Recent Reviews
Review: JACK AND AIDEN by Lane Michael Stanley and Tova Katz, Ground Floor Theatre, November 30 - December 16, 2023
by David Glen Robinson
Published on December 03, 2023
A bold, almost brutal portrait of the gay urban village, JACK AND AIDEN is stark and powerful. Stanley's vivid language, Katz's music, and Turner's direction hurl these two actors into unresolved life crises.
Ground Floor Theatre in east Austin has just presented the world premiere of an important musical. A collaboration of Lane Michael Stanley (book) and Tova Katz (music and lyrics), Jack and Aiden explores the lives of two gays, one cis, one trans, caught up in the life of hook-ups and cyber technology, where hooking up is easy and falling apart is easier. The couple’s emotions and desires draw them closer into a relationship; and that’s a …
Review: Miss Lulu Bett by Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 28, 2023
This vigorous three-act production of Gale's 1921 Pulitzer-Prize-winning Drama offers sharp, well-delivered dialogue. A former satire of small-town pompousness, it now snaps at the hindquarters of today's patriarchy.
Norman Blumenstaadt’s Different Stages is the only company in Austin where you can be sure of seeing new old plays. Or, to put it differently, to see plays that are new to you though they’re significant in the history of the theatre arts of the United States. Norman has included contemporary works in the company’s seasons, certainly, and he constructs all of the DIffStages seasons with care. No fluff here; he has the …
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 …
Translator's Notes: Austin Shakespeare's EL CID by Pierre Corneille, November 10 - 26, 2023
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 22, 2023
Sitting in the audience, the translator was enchanted, deeply immersed in the characters, hypnotized that his own words were about to be spoken, and grateful to Austin Shakespeare for the opportunity.
Ann Ciccolella’s mid-August email to me, a casual inquiry about a play script, was the beginning of a translation experience as unexpected as it was spellbinding. Her plan was for Austin Shakespeare to produce a translation of Pierre Corneille’s classic romantic drama Le Cid, written in 1636, an oeuvre still held in such reverence by the French that it’s still taught to middle schoolers. Our daughter, obliged to study it at that age, …
Review: El Cid by Austin Shakespeare, November 10 - 26, 2023
by David Glen Robinson
Published on November 13, 2023
Austin Shakespeare's EL CID provides a super-good sword flight and intense moral conflicts expressed in blank verse both in English and Spanish, performed by a hardworking cast on a starkly bare stage.
Austin Shakespeare has just premiered a new translation of Pierre Corneille’s Le Cid at the Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center. Its lengthy production period heightened the theatre community’s anticipation. Austin Shakespeare’s El Cid gives us a certain innovation in language. The play, written in French, premiered in Paris in 1636. This modern translation is a bilingual English/Spanish version. The translation is by Michael Meigs, who has long advocated for more balanced contributions by …
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Two CTXLT Reviews: DEATHTRAP by Ira Levine, Jarrott Productions
by David Glen Robinson
Published on November 08, 2023
Playwright Ira Levin displays his hubris by mocking his own cliché-loaded genre in approved Ivy League haute-snobbery while still entertaining and frightening audiences.
Death Trap is well-regarded as a model murder/thriller potboiler with plot twists and reversals presented to the audience at every peak of its impressive dramatic action. Of great enjoyment is the fact that in all the excitement, the play takes its time. Contrast that pacing to stand-up comedy's effort to deliver a punchline every six seconds. Still, the stage is strewn with many bodies after just two and a half hours playing time. What’s less …