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Lesbian Romance Goes Mainstream In Shakin' The Blue Flamingo

By Jessica Goldman

Aug 13, 2022

Pretty sure the last time we saw a play about lesbians in this town was 2018 when the Alley staged Bekah Brunstetter's, The Cake, about a North Carolina baker who faces a crisis of conscience when asked to make a cake for a lesbian wedding. A year before that we...

Wear Pink to Mean Girls at Broadway at the Hobby

By Margaret Downing

Aug 11, 2022

High school can be the most wonderful time in your life, filled with great teachers, forever friends, and perfect memories. And, as most of us know, it can be awful, or at least have its awful moments. Tina Fey acknowledged that with her movie Mean Girls (based on Rosalind Wiseman's...

Rick Springfield & Friends Promise an Evening of "Wall to Wall Hits"

By Bob Ruggiero

Aug 11, 2022

It’s a myth-busting notion that, outside of the 90 minutes or so they’re onstage performing, the reality of a successful touring rock musician is often blur of airports and airplanes, car rides, hotels and room service menus, and sound checks. And sometimes, interviews. As when Rick Springfield calls from his...

Houston Shakespeare Festival's Lear: Tremendous Theater

By D. L. Groover

Aug 4, 2022

When our esteemed Houston Shakespeare Festival stays true to the spirit and tenor of Shakespeare, the results can be terribly good, near great. The indomitable tragedy King Lear is in loving hands this 47th season, an affecting production in which all invest their most. The landscape of Lear is bleak,...

Houston Shakespeare Festival Pivots to Cartoon Characters in This Version of Cymbeline

By D. L. Groover

Aug 3, 2022

Why is it that given a rarely performed Shakespeare play like Cymbeline, written supposedly near the end of his career (produced c. 1611), directors seem to think it should be played broad and in italics? Cymbeline is classified as a “romance,” a “comedy,” a “fairy tale,” and once was labeled...

Dream: The Music of the Everly Brothers Brings a Welcome Nostalgia Rush at Stages

By D. L. Groover

Jul 29, 2022

If you are of a certain age, the music of the Everly Brothers formed your memories. Even as a child in Pennsylvania, in elementary school, I knew their music. It was on the radio, and everybody listened to the radio. Every style of music played on the radio. There were...

It's the Butler in the Manor Who's the Saving Grace in the Alley's Production of Clue

By D. L. Groover

Jul 28, 2022

What to make of Clue, Sandy Rustin's stage adaptation of Jonathan Lynn's 1985 screenplay, which was based on the Parker Brothers' board game (1949) that I played for hours in my childhood. Everyone I know played Clue, and when we tired of the murder mystery (Was it Mrs. Peacock in...

Jones Hall Construction Sounds Overture To The Future

By Sam Byrd

Jul 25, 2022

Jones Hall, the Theatre District's oldest building, is undergoing a series of renovations through 2024. The Foundation for Jones Hall is spearheading the $50 million initiative to sculpt the landmark into a 21st century venue.

Is God Is at Rec Room Arts Delivers Vengeance and Violence With an Asterisk

By Jessica Goldman

Jul 21, 2022

“I wanna stomp on something for once, see what it feels like.” It’s a thought with ample justification for any Black woman in America. However, when 18-year-old Racine says it in Aleshea Harris’ play, Is God Is, its meaning isn't weighted with presumed politics, history, or race. It’s stone-cold vengeance,...

After a Three-Year Layoff, Houston Shakespeare Festival Returns to Miller Outdoor

By Houston Press

Jul 21, 2022

Houston Shakespeare Festival returns to the Miller Outdoor Theatre this year for the first time since 2019 in live performances of King Lear and Cymbeline. Scheduled for July 28 to August 6, the plays are shown in repertoire and are free to everyone whether in (somewhat air conditioned) seats in...

The Real Inspector Hound and its Use of Deadly Farce at Main Street Theater [UPDATED]

By D. L. Groover

Jul 17, 2022

Although playwright Tom Stoppard once said that The Real Inspector Hound is not about theater critics, it's difficult to believe him. He's pulling our leg. He's a master at that. Of course, this meta-farce is about critics and how they view what they're paid to review; how they want their...

Simprov Gives Us Thesis But Not Much Else

By Jessica Goldman

Jul 16, 2022

Thanks to technology, how we engage with modern entertainment is killing us. Reality TV, which isn’t real at all, but rather carefully scripted and packaged for consumption/ratings is rendering us and those who participate in it, into husks of meaningless identity. Such is the thesis behind Laurence Klavan’s new surreal...

In A.D. Player's Production of The Sound of Music the Word That Means Maria is Wonderful

By D. L. Groover

Jul 16, 2022

A star is born with Claire Marie Spencer, as Maria in A.D. Player's superlative production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's immortal The Sound of Music. If you're one of the few who find The Sound of Music below your taste – I understand. Those preening, scene-stealing child actors – seven of them...

REO Speedwagon's Bruce Hall Talks Licks, Links and Blazing (Hot!) Summer Tour

By Bob Ruggiero

Jul 14, 2022

When we recently spoke with Ricky Phillips of Styx, the bass player told us that he and his fellow four-string thumpers and the current Live and Unzoomed classic rock package tour (Bruce Hall of REO Speedwagon and Ken “Spider’ Sinnaeve of Loverboy) often have a “bass hang” at group dinners...

The Return of Alley Theatre's Summer Chills With Clue

By Margaret Downing

Jul 13, 2022

Brandon Weinbrenner was an avid reader as a kid and one of the series of books that he galloped through was based on the board game Clue. In each story of the 18-book series, readers were given a list of clues and asked to figure out who had done what...

Rec Room Director on “Vengeance” and “Vindication” For Black Protagonists in Western Is God Is

By Vic Shuttee

Jul 12, 2022

Rec Room Productions is bringing bold new work to the stage, as they present the Houston premiere of the new Aleshea Harris drama Is God Is, opening July 16. Directed by Candice D’Meza, who describes this visionary 90-minute one-act as “very Western, very reminiscent of Greek tragedy. There are very...

Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound Explores the Crisis of Being a Second-Stringer, With Laughter [UPDATED]

By Margaret Downing

Jul 11, 2022

If nothing else, it's the names that may clue you in to the approach this Tom Stoppard play is taking. While Muldoon Manor would probably reside happily in any Agatha Christie mystery book or play, the fact that the two lead characters are named Moon and Birdboot indicates a less...

Styx's Ricky Phillips Bottoms Out (on the Bass) for Summer Tour

By Bob Ruggiero

Jul 11, 2022

The cell phone sitting on the desk rings at the appointed time, and there’s a high-energy voice on the other end of the line. “Hey Bob, it’s Ricky Phillips! From the rock band Styx!” Hmmm…it wouldn’t seem that the band whose Classic Rock catalog includes such warhorses as “Come Sail...

Sarah Sings a Love Story Offers Beautiful Voices Muffled By the Dialog

By D. L. Groover

Jul 6, 2022

Preeminent jazz artist Sarah Vaughan was christened by her peers as “Divine One,” and given the nickname “Sassie.” She always liked that moniker best of all. Unfortunately, there's no sass in Ensemble Theatre's tribute to the incomparable Vaughan, Sarah Sings a Love Story, by Stephanie Berry. It's not the fault...

Thunderclap Productions Remains Provocative With Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them

By D. L. Groover

Jul 2, 2022

Thunderclap Productions has presented scant shows over the years, but their productions aren't scant. They may be small in scale, but thick in meaning. Rum and Vodka, from 2012, was a haunting monologue from Irish playwright Conor McPherson that wallowed in the downward trajectory of The Man (Andy Ingalls) during...

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Review: Rick Springfield, Men at Work and John Waite

Shemekia Copeland's Hard Turn Off Straight Blues Boulevard

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