Recent Reviews
Review: Little Shop of Horrors by SummerStock Austin
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 06, 2009
SummerStock's joyous production of Little Shop of Horrors gets extra class credit in recognition for its part in re-Americanizing this reviewer.
SummerStock's joyous production of Little Shop of Horrors gets extra class credit in recognition for its part in re-Americanizing this reviewer.After last May's production of the same script by the Georgetown Palace Theatre, I took the liberty to grump that theirs was a "Grade A production of a Grade D musical play."I did explain that unlike the rest of the audience, I had never been exposed to Audreys 1 or 2, either on film or …
Review: Good Night Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet by The Weird Sisters Women's Theater Collective
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 05, 2009
Leslie Guerrero as the prologue invited us to exercise our imaginations and to go with the ride, and quite a ride it was.
The Weird Sisters Theatre Collective's Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet was a very Austin event. The Sisters performed Anne-Marie MacDonald's broad feminist satire of Shakespeare and stuffy scholars in the backyard at the one and only Cathedral of Junk in South Austin, just a few blocks south of 290W/Ben White Boulevard. Closing night last Saturday was full, as a wide mix of folks filled up the very miscellaneous and inventive collection of chairs. Proprietor Vince …
Review: Richard III by Shakespeare at Winedale
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 04, 2009
Cody Chua seduces the audience with his confident ease on the stage. As Richard, he knows that he is acting; as the actor playing Richard he is at home with all those eyes upon him.
Shakespeare at Winedale is most of the way through its July 16 - August 9 summer season of three plays done by students accepted for its "Shakespeare boot camp." Those of us who attended last Saturday afternoon's performance of Richard III saw the cast gather in a circle and heard them chanting vocal exercises, a prep to get the blood racing for their performance.The barn at Winedale has been the performance locale since 1970. One …
Review: Orestes by Cambiare Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 03, 2009
The director has pushed Gabriel Luna as Orestes to such energy and desperate volume that the character becomes tiresome well before he resorts to the expedient of kidnapping Aunt Helen and holding her hostage (sic).
Hidden Treasures from Afghanistan's National Museum are now on exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the last of several stops in a 15-month tour of the United States. I caught the exhibit in Washington DC last year, but you may have seen it this spring in Houston.A haunting diorama of a barren Afghan plain shows how the unimaginable golden treasures were preserved in hidden subterranean vaults for thousands of years, even as the …
Review: Sweeney Todd, by SummerStock Austin
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 02, 2009
The complexity of the music, the pace, the color and the assurance of this cast were dazzling. This is as good as any keen professional production. They re-established my opinion of the show.
The demon barber who slits his clients' throats is an urban myth celebrated in print first as a "penny dreadful," or serialized story of scandal and murder, in London in 1845. The razor and the strop continued to hold a fascination, at least until the technological advance of Mr. Gillette's safety razor put them at some remove. That wicked barber had figured in 13 earlier versions on radio stage and screen before this 1979 piece …
Review: The Rivals by Weird City Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on July 31, 2009
John Carroll and the Weird City Theatre Company have a sense of fun that's irreverent and modern, but they take their drama seriously.
Here's what I like about John Carroll and the Weird City Theatre Company: they have a sense of fun that's irreverent and modern, but they take their drama seriously. Necessarily low-rent but not sloppy, the company performs with energy, confidence, and an appreciation for the text, whatever it might be. They have a taste for pop -- we've seen an adaptation of Night of the Living Dead, a faithful production of William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes, …