Reviews for touring company Performances

Review: Wicked by touring company

Review: Wicked by touring company

by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on March 27, 2024

This WICKED TOUR keeps the dazzle while the leads remake and deepen the frenemies Elphaba and Glinda. Not just good and evil; this story calls into question the stories of history.

It seems a little odd to write an introduction to such a well-known musical phenomenon as Wicked, especially here in Austin in which despite the play’s already huge popularity it was touted by a media storm that included billboards, television commercials, and a bombardment of social media ads. Yet nowadays with ads tailored made for the individual thanks to invasive communication software, that could be just me. As I write this, my computer is probably …

Read more »

Review: Beetlejuice by touring company

Review: Beetlejuice by touring company

by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on February 16, 2024

David Korins's set design is amazing, but Eddie Perfect's music is a maelstrom of meandering melodies muddled together.

The name Beetlejuice was derived from Betelgeuse, the second brightest star in the constellation of Orion. yet for many a fan it is the brightest star in the Tim Burton cinematic universe. The idea for the movie came to writers Michael McDowell and Laurence Senelick when they were at home trying to write a screenplay inspired by Ghostbusters and Poltergeist but were increasingly annoyed by their family members. Thus came the clever idea of ghosts …

Read more »

Review: Tina - The Tina Turner Musical by touring company

Review: Tina - The Tina Turner Musical by touring company

by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on January 20, 2024

TINA is full of exuberance, energy, and hits (it's a jukebox musical, after all). The cast does a wonderful job. The script is slanted so Tina's victories are without exception either Pyrrhic or monetary.

In 1967 Tina Turner was both the first African American and the first woman to be featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Her story is well known to many. Born Anna Mae Bullock, she rose to stardom early in her career after joining Ike Turner’s band the Kings of Rhythm in 1956 at the age of seventeen. Her marriage to Ike Turner was marked by sixteen years of physical and emotional abuse, from …

Read more »

Review: The Book of Mormon by touring company

Review: The Book of Mormon by touring company

by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on November 23, 2023

THE BOOK OF MORMON, a phenomenon of Broadway 2.0, provokes controversy and inspires thoughtful dialogue, as good art should.

  The Book of Mormon, a ground-breaking musical comedy with music, lyrics, and book by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone, premiered on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on March 24, 2011, and it is still very much a hot ticket over two decades later. The show is the brainchild of the creators of the notoriously raunchy tv series South Park, so it is reasonable to expect it will have a similar tone—but …

Read more »

Review: George Gershwin Alone by Hershey Felder, on tour at Zach Theatre, Austin

Review: George Gershwin Alone by Hershey Felder, on tour at Zach Theatre, Austin

by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on September 23, 2023

Hershy Felder, one of the most naturalistic actors working today, brilliantly tells Gershwin's story and attacks the piano with a visceral ferocity, channeling the man's spirit, personal ambitions, and frustrations.

   Was he happy?                                                         This inspired question seemed to come out of nowhere, as if plucked from the stratosphere, in order to formulate in words, the thought the whole audience was unknowingly thinking. It was asked during the question-and-answer session that immediately followed Hershey Felder’s unquestionably brilliant performance …

Read more »

Review: To Kill a Mockingbird (Sorkin) by touring company

Review: To Kill a Mockingbird (Sorkin) by touring company

by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on May 30, 2023

Aaron Sorkin's adaptation for modern audiences is refreshing, compelling, and a sharp reminder that the controversial issues in Harper Lee's 1960 novel are relevant today.

 Having reviewed quite a few new Broadway plays, I have gotten pretty used to seeing that such-and-such a production has won four, five, six, seven, or a gazillion Tony Awards. It is hard to describe my shock that the best Broadway play I have seen in years, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, won only one.   I realize that the knee-jerk reaction to this statement will be along the lines that the Antoinette Perry …

Read more »