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Review: ‘Southern Fried Chickie’
Sometimes if you want a good laugh, all you have to do is head south.
Or, as is the case for Christy McBrayer, bring the South back east.
As part of the Frontera Fest Long Fringe, McBrayer has brought “Southern Fried Chickie,” her one woman, ten character comedy romp, all the way from Los Angeles to give Austin a glimpse of life in her home town: Saltillo, Mississippi, population a few thousand. Saltillo is (apparently) the trailer-park suburb of Tupelo, and the hometown of Elvis’ mother, Gladys Love Smith Presley.
“Southern Fried Chickie” (a purportedly autobiographical show) pulls us along on an adventure into deep-South small town life, replete with muumuus and mashed potatoes, hair curlers and chain smoking, methamphetamines, Jack Daniels, and high school boyfriends with nicknames like Hamburger and Frog. McBrayer takes us on a tour of her family angst, donning the trappings of each persona with enthusiasm and pluck. She does, however, make a short venture up north (sort of) when we meet her Minnesotan and maternal neighbor with a penchant for macramé.
And although McBrayer makes up the bulk of the show, it wouldn’t be half as much fun if it weren’t for her Red Neck Greek Chorus. Austin locals Johnny Molinari and Casey Epps show off their vocal and guitar picking talents, supplying a great pre-show warm up and a running soundtrack for McBrayer’s shenanigans. Ron Ramelli rounds out the ensemble with keyboards and harmonica. Of particular delight on Saturday was Casey Epps’ rendition of his original song, “The Ballad of Dick and Jane:” an entertaining (and not very subtle) adventure in double-entendre and divorce.
The show is undoubtedly entertaining for anyone who grew up in small-town South, caricaturing the characters one inevitably encounters. McBrayer reminds us that stereotypes are alive and well in the Southern states, and it’s a lot more fun to see her reenact them secondhand than encounter them in real life.
‘Southern Fried Chickie’ continues at 4:45 p.m. Performances at Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road. Tickets $15. www.hydeparktheatre.org
Cate Blouke is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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Austin Lyric Opera, music school formally split
The previously announced split between Austin Lyric Opera and its Armstrong Community Music School will be official Feb. 1, opera officials announced today.
In June, ALO announced that it would jettison its music school as a cost-saving measure amid news that the opera was nearly $2 million in debt. At the same time, the opera announced that it would selling its purpose-built facility on Barton Springs Road. ALO sold its building in December for $5.45 million.
“This change allows the Austin Lyric Opera and the Armstrong Community School of Music to focus on their core missions and to expand their services to the community,” said Ernest Auerbach, ALO board president, in an official statement.
Founding school director Margaret Perry will remain as the school’s leader.
Martha Rochelle, who chaired ALO’s task force that worked on a strategic plan for the future of the school, will serve as Armstrong Community Music School’s chair.
The Armstrong chool opened to much celebration in 2000 along with the new building, much of which was devoted to school activities.
Both the opera and the school will maintain their programs and operations at the Barton Springs Road facility through April after which each will establish separate facilities.
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Review: ‘Next to Normal’
In the opening moments of “Next to Normal,” the emotionally charged musical currently running at Zach Theatre, a mother, father, sister, and brother (The Goodman family) cheerfully go about their morning routines.
Until they notice that mom is kneeling on the floor, obsessively assembling dozens of bologna sandwiches. They all stop and stare. Maybe this is not going to be such a “normal” day after all.
Directed by Dave Steakley, “Next to Normal” tells the story of Diana Goodman (Meredith McCall), a suburban housewife with a long history of bipolar disorder. Her relapse after a period of calm launches the family into turbulence.
While Diana undergoes medical treatment under the supervision of two doctors (both played with precision by Joshua Denning), the audience is left to wonder, as Diana does, “which is worse, the symptom or the cure?”
The 2009 Broadway production of “Next to Normal” (with music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey) won several Tony awards as well as the 2010 Pulitzer Prize. The show’s rock score is packed with powerful songs, complicated rhythms, and unexpected lyrics.
Despite its heavy-sounding theme, Zach Theatre’s version of “Next to Normal” is a gripping and often very funny ride. The show’s small cast is uniformly sharp. McCall infuses her portrayal of Diana with dry wit. Her voice soars on ballads like “I Miss The Mountains,” where Diana laments that her medications allow her to feel nothing.
As her steadfast but overwhelmed husband Dan, Jamie Goodwin’s solid performance resonates. As Natalie, Diana’s driven, over-achieving teenage daughter, Kelli Schultz is a breath of fresh air, delivering some of the show’s funniest lines and tossing in some refreshing teenage sarcasm, especially in the scenes of her budding romance with stoner kid Henry (Johnny Newcomb).
Poignant, surprising, and at times utterly irreverent, “Next to Normal” pulls back the curtain on a family in crisis. It explores the difficult topic of mental illness with equal amounts of sympathy, levity, heartbreak, and hope. And it makes the audience question what, exactly, it means to be “normal” in the first place.
‘Next to Normal’ continues through March 4 Zach’s Kleberg Stage, 1510 Toomey Rd. $25-$55. 476-0541, www.zachtheatre.org
Claire Canavan is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
Photo: Joshua Denning and Meredith McCall. Photo by Kirk Tuck
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Review: ‘Wicked’
This winter, Austin doesn’t have to wait until spring to see green.
Broadway Across America has brought the smash-hit musical, “Wicked,” back to Bass Concert Hall for an impressive three-week run through Feb. 12.
In the giant auditorium, fantasy looms overhead — a giant animatronic dragon gazes down upon the audience while the city of Oz glitters from the center of an extensive map showing us the world we are about to enter.
Creating a back-story for the beloved figures of “The Wizard of Oz,” “Wicked” explores issues of friendship and popularity, ostracization and rebellion, against a backdrop of magic and munchkins.
The steampunk type settings of Eugene Lee create a visually stunning tableau for the fairy tale atmosphere combined with contemporary teenage angst. Susan Hilferty’s asymmetrical and utterly luscious costumes are consistently delightful, with a pleasing potpourri of textures and patterns. The production elements alone would make “Wicked” worth seeing, but they are only the beginning.
This year’s production brings a legitimate beauty queen to the role of Glinda (Tiffany Haas, former Miss Ohio in the Miss America Pageant), and Haas certainly cultivates the kind of love/hate relationship that the role calls for. Her portrayal of the snotty and spoiled teenage witch shifts between exasperating and endearing in a way that keeps the character both overwhelmingly bubbly yet somehow humanly awkward.
This serves to contrast nicely with Anne Brummel’s Elpheba, who comes off as downright normal despite her green hue. Both women bring strength and personality to their now iconic roles.
As the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Don Amendolia is pleasingly blustery and bombastic, moving adeptly between his moments as a power-hungry despot and a fatherly gentleman with a twinkling charm about him.
The choreography serves to highlight the pleasures of the costumes, if not necessarily the talent of the dancers. Admittedly, the “Dancing Through Life” number falls a bit flat, but the inimitable Broadway spectacle and stage magic of “Defying Gravity” more than compensates.
It’s hard to shake off the production history of a show so entrenched in popular memory, but this production’s vocal performances depart enough from the original cast recording to make it refreshing to hear.
Some of the staging and storyline rely on familiarity with the original book, but it’s not enough to be distracting. Overall, this is a musical we’re lucky to have back in town, and it’s well worth seeing live.
‘Wicked’ continues through Feb. 12 at the Bass Concert Hall. $38-$107. www.texasperformingarts.org.
Cate Blouke is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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Review: Austin Lyric Opera’s Lucia di Lammermoor
Who knew a death scene could be so much fun?
In the Austin Lyric Opera production of “Lucia di Lammermoor” now at the Long Center the most famous scene is a wild and woolly epic run-up to death, a quarter hour that it takes Lucia to paint us the full picture of how completely she’s lost her mind.
Donizetti’s opera, aside from this “mad scene” and the famous sextet at the center of the production, is actually a pretty slim affair. There’s not much of a story in it. Think of a more concise ‘Romeo and Juliet’ set in Scotland, and sung, uh, in Italian. Girl loves bad boy, but girl’s forced to marry a schlub for political stability — problems ensue. There’s betrayal, vengeance, but most importantly, madness.
The sextet (a big chorus piece, highlighting the work’s six principal voices) was smartly paced by conductor Richard Buckley, and had the voices braiding energetically through the hall.
Even so, the production depends on the mad scene, and Russian soprano Lyubov Petrova was a fantastic madwoman, teetering dangerously around the stage, undone by her actions and the circumstances.
Petrova sang delicate waves of sadness, then soaring notes of manic joy, a performance that brought home the crowd’s scandal of seeing raw, unhinged emotion in 17th century Scotland.
Once Lucia comes down the staircase in a bloody nightgown, she’s fully transformed. She hallucinates a scene with her former lover in a giddy soprano, then waves a sword at the terrified crowd, until she’s shocked into the realization that she’s just killed her unwanted husband.
Why is this tragic scene so much fun? For one, we know it’s coming. For two, Petrova’s multifaceted mania cycles through so many contrasting emotions that remains still unpredictable. The audience just sits back and enjoys the performance.
On opening night the principal voices came out of the gate a little cold and overall they remained slightly uneven in quality, though Texas-born tenor Chad Shelton was a deserved fan favorite.
The sets are effective, especially in the large chorus scenes, which had a nice depth, suiting the strong work of the chorus itself. Dim lighting predominates, but added to the eerie mood, and accentuated the rich color palate of the period costumes.
Lucia di Lammermoor continues at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 3 and 3 p.m. Feb 5 at the Long Center. 19-$135.www.austinlyricopera.org
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
Photo by Mark Matson for Austin Lyric Opera.
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Review: ‘Boeing, Boeing’
“One up, one down and one pending.”
With these words, the galumphing Robert sums up the ambitious love life of his childhood friend — the cavorting, Paris-dwelling British architect Bernard — a love life that ultimately proves too enterprising, even for 1963.
Bernard (David Stokey) is a master of timetables, which he uses to organize his domestic schedule with three fiancees — international flight attendants whose paths must never cross: Trans World Airlines agent Janet (Lara Toner), complete with a Texas twang; Air France’s smooth Jacqueline (Hildreth England); and the overzealous Lufthansa agent Judith (Laura Walberg), whose love of sausages and sauerkraut bewilders Bernard’s grumbling housemaid, Bertha (Bernadette Nason). It’s the heyday of flying. All three women are done up to perfection in skirt suits with neckerchiefs, and big hair.
Austin Playhouse’s Don Toner directs the French farce “Boeing-Boeing” by Marc Camoletti, adapted to English by Beverly Cross for a 1962 staging. It portrays the one day in Bernard’s life when the timetables don’t have the answers; when inclement weather and flight delays brings all three of the flight attendants to his flat, Bernard pulls in Robert (Zach Thompson) to help him in his dramatic struggle to keep the women unaware of each other, even as they inhabit the same space.
A perfect accident is to be had in terms of the theater space itself. While Austin Playhouse awaits the construction of a brand new theater in the Mueller Redevelopment, its performances are taking place in a temporary tent facility, distinguishable from a real theater only in that if you’re at the matinee showing, the tent doesn’t get dark until, well, it’s actually dark outside. The 5 p.m. Sunday show works out beautifully: Act I encompasses breakfast and lunch while it’s still light outside, and Act II’s dinner is in the dark.
Witness (and cook) to these meals is Bertha. As the grumpy maid, Nason is a riot. There’s one scene in particular that can be summed up by her stance — slumped on the couch, sucking down brandy, that is. “Fasten your seat belt, sir. It’s going to be a bumpy ride,” she says to Robert after a telephone call reveals Bernard’s carefully planned schedule (Janet for breakfast, Jacqueline for lunch, Judith for dinner) is going awry.
Thompson’s portrayal of Robert is one that involves the entire body. One moment he’s catapulting off the couch to intercept Jacqueline’s path to the bedroom, where Judith awaits Bernard; the next, he’s gesticulating crazily to Bernard, attempting to send him signals about the status of the women. Stokey’s quivering depiction of Bernard makes one wonder how the man had ever held it together. At the end of the day, Bernard is a changed man, confidence thoroughly shaken. One is enough.
‘Boeing, Boeing’ continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturday. Austin Playhouse at Mueller, 1800 ½ Simond Ave. $26-$28. www.austinplayhouse.com.
Claire Christine Spera is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
Photo: Hildreth England and David Stokey. Photo by Christopher Loveless
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John Cage here, John Cage there — Cage everywhere
Groundbreaking composer John Cage would have turned 100 this year. And hopefully he would have been thrilled that his innovative compositions are getting star treatment by younger artists, particularly in Austin.
This spring, Austin has a flurry of performances of Cage’s still avant-garde music.
‘Matrices & Entropy’
Music for percussion & electronics by Cage, Pluta and Vinjar featuring Line Upon Line
Line upon Line percussion ensemble will play the rarely performed Cage piece ‘Variations II’ (1961). Written for any number of musicians and any number of sound-producing actions, the Line Upon Line presentation will utilize metallic instruments.
Also on the program, New York composer Sam Pluta will deliver a batch of his adventurous works for percussion, among them, Pluta’s static-infected piece ‘Matrices’ that warps percussion music almost beyond recognition.
Also on the program is the Texas premiere of +/- by Anders Vinjar, a piece for a large selection of percussion instruments and electronic sounds.
When: 8 p.m. Jan. 28
Where: Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River St.
Tix: $15-$12.
www.amoda.org
‘SoundSpace: Musicircus’
Steven Parker, musician-in-residence at the Blanton Museum of Art presents Cage’s ‘Musicircus,” a 1967 piece which Cage created as simply an invitation for musicians to gather and play.
Parker’s rounded up a crew of adventurous musicians including pianist Michelle Schumann who specializes in interpreting Cage’s music and has staged an annual Cage birthday concert for the past decade. Schumann will play some of Cage’s works for toy piano in the Blanton’s vast auditorium.
Also on the bill is the New Music Co-op, Bel Cuore Sax Quartet and the East Side Arkestra (a Sun Ra tribute combo). Getting a premiere will be new works by Andy Sigler and Pierce Gradone, for electric trombone and an amplified cactus — yes, we said amplified cactus.
The music will be paired with dancers from Ballet Austin, with choreography by Michelle Thompson.
When: 2 p.m. Feb. 4
Where: Blanton Museum of Art, MLK, Jr. Blvd. and Congress Ave.
Tix: Free with museum admission ($5-$9)
www.blantonmuseum.org
And then in March, adventurous New York-based ensemble So Percussion will present a two-concert celebration of Cage’s music at UT, “We Are All Going in Different Directions.” Click here more information.
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Review: Trouble Puppet’s ‘Crapstall St. Boys’
With thunder in the sky and grimly funny stories on the stage, this year’s Frontera Fest Long Fringe is off to a mischievous start.
Trouble Puppet Theater is up to its usual hijinks, providing a piece of biting social commentary wrapped in a cloak of adorable puppets.
Creator and director Connor Hopkins’ new macabre fairy tale, “Crapstall St. Boys,” is decidedly in the vein of Edward Gorey and Lemony Snicket. The events in this play are anything but fortunate - which isn’t to say they aren’t delightful, but that may depend on your sense of humor and your age. This show is not for children.
Serving as flagrant condemnations of industrial capitalism and its costs on our humanity, the characters of “Crapstall St.” would be downright Dickensian if it weren’t for the cannibalism and three-eyed monsters sprinkled throughout the show. K. Eliot Hayes’ excellent sound design adds an ominous ambiance that makes the show darkly gripping for the full 50 minutes that it runs.
Departing from Trouble Puppet’s usual style (several people for each puppet), “Crapstall St.” features (at times) several puppets per puppeteer. They’ve assembled (literally) an ensemble of ragamuffin youths and uncaring adults that are so adorable it’s easy to forget we’re watching a scene of death, destruction and decapitation.
Add to that the juxtaposition of a circus-style opening act, and “Crapstall St. Boys” becomes a disconcerting delight of childhood wonder and adult cynicism. The carnivalesque, vaudevillian entertainment of Chickendog Circus opens the show with juggling, accordion music, unicycle riding and a surprise guest appearance by the fabulously talented Jingles.
Chickendog Circus sets the stage nicely for the performance ahead; because there’s a sort of magic to both juggling and puppetry, it helps the audience rediscover the sense of reverence that comes with youth. But Hopkins adds to that the healthy dose of cynicism that a socially-minded adult can’t help but have in these modern times - resulting in a show that takes us back but doesn’t let us leave with the warm and fuzzy fairy tale ending that experience has taught us to expect (and write off as ridiculous).
“Crapstall St. Boys” continues 11 p.m. Jan. 28, 3:15 p.m. Sunday, 6:45 p.m. Feb. 4.Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road. $10. www.troublepuppet.com
Cate Blouke is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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In East Austin, Ink Tank Lab art collective celebrates ‘Last New Year’
Rogue pictures of it have already made the rounds of Facebook. And rubber-necking drivers along E. 11th St./Rosewood Ave. have nearly collided while gawking at it.
The stream of found lumber gushing out of a worn bungalow at 1319 Rosewood Avenue is Chris Burch’s contribution to “Last New Year,” a temporary site-specific project by emerging art collective Ink Tank Lab.
The 10-member Austin-based collective has occupied the spacious empty bungalow, a donated privately-owned space that also served as a location for the Texas Biennial last year.
For “Last New Year” Ink Lab members all riffed on a ‘end of the world’ theme, imagining some kind of cataclysmic event, the 2012 phenomenon that has had doomsday believers of many stripes convinced that this is the year that life as we know it will end.
The collective imagined that a party like no other would happen and used the bungalow inside and out to create a house-sized installation. And walking through “Last New Year” is like discovering the remnants of that mad, art-creating party.
“Last New Year” continues through Jan. 29. Gallery hours are 7 to 11 p.m. Jan. 25, with a gallery talk at 7:30 p.m. .The site will also be open 8 to 11 p.m. Jan. 26 and noon to 6 p.m. Jan. 29 with a performance at about 5:30 p.m. Admission is free.
As part of the imagined cataclysmic event, a meteor (or something) fell from the sky and smashed through the ceiling.
A visual document of the end-of-the-world event is mapped out on a wall. (Detail shot.)
A post-apocalyptic game of Scrabble.
On the kitchen wall Morse code and Mayan hieroglyphs — made of dried meat — leave messages for any possible future visitors.
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Review: Golden Hornet Project’s ‘Fugitive Visions’
Golden Hornet Project basically told Sergei Prokofiev, “Thanks for the melodies,” and then brought a New Orleans style jazz stomp right on top of the Russian composer’s head.
Ten years ago, almost to the day, since they first played it, Graham Reynolds and Peter Stopschinski’s composing project took on Prokofiev’s “Visions Fugitives,” at Spiderhouse’s 29th Street Ballroom.
In 1917, young Prokofiev published twenty short piano experiments, a stunning collection that tinker with dissonant harmonies, ungainly melodies and silence. Like a chef’s tasting menu, “Visions” is a smorgasbord of spooky, circus-like and pretty tunes that are over almost as soon as you’ve had a bite.
The evening started with University of Texas jazz professor Jeff Hellmer, playing through the original work in its entirety. Some are reminiscent of Erik Satie, others are so thoroughly modern they could’ve been placed on Reynolds’ soundtrack to the film “A Scanner Darkly” without anyone batting an eye.
It was over in 20 minutes or so, a truly economical work. And then, after intermission, The Golden Hornet Project’s took the stage, with trombone, vibes, sax, double bass, synth and drum kit. “You’re going to love hearing the original, and then you’re going to love hearing how we completely destroy them,” Stopschinski said at the beginning of the night. And it was so.
Using the 20 visions as their base, the band charged through arrangements by Reynolds and Stopschinski.
Some remained pretty close to the original, and they could be surprisingly delicate and quiet, no small measure of restraint with a band this energetic.
Like Prokofiev’s, a few arrangements were more fully formed than others, like (what I’m fairly sure was) “No. 10,” which appeared on an early Golden Arm Trio album. It’s a meandering, banal little circus piece that, half way through, erupted with a hurricane of horns attacking at full volume until Reynolds raised his hand up, and brought it crashing down to a finale. The crowd went absolutely bonkers.
When the two composers squeeze with Hellmer at the piano to play a compressed version of the last few “Visions,” it’s like a Bugs Bunny skit. Stopschinski crumples up and throws each finished music sheet, while Reynolds stampedes up the keyboard, forcing the other two pianists hands to lift at the last second to make way.
That showmanship is the most obvious thing separating Reynolds and Stopschinski from the new (classical) music. The funny and relaxed banter, percussion duels and improvisational breaks are second nature to these guys.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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Review: Conspirare’s ‘Whitacre & Lewis’
In January, when most of the city’s arts programs are waking up from a mid-winter’s nap, Conspirare is chomping at the bit, with fierce programs that take over entire weekends.
Last year, Craig Hella Johnson and company were racing out of the gate with a supremely ambitious mini festival of Renaissance and Baroque music, hours upon hours of material.This year the pace slowed only slightly. The choir’s weekend was booked with four concerts of Joby Talbot’s “Path of Miracles,” but they also managed to sneak in a single concert of U.S. premieres of work by American composers Eric Whitacre and Peter Scott Lewis.
Conspirare seem to have an affinity for Whitacre’s ecclesiastical music. Pensive, solemn, and generally very beautiful, Whitacre has a deserved following among choiristers. His music is at its best when tinged with a layer of darkness, as in “Five Hebrew Love Songs,” which pits the women’s bright, cheery tune against the men’s somber Greek-chorus.
Conspirare’s premiere performance of Whitacre’s “Alleluia” was a clear highlight. A spectral sustained note at the start folded into warm chords that were reluctant to resolve. Quite stunning.
The premiere of “Occuli Omnium,” a grace written for Sidney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge, was of a similar mind, though somehow not quite as sublime.
If Whitacre’s work is heavenly, Peter Scott Lewis’ is more Freudian and self-conscious.
His work “The Changing Light,” was based on the words of the esteemed Beat poet, San Francisco publisher, Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
The poetry came from Ferlinghetti’s more recent, more naturalistic work, evoking the sunlight of San Francisco, the moon and birds in the underbrush.
But, to borrow one of the poet’s own lines, the music accompaniment felt “anchorless upon the ocean.” No real melody, little in the way of discernible structure or polyphony, Lewis’ work was like a palate cleanser that lasted a whole meal. Fans of the written word among the audience might have preferred the choir mount a poetry reading.
In any case, the afternoon ended with Whitacre’s “Sleep,” a stiff but welcome contrast that sent us away in a lingering meditative state.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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Gerre Hancock, 1934-2012
Gerre Hancock, an acclaimed concert organist, choral director and professor at the University of Texas;s Butler School of Music, passed away on Jan. 21 due a cardiac arrest., school officials announced.
Hancock, who was born in Lubbock, Texas, was 77.
Hancock received his bachelor’s in music from UT and his master’sfrom Union Theological Seminary in New York and later studied at the Sorbonne.
Prior to returning to UT in 2004, Hancock held the position of organist and naster of nhoristers at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York for more than 30 years. His textbook,” Improvising: How to Master the Art,” is still studied by organists throughout the country..
“Gerre Hancock was a legend in his own time. We are so fortunate to have had him on the faculty in the Butler School of Music for nearly nine years,” said Glenn Chandler, director of the Butler School of Music. “After a 32-year career at St. Thomas Church where he and his wife Judith built what was arguably the finest Anglican church music program in the United States, he came back to his alma mater to pass on to the next generation of organists the knowledge and skills that he had so wonderfully mastered during his lifetime. We will sorely miss him.”
He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Judith Hancock, and their two daughters, Deborah Hancock and Lisa Hancock.
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Gerre was an extraordinary musician and human being. I had the great pleasure of working with him at St T’s for the better part of three decades and his appearances with my ensemble were highlights of our season and indeed for all of New York. He
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Dr. Hancock, Gerre, was a very special friend, mentor, advocate. musician and a great human being. My sincere condolences to Judith, Deborah, and Lisa.
Quentin
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