Reviews for touring company Performances
Review: Come from Away by touring company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on February 20, 2020
On 9/19 nine thousand grounded travelers more than doubled the population of the small town of Gander, about 6000 people. The potential number of stories for this show is 15,000. Superlatives fail, descriptions fail fail for the inspiration.
Come From Away, the lauded Broadway musical, is now on stage at the Bass Concert Hall on the UT campus, running until February 23rd. The touring show stops in Austin for a brief run before moving on. Its tale of people trapped in events over which they have no control is a source of inspiration with the sole message that life is full of wonder, and it is a gift to be a human being. …
Review: Hello, Dolly! by touring company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on January 22, 2020
What pipes Carolee Carmello has as Dolly! The veteran Broadway singer has a wide and expressive range and always seems joyous. And costumes and set were worth the price of admission
Broadway has remounted Hello, Dolly!, the Broadway beast of the 1960s, creating a new, upgraded show fit for touring the provinces. And we provincials receive it with enthusiasm. The show, guarantor of the career of Carol Channing, is about nothing more than feelings of the shallow romantic kind. Featuring three full-out arrangements of the title song, it certainly doesn’t forget where it came from, and I’m not talking about Yonkers. The comedic story covers …
Review: Jesus Christ Superstar by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on October 11, 2019
The 50th anniversary tour isn't the story of a man and his betrayer, it's the tale of a superstar. Jesus is who people make him. The obliquely abstract design did nothing to harm the electric energy of the production.
Before Jesus Christ Superstar was an international musical phenomeon, it was a rock opera concept album written by Emmy-, Gramm-y, Oscar- and Tony- award winners Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice Though it went on to sell over 7 million copies it was originally banned by the BBC as sacrilegious. Both the album and subsequent musical were condemned by various religious groups. It didn’t help that lyricist Rice included text that suggested …
Review: Les Miserables by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on September 13, 2019
The performances were Broadway quality with Mary Kate Moore as Fantine as a clear standout. Her vocal control was matched by her on-stage panache. When performed with all cylinders like this, Les Misérables will always be epic in scope and blistering in production.
Published in 1862, Les Misérables was Victor Hugo’s magnum opus. A historical novel that chronicled 17 years of the life of Jean Valjean while exploring the timeless topics of truth, law, redemption, and grace against the brooding background of the upcoming French Revolution. The story has found its way on to the stage and screen in many incarnations and its latest treatment does not lose sight of the grandiose vision of the original. Powerhouse …
.jpg)
Review: Hamilton by touring company
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 04, 2019
Lin-Manuel Miranda gifted us an opera of great stature that retells our own story, a complex work, written in a challenging idiom, one worthy of study and attention. And -- why not? -- reverence.
Hamilton is epic; there’s no gainsaying that fact. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s imagining of key events and personalities of the American revolution has a savage, electrifying impact, and by comparison it leaves the venerable musical 1776 looking like — well, a bunch of old white guys standing around in funny breeches. Manuel blows up the traditional narrative and mercilessly rips away the bandage of stale conventions, but at the same time the playwright embraces the …
Review: Cats by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on May 10, 2019
The disco sensibility that permeates this production is all sound, flash, and fury, providing a night of great entertainment requiring nothing from the viewers but a willingness to smile.
Like many, I’m sure, I recall the exuberant review of “I laughed! I cried! It was better than Cats!” that became a ubiquitous catchphrase, even becoming a Saturday Night Live skit. This phrase became a common way to express one’s admiration for a new Broadway play (and then eventually anything: "How was that coffee?" "It was better than Cats!"). The rub here is that for a long time Cats was the standard bearer of what an excellent …