Brutal and Disturbing
Visceral emotions are the order of the day when viewing an exhibit at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle. Entitled Castoffs, it is by Martha Friedman, director of the Program…
Tuna Christmas
The annual Texas classic Tuna Christmas is back in Austin, courtesy of City Theatre Austin. Since its debut in 1989, this play lays bare the town of Tuna at Christmas…
A Brian Wilson Christmas
Imagine listening to one of your favourite albums from long ago. Then imagine attending a live concert by the group that created that album. Finally, imagine hearing them play the…
Armadillo Christmas
An annual fixture in Austin is Armadillo Christmas, currently on show at the Palmer Center. More of an upscale arts and crafts fair than the sort of Christmas bazaar where…
White Christmas
For those who harken back to a kinder and gentler time, there is no better tonic that the musical White Christmas, currently on stage at The Palace in Georgetown. For…
Sorry! Wrong Chimney
As political analyst Steve Schmidt said on TV recently, “You can’t solve crazy, and you can’t solve stupid.” If it appears the entire cast of characters in Sorry! Wrong Chimney…
Santaland Diaries
Santa’s little elf isn’t so little. In the Santaland Diaries, being performed now at the Zach Theatre, he is a full-grown man with a saucy tongue and a rapier wit.…
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…
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…
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…