Recent Reviews
Review: Night Birds by Ventana Ballet
by David Glen Robinson
Published on September 04, 2023
Ventana Ballet's consistently themed NIGHT BIRDS, virtually perfect, was an emotionally high-toned confection for a sultry summer evening in Austin.
Ventana Ballet presented another in their Night Birds series of ballets at The Cathedral ATX, the former Landmark Missionary Baptist Church on 16th Street, repurposed as an event center and art gallery. If exquisitely choreographed and well-performed dances weren’t enough to entice a general audience, then Ventana’s strategy of presenting the dances accompanied by cello music certainly completed the evening to great satisfaction. The cello artistry was provided by Daniel Kopp and his friends Cory …
Review: Head Over Heels by Zach Theatre
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on August 31, 2023
The crowd of chiildren and adults roared in approval as Go Go's hits were unleashed one after another. A beach party indoors, in this weather? (Yes, pleasee!)
The Go-Go's got their start in Los Angeles, California in 1978 . While there have been all female rock groups before and after, they are one of the most successful of all time. Their debut album Beauty and the Beat reached number one on the billboard chart, stayed there for six weeks, and sold more than two million copies. Their achievements continued to skyrocket and their initial break up in 1985 didn’t stop the members …
Review #2 of 2: Jenna & the Whale by Ground Floor Theatre
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on August 24, 2023
In widely opposed formats, JENNA AND THE WHALE and MOBY DICK agree; life is a state of perpetual ignorance that death may or may not cure.
(Warning. spoilers.) (Trigger warning: suicide.) “Our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.” ― Herman Melville, Moby Dick “They say, Jonah, he was swallowed by a whale, but I say there's no truth to that tale, I know Jonah, he was swallowed by a song.” ― Paul Simon, Jonah The …
Review: Beauty and the Beast by Magnolia Musical Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on August 15, 2023
What surly soul could possibly gainsay a story in which a crippling enchantment is lifted only by the simple words “I love you”?
Of course it's a fairy tale. Apparently it was first penned by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, in 1740. Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont wrote the 1756 abridged follow-on version (source: Wikipedia). Edits, abridgements, and add-ons have appeared ever since. The tale's origins in European mythology aren't clear, and the obsession with castles, kings, the nobility and the peasantry indicate that the core concepts of Beauty and the Beast cannot extend much further back than medieval times. …
Review #1 of 2: Jenna & the Whale by Ground Floor Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on August 14, 2023
Magical realism meets the devastating emotions left by loss and suicide in this brilliantly acted and designed work. The vastness of the ocean, the web embracing all life, the making and breaking of connections—all are here.
Stories of a single complicated life achieve complexity when they intersect thecomplicated lives of a whole community. Any absurd story with these qualities takes on the immensity of the ocean and marine life large enough to swallow one’s own. This summer of 2023 with its excessive heat and many reports of shark attacks humbles us with its oceanic immensity. The vastness bears down on us, creates pain in us, and changes us. This may be …
Review: The Real Inspector Hound by The Stage, Austin
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on July 28, 2023
Hamlet declared, “The play’s the thing,” but in The Stage’s production of THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND, we are duly reminded that in fact the actors are the thing that makes the play.
Who is the real Inspector Hound? For that matter who is Tom Stoppard? Or more to the point, does Tom Stoppard hate critics? Furthermore, what does it mean to be a critic criticizing a play that criticizes critics? And what, really, is a red herring? If Stoppard’s writing style is an absurd reflection of the absurd qualities of life, doesn’t that naturally make him a naturalistic writer? Finally, if a red herring …