Theatre Scene
Fun Home is Bleak House
When you are told early on in a musical that the lead male character Bruce, the father of the family being portrayed, is going to commit suicide, you know it’s not your typical musical. The […]
Articles by Cliff
Theatre Scene
Old-Style English Musical in Austin
Rupert Holmes, who created the musical Mystery of Edwin Drood, is on record as hoping, and thinking, that Charles Dickens would have enjoyed his creation. Based as it is on Dickens’ last novel, which remained […]
Music Scene
Brahms’ Mountainous Concerto
“It is a long and massive piano concerto. Just making it to the end of the first movement is like making it to base camp.” Pianist Orli Shaham was likening Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 2 […]
Theatre Scene
Love Never Dies
What happens when your sky-high expectations for the title song of a musical fall flat when the big moment comes and the singer can’t deliver or the lyrics just don’t grab you? If you attend […]
Theatre Scene
A Musical Christmas Carol
There is nothing better than a ghost for Halloween, except maybe a ghost for Christmas. At the Zach Theatre now you can see not one but four ghosts on stage in a musical adaptation of […]
Theatre Scene
Presidential Library
Presidential History in Northern Texas
While the Austin area is LBJ country, the first Texas-born president of the United States hailed from the far north. I recently visited Denison, 270 miles north of Austin, to see the birthplace of Dwight […]
Theatre Scene
The Full Monty: Terrence McNally at 80
“A play isn’t finished until the last character enters.” So said Terrence McNally at his 80th birthday celebration, held at Austin’s Zach Theatre on Nov. 12. The ‘last character’ he referred to is the audience, […]
Music Scene
Otello: Lessons for Our Time
The lasting legacy of Shakespeare resides in part on his relevance to more modern times. Even though his plays deal with events hundreds of years ago, each succeeding generation finds new insight in his work. […]
Presidential Library
Jerry Brown: It’s a Dangerous Time
California Governor Jerry Brown, during a visit to Austin, issued a dire warning for the near future. “The population is segmenting: we’re going from unum to plurality. It’s a dangerous time.” Brown, who studied Latin, […]