AUSTIN THEATER REVIEWS

THE DRESSER by Ronald Harwood is a powerful piece by itself, but in the hands of Different Stages it is a rare and perfect gem....

Lake Travis Musical Theatre production, the iconic 1954 musical PETER PAN, makes for an entertaining evening....

Austin Theatre Project's current production BARE, playing at the Trinity Street Theatre, is a work of love and stunning beauty....

Something For Nothing Theatre Company has a reputation for performing little known Shakespearean works on a shoestring budget, this year it's TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, and it's brilliant....

ZACH Theatre,Austin's premier regional theatre wows with their current production of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony winning first musical with book by Quiana Agra Hudes....

Set in a drug study lab at Rauschen Pharmaceuticals, where volunteers are taking the experimental antidepressant RLU37; THE EFFECT, a new play by Lucy Prebble, examines two couples and the effects this new drug has on them. The play is not only a powerful and darkly funny indictment of Big Pharma, t...

William Shakespeare's comedies have become a staple of summertime theatre the world over. City Theatre's production of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW is one of several of the Bard's best playing in Austin in the next few weeks. Unfortunately this lackluster presentation misses the mark on multiple levels....

GUYS AND DOLLS is presented by Austin Playhouse as part of their 2016-2017 season. Directed by Don Toner and with musical direction by Susan Finnigan, this musical theatre gem tells the story of rolling the dice and taking a gamble on love. The musical, based on two short stories by Damon Runyon, or...

SOMETHING ROTTEN! is a musical comedy with a book by John O'Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick and music and lyrics by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick. Set in 1595, it tells the story of the Bottom brothers, Nick (Rob McClure) and Nigel (Pierce Cassedy), and their struggle to produce a show that isn't oversh...

NYC theatre company Aztec Economy teams with Austin theatre company Theatre Synesthesia to present Casey Wimpee's play BUTCHER HOLLER HERE WE COME in this Austin premiere production. Directed by Leah Bonvissuto, who directed the original NY production, the play is a seventy five minute sensory exper...

Austin Shakespeare continues its 34 year tradition of bringing free Shakespeare to Zilker Park with an hilarious take on THE COMEDY OF ERRORS....

MADAM BUTTERFLY by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa is a work of tragic beauty in the hands of Austin Opera....

The show, for those unfamiliar, is inspired by the seventeenth century literary masterpiece Don Quixote and its author Miguel de Cervantes. It is not a faithful retelling of that work, but rather presented as a play within a play as we see Cervantes himself and his fellow prisoners performing his s...

THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU: A FEVER DREAM STEEPED IN BLOOD is presented by The Paladin Theatre Company. Written, directed, and performed by Charles P. Stites, this one-man play is an adaptation of the H.G. Wells science fiction classic. The play first premiered at Frontera Fest in 2014 and later moved...

LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR AND GRILL is a play with music by Lanie Robertson, recounting key events in the life of Billie Holiday. The play originally premiered in 1986 at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, and soon played Off-Broadway. The play opened on Broadway in 2014. The play covers the ...

It's the rare person who has never told a lie. Who hasn't pondered whether you could train yourself to beat a lie detector? What situation would bring you to lie? Would you lie if saving yourself or your loved one was at stake? Is it possible to craft a perfect lie? In Jason Wells' PERFECT MENDACITY...

CABARET playing at the Mary Moody Northern Theater at St. Edward's University is a vibrant, poignant and heart breaking rendition that the department has tackled with a wonderful spirit....

William Shakespeare's AS YOU LIKE IT, by The Baron's Men and playing at The Curtain Theatre is an excellent production in a perfectly idyllic setting. Arguably Shakespeare's most complicated comedy, AS YOU LIKE IT, may not be as beloved as MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING or A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM but in t...

UNDERGROUND, a taut new psychological and political thriller by Lisa B. Thompson, is currently in its World Premiere production at The VORTEX. UNDERGROUND examines African American activists, artists, and intellectuals and how they have responded from the Civil Rights Movement to the Black Lives Mat...

MRS. MANNERLY, a memory play by Jeffrey Hatcher, takes inspiration from the playwright's memories of a childhood etiquette class that he took at the tender young age of ten. Walking with an etiquette book balanced on your head, learning complex table settings with a confounding array of flatware and...

BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL is a jukebox musical that tells the story of the early life and career of Carole King with a book by Douglas McGrath, using songs that she wrote, often together with Gerry Goffin, and other contemporary songs by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Phil Spector and others. Th...

William Shakespeare's HAMLET is arguably one of the most universally popular plays ever written, but it's only one half of Redux in Rep at City Theatre. Along with ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD by Tom Stoppard, a play that comically deconstructs the iconic tragedy, the combination of the two...

Tom Stoppard's ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD opened last week at City Theatre alongside Shakespeare's HAMLET in REDUX IN REP, both shows with the same cast on alternate nights....

Cirque du Soleil's OVO, currently playing at the HEB Center in Cedar Park is an immersive family friendly evening of acrobatic thrills wrapped up is a sweet and funny clown bug love story. The show is a look at an insect ecosystem teeming with life. The acrobats are dressed as insects and the acts, ...

JOHN, a new play by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Annie Baker, is now receiving a Southwest Premiere production at Hyde Park Theatre, under the direction of Ken Webster. The production is so exceptional on so many multiple levels that I am likely to wear out my thesaurus. This is not the first p...