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D. L. Groover

D.L. Groover has contributed to countless reputable publications including the Houston Press since 2003. His theater criticism has earned him a national award from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) as well as three statewide Lone Star Press Awards for the same. He's co-author of the irreverent appreciation, Skeletons from the Opera Closet (St. Martin's Press), now in its fourth printing.

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Capsule Stage Reviews: April 23, 2015

By D. L. Groover
Apr 23, 2015

The Cherry Orchard Recently Houston's theater scene has been blessed with some very fine Chekhov knockoffs: last season's superlative rendition of Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at the Alley; and, recently, a regional premiere, also superlatively produced, of Aaron Posner's stupid f*****g bird from Stages Rep...
Capsule Stage Reviews: April 16, 2015

By Jessica Goldman and D. L. Groover
Apr 16, 2015

The Cherry Orchard Recently Houston's theater scene has been blessed with some very fine Chekhov knockoffs: last season's superlative rendition of Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at the Alley; and, recently, a regional premiere, also superlatively produced, of Aaron Posner's stupid f*****g bird from Stages Rep...
Capsule Stage Reviews: April 9, 2015

By D. L. Groover
Apr 9, 2015

Shadowlands Not since Barbara Stanwyck, as self-sacrificing mother Stella Dallas (1937), who peered into that upper-crust window to see her daughter finally find happiness, has there been such a weepie as William Nicholson's love story Shadowlands. Perhaps Erich Segal's Love Story, the curse of the early '70s, might be next,...
Capsule Stage Reviews: April 2, 2015

By D. L. Groover
Mar 31, 2015

Shadowlands Not since Barbara Stanwyck, as self-sacrificing mother Stella Dallas (1937), who peered into that upper-crust window to see her daughter finally find happiness, has there been such a weepie as William Nicholson's love story Shadowlands. Perhaps Erich Segal's Love Story, the curse of the early '70s, might be next,...
Capsule Stage Reviews: March 26, 2015

By D. L. Groover
Mar 24, 2015

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat If you're feeling a bit sleepy when Joseph begins, don't worry, the show will slap you awake fast. And hard. This is the most frenetic show in memory, fast-paced, constantly on the go and terrifically cheesy. Nobody and nothing stops. Ever. It's the siege...
Capsule Stage Review: March 19, 2015

By D. L. Groover
Mar 17, 2015

A Midsummer Night's Dream Written circa 1595, probably immediately after Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream is Shakespeare at his most magical. Full of moonbeams and gossamer, it seems written on cobweb. Combining ancient myth, folklore and pastoral romance, the master weaves a fantastic story all about love, which,...
Capsule Stage Review: March 12, 2015

By D. L. Groover
Mar 10, 2015

The Skin of Our Teeth How much poorer would the American theater be without the riches of Thornton Wilder? A world without Our Town or The Matchmaker is unthinkable. A place without The Skin of Our Teeth (1942) would be darker still. Wilder called Skin — the flip side to...
Capsule Stage Reviews: March 5, 2015

By Jessica Goldman and D. L. Groover
Mar 3, 2015

The Blackest Shore Catastrophic Theatre brings the work of New York-based up-and-coming playwright Mark Schultz to us twice this season. Closing out the year is Schultz's play Everything Will Be Different: A Brief History of Helen of Troy, a show about teen girl anguish. On offer now is the premiere...
Capsule Stage Reviews: February 26, 2015

By Jessica Goldman and D. L. Groover
Feb 24, 2015

The Blackest Shore Catastrophic Theatre brings the work of New York-based up-and-coming playwright Mark Schulz to us twice this season. Closing out the year is Schultz's play Everything Will Be Different: A Brief History of Helen of Troy, a show about teen girl anguish. On offer now is the premiere...
Capsule Stage Reviews: February 19, 2015

By Jessica Goldman and D. L. Groover
Feb 12, 2015

The Blackest Shore Catastrophic Theatre brings the work of New York-based up-and-coming playwright Mark Schulz to us twice this season. Closing out the year is Schultz's play Everything Will Be Different: A Brief History of Helen of Troy, a show about teen girl anguish. On offer now is the premiere...
Capsule Stage Reviews: February 12, 2015

By Jessica Goldman and D. L. Groover
Feb 10, 2015

Character Man Jim Brochu's one-man musical tribute to those unsung supporting players of Broadway's golden age radiates such a warm autumnal glow, you want to rush right out and buy every original Broadway cast album of the shows Brochu so lovingly remembers. (If you're already a Broadway baby, you have...
Capsule Stage Reviews: February 5, 2015

By Jessica Goldman and D. L. Groover
Feb 3, 2015

La Clemenza di Tito Mozart's penultimate opera is music fit for a king, certainly appropriate since it was commissioned to celebrate the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II's coronation as King of Bohemia in September 1791. The celebrations were hastily planned, leaving only about two months to ready Prague for the...
Capsule Stage Reviews: January 29, 2015

By Jessica Goldman and D. L. Groover
Jan 27, 2015

Madame Butterfly The girl in the chrysanthemum kimono never stays too far away too long. Depicted through Puccini's most rhapsodic melodies that use a subtle pentatonic framework for its swirling overlay of Japanesque atmosphere, this universally beloved opera is continually on the annual top-ten list of most performed operas. Written...
Capsule Stage Reviews: January 22, 2015

By Jessica Goldman and D. L. Groover
Jan 20, 2015

Frost/Nixon There's an emotion rushing through Company OnStage's bumpy production of Peter Morgan's quasi-historical Frost/Nixon that is, if not unintentional, quite unexpected — sympathy for Richard Milhous Nixon, our disgraced, Machiavellian 37th President. High crimes and misdemeanors, including burglary, hush money for witnesses, suborning perjury, willfully disregarding subpoenas, wiretapping the...
Capsule Stage Reviews: January 1, 2015

By D. L. Groover
Dec 30, 2014

Panto Rapunzel (With Zombies) There ain't no respect in Panto Rapunzel (and Zombies) at Stages Repertory. Nor any sass. Nor much of a vibe. Perhaps it's time to retire the Panto idea completely and give it back to the Victorians. This seventh incarnation is the lamest of all. Playwrights Jodi...
Capsule Stage Reviews: December 25, 2014

By D. L. Groover
Dec 23, 2014

Panto Rapunzel (With Zombies) There ain't no respect in Panto Rapunzel (and Zombies) at Stages Repertory. Nor any sass. Nor much of a vibe. Perhaps it's time to retire the Panto idea completely and give it back to the Victorians. This seventh incarnation is the lamest of all. Playwrights Jodi...
Capsule Stage Reviews: December 18, 2014

By D. L. Groover
Dec 16, 2014

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol Like a redemptive Scrooge at the finale of Dickens's immortal "little ghost story," this reviewer is dancing a jig and giggling like a schoolboy, lighter than a feather, after seeing Classical Theatre's superlative rendition of A Christmas Carol. This production, minimal in size though expansive...
Capsule Stage Reviews: November 20, 2014

By Jessica Goldman, D. L. Groover and JIM J.TOMMANEY
Nov 18, 2014

Hänsel und Gretel When Opera in the Heights announced it would perform Englebert Humperdinck's gargantuan fairy tale — gargantuan in the size of its orchestra — I immediately thought, what a boneheaded mistake, this'll never work. This late Romantic behemoth (1893), progeny of Wagner and stepchild of soon-to-be Richard Strauss,...
Capsule Stage Reviews: November 13, 2014

By D. L. Groover
Nov 11, 2014

Company Bracing and potent as a vodka stinger, Company (1970), Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's multiple Tony Award-winning "musical comedy" on marriage, commitment and New York City, ushered in Sondheim as potential king of Broadway. This intimate production from MJR Theatricals and Music Box Musicals supplies plenty of grit and...
Capsule Stage Reviews: November 6, 2014

By D. L. Groover
Nov 4, 2014

Così fan tutte If you want to know all about sex, why read Masters and Johnson when you can go to the opera and hear Mozart. What better primer than Così fan tutte (1790), the third collaboration between Mozart and urbane librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. The masterpieces Marriage of Figaro...
Capsule Stage Reviews: October 30, 2014

By D. L. Groover
Oct 30, 2014

Marie Antoinette The ill-fated queen of France (Emily Neves) sashays down the halls of Versailles to a heavy techno beat. Gigantic neon fleurs-de-lis flash blindingly. Looking as tasty and pastel as any of those luscious macarons piled into a decorous pyramid on the acrylic table, she could be a classy...
Capsule Stage Reviews: October 23, 2014

By D. L. Groover
Oct 22, 2014

Marie Antoinette The ill-fated queen of France (Emily Neves) sashays down the halls of Versailles to a heavy techno beat. Gigantic neon fleurs-de-lis flash blindingly. Looking as tasty and pastel as any of those luscious macarons piled into a decorous pyramid on the acrylic table, she could be a classy...

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D. L. Groover