Summer Stages: Our Top Seven Picks For Summer Theatre

With a host of summer offerings in Austin, here are the Austin Editorial staff's Top Seven Picks for summer theatre excitement:

• ZACH Theatre

ZACH Theatre is one of Austin's professional Equity houses which offers top quality entertainment, and this summer gives us two shows that are sure to please.

Buyer & Cellar

Buyer & Cellar is an outrageous new comedy about the oddest of odd jobs: "an underemployed Los Angeles actor going to work in Barbra Streisand's Malibu basement."
June 8 - August 14

Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins is an enchanting mixture of irresistible story, unforgettable songs, breathtaking dance numbers, and astonishing stagecraft.
July 20-Sept 4

• Gilbert & Sullivan Society Austin

The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin was founded with the purpose of educating the public and preserving the works of Gilbert and Sullivan.

The Gondoliers

The Gondoliers, or, The King of Barataria, was the twelfth opera written together by Gilbert and Sullivan.
June 16-26

• Hyde Park Theatre

Hyde Park Theatre develops writers, designers, directors, and actors from within the Austin community, while at the same time producing works by exciting new and established voices of the alternative theatre scene. Goals include producing Southwest and world premieres of the best of the world's new alternative theatre, as well as those classic works of alternative theater that still has the power to challenge modern audiences.

THE FLICK

With keen insight and a finely-tuned comic eye, The Flick is a hilarious and heart-rending cry for authenticity in a fast-changing world.
Jul. 07 - Jul. 30

• Zilker Theater

The Beverly S. Sheffield Zilker Hillside Theater is located across from another of Austin's celebrated wonders - Barton Springs Pool. Zilker Hillside Theater has been home to engaging events, shows and concerts for over 50 years. Best of all, the Summer Hillside musical is free.
Shrek

Shrek The Musical is a musical with music by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire. It is based on the 2001 DreamWorks film Shrek.
July 8-Aug 13

• Spectrum Theatre Company

Spectrum Theatre Company, Austin's only African American theatre company, is the brainchild of Billy Harden, Ed.D, Janis Marie Stinson, Carla Nickerson and Jacqui Cross, who collectively and individually have graced not only the stages of Austin, but many national stages as well.

Joe Turner's Come and Gone

Joe Turner's Come and Gone is a play by August Wilson. It is the second installment of his decade-by-decade chronicle, The Pittsburgh Cycle.
Jul. 14 - Jul. 31

• SummerStock Austin

Now in its 12th season, SSA runs three musicals in repertoire each summer, giving participants the opportunity to work side-by-side with theatre professionals!

Carnival!

A naïve, orphaned girl is taken in as an apprentice to a traveling French circus and develops an astonishing ability to relate to the puppets designed and performed by an embittered, crippled man who loves her, in Bob Merrill and Michael Stewart's musical adaptation of the 1953 film Lilli.
Aug. 03 - Aug. 13