Reviews for Zach Theatre Performances
Review: All The Way by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 18, 2015
You arrive at the theatre expecting to be entertained by a play about LBJ, and in Vinovich's first three minutes on stage you believe that you are right there with Lyndon. It's an eerie and electrifying experience.
Let's shout it out right now: Steve Vinovich is an astonishing LBJ impersonator. He resembles our larger-than-life 36th president, but what nails it is his mastery of the man's accent, phrasing and physical gesture. You arrive at the theatre expecting to be entertained by a play about LBJ, and in Vinovich's first three minutes on stage you believe that you are right there with Lyndon. It's an eerie and electrifying experience. Playwright Robert Shenkkan's All …
Peter and the Starcatcher, by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 12, 2015
Direction and conception evoke the sort of rowdy play-making one might imagine if a dozen pre-teens spent the night at a lock-in after watching Disney's film of Peter Pan.
Professional fan-drama has gotten to be a thing in recent years. Wicked, the dreamy adolescent take on The Wizard of Oz, has been the most successful, and the Marvel Comics franchise leaped past the stage right to the big screen. In 2004 Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson wrote their Peter and the Starcatcher prequel to J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and followed it with three additional post-prequel/pre-Peter Pan children's books. This theatre adaptation by Rick Elice …
Review: The King and I by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 24, 2014
The first and probably unnecessary point to make is that this opulent evening is not the place to go for authenticity. The Zach Theatre has of course gone to great lengths to provide us with an Asian experience, and it's an enchanting one. It's not a historic document, however, and The King and I on the stage at the Topfer Theatre is really a fantasy about the guardedly cordial meeting of East and West. Freely …
Review: Maid Marian in a Stolen Car by Zach Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on September 08, 2014
Maid Marian in a Stolen Car as a title has almost nothing to do with a character out of the tales of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. But as an overarching metaphor for the life in theatre that is Jaston Williams, it's perfect. Here's a man who has worked with the outlaws of theatre for four decades (and counting), a man who stood for right and good but saw injustice along the way. And …
Review: Maid Marian in a Stolen Car by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 08, 2014
The stage is a magic mirror and a magnifying glass. When he appears in the theatre-in-the-round intimacy of the Zach Theatre's Whisenhut stage, Jaston Williams looks much taller than in real life. Wisecracking, telling tales and occasionally appearing in drag, he pleases his audience by providing just enough of that trademark Greater Tuna fun as he gives them an account of his 30+ years on the stage. Behind the cheerful satire and the studied comic …
Review: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Zach Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 14, 2014
Zach Theatre Center goes for the gold this spring with Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (VSMS), the 2013 Tony Award winner for Best Play. The Zach is producing the regional premiere of the play with a cast almost completely of Actors Equity Association members, directed by first-time Zach director Abe Reybold. Again Zach gives a work its due with undoubtedly the highest production values of any theatre in Austin. The production …