Take Me To The Theatre

Amber Riley
Pi Beta Phi

I’ve always felt like I take Austin for granted. There is so much to do and so much to experience in a city so cultural and vibrant. Although I do enjoy the typical Thursday night downtown, there are only so many nights I can spend roaming from Cheers to Pure and back to Cheers again. So, this year I vowed to break my routine and discover all that Austin has to offer, starting with the theatre.

Last semester, in an effort to gain a little bit of art appreciation, and to satisfy one of my favorite guilty pleasures, I convinced one of my friends to spend her Thursday night at ZACH Theatre for a production of Spring Awakening. With a cast of young Texas natives performing the raunchy songs that made the original show famous, the coming-of-age story truly came to life in the intimacy of the Kleberg stage in the tiny venue. Since seeing the show, I’ve occasionally checked the website for their newest productions and when I saw Next To Normal was the latest addition to the schedule, I couldn’t resist.

What do you get when you have a bipolar mother, husband, son, teenage daughter and her rather lanky, pot-smoking boyfriend? The Tony award-winning musical, Next To Normal. The story about a seeming average suburban family and their not so normal family dynamic will bring you to laughter and to tears, revealing the truth that families are not always as normal as they appear.

Though Johnny Newcomb’s performance as Henry, the boyfriend of the emotionally not-so-stable high school daughter is just as astounding as was his lead performance in Spring Awakening, it is Meredith McCall who steals the show. Her portrayal of Diana, a mother haunted by delusions of her deceased son ensures not a dry eye in the room, while her fierce vocals and ability to provide an unwavering sense of what it would look like to lose not only a beloved child, but also your own mind prove her talent and deservingness for a role such as this. It is an emotional roller coaster for sure, but a roller coaster worth every second of the knotted stomach and nervous excitement. By the end of the night I knew I had found the perfect alternative to Sixth Street and late night Whataburger runs.

ZACH offers $18 student tickets an hour before show time and is conveniently located right off of South Lamar for now. ZACH plans to open a new, larger location in late September. Kleberg Theatre, which has been home to both Spring Awakening and Next to Normal, seats only 230 people, while Whisenhunt Theatre holds 130 audience members. Being such a small venue, every seat is a good seat and regardless of whether you are front and center or in the back corner, you are bound to make a connection with the characters that a large stage would make almost impossible. Future productions the company will be putting on are The Laramie Project opening March 21, and Dividing the Estate and Xanadu opening later this summer.

Amber is a junior studying journalism. You may contact her at a.riles19@gmail.com.