HOUSTON THEATER REVIEWS

THE EFFECT sets a high bar for the rest of The Houston Equity Festival. It's a testament to what impact a small intimate theater space can do with outstanding actors and a daring piece of written work....

MISS SAIGON feels like a sequel to 'Les Miserables' crossbred with 'Cabaret.' We get sleazy nightclubs and sweeping war scenes mixed together with a simple love story....

An outstanding cast takes on a very funny book, and the result is shimmering perfection that is just what audiences need to kick off the summer season. It's like ice cream for the theater world....

MURDER FOR TWO is an exciting piece of theater that is daring in its concept and brought to life by Stages with technical pizzazz. Ben Miller and Trace Pool deliver amazing performances with crackerjack comic timing....

RAGTIME is a vivid portrait of America in the early 20th century, when worlds and cultures collided on issues of race, class, gender equality, and politics. This deeply moving musical features a Tony award-winning score, book, and original Broadway orchestrations. This spectacular production of RAGT...

The world premiere of Brian Jucha's TOAST at the Catastrophic Theatre is a theatrical experience unlike any other. This deeply layered, highly surrealist adventure draws audiences through realms of reality, and varied states of consciousness, with a mashup of vignettes featuring current events, scen...

If you're a churchgoer and specifically a member of a black church, the issues in this production aren't foreign. In this story, we learn about backsliding deacons, disgruntled church elders, and hate towards the new pastor. Not saying that every church has these issues, but if you aren't in a churc...

The script spins out a fast funny farce that reminds me of a politically informed Monty Python skit. Even though the premise sounds like a stuffy costume drama, this is more SOUTH PARK meets 1500s Spain....

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG is not just a comedy of errors featuring a theatre company's mishaps on stage - it is a family-friend two-hour long blooper reel that brings down the house, and lights it on fire in the process....

While the ballets each have a marked identity, the triad presentation serves to compliment the elements of each. It's a journey into well-crafted worlds, an escape and a reunion all at once....

Who wouldn't want to spend an hour and a half in a traditional pub with old country codgers spinning out ghost stories? It's a winning proposition, and Main Street delivers all the goods from the actors and the technical department....

It's the right time to resurrect the 1982 off-Broadway phenomenon LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. It's a catchy little musical that says a lot about greed combined with materialism, and it reminds audiences of how brilliant Howard Ashman and Alan Menken have always been....

Though somewhat dark, The Humans illuminates the role of fear in dysfunctional family....

The musical ANASTASIA is the most saccharine, sweet, and kid-friendly musical I've seen to date. This all-ages production is particularly well suited for introducing younger audiences to the magic of musical theatre....

It has a lot to offer audiences, and women will appreciate the portrayal of their struggle to choose which path they should take. There is the traditional one including a family, as well as the ambitious career-centered one that risks not having that. What do women really want? And are they game e...

Bootycandy, Bootycandy Bootycandy! There! I've said it three times and a zombie hasn't appeared but the brilliantly written play by Robert O'Hara has made its appearance in H-town! BOOTYCANDY had its world premiere at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre June of 2011 in Washington D.C. and then it made its wa...

When attending a jukebox musical, it's expected that the best part of the show will likely be the cherished songs and vocals. MAMMA MIA showcases music and lyrics by ABBA's Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, and a book by Catherine Johnson that is predictably a bit surface-level and 'cheesy', for l...

QUACK playwright Eliza Clark is very good at sharp, rapid-fire dialogue, and she gives the actors plenty....

Within the tapestry of American Drama there a strong list of Civil Rights plays as well as other plays that tackle social injustices, sexism, and sexuality. Holders play holds true to trying times of the early 1960s but his exquisite storytelling and Yale training shined brightly in this Jireh Breon...

Houstonian's own Robert Askins brings to the Alley Theatre the life of THE CARPENTER, which after seeing its performance reminds those seeing it that there is more to Houston than oil and NASA....

"Are you trying to be as human as you can be?" Read that again, and ask yourself--Am I trying to be as human as I can be? This is just one of the questions posed in A.D Players' production Tuesdays With Morrie, currently running through February 10th. If you are not already familiar with the well-lo...

Jenna, a small town waitress and genius pie maker, is broke, pregnant, and stuck in an abusive marriage. When she finds out about a baking contest held in a nearby county that offers a $25,000 award, she begins to see her pies as her a ticket out of a dangerous marriage and a pathway to a new life....

Catastrophic Theatre joins forces with The University of Houston to present Will Eno's WAKEY, WAKEY....

As a part of Stages Repertory Theatre's 2nd Annual Sin Muros: A Latinx Theatre Festival, Marisela Treviño Orta's The River Bride is composed of an entirely Latinx cast. Orta's play is based on the style of folk tales and the real-life freshwater river dolphins--the "boto".  Her work certainly rea...

I realize part of the fun of THE SECRETARY is it never comes down heavily on one side or the other on the gun debate, but that also means I sat there frustrated as I felt there was little point to whipping out pistols and taking on issues....