Oh. My. God. People—you must, mustmustMUST go see The Clean House at Zach Scott Theater immediately. Whether you literally have some sort of OCD that prompts you into unstoppable cleaning sprees or are more of the metaphorical sort who's forever trying to tidy up this wicked, funny, messy thing called life, this show is for you. Smaranda Ciceu plays Mathilde, the hilariously sad twentysomething Brazilian housekeeper who hates to clean. This proves to be problematic for her power-achiever MD employer, Lane, played to perfection by Lauren Lane. On the other hand, it provides a thrill for Lane’s neatnik sister, Virginia (Barbara Chisolm) who lives to dust, scrub and rearrange. Tom Green who doubles as both the ghost of Mathilde’s father and as Charles, Lane’s nutty husband—also an MD— has got obsessions of his own. And Ana (Alicia Kaplan) also pulls double duty as the ghost of Mathilde’s mother and, among other things, Charles’ distracting (to put it mildly) patient. ...

While this presentation of the show— put on by Zach Scott Theater Center and directed by Dave Steakley (also the Artistic Director of ZSTC)— features sets, language and costumes true to the original show, there is heartbreaking scene during which, without actually speaking to a change in time and geography, Steakley evokes Katrina-battered New Orleans. He manages this by stranding those characters that survive a brutal storm on rooftops, clinging to each other and praying for help while a dry-ice fog rolls out into the spacious music hall, enveloping the audience and breaking down the fourth wall....

Zach Scott is getting national attention for its run of Porgy and Bess at the newly remodeled Austin Music Hall. The show runs two weekends only, and wraps up this Sunday. // Jaston Williams had great success with his autobiographical, one-man show, I'm Not Lying—and now he's back with more. This weekend only, Cowboy Noises further explores Williams' fascinating life with humor and, we expect, unflinching honesty. // We're mighty fond of local playwright Max Langert, and his current play, You're Happier Than You Think: Recalibrating Your Emotional Scale, at Frontera Short Fringe sounds like a charmer. Saturday @6:15pm, and Sunday @noon....

[This post comes from Anna Hanks, who'll soon be joining the Austinist staff!] Oh how we love our brooding bad-boys, full of emotional conflicts and divided loyalties. From James Dean to Marlon Brando, we just adore our theatrical time-bombs ticking down to an eventual emotional explosion. Black outfits only accentuate their outlaw charms. Biblical bad-boy Judas Iscariot — beautifully and brilliantly portrayed by John Pointer in Zachary Scott Theatre Center’s new bilingual production of Jesus......

And they're off.... The nominations for this year's B. Iden Payne Awards have been announced. We received 'em this morning, straight from the offices of the Austin Circle of Theatres. If you want to get in on the action, ballots will be available starting this Thursday, September 21, at ACoT (701 Tillery Street) & AusTIX (kiosk at the Austin Visitors Center, 209 E. 6th Street). You must be an ACoT member to vote, but......

Ah, Austin. Quirky, quaintly subversive, and highlighted by outlandish old hippies with a hankerin’ for the demon weed, our fair city is cutely characterized in Zach Scott Theatre's wildly popular Keepin’ It Weird. The show isn’t perfect (towards the end especially – it gets downright hokey), but dag gummit if you’re not having fun in the first five minutes, chances are you’re dead, you’re Pat Robertson, or you’re from Dallas. This show should be......

(UPDATE: All performances for this weekend (firm) and next (tentative) are cancelled. We'll keep you posted on this story as it develops. --JH ) In what is undoubtedly a major bummer for Zach Scott Theatre, Helen Merino, star of the recently opened and critically acclaimed production of Bad Dates has been seriously injured. According to Michael Barnes at the Austin-American Statesman, the star of the show all about shoes...has broken her foot. Merino stepped......

Photo by Kirk R. Tuck What happens when you combine the acerbic satirical wit of David Sedaris, one sexy and campy cabaret singer (Meredith McCall) and the best actress in Austin two years running (Lee Eddy)? You get the hilarious one-act holiday-themed play The Santaland Diaries. We had the fortune of spending Friday night at Zach Scott Theater laughing until we cried at what is becoming an annual tradition. Directed by Dave Steakley, TSD......