HOUSTON THEATER REVIEWS

Continuing its mission to boldly re-envision classical drama, Classical Theatre Company is presenting Alfred Jarry's UBU ROI. The 1896 play is a precursor of the Theatre of the Absurd and Surrealism, but certainly opened the doors for the development of those genres of theatre....

Houston Grand Opera opened their Winter Repertory offerings with an impressive and rousing production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's iconic book musical SHOW BOAT. The musical historically changed the face of American Musical Theatre and introduced a genre of entertainment that many feel ...

By now, you've heard of E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey, the erotica novel that found mainstream success and wide readership in 2011. You probably even know it spurned a trilogy (what isn't a trilogy these days). And you may have even read at least a portion of the novel yourself. You may have swoo...

With Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day just around the corner, The Alley is producing Katori Hall's play THE MOUNTAINTOP. The play premiered in London in 2009 to critical acclaim. It opened in New York on Broadway in October 2011 with Samuel L. Jackson as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Angela Bassett...

Houston's A.D. Players, while always producing theatre that is safe for the whole family, produces a full season of Children's shows that many Houstonians may not know about. Their most recent offering is the World Premiere of the musical THUMBELINA, adapted from the story by Hans Christian Andersen...

What happens when artists reclaim prominent fairy tale figures from Disney's sparkling and sanitzied translations? Well, for one, INTO THE WOODS is born. The show, with a book by James Lapine and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, presents fairy tale characters that are closer to their origins. T...

Looking ahead to the Chinese New Year, 2013 is the year of the snake. With my American and Western preconceived notions about snakes and their characteristics, I can't think of a better play to champion right now. Black Lab Theatre's Regional Premiere of Jeff Talbott's THE SUBMISSION is a wholly rea...

As the nation faces an new civil rights battle, homosexuality is a topic that many have opinions about. Country Playhouse is taking audiences back to an era before the Stonewall Riots and before the AIDS epidemic, showcasing the struggles that afflicted homosexuals in the 1960s. As 2013 opens, Count...

Pasadena's Stage Door Inc. is greeting 2013 with the 1996 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Jonathan Larson's renown musical RENT. RENT, inspired by Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème, tells the story of a handful of New York City's East Village artists and their struggles with life, love, AID...

More often than not, theatres produce Shakespeare with a unique, modernizing spin. Keeping in this vein, Eklektix Theatre's Artistic Director Bryan-Keyth Wilson has adapted William Shakespeare's tragedy MACBETH, setting it in a post apocalyptic urban wasteland in the year 3013. Likewise, Bryan-Keyth...

The Houston Ballet organization is imbued with talent from top to bottom. Last year, they organized an event in which the dancers got to experiment and begin growing their own individual choreographic voices. Thursday, December 13, 2012 was their second event with this goal in mind. A small, invitat...

Each year, the magic of the holidays fills the hearts of both the young and old. Keeping that magic alive and offering a fun family outing, Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) is presenting Cathy Rigby in PETER PAN, which is a musical production of the play by Sir James Barrie with lyrics by Carolyn Leig...

Edge Theatre is presenting Jim Tommaney's VIV! (THE STORY BEHIND THE LEGEND OF VIVIEN LEIGH) at Midtown Art Center. At the top of the 80 minute one act, Robert Strong, is at home in his Greenwich Village apartment and using his Quija Board to summon Cleopatra as played by Vivien Leigh. The actress e...

Yet, the world premiere of Abby Koenig's YOUR FAMILY SUCKS being produced by Horse Head Theatre Company is taking us back to the hey-day of Game Show Culture and using it to explore the functionally dysfunctional modern American family. With a wit and schema for creating characters that is reminisce...

Big Head Productions is presenting their third evening of short plays. This collection of plays, some from local artists, all have an office theme. The set is four cubicles, cut to allow the audience to see through them and into the other cubicles. Each cubicle is sprinkled with drawn on post-its an...

To many, a one-man dramatic reading of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol seems like an entirely new and unique spin on the classic work. However, Charles Dickens himself employed this approach to presenting his work, performing public dramatic readings in England. Then in 1867, Charles Dickens went...

For the holiday season, A.D. Players is presenting SANDERS FAMILY CHRISTMAS. The family friendly holiday musical is part of the SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN series, and was written by Connie Ray, Conceived by Alan Bailey, and has musical arrangements done by John Foley and Gary Fagin....

The success of RABBIT HOLE, which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was adapted into a film starring Nicole Kidman, made David Lindsay-Abaire more than a blip on radars within and outside of the arts community. As a playwright, David Lindsay-Abaire is best known for writing about real people...

Every year, Santaland in Macy's at Herald Square in the heart of Manhattan attracts floods of people who are willing to wait an hour (or more) in line for a few brief moments with Santa Claus. People young and old dream of having a moment like little Virginia O'Hanlon or Susan Walker, finding out th...

Stages Repertory Theatre's PANTO MOTHER GOOSE is their fifth original "panto" production, and this new tradition has become quite the holiday favorite in Houston. For those who may not know, "panto" is a British tradition of winter musical comedy theater that puts a fresh, raucous spin on fairy tale...

Main Street Theater is offering Houstonians an unparalleled delight with their production of Martha Gellhorn and Virginia Cowles' play LOVE GOES TO PRESS. The play found success in London in 1946 and then moved across the pond to New York in 1947. It opened January 1 and closed on January 4. The pla...

As the Black Friday sales died down, the Houston Ballet's live orchestra began to stir. With a quick hush, the murmuring audience gave into their anticipation of dancing sugar plum fairies. As the lights, hung with care, illuminated the dexterous dancers, Houston audiences responded with glee. After...

The Alley Theatre in Houston has been annually producing a stage adaptation of Charles Dickens' novella A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas since 1988. In 1990, Michael Wilson's adaptation, titled A CHRISTMAS CAROL - A GHOST STORY OF CHRISTMAS, had its premiere at The Alley....

I have to admit, it's hard for me to get exited about stage adaptations of the Cinderella story. Growing up, I had Rogers and Hammerstein's CINDERELLA starring Julie Andrews crammed down my throat. The 1997 version starring Brandy promised to be a fresh and relevant take on the material, but I was n...

Linda Kelin and Barbara Gehring, met as adults and instantly realized they should have been friends as kids. They eventually shared their diaries with each other, spawning what would eventually become GIRLS ONLY - THE SECRET COMEDY OF WOMEN. After sharing their dairies with each other, they decided ...