AUSTIN THEATER REVIEWS

Rodgers & Hammerstein's CINDERELLA is a 2013 Tony Award winning stage adaptation of the 1957 musical for television starring Julie Andrews, with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The new book by Douglas Carter Beane is based partly on Hammerstein's original 1957 book. The ...

Neil Simon's autobiographical comedy about his days as a writer in 1950's television, LAUGHTER ON THE 23RD FLOOR, currently playing at City Theatre is an excellent way to spend an evening with charm and nostalgic wit....

A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens, adapted and directed by Dave Steakley, currently playing at ZACH Theatre, has become an Austin tradition and is by far the best way to kick off the holiday season. Retooled to include new contemporary songs every year, the musical is performed by a Broadway cali...

There are problems inherent in producing a modern Broadway play. A musical based on an animated movie raises the difficulty level unbelievably high. The Georgetown Palace's current production of DISNEY'S THE LITTLE MERMAID is a prime example of just how high the bar is set in trying to reproduce wha...

FAHRENHEIT 451 is a play based on the 1953 dystopian novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury. The novel is regarded as one of his best works. It presents a future society where books are outlawed and 'firemen' burn any that are found. The title comes from the temperature at which paper becomes combus...

PRESENT LAUGHTER is a 1939 comedy by Noel Coward. The play's title comes from a song in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, 'present mirth hath present laughter', that urges the sense of carpe diem. Coward repeats one of his signature theatrical devices at the end of the play, where the main characters tip...

What do you get when you cross Christopher Durang, the master of anxious comedy, with Anton Chekhov, the master of Russian despair? You get VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, an evening of melancholia and mirth. While Durang starts with Chekhov he soon runs off in every direction. Chekhov and Walt...

Greater Tuna co-creator and master storyteller Jaston Williams and TV's Lauren Lane are currently Stateside at the Paramount performing in the Austin debut of A WOLVERINE WALKS INTO A BAR. This new play by Williams brings to life a throng of fascinating, outlandish and delightful new characters that...

LITTLE WOMEN is a musical with a book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and music by Jason Howland. Workshop productions were presented at Duke University in 2001 and 2004 and the Broadway production opened at the Virginia Theatre on January 23, 2005. Based on the classic 1869 Louisa May Alc...

Sharr White's THE OTHER PLACE premiered Off-Broadway in 2011, followed by a Broadway run. Watching this potent drama, you may think, at first, that your mind is playing tricks on you. Facts established in one scene vaporize a few scenes later. You may find yourself questioning what you just heard. T...

While THE ILLUSIONISTS consists of seven world class magicians, it is anything but mundane. It has shattered box-office records while entertaining millions. Originally intended to be a short-run production, THE ILLUSIONISTS have performed for mesmerized audiences around the world....

SONG ABOUT HIMSELF is Mickle Maher's latest play which is set in a dystopian future where viruses and malware have effectively destroyed the Internet. The populace had been so obsessed with social media that this destruction has left a world of people who communicate in little more than mumbles and ...

David Mamet's hard hitting drama GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, has never claimed to be an easy play to produce. Seven strong male actors and a commanding director are required to begin the undertaking, and even then, pitfalls abound. Thankfully City Theatre's production has all the elements to make this di...

WITH GREAT DIFFICULTY ALICE SITS is a new, original piece by playwright, Rude Mech company member, and Salvage Vanguard collaborator, Hannah Keenah. This world premiere, produced by Salvage Vanguard Theatre, shows at the Off Center in East Austin. Directed by Salvage Vanguard's artistic director, Je...

Hidden Room Theatre has a reputation for bringing life to the obscure and the unusual, they have once again struck gold with their latest endeavor. HOUDINI SPEAKS TO THE LIVING, an original work by director Beth Burns and Patrick Terry, brings the enigmatic magician to the stage with an interactive ...

Alfred Uhry's second play, THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO, is a Tony award winner for Best Play that is another exploration into the lives of Jewish southerners. Uhry first introduced this society in his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Driving Miss Daisy. The setting and plot was developed from his own exp...

NEVERMORE: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe is a Canadian musical that was written and composed by Jonathan Christenson which follows the rather dismal life and internal struggles of Edgar Allan Poe that later on inspired his work as an author. The script contains reference...

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET is the 1979 Tony Award winning Best Musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler which is based on Christopher Bond's 1973 play of the same name. It has enjoyed several revivals and has been presented by multiple opera comp...

THE DROWNING GIRLS, began its life in 2008 at the Edmonton Fringe in Calgary, AB. Written by two actors and a director, the story comes from an actual murder case in England in the early 20th century. A man named George Joseph Smith courted and wed multiple women and used a different identity every ...

Currently playing at The Georgetown Palace Theatre, 1776 THE MUSICAL, has a new concept on the popular, patriotic show that succeeds on every level. Director Clifford Butler has assembled a top notch cast with an added bonus. He chose to blind cast the roles in the musical, making fully half of the ...

Christopher Marlowe's iconic work, DOCTOR FAUSTUS, currently playing at The Curtain Theatre, produced by The Baron's Men, is not only a well done piece of historical theatre, it's downright fun....

THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI is a 1941 play by German playwright Bertolt Brecht. Using satire, it tells of the rise of Arturo Ui, a ruthless fictional 1930's Chicago mobster and his takeover of 'the cauliflower racket' by disposing of all who oppose him. It is meant to be an allegory on the rise...

PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT: THE MUSICAL is a jukebox musical adapted from Australian film director-writer Stephan Elliott's 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Adapted by Elliott and Allan Scott, the musical uses well-known pop and disco songs as the score. It tells the s...

NEWSIES is a Disney Theatrical Productions musical based on their 1992 film Newsies. The original film took its inspiration from the Newsboys Strike of 1899 in New York City. NEWSIES has a book by Harvey Fierstein with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman. It premiered at the Paper Mill P...

Austin Shakespeare's short run, staged reading of WOLF HALL, PART 1, transports the audience to the court of King Henry VIII with smooth staging and lavish costuming....