Recent Reviews
Review: The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Texas State University
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 29, 2019
James Lapine's rewrite of the film reaches toward the seriousness of grand opera. The craft and art of the Texas State program elevate it impressively.
You're unlikely to see a musical production of this scope and flourish on Broadway these days. In fact, the stage version of Disney's 1996 animated film was produced and premiered in Berlin in 1999, where it had a successful three-year run. It didn't get to America until 2014, but Broadway wasn't in the cards. The Disney folks were convinced that the popularity of the film wouldn't be great enough to haul enough tourists into the …
Review #2 0f 2: Matilda, the musical by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 20, 2019
MATILDA, THE MUSICAL is a bit of a mess in the telling, especially if you've read Dahl's tale either to yourself or to a younger generation, but it's a whirlwind of entertainment. Congratulations to all those young talents on stage valiantly interpreting the story.
Austin's Zach Theatre has thrown all of its considerable artistry into the stage musical version of Roald Dahl's Matilda, and the result is a big bright shining noisy ball of fun. Directors Nat Miller and Abe Reybold scooped up young performers from the theatre's pre-professional company to assemble two casts, orange and blue, for the spectacular and demanding dancing and clowning that create this fantasy world. The young artists hit their marks and create vivid …
Review #1 of 2: Matilda, the musical by Zach Theatre
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on April 13, 2019
Whether you know Roald Dahl's 1988 children's novel or not, this present production is a fervent tribute to his vision of inanity.
The Tony- and Olivier-award-winning Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical! is playing at Zach’s Topfer Theatre until May 12th. It is not part of their ongoing Theatre for Families series, as one might expect, but the company recommends it for ages 6 and above. Presentations in Theatre for Families generally have earlier showtimes, shorter runtimes, and longer runs (Wake Up, Brother Bear!, aimed for the very young, opened at Zach Theatre North last October, has just …
Review: Copenhagen by Austin Playhouse
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 10, 2019
I've watched these actors Babs George, Ev Lunning Jr., and David Stahl in various permutations over the past decade. Nowhere has their breadth and intelligence been better placed on display than in this production of COPENHAGEN.
English playwright Michael Frayn climbed down the deep, dark cold well of history in this blistering examination of the wartime visit of German physicist Werner Heisenberg to his mentor Niels Bohr, trapped in German-occupied Denmark. Bohr, a Jew, had been playfully hailed by his students and colleagues as the "pope" of quantum mechanics. It's September, 1941; Heisenberg is working both for the University of Leipzig and for the German government. No one alive today knows …
Review: The Book Club Play by Different Stages
by Amanda Paz
Published on April 10, 2019
The spectacular chemistry evident among the five actors in THE BOOK CLUB PLAY brought the characters to life. Standouts were Kelsey Mazak and Makayla Perez.
Secrets and gossip are part of having friends. There may come a time too much is revealed and no one can take it anymore. In The Book Club Play Karen Zacarias introduces five characters who come together to form a book club. The revelation of their different personalities keeps the club continually interesting. Ana the club leader is a control freak trying to hide it, and Robert is a washed-up college quarterback who doesn’t have …
Review: 100 Planes by Filigree Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 06, 2019
With 100 PLANES Elizabeth Newman and Stephanie Moore have another found a challenging script, set in the unfamiliar world of female Air Force pilots in the mid-1990's.
The Mastrogeorge is a microtheatre -- maybe a nanotheatre -- just off east Cesar Chavez on Pedernales, tucked behind Blue Owl brewing. This performance space has folding chairs for an audience of about 15 persons. Though it's stark and small, resembling a draped concrete box, surprising things happen here. The facility is associated with the Carol Hickey Acting Studio, so the focus is on the acting, which can be of high quality. Lila Rose Kaplan's …