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OUT OF TOWN SPECIAL: “The Flick” at Gaslight-Baker Theatre
Community theater might be the most important art form in the world. Okay, obviously that is an exaggeration bourne from personal inclinations. But local theater is very important. I’ve seen bad community theater, I have seen middling community theater, and I’ve seen really great community theater – in the same way that I’ve seen bad, middling,…
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“The Three Musketeers” by The Archive Theatre
The Archive Theatre’s The Three Musketeers is a new adaptation of Dumas’ novel by producing artistic director Jennifer Rose Davis. The script moves along at a good clip and the show clocks in at under two hours, giving a sort of madcap romp feel to an old classic adventure. Much of this energy is also…
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“Bar(d)” by Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project
Bar(d)‘s tight, clever script by Stephanie Crugnola is both a love letter to Shakespeare and lighthearted goof on him. Shakespeare’s works are given gravitas and honor…and then they’re mocked, because seriously, as the characters at the Butterfly Bar tell each other, there’s no way all of these stories could just wrap up so nicely. Clearly,…
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“Emma” at Austin Playhouse
It’s not that loving Jane Austen is a competition. If it was, I certainly wouldn’t win. (But I think I would be pretty high up there.) It’s also not that Jane Austen’s books are so precious that they shouldn’t be played with. She’s super dead, so do whatever you want! I had high hopes going…
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“Clyde’s” at Ground Floor Theatre
Ground Floor Theatre is one of my favorite venues in town. I like the cozy lobby and the chardonnay they offer. I honestly even like going down the outdoor hallway to the bathrooms. I like that parking is easy (if it is a little Wild West in the backside of the buildings). Mostly, I love…
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“Aurora” at Bottle Alley Theatre Co.
Where did we come from? Where do we belong? What if we never find out the answer to either of those? Or what if we do – but only once we’ve realized how nice the place we are is, after all? These are all questions I think Aurora asks, and questions I came away from…
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“The Prom” at ZACH Theatre
The Prom follows a group of failed actors (plus a non-union touring cast of Godspell) who rush from Broadway to Indiana to the aid of a teenage lesbian named Emma who’s been told she can’t attend prom with her girlfriend. They mean well, sort of, but they’re ultimate Liberal Buffoons — clumsy, overly ambitious, and…
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“Born With Teeth” at Austin Playhouse
Liz Duffy Adams’ play Born With Teeth is predicated on the idea that Will Shakespeare and Kit Marlowe did indeed collaborate on the writing of the Henry VI trilogy, and asks: so, what did they talk about while they worked? “Imagined conversations between two real people” is a well established theatrical genre; Born With Teeth…
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“The Twilight of the Golds” at City Theatre
If you are (like I was until last week) unfamiliar with Jonathan Tolins’ Twilight of the Golds, the main conflict of the story is a woman who contemplates terminating a wanted pregnancy after finding out via experimental in-utero DNA testing that her baby is 90% likely to turn out gay – shocking and offending her…
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“The Library” at Different Stages
Scott Z. Burns’ The Library is heavy. I guess it would be silly to suggest that any story about a school shooting and its aftermath could be anything but heavy. Different Stages’ current production of The Library (directed by Carl Gonzales and Lacey Cannon Gonzales) is heavy – but not oppressively so. Some hard topics…
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“Back To You” at Austin Rainbow Theatre
Everyone wants to be an auteur. I suppose there’s nothing wrong with being an auteur, as long as you have the talent. I would even argue that the fellow artists an auteur surrounds themself with are just as important as their own sensibilities. Back To You is a two-character play about two gay boys named…
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“The Ghosts of Christmas Past”: A Staged Reading at Archive Theater
The Ghosts of Christmas Past seems to have had a fraught (though brief) history. It was intended (as a full production) to be Archive’s winter show when they announced their 2023 season, but in the middle of October it was cancelled due to a lack of “spirit/force/resources” and actors. Then three weeks later, the show…
Bat City Stage Reviews
A review blog for live theater in Austin, Texas