEN ANGELS by Noël Coward, Different Stages, January 8 - 30, 2016
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on January 13, 2016
The comedic tension Different Stages' Fallen Angels has the riveting frenetic pace of a Wimbledon tennis match. Cheers to this production.
Martinis, Champagne and the Requisite Amount of Passion “Don’t be young Jane!” Rebecca Robinson as Julia Sterroll shoots out icily at her longtime friend (both in and out of character) Emily Erington as Jane Banbury. In other words, be mature, respectable and a proper English wife: a task neither of them achieve after the first ten minutes of the play. They are the titular Fallen Angels of Noel Coward’s classic (and very controversial at …
Review: Beauty and the Beast by Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 18, 2015
Those in this extravaganza are two-dimensional characters for the most part, except for Ismael Soto as the Beast, whom we see both yearning and learning.
I lingered after the Georgetown Palace's Saturday matinee performance of Beauty and the Beast, intending to say hello to Kristin DeGroot, the sweet soprano who plays Belle. Watching the excitement onstage well after the curtain call, I was treated to an unmistakeable demonstration of why this production is running strong and full for its more than six-week run as the Palace's annual Great Big Holiday Extravaganza. DeGroot was surrounded by her fans, a press …