BROADWAY REVUE, Georgetown Palace Education Program, August 1 and 3, 2013

[Georgetown Palace Theatre, 810 S. Austin Ave., Georgetown, Texas -- click for map]

presents

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SWEENEY TODD by Steven Sondheim, School Edition, Georgetown Palace Theatre, July 11 and 13, 2013

[Georgetown Palace Theatre, 810 S. Austin Ave., Georgetown, Texas -- click for map]

presents 

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Edges, a song cycle by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Austin Theatre Project, March 1 - 10, 2013

 by Dr. David Glen Robinson

The Austin Theatre Project (ATP) production of Edges by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul gave Austin beautiful music and performances guaranteed to please audiences. Problems with the production and Pasek’s and Paul’s relatively new and somewhat uneven show shouldn't certainly not scare away ticket buyers, certainly not the heart-and-soul musical theatre fanatics who live for it.

The program notes were about the music and nothing but the music. They explained the show as a song cycle in which all the songs stand by themselves, tell their own stories and are bound only loosely to an overall theme. The ATP production played the impressive music with three pieces; keyboards played by musical director David Blackburn, bass played by Kyle Welch and a drum set played by long term Austin percussionist Terri Lord. She put the Austin in the show, definitely. ATP assembled an exquisite corps of singers: Joey Banks, Sara Burke, Brian Losoya and Taylor Moessinger

The venerable Dougherty Arts Center theatre has surprisingly good acoustics, and while the singers wore pin-mikes, they would have had no difficulty reaching the back seats without them. Singing miked makes it easier on the voice to sing through a long, complex show, but it also may tempt the performer to go for power and not make choices for more nuanced and other-shaped tonalities (pear and other shapes). At various times, all the singers succumbed to the lure of power, but at other times they made the richer choices. Notably, Brian Losoya and Taylor Moessinger made and succeeded at intricate choices to create harmonies in the ensemble. The results were simply a pleasure to hear and by themselves were worth the ticket price. Credit goes to the singers and musical director Blackburn.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

EDGES, a musical, Austin Theatre Project at the Dougherty Arts Center, February 28 - March 10, 2013

presents

Edges
a musical by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
directed by Barbara Schuler
musical direction by David Blackburn

 

February 28 to March 10, a limited run with only eight performances, so be sure to make your plans now to see this musical treasure!
Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Rd. - click for map
Tickets range from $15 to $30 and can be purchased online at www.austintheatreproject.org/tickets or by calling 1-800-838- 3006.

"But still I smile because I need to look strong;
And all the while I soldier along.
I know there's something much greater in me,
But I'm afraid to be who I am, who I want to become."

We've all been there, or we'll all be there. The lyrics above are taken from the opening number of Edges, where we find ourselves at that all too familiar point in life where we are ready to move into the next phase.

It's an exciting, scary, and maybe a little bit of an awkward time. Edges is a new musical gem that takes a group of 20-somethings as they face the first major "shift" in their lives.

Written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Edges is the first musical by the team that wowed audiences with theirdelightful score to the Broadway hit A Christmas Story. Presented as a song-cycle, Edges is filled with songs that tackle love, family, dreams, dating, and even Facebook. However, this is much more than a cabaret or a revue. Pasek and Paul have an uncanny ability to create complete characters and stories within a single song.

Their work has received rave reviews critics around the world and is now being featured on the NBC Television series Smash. Austin Theatre Project is thrilled to be presenting the Austin premiere of this marvelous show.

ATP's production of Edges features a wonderful cast of twenty-somethings who are also well-known for their ability to create memorable characters and performances. Joey Banks (Baby, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) and Brian Losoya (Corpus Christi, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) make up the male half of the cast. Sara Burke (Spring Awakening, Xanadu, Hairspray) and Taylor
Moessinger (Footloose, Evita) complete the cast.

Edges also features the same production team that brought you last season's Baby. Director Barbara Schuler is once again joined by David Blackburn (music director) and Meg Steiner (choreographer) for this Austin premiere! Sound design is by Joel Mercado-See and Lighting is designed by newcomer Taylor Whitmire.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

NEW YEAR'S EVE at the Georgetown Palace, December 31, 2012

Featuring

"Michelle"
Performing her "One Woman Spectacular Cabaret Show"

Joining Michelle will be several of your favorite Palace performers!

Dinner starts at 7:30pm
Act 1
Adele Simms(Performed in "Annie" as Annie, "Evita", "Cinderella, "Christmas Carol, the Musical" and many more!)
will start performing at 7:35

Yvonne Love(from the Palace's "A Little Night Music, "Cinderella" and many more)
will perform at 8:15pm

Sara Burke(Performed as Mary Magdalene in "Jesus Christ Superstar," Audrey in "Little Shop of Horrors", Ulla in "The Producers" and many more!)will be up next at 9:00pm

Act II

Michelle Cheney
(Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls," Miss Mona in "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," Muriel in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and recently Woman#1 in "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change")

Will begin her Cabaret show to welcome the "New Year" at 10:00pm
(We promise much laughter, gasps, and insight with during this hilariously funny show)

Dinner Menu

First Course (7:30pm)Caprese Salad
Second Course (7:45pm)1. Beef Tenderloin & Lobster Tail
2. New Zealand Lamb Chops
Both served with:
Sauteed Red Pepper Asparagus in a Anaheim Cream Reduction
Goat Cheese infused Potatoes

3. Oak Flame Roasted vegetables over Garlic Potato Cakes
Marinara Sauce
Third Course (Intermission)
Triple Chocolate Cake Petite Fors Truffles
Red Velvet Butter Cream Cake Petite Fors Truffles
Complimentary Champagne Toast (Midnight)6oz Champagne
Breakfast Buffet (12:15am)White Chocolate - Raspberry Scones
Country Casserole
Potatoes, Sausage, Onion, Cheddar Cheese, Eggs
Black Eyed Peas
Coffee
Beverage Options
Complimentary Iced Tea, Coffee or Water served all evening
Complimentary glass of sparkling wine or cider served at midnight
Beer and Wine Bar (Cash and Credit Cards accepted)

For information or to reserve a seat, call the Palace Production Office at 512-591-7825 or e-mail gpalaceproductions@gmail.com

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Spring Awakening, Zach Theatre, September 20 - November 13

by Hanna Bisewski and Michael Meigs

Spring Awakening won eight of the 2007 Tony awards, including that for best musical, and the powerful production opened by the Zach Theatre last Saturday shows you why. This very contemporary musical adaptation of Franz Wedekind's Spring Awakening has played across Europe, and the U.S. national touring company fielded by Broadway Across America visited Bass Hall for a week in October, 2009. Awakening has now settled in to the Wisenhut Stage until November 13 playing an extended Tuesday to Sunday schedule. Zach management clearly expects this one to resound with the Austin public.

The time is the late 19th century and the place is a quietly repressed, sinister bourgeois community in rural Germany. The story is one that encompasses child abuse, sexual ignorance, adolescent suicide and a hushed-up death, all orbiting themes of the sexual awakening of children aged around thirteen. The Zach's production, true to the script and the music, takes these matters head-on, each actor approaching his character's criminal sexuality with a child-like shamelessness and a believable innocence.

The show is not for the faint of heart, and certainly not for those offended by stage depictions of sex. Can you laugh at a young man avidly masturbating on the toilet while reading a penny-dreadful novel? What would you think of some adolescent sado-masochism with a switch? An intense, angry song by two girls about fathers who fondle them at bedtime or even do more? The first act ends with the tense, lengthy, very hot and fully suggestive seduction of sweet innocent Wendla by her smart, troubled friend Melchior, staged in profile on a high platform as a grim Lutheran pastor preaches below them to the robed choir.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Evita, Georgetown Palace, February 18 - March 20

Evita offers not only the Georgetown Palace's usual high standards of performance, but also something more: a deglamorization of the Lloyd Webber/Rice tragic fairy tale.

Eva Duarte de Perón came from almost literally nowhere -- from a provincial Argentine town where she was one of several illegitimate children of a wealthy rancher. She became leading lady, first lady and "Spiritual Leader of the Nation."

Lloyd Webber's score and Tim Rice's libretto have furnished us with memorable if only partly understood standards of the English language musical theatre. Don't Cry for Me, Argentina, for example, is a stirring anthem that lurks somewhere in the popular mind in the region of Frank Sinatra's I Did It My Way.

Few of us in American audiences are aware of the complicated history between the United Kingdom and Argentina, ranging from the quaint polo match and familiarities of the wealthy upper classes caricatured in the play to the bloodily decisive conflict in 1982 over the Faulklands/Malvinas islands, just four years after Evita was first produced. Mid-century Argentina evoked for the British mind aspects of European fascism. At the very time that Evita was first staged, the tactics of Argentine military rulers against their own people gave us a new locution in English -- the verb "to disappear" not only acquired a transitive mode but even became a passive transitive. As in, "After their arrests, the radical student leaders were promptly disappeared."

In the eyes of civilized Brits, the middle of the twentieth century was a sad disappointment all across Latin America, and nowhere more so for them than in Argentina.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Company by Stephen Sondheim, Doctuh Mistah Productions at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, December 15 - 19

Received directly:

Doctuh Mistuh Productions announces the one-week run of

Stephen Sondheim’s

COMPANY

to benefit the Breast Cancer Resource Center of Austin

Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd., Austin, TX

Wednesday, December 15^th-Sunday, December 19^th, 2010

All shows will be at 8 p.m. There will be two performances on Saturday, December 18^th at 2:00pm & 8:00pm.

Ticket Prices: $10-$25. Admission for our “soft opening” on Wednesday, December 15^th will be $10 for all seats with advance reservations. There will be a special Gala Performance on Sunday, December 19^th, which will feature a reception and silent auction.

Reservations: (512) 339-4934 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (512) 339-4934 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Following up on its heralded production of EVIL DEAD, THE MUSICAL, Doctuh Mistuh Productions will be mounting Sondheim’s landmark musical COMPANY this coming December. Proceeds from the 6 (SIX) PERFORMANCE RUN will go to benefit the Breast Cancer Resource Center of Austin.

The award-winning cast includes Sara Burke, Andrew Cannata, Sarah Marie Curry, Libby Dees, Amy Downing, Kirk German, Joe Hartman, Leslie Hollingsworth, Jarret Mallon, Michael Muenchow, David Ponton, Laura Powell, Lindsey Priour, Chris Skillern, Haley Smith, Courtney Wissinger, and Molly Wissinger.

The production staff is comprised of Michael McKelvey (Stage & Musical Director), Joe Carpenter (Set Designer), Scott Tatum (Lighting Designer) and Courtney Wissinger-Eiland (Choreographer).

ABOUT COMPANY: COMPANY premiered in 1970 at the Alvin Theatre under the direction of the famed Harold Prince. The book was by George Furth with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The cast was headed by Dean Jones, Donna McKechnie, Elaine Stritch, and Charles Kimbrough. COMPANY has been revived numerous times around the globe and the original production won six Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Lyrics.

Unlike most book musicals, which follow a clearly delineated plot, Company is a concept musical composed of short vignettes, presented in no particular chronological order, linked by a celebration for Bobby's 35th birthday. Robert seems to have it all except a wife. Throughout the show we meet his friends and former lovers all while Robert weighs the pros and cons of married life.

Company was among the first musicals to deal with adult problems through its music. As Sondheim put it, "Company does deal with upper middle-class people with upper middle-class problems. Broadway theater has been for many years supported by those people. They really want to escape, and here we're saying we'll bring it right back in their faces ... what they came to a musical to avoid, they suddenly find facing them on the stage."

ABOUT THE BREAST CANCER RESOURCE CENTER OF AUSTIN:

The Breast Cancer Resource Center is a non-profit, grassroots organization created by breast cancer survivors in 1995. The six Certified Patient Navigator locations help women who are battling breast cancer as well as their families, friends, spouses, and partners. They are there to answer any questions or concerns you or those close to you may have about the process. Their ultimate goal is build a support system for women who are newly diagnosed with breast cancer. To find out how to donate or volunteer visit http://www.bcrc.org.

Upcoming: Nunsense II, Georgetown Palace Theatre, January 8 - February 7

UPDATE: Review by Olin Meadows at AustinOnStage.com, January 27

UPDATE: Lisa Scheps and Stuart Moulton feature the full case of Nunsense II at KOOP-FM's "Off Stage and On The Air," posted January 15 (1 hr. program)

Found on-line:


Georgetown Palace Theatre
presents

Nunsense II (The Second Coming)

Jan 8 - Feb 7, 2010 Fridays & Satirdays at 7:30 p.m.and Sundays at 2:00 p.m.

MUSICAL
Book, Music & Lyrics by Dan Goggin
Featuring our 2007 Cast of Nunsense!

The sequel to the international hit musical Nunsense takes place approximately six weeks after the first "benefit performance." (It could easily be subtitled “the rest of the story.”) The same five nuns are back on stage at Mt. Saint Helen's School for what is billed as a "Thank You Program" for their supporters. Since their first time out was such a success, they have decided that they should stick to their successful variety show formula. This time they are forced to work around the set dressing of The Mikado!

Prices: General: $22; Senior(55+): $20; Student: $12
Georgetown Palace Theatre, Inc., A non-profit performing arts facility
We accept Visa and Mastercard over the web & phone (512-869-7469)
Buy Tickets
810 S. Austin Avenue, Georgetown, TX 78627
georgetownpalace@verizon.net

The Little Shop of Horrors, Georgetown Palace, May 1 - 31

The Georgetown Palace does its familiar high-gloss finish on this production with talented actors, a vigorous show orchestra, and an impressively atmospheric functional two-story set presenting Muschnik's shabby flower shop in the even shabbier surroundings of a NYC "Skid Row." The audience appeared to enjoy the goings-on and the six- and eight-year-olds sitting near me in Row B were fascinated by the puppetry for Audry II, the extraterrestrial carnivorous plant out to conquer the world from those humble beginnings.

For me it was a Grade A production of a Grade D musical play.

This story started as the campy 1960s black humor movie shot in two days by Roger Corman, with Jack Nicholson in a minor role. The 1982 success in New York of the musical The Little Shop of Horrors prompted puppeteer Frank Oz to produce a movie version in 1986. The show has made the rounds ever since, usually accompanied by the teeny and the massive versions of Audrey II provided by Character Translations in Pennsylvania, based on designs by Martin P. Robinson, a Jim Henson Master Puppeteer.

I enjoy camp and I enjoy black humor. But in order to appreciate camp, you have to know and relish the art form or the artwork that is being exaggerated to pieces. Relating to this show, one of my blind spots, not shared by the majority of the American public, was cinematic. I don't know much about horror films, alien invasion films or creature films, except for Godzilla and King Kong (in the 1928 version, please). And the other blind spot was Audrey II. When I settled in the front of the Georgetown Palace last Friday, I'd never seen the play or either of the movies. So I was a blank slate for Howard Ashman's book and lyrics, as well as for Alan Menken's music.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .