Recent Reviews
Review: Nuestra Pastorela by Teatro Vivo
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 03, 2016
Director Ricky Ramón evokes a lively circus-style performance from his clowns, rich in gesture and pantomime. They frustrate minor devil Pingo, who's doing everything possible to keep these Bozos out of Bethlehem.
This weekend we attended Teatro Vivo's Nuestra Pastorela on Thursday and Zach Theatre's Christmas Carol on Friday, so as K. commented, we're now well prepared for the Christmas season. For Mexican and Tejano communities the pastorela tradition is as fundamental as Dickens' Christmas fable is for English speakers. The differences are immense and instructive. Dickens published his novella in 1843. Franciscan friars established the pastorela tradition soon after the conquista. One of the earliest documented …
Review: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Woodlawn Theatre
by Kurt Gardner
Published on December 02, 2016
The Woodlawn Theatre production, directed by William McCray and Michelle Pietri, emphasizes the fun to be had in the music itself, making this a bright, family-friendly entertainment.
Though it was written first, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was initially promoted in America as the follow-up to their 1969 hit Jesus Christ Superstar. Since then it has become a staple for theater companies around the world. It certainly shows the composer-lyricist team in a decidedly playful mood. Like Superstar, Joseph’s story is based on the Bible, and they have some approaches in common. Both are rock …
Review: Present Laughter by Austin Shakespeare
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 22, 2016
In Noël Coward's witty drawing-room comedy emotions swirl about ever so polite characters, and there are plenty of hungry hearts and deceits. Matinée idol protagonist Gary Essendine's unashamed indulgence is refreshing by contrast.
Most of those in Noël Coward's London audiences would have immediately caught the Shakespeare reference of the title. In Twelfth Night Feste the clown serenades Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek: O mistress mine, where are you roaming?O, stay and hear; your true love's coming,That can sing both high and low:Trip no further, pretty sweeting;Journeys end in lovers meeting,Every wise man's son doth know. What is love? 'tis not hereafter;Present mirth hath present laughter;What's to …
Review: Bajo Terapía by Pedemonte Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 20, 2016
Bajo Terapía presents itself as bouncy comedy, where one would like to step into the same room and interact with the characters. And a final plot twist is likely to take your breath away.
Argentine writer Matías del Federico's Bajo Terapía places three couples in an absurd and ethically unacceptable group therapy situation, but we're so captivated by the wit and the fast-moving comedy that we don't care a bit about that. Their psychotherapist Antonia has summoned them to the equivalent of a 'locked-room' group therapy session. Three couples in their 30s and 40s, evidently with no connections other than Antonia, turn up in a room furnished with starkly …
Review: Wraith Radio by Bottle Alley Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 18, 2016
Like Wraith and Star, in our lives we may find ourselves in rooms without safe exits and without clearly defined missions. Our messages become our missions.
Chris Fontanes' original works for Bottle Alley Theatre Company tend to take place in the dark. There are good reasons for that. He and his collaborators have been making seat-of-the-pants theatre in Austin since September, 2012. I reviewed his work Stage back then, and when I checked the date on that review just now I discovered to my embarrassment that in 2012 I used exactly the same term: "seat-of-the-pants theatre." So let's be more specific. …
Review: Belleville by Amy Herzog, Texas State University
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 16, 2016
In BELLEVILLE Kailey Hyman has the charisma of an actress capable of evoking sympathy, pity, elation and panic in turn, all couched coherent in a character in search of resolution.
Amy Herzog's Belleville at Texas State offered a clever cross between an Innocents Abroad tale and a psychological thriller of deceit, confusion and crossed cultures. It's no sordid tale of crime; it's a story of loving too much and too blindly. The protagonists are Abby and Zack, married during Zack's med school studies and now relocated to the mixed-ethnic eastern Paris suburb of Belleville. Zack disappears during the day for a residency with a French …