Jeff Davis - Page 9

Any production of The Belle of Amherst certainly has its share of hurdles to overcome, and Austin Shakespeare's production tackles the issues head on. This isn't a one woman show or even a show about Emily Dickinson. It's an experience, and an incredible one at that.

It's not what you say, it's how you say it. That adage often runs through my head, both in my personal life and in my work as a theater critic. It also runs through my head when viewing productions, especially ones like Blood Wedding. With plays not originally in English, attention must be paid to the translation. Blood Wedding, originally written in Spanish by Frederico Garcia Lorca, offers an additional challenge in Lorca's poetic style. It's not what he says but how he says it that makes Lorca's Blood Wedding an interesting and engaging piece of theatre. While the current production at St. Edwards University manages to visually capture Lorca's poetry, the translation by James Graham Lujan and Richard O'Connell is less successful.

When it comes to operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Don Carlo has to be the most challenging one to produce. Which version do you use? The French version? The Italian translation? Given the over four hour running time of the full version, where do you make cuts, and why? And once you answer those questions, there's the content to deal with. How do you pack in the opera's themes of love, war, betrayal, politics, and the Spanish Inquisition? The later question is one that Austin Lyric Opera's current production fails to answer. While Don Carlo is 3 hours and 30 minutes of aural bliss, the story is handled in a clumsy and sometimes unfortunate way.

By all accounts, Jackson was a rebel, so it's not surprising that Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, now playing at San Antonio's Woodlawn Theatre, imagines our 7th President as the rock star of his generation. What is surprising is how fun it is.

Over its 17 year history, the revival production of Chicago has had its share of ups and downs, but if the current tour is any indication, the show's back on an upswing. If you've been unfortunate enough to see a lesser cast of Chicago in the past, you owe it to yourself to catch the current tour.

It seems mash-ups, particularly in music, have become more and more popular in recent years, and the crazier the idea, the better the mash-up usually is. The same goes for theater mash-ups. On paper, the idea of mixing a film noir-esque mystery with Mother Goose characters may sound bizarre, but the world premiere of Nursery Crimes, produced by Last Act Theatre, manages to poke just enough fun at both genres while still maintaining a level of respect and reverence for each.

I've heard a lot of great things about Reina Hardy, the playwright of Stars and Barmen. I've heard people throughout Austin refer to the UT Austin MFA candidate as a quirky comedic genius whose work is witty, smart, and intriguing. I hadn't seen any of Hardy's work for myself until I recently saw Stars and Barmen, a world premiere romantic comedy which closes at Votex Rep this evening. I'm proud to report that all I've heard is true. Hardy's new play is hysterical, sweet, and wonderfully original.

There is something comical in the state of Denmark. Well, make that Germany. Since its first production in 2008, Wittenberg has played to rave reviews all over the world, but it has never played San Antonio, a staggering and puzzling piece of trivia considering that the author is San Antonio's own David Davalos.

Shakespeare should be about three things: language, character, and story. While Titus Andronicus is not be Shakespeare's best work by any means, it still has a treasure trove of elements to be mined by a skilled director and cast. Shakespeare's tale of revenge plots between Titus, a powerful Roman General, and Tamora, Queen of the Goths should be riveting and chilling.

There were several empty seats at TexARTS last night as Broadway veteran Darcie Roberts took the stage for her first cabaret performance ever. I'm guessing the empty seats were partly because theater lovers in Austin proper may not know of the Lakeway based TexARTS and because Austinites may not be familiar with Ms. Roberts. Austin theatergoers need to familiarize themselves with both.

There is a happiness that is There Is a Happiness… Indeed, it easily could lead to crappiness Given how much it owes to poetry and rhyme, Arts rarely found on stage in our time. But writer Mickle Maher's play is full of wit Which he manages to pepper with touches of grit As he explores his characters of Bernard and Ellen.

Falsettos may be a show that challenges both performers and audience members due to its complexity and subject matter, but any audience member who is up to the challenge (and I hope you are) must see this show. Falsettos is funny, intelligent, entertaining, and an important piece of musical theater history, and Austin Theatre Project's production of it is superb.

There are times when I leave a theater feeling that the show I have just seen was tailor-made for my enjoyment. There are other times when I may not have been the intended audience but I nevertheless see the merits of the piece or can tell who the piece was intended for. And then there are shows like Pinkolandia that just leave me scratching my head. I honestly have no clue who would be the target audience for this play.

As a relative newbie to Austin, I have not seen The Dead President's Club until recently, but it's well known that Austin Playhouse's revivals of it are more frequent than political sex scandals. But while the later may induce eye-rolling and head-scratching, The Dead President's Club is met with uproarious laughter. Yes, the show gets revived frequently, but with popularity numbers that would greatly overpower any political candidate, it's easy to see why.

By the pricking of my thumb, something wickedly entertaining this way comes. Austin's City Theatre has a reputation for rousing and memorable stagings of Shakespearian plays, and that reputation continues with their current production of Macbeth.

Given the unreal levels of talent involved, it's no surprise that Woodlawn's The Rocky Horror Show is as ridiculously entertaining as it is. This is a production that is sure to please any fan of Rocky Horror. Even those who saw last year's production will appreciate the fresh, new take on the material, and Drag Race fans will adore Alaska, Michelle, and Willam. These ladies better werk, and werk they do.

It should be no surprise that as a lover of theater, I firmly believe in the transitive power of the performing arts. Any production has the power to elicit some emotional response from the audience, but theater often does more. Studies have shown that participating in the performing arts helps students improve their performance in other academic areas. While the impact of the arts in schools is widely known, the use and impact of theater and the arts in prison systems is somewhat less talked about. Nevertheless, theater has been used by penile systems for centuries as a way to rehabilitate prisoners, and that unorthodox idea is at the core of Our Country's Good, now playing at UT-Austin. The infrequently produced Tony nominated play, written by Timberlake Wertenbaker, is a completely engrossing love letter to the virtues of theater and a thrilling depiction of a peculiar moment in Australian history.

It's alive! Woodlawn Theatre's current production of Young Frankenstein, the Mel Brooks musical based on his hit 1974 film, is enjoyable and entertaining, perhaps more than it should be considering the mediocre material. But despite the few flaws in the material, this is one monster of a good time.

It's strange to think that Les Miserables, the worldwide musical sensation by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alan Boublil, is just now being licensed to regional theaters. Demand for Les Miserables has grown within the regional theatre world in the 27 years since the show premiered, and that demand is definitely why The Playhouse in San Antonio and Zach Theatre in nearby Austin feel they can both present the show at the same time. So if you're in Central Texas, which production do you see? My answer: see both if you can, but if that's not an option, then I have the following suggestion. If you want to see a grand, epic, romantically designed production with a few strong performances, catch the version in Austin, but if you prefer a more modestly designed production that creates a darker, more emotional world in which every performance is spectacular, go to The Playhouse in San Antonio.

The Playhouse in San Antonio recently kicked off its 2013-2014 season with Les Miserables, now playing thru November 3rd. BroadwayWorld - San Antonio is excited to share some photos from this spectacular production!