Recent Reviews
Review: The Sorcerer by Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 28, 2015
Gilbert and Sullivan stand up very well indeed in the face of “progress.” Heartfelt thanks goes to GSSA for polishing this gem from the G&S trove.
The Sorcerer by Gilbert and Sullivan is finishing up its current run in Austin at the Brentwood Christian School on North Lamar.The show offers up more lapidary work by the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin (GSSA) doing what it does best: historically faithful renditions of Gilbert and Sullivan’s work. Fans of English light opera will be thrilled by the show, as will theatergoers of any type. The Sorcerer is one of the early works …
Review: Heathers, musical by Doctuh Mistuh Productions
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 23, 2015
The ultimate curse is on everyone, sung in one line in one song that flew by too fast for most to catch: “You can never really leave high school.” You take your damage with you, along with your diploma.
Heathers is the musical theatre interpretation of the highly successful 1988 movie of the same name. Doctuh Mistuh Productions prides itself on bringing to Austin plays and productions not commonly produced here, and they win again with Heathers. The stage musical premiered officially in New York in 2014, and this production is certainly its Austin premiere. The stage musical is if anything darker than the movie, which gained cult status and is still wildly popular …
Review: The Great American Trailer Park Musical by Austin Theatre Project
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 21, 2015
Rather than condescending to the white trash stereotypes the show universalizes the unfortunate condition of trailer park existence and finds keen adult humor living there.
Ground Floor Theatre on the east side of Austin is making a specialty of musicals and has become the official home base of the Austin Theatre Project (ATP). The latest offering from this impressive team is The Great American Trailer Park Musical, music by David Nehls, book by Betsy Kelso. The show premiered in New York in 2004. The ATP production impresses with the first glimpse of the set, the exteriors of three ticky-tacky house …
Review: The Strangerer by Capital T Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 14, 2015
Now, six years further down the road and here in the heart of Texas, Robert Pierson and Capital T turn this piece into an exploration of man's incapacity to understand. The focus is far less on the missteps of an administration than on our plight when faced with random catastrophe and evil.
Mickle Maher's The Strangerer is profoundly witty. But it's not comical. You may go into the agreeably conspiratorial Hyde Park Theatre with the expectation of laughing it up on the dark side, making fun of politicians in general and Bushes in particular, but you're going to get a short sharp shock. Capital T Theatre, Mark Pickell's comfortable co-conspirator with Ken Webster's Hyde Park Theatre, is going to get up your nose with some serious absurdity. …
Review: Good Weather for Bundt Cakes by Cinnamon Path Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 06, 2015
Max Langert's Good Weather for Bundt Cakes is a talky piece, using revelation, conflict and resolution rather than introspection. Director Christi Moore keeps this 80-minute script cracking along at a pace that has you glancing around expectantly to see where the next surprise is coming from.
Bundt. BUNDT. Bundtbundtbundtbundt. Bundt. Needs sugar butter not margarine flour weed. Weed? Well, maybe, when Mom's unpredictably delusional and big siter Rebecca is trapped and Dad died six months before and that runaway sister Julia turns up with an attitude and a backpack of needs that were never satisified. Max Langert's three-character play takes place in a suburban home, and that in fact is exactly where it's staged: in a suburban ground-floor duplex in Austin's …
Review: The Flip Side, short plays by TILT Performance Group
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 01, 2015
Every audience member who has ever performed on stage has a meltdown of feeling seeing these young artists showing the courage, the willingness to be seen, of setting foot on stage and creating their own piece of performance art.
Tilt Performance Group’s production of The Flip Side, an evening of short playlets commissioned for the show, is playing now through June 5th at Ground Floor Theatre (GFT) on the east side. The show is a co-production of Tilt Performance Group and Ground Floor Theatre. Tilt is a company formed of differently abled young artists with various physical and developmental challenges who have banded together to find ways to perform after high school. In the …