Blogs: Posts Tagged ‘ jenkins ’

So your intrepid theatre critic caught five shows in the Big Apple as he zipped up north for spring break. But at least one show is a better fit for good ol’ Texas: Hands on a Hardbody: The Musical, which sounds as risqué as Oh, Calcutta! but is in fact far closer to Oh,...
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  It was something of a surprise when the unpretentious Memphis beat out both the indy-rock spectacle American Idiot and the afrobeat fantasia Fela! for the 2010 Tony Award for Best Musical: the latter two musicals had generated a lot more buzz (if not box-office receipts) than this modest, earnest, and generally enjoyable tale...
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  Stravinsky and Shatner in the same season? We’re not exactly sure how Arts San Antonio cobbled together its 2012-2013 slate—how many Trekkies will be rioting for Le Sacre du Printemps this spring?—but it turns out that Shatner’s one man show is a surprisingly charming evening of (I suppose) theater. Well, perhaps theater is too...
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It’s been exciting lately at the Wicked Stage; first, this blog was announced as a finalist for an AltWeekly Award for best blog, with the winner to be announced on June 8th. (And in the finest tradition of the Academy Awards, I’d like to mention what an honor it is just to be nominated....
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The highest compliment one can pay to a film-to-stage transfer is that it doesn’t feel like a film-to-stage transfer: that it has a life, and radiance, entirely its own. So I’ve never watched Stephen Daldry’s film of Billy Elliot partly because I’ve been so enchanted by his musical of Billy Elliot, which seems to...
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So spring break traditionally means a trip to the Big Apple for me – and a chance to check out the Broadway shows that are gearing up for the Tony season. In order: Jesus Christ Superstar: This wasn’t exactly on the top of my must-see list—but it was one of the few shows with...
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The eternally-touring production of Fiddler on the Roof has now parked itself at the Majestic for a one-week run, with John Preece celebrating his 1800th (!) performance as Tevye, everyone’s favorite dancing milkman. And while the sheer longevity of this tour had me worried about the production’s freshness, the opening strains of “Tra-di-tion!” soon...
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This has to be a quick take on STOMP – because Stomp’s tour through San Antonio is so quick! (Just five performances, ending tomorrow night.) I used to be something of a STOMP groupie; after catapulting to fame in the mid-1990s, STOMP seemed to be everywhere at once, and I caught its national tour...
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I’ve been thinking a lot about tragedy lately; partly, that’s because we—all of us—have just experienced the anniversary of 9/11, and it’s hard to separate that date, and those events, from the notion of tragedy, writ large. Partly, it’s because I’m considering the creation of an entire course on tragedy at Trinity: I already...
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Well, last week’s ethically-compromised edition of The Wicked Stage was a hit, of sorts: I think a few people actually read it. (In criticism-starved San Antonio, that’s something of a triumph). Intriguingly, author James Venhaus actually wrote in, asking for thoughts on his new play Ugly People, which was reviewed by Scott Andrews here....
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This past week, I grabbed a twofer in Austin: Molière’s Imaginary Invalid at the City Theatre and Hairspray at the Zach Scott. (Commentators on my blog and reviews occasionally complain that my point of comparison for San Antonio theatre is New York theatre; that’s nonsense. I’ve also got Austin, Dallas, and Houston on my...
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I’d normally say “better late than never,” but in the case of Spider-man: Turn off the Dark, I’m not so sure. Originally, I had tickets for a January performance (i.e. during the ill-fated, perilous run of Spider-Man 1.0), but...
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