HOUSTON THEATER REVIEWS

The 2012-2013 season at Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has been filled with stunning performances of astounding operatic talent; however, their current production of Richard Wagner's TRISTAN AND ISOLDE may be the sparkling gem of this fascinating season. Every aspect of the production gels with perfectio...

Theatre Southwest is currently producing a fascinating production of Tennessee William's thrilling and tense THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA. The 1961 drama is set at The Costa Verde Hotel in Puerto Barrio on the West Coast of Mexico in the summer of 1940. The Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon is leading a tour ...

Last night, The Alley Theatre hosted the press opening night of Bernard Pomerance's well-known 1977 tragic drama THE ELEPHANT MAN. The nearly 100-minute one act production is a fascinating look at the life of Joseph 'John' Carey Merrick, who began developing severe bone and skin abnormalities by age...

Pasadena's Stage Door Inc. continues their 2013 season of murder, madness, and mayhem with a fun and campy production of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, which was inspired by Roger Corman's cult 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors. The musical is set in the late 1950s/early ...

After riveting audiences with an emotionally raw and intellectual inaugural production of Stephen Sondheim's ASSASSINS, MJR Theatricals/Music Box Musicals is serving up a wondrously side-splitting, laugh-a-minute presentation of the Tony-award winning musical THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING B...

David Lindsay-Abaire's quirky coming-of-age tragicomedy KIMBERLY AKIMBO is closing Country Playhouse's 2012-2013 Black Box Season. The 2000 play is an incredibly gripping and compelling tale about a young woman suffering from Progeria, a disease that causes people to age exponentially faster than th...

Houston Grand Opera (HGO)'s 50th World Premiere Opera had its first public performance last night at Asia Society Texas Center. This enchanting chamber opera is a gorgeous and stirring piece that examines the power and necessity of memory for the advancement of the human species. It opens with rolli...

Stages Repertory Theatre is presenting a tense and taut production of Rebecca Gilman's DOLLHOUSE. The 2010 play is a modernized retelling of Henrik Ibsen's classic A DOLL'S HOUSE. DOLLHOUSE is set in Chicago, circa 2004. Scandals, like Enron, have rocked American society, and the financial stability...

In all honesty, there really is nothing more fun than seeing the next generation of musical theatre talent put on a great production of one of Broadway's mega-hits. Fortunately for Houston audiences, that's exactly what is happening in HSPVA's Black Box Theatre, as the school presents Jonathan Larso...

Adaptations of feature films to stage musicals are a dime a dozen these days. However, if you want to get a Texas audience excited really quickly, tell them you're doing a musical based on the 1980 film 9 to 5 and that Dolly Parton has written the music and lyrics for the musical you're doing. You'l...

Houston's Classical Theatre Company (CTC) has had one amazing season at their new home at Studio 101 in the Spring Street Studios. I was impressed by their productions of MISS JULIE and UBU ROI, but their production of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE deftly exposes the sincere theatrical talent that legends ...

The Ensemble Theatre's 2012-2013 season theme is 'Bridge Art to the Heart,' and their current production of Nathan Louis Jackson's play BROKE-OLOGY is sure to touch and even break hearts. The tragicomedy juxtaposes an erudite man against a man who is the self-proclaimed inventor of the science of Br...

William Shakespeare's HENRY V is quite possibly his most well-known and celebrated history play. The famous climatic St. Crispin's day speech is full of nationalistic and patriotic rhetoric that resonates deep within the soul, mind and body while quickening the blood. Luckily for Houston audiences, ...

The Catastrophic Theatre(TCT) opened their new season at their new Catastrophic Theatre space with an astounding production of Samuel Beckett's stark tragicomedy WAITING FOR GODOT. The company has used the performance space in the past in collaboration with DiverseWorks, but the 1119 East Freeway lo...

Houston Grand Opera's 41st World Premiere Opera CRUZAR LA CARA DE LA LUNA/TO CROSS THE FACE OF THE MOON premiered in the Brown Theater at the Wortham Center on November 13, 2012. The performance played in front of 2,400 patrons, the largest-ever audience in the Brown Theater. Following that rousing ...

My first experience with JERSEY BOYS was the Broadway company's rousing performance at Broadway in Bryant Park last summer. After their fun, toe-tapping set, I was looking forward to seeing the 2nd National Tour company perform in Houston, TX. Last night, I took my seat for JERSEY BOYS anticipating ...

The engaging and amusing show VOCA PEOPLE started life as an overnight YouTube sensation. It is now a world-renowned theatrical experience that has been produced in over 20 countries since its inception in 2009. It recently closed a long and highly successful Off-Broadway run at New World Stages bef...

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Many in the industry consider George Furth and Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY to be one of the best American musicals ever created. The piece is complicated and challenging for the cast, crew, and orchestra, but when done well is one of the most rewarding nights at the theatre for the audience. For audi...

Last night, Cone Man Running Productions presented the World Premiere performance of Michael Weems surprisingly sobering comedy OKAY BETTER BEST at Obsidian Art Space. This brand new play investigates the power of bar bets, friendships, relationships, and the devastating affects of misplaced bitter ...

Cone Man Running Productions' is bringing the Regional Premiere of Christopher Trumbo's 2003 play TRUMBO: RED, WHITE AND BLACKLISTED to Houston. The play mounted on Broadway with a revolving door of big name celebrities playing Christopher Trumbo's father, Dalton Trumbo. Nathan Lane, Tim Robbins, Br...

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Main Street Theater's Theater for Youth program's continued commitment to fully produced shows for children is alive and well in their current production of Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation of Harry Allard and James Marshall's MISS NELSON IS MISSING. The play is produced with the same standard for desig...

Comedies about Southern women talking are a dime a dozen. Most audiences cling to Robert Harling's STEEL MAGNOLIAS, imbued with healthy doses of both comedy and drama, as the quintessential Southern women play. However, Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, and Jamie Wooten's DIXIE SWIM CLUB may start giving...

The popular circus company, Cirque du Soleil is quickly approaching their 30th anniversary. The company premiered CIRQUE DU SOLEIL, their first nouveau cirque-a theatrical and character-driven circus without performing animals-on June 16, 1984. Since their humble beginnings, they have become a world...