Announcing the 2022 Houston Theater Awards. alleytheatre StagesHouston DirtDogsTheatre 4thWallHouston tutshouston recroomhtx catastrophicTX
When a world premiere musical debuts, all bets are off. When it's been inspired by a cult TV action-adventure show with a sweet handsome hero with a magnificent blond mop of well-coiffed mullet, who gets out of any dilemma with a Swiss army knife, a roll of duct tape, and his phenomenal wits, we have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Put him in a locked room, set it on fire, and leave a bomb inside to detonate in five minutes, stand back and watch him go to work. He'll be out of there, all hair in place, right after the commercial break. The show was goofy fun, and touched some kind of zeitgeist. MacGyver's no ordinary guy, but his personable style and ability to get out of any dire situation made him a pop icon.
Lurye's music is standard fare, except for the expressive “On the Other Side,” sung by the punk rock sister who's stranded behind the Berlin Wall, who MacGyver is sent to rescue. It's incredibly silly, a whirligig of family-friendly entertainment. We thought we had forgotten all that – oh, the colors, the colors – and those evil Commies. They can't possibly win the cold war, not with MacGyver and his troupe of zanies singing and dancing as they pull down that damn ugly wall.Winner: Jeremy Chernick, et al., forWhen Disney Theatricals produces a show, money is no object, so when it creates a live-action version of its mega-blockbuster Frozen, you know it's going to look great.