Recent Reviews
HOW TO BE AN ETHICAL SLUT by Brooke McCarthy
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 04, 2023
Brooke McCarthy does make the life of an "ethical slut" sound like fun, and the way she pokes fun at her own naïveté is endearing.
"Hello, sluts!" Brooke calls out cheerfully as she strides onto the Eloise Stage at Austin's Vortex. A pleased chorus of responses greets her from the audience. Brooke McCarthy's a vigorously happy performer, at ease in the cabaret/stand-up comic format of her show. She spiels a first-person narrative of her love life, each shift in the story marked by song. Some are mid-century standards—Peggy Lee's "Fever," and "Dancing Cheek to Cheek," Irving Berlin's 1930's composition for …
Review: Gentrif*cked by Latino Comedy Project
by Justin M. West
Published on February 04, 2023
Gentrif*cked and The Latino Comedy Project are hilarious in an era when satire feels like a dying art form. The LCP wields a flamethrower of satirical wit to roast rampant development and clueless Anglo hipsterism.
“It’s like music,” said Adrian Villegas, director of Gentrif*cked, following its penultimate performance last Friday. That’s a fair simile. The show’s deft comedic timing and polished ensemble never miss a beat, and the punches track almost non-stop through the entirety of its all-too-brief runtime. If “laughs per minute” is still any measure of a great comedic performance, Gentrif*cked is in rarefied air. It’s somewhat ironic that Villegas would compare the rhythm of his riotous, scathing …
Review: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (with Deaf Austin Theatre) by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 31, 2023
The glam fairy godmother delivers the theme—there's music in you—but no one hears it in this evocative production, for it's only in ASL and projected lyrics.
Produced with the Zach Theatre's usual exuberance and technical elegance, the production of Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella is a memorable evening of theatre. The audience's wildly enthusiastic reaction on opening weekend certainly confirmed that. This production also surprises and intrigues as an educational experience, thanks to the remarkable and inventive collaboration with Deaf Austin Theatre and the charismatic performances of Sandra Mae Frank and additional actors who are deaf or hard of hearing. The story …
Review: Pretty Woman, the musical by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on January 24, 2023
As they say in the movies, “It must be difficult to let go of something so beautiful.” And this is why people will always return to fairy tales like PRETTY WOMAN.
In its ongoing commitment to bring Broadway to the City of the Violet Crown, Texas Performing Arts and Broadway in Austin presented Pretty Woman: The Musical between January 17 and 22, 2023. Runs are necessarily limited for touring productions, but they are always worth trying to catch and tickets are on sale well in advance. Conveniently, most modern Broadway productions are familiar stories. Upcoming productions include Aladdin, Ain't Too Proud: The Story of The Temptations, …
Review: The Sound Inside by Jarrott Productions
by David Glen Robinson
Published on January 15, 2023
A rule-breaking student asks his creative writing professor to read a dark novella, a twisted take on Catcher in the Rye. Intimacy and intimations of suicide color this vividly produced story.
The Sound Inside by Adam Rapp shakes the earth without arrogance or condescension. With this and recent productions Jarrott Productions has found its stride on a high plateau of excellence in production and theatrical art. Much is due to the dramaturgy of Producing Artistic Director David R. Jarrott. In The Sound Inside, much of the excellence is brought to the audience by actor Rebecca Robinson, who plays fictional Yale faculty member Bella Baird. All of …
Review: La Pastorela Audaz by Teatro Audaz
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 22, 2022
LA PASTORELA is usually intended for young audiences -- but it's a great amusement for all. José de Hoyos as Luzbelle the devil and Miranda Valdez-Williams as a Tik-Tokking shepherd were especially funny.
Almost all of us in the United States are deeply embedded in winter holiday traditions that we first encountered as children. Most typically, the church christmas pageant walking through the Biblical recital of the Christmas story or, for those less religious, Dickens' Christmas Carol, that enduring, sentimental admonition to love others. Both follow familiar, well-defined scripts. La Pastorela, a Christmas tradition deeply rooted in Mexico, instead offers variations of a basic scenario, the shepherds' travel …