by Michael Meigs
Published on April 28, 2016
Nina Bryant's Margie the scrappy little Boston Southie mutt is sharp edges and soft center, a woman hiding psychological bruises behind dogged let's-get-through-this-one-day optimism..
I rarely stand to applaud at curtain calls, but even a theatre reviewer's scrupulous neutrality can be overwhelmed. Last Saturday when Nina Bryant who plays the protagonist of Good People stepped out to cap the actors' acknowledgements, I surged to my feet. Her creation of Margie the scrappy little Southie mutt of an abandoned wife was sharp edges and soft center, a woman hiding psychological bruises behind dogged let's-get-through-this-one-day optimism. You are sitting in the …
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 21, 2015
Other Desert Cities is not a holiday play; but it does allow us to unwrap a mystery that turns out to be a gift to all concerned.
Sharp, contemporary and merciless, Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities has a lot to say. Just like protagonist Brooke Wyeth the young novelist who flamed out after an early success and suffered six years of writer's block and desperate depression. Brooke is visiting her parents in Palm Springs, that odd lush oasis in the California desert along I-10 east of Los Angeles. It's Christmastime, 2004, in the never-winter to which her parents have withdrawn in their …
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 17, 2014
Reunions are some of the most exquisite torture to which we ordinary folk submit ourselves. They offer the chance to click the button on the stopwatch of time and to discover how lives have diverged -- or not. It's the shock of the transformed familiar, perhaps, or it's a moment to flaunt or at least assess ourselves. One of my classmates assiduously dieted away twenty pounds to present herself renewed at a high school reunion. …
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 23, 2013
The polish, confidence and dash of the choreography and song in You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown reinforce the cartoonist's basic message: Life can be beautiful if we reduce our concerns to the most elemental ones.
As fresh as the ink of the morning paper on a bright fall day, the Wimberley Players' staging of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown is big, bold and beautiful. And so is the cast; director Jim Lindsay has handpicked some of the most attractive talent from the region. Did you know that this musical by Clark Gesner is approaching its 50th birthday? You'd never know it from this production. The original version was done in 1967, …
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 17, 2013
STAY is a concept piece, a one-trick pony that can be made to work by talented director David McCullars, his capable cast, and the Players' fine technical support.
The Wimberley Players give Sheila Cowley's Stay a quality production with a strong cast and superb production values. This piece by the Florida playwright had its premiere with the Players Theatre in Sarasota, and its transfer between local theatres ready to try out new work is an encouraging sign that not all such venues are in lockstep with the likes of Arsenic and Old Lace, Neil Simon and the Texas gothic comedies of Jones, Hope & Wooten. Deanna …
by anonymous reviewer
Published on May 03, 2012
A thoughtful look backward a hundred years at the sharp contrast between the obligations of Christian charity and the racist attitudes common in the smalltown South.
Sundown Town by Kevin Cohea as staged by the Wimberley Players is a thoughtful look backward a hundred years at the sharp contrast between the obligations of Christian charity and the racist attitudes common in the smalltown South. The plot unfolds in rural Arkansas but these events or others very like them could just as well have occurred almost anywhere in the United States of that day and in fact throughout the twentieth century. With effective …