Truly, these shows are ingenious musical sketch-comedy pieces that remind me a ton of both Carol Brunette and variety shows of the 70s as much as something like a South Park, The Simpsons, or Family Guy. They are a chance to watch “serious actors” let go and do really silly fun stuff that they almost never get to do in any other play, unleashed by any other company.
LOVE BOMB is a masterpiece of the absurd, but at the same time, it’s a viable Melanie jukebox musical that could command any stage in town. Yet I doubt that any company other than the Catastrophic Theatre will ever dare to do so because it asks much of its audience.
Are the superheroes really simply the spirits that Prospero conjured on the island? Could Fathom City have been taken over by Dr. Cannibal (an anagram for Caliban) because he fled and tossed his books into the sea? Is this a sequel, a salute, or a sardonic spoof of Shakespeare’s work?
This company is just really strong at putting on funny-as-hell musical sketch comedies. It’s as if SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE were written by Kander and Ebb.
Should you avoid seeing the show? For God’s sake, no. You will miss what is surely going to be one of the most talked about pieces of work in Houston’s theatrical history. Go see it, and make your own call whether you love or hate it. But don’t let them brainwash you into thinking this is only about love because it is also about repulsion, and that is okay. It is very much as if David Cronenberg and David Lynch made a movie, and Jim Henson designed the sex scenes.
If you have ever gone out for a job interview, gone on a first date, or just put yourself out there for something you really wanted. Then you can relate to this play, and you can specifically relate to the power of “No,” which is certainly one of the themes in the play. Mickle's work is always very funny.
Tamarie is a whirling dervish, a force of nature, and a comedic genius of a performer. She rises to the challenge of playing herself admirably, and it's the kind of role she was born to play. I doubt any other actor or actress in Houston could portray her quite as convincingly.
Catastrophic Theatre’s THE BOOK OF GRACE makes good on the company’s promise of “we will destroy you” in the best way possible. The production is a well-honed punch to the gut that will leave you reeling and provoked.
When one thinks of a production, usually there is a script, with a director, creative team and the actors have a bevy of time in order to put on the best performances of their life. However, the newly formed Garden Theatre has chosen to do the exact opposite in a smart, clever, and brilliant production of Nassim Soleimanpour's WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT.
Houston's newest theatre company, The Garden Theatre, has announced its plans to bring White Rabbit Red Rabbit by Nassim Soleimanpour to the MATCH. The show with no sets, no costumes, no rehearsal, and no direction will run January 21-30, 2022 at Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston (3400 Main St.) in the heart of midtown.
Regency romance is back for the holidays at Main Street Theater (MST) with Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon's The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberleya?"a companion piece to the duo's Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley which delighted Houston audiences at MST during the last 2 seasons. Both plays are set in the world of Jane Austen's popular novel, Pride and Prejudice. The Wickhams is all about what's happening downstairs in the servants' quarters while the actions of Miss Bennet were taking place upstairs!
It wasn't the comedy of broadcasters who have absolutely no information to share but share it anyway that stayed with me, nor was it watching each of these characters disintegrate into their lowest common denominators as they desperately cling to order. It was instead in their attempts, on the last night of the world, to stay connected. They hold on to their microphones (quite literally) and to each other and their unseen audiences to their last coherent moment, 'speaking to keep loneliness at bay'.
Tamarie Cooper Directs The Catastrophic Theatre's Season Opener, TRAGEDY, A TRAGEDY
Main Street Theater (MST) opens its 44th Season with Tom Stoppard's newest play, The Hard Problem. MST and Executive Artistic Director Rebecca Greene Udden have long been the go-to source for Stoppard's plays for Houston, for Texas, and even the nation (MST's production of The Coast of Utopia trilogy drew audiences from across the U.S.). It's fitting, then, that MST would produce the Regional Premiere of Stoppard's latest work.
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.
Main Street Theater (MST) brings back the Irish modern classic, The Weir by Conor McPherson. Set in a small Irish pub, five locals share their spellbinding ghost stories and try to make sense of them over the course of the evening.
They sing! They dance! They are Mr. Popper's Penguins!! Main Street Theater (MST) presents the delightful musical Mr. Popper's Penguins, based on the beloved novel by Richard and Florence Atwater. Performances are Sundays, November 11 & 18 at 12:30pm and 3:30pm, Monday - Wednesday, November 19 - 21 at 11am and 2pm, Fridays, November 23 & December 21 at 11am and 2pm, Saturdays, November 24 - December 15 at 11am and 2pm at MST's Midtown location, 3400 Main St. in Matchbox4. All tickets are on sale via phone at 713.524.6706 or online at MainStreetTheater.com. Tickets are $16 - $24.
Main Street Theater (MST) presents the fun, family musical Curious George: The Golden Meatball, based on the books by Margret and H.A. Rey and the play owned by Universal Stage Productions.
This iteration of the Tamarie Cooper Show explores the leading lady's emotional baggage, battle against minor depression, and all of the discarded bad ideas that the troop has come up with when they were in line at 4am at Taco Bell. In other words, business as usual for Tamarie and her cast of usual suspects.
Tamarie Cooper is back with another entirely original, full-scale, musical comedy extravaganza!TheproductionopensJune29t?h?andrunsthroughAugust12t?h?.Ticketsareonsalenowandcan be purchased at matchouston.org or by calling the MATCH Box Office at 713-521-4533. Performances are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.
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