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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > April > 27
Monday, April 27, 2009
Review: ‘Golf: The Musical’
Caveat: The only 18 holes I’ve ever played involved throwing discs (poorly) at Pease Park. As a game, I just don’t get golf. As a musical revue, though, “Golf” is an entertaining collection of Broadway-caliber talent that more often than not makes up for the fact that the show is, well, almost entirely about golf.
“Golf’s” loose collection of sketches and songs has a vaudevillian feel to it—as if Abbot and Costello had performed “Who’s At Hole One.” In the small space of the Keller Williams Studio with its cocktail seating, the sense is heightened and put to good use. “Golf’s” peppy numbers are catchy and often funny, but the best moments are shared more directly with the audience.
Actor and director Joel Blum, himself a veteran of the original Off-Broadway run, and Austinite Joe Penrod do more than re-create Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, they look and sound like Al Hirschfield caricatures come to life. Their bouncy “Road to Heaven” imagines the duo’s last hole together with plenty of quirks and laughs, but also more than a few groaners. But just like the original charismatic comedians, the duo can entertain even when a pun gets used one time—or twenty—too many.
Likewise, Daniel Herron, another Broadway vet, and Jill Blackwood, for whom Austin is lucky that she hasn’t gone off to Broadway on her own, are adept at bringing the audience in behind the set jokes. Whether as a hard boiled links detective with a penchant for wordplay or, in a separate song, as a wife who’s been abandoned for a mistress composed entirely of misheard double entendres or a vamp singing many of the same, they’re able to wink at the audience and make the performance entertaining past the gag’s own merit.
That’s good, because while “Golf” is if not a one-joke show, a one-themed script. And even for someone who looks forward to the O. Henry Pun-Off each year, two hours of golf jokes is shooting above par. Compounding the problem is that while some bits actually border on clever satire, like the jingoistic “Let’s Bring Golf to the Gulf,” other “topical” references simply fall flat.
But for what it is, an evening of high talent performing largely entertaining, if innocuous, material, I’d still take “Golf: The Musical” over “Golf: The Game” any day.
(“Golf: The Musical” continues Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. through May 10 at TexArts’ Keller Williams Studios, 2300 Lohmans Spur, Lakeway. $30-$34. 512-852-9079 x101, tex-arts.org.)
Joey Seiler is an American-Statesman freelance theater critic.
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Long-awaited in the Live Music Capital of the World: Austin’s orchestra premieres an Austin-made symphony
Among the dozens of commissions Austin-based composer Dan Welcher has received in his three-decade career, he’s written works for the Boston Pops, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Guggenheim Foundation, and his work has been performed by more than 50 orchestras including Chicago Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony and the Atlanta Symphony.
This weekend the Austin Symphony Orchestra premieres Welcher’s Fifth Symphony,
And although it’s arguably the first time in living memory the Austin Symphony Orchestra is premiering a symphony by an Austin composer, the cost of the project is underwritten by an independent consortium of local donors, not the orchestra itself. The nonprofit radio station KMFA-FM spearheaded the fundraising drive that began nearly a year ago. To date about $40,000 toward the $50,000 goal has been raised, with donations ranging from as little as $50 to as much as $5,000.
Welcher is honoring his good friend Peter Bay, Austin Symphony Orchestra conductor. The two have been friends fo 30 years and Bay is celebrating his 10th season with the orchestra.
Sample Welcher’s music:
Austin Symphony Orchestra
Dan Welcher’s Symphony No. 5. Also on the program is guest violinist Sarah Chang playing Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1.
When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Where: Dell Hall, Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive.
Cost: $19-$48
Information: 512-476-6064, www.austinsymphony.org
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