Improvised comedy is experiencing another renaissance of sorts thanks to television and for once, I’m not talking about another reincarnation of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” The TV Land sitcom “Teachers” about a group of barely functional educators who let their personal lives bleed into their work came from the…
When comedian Ithamar Enriquez walks on to a stage, his presence commands an audience’s attention. He doesn’t capture it by yelling obscenities into a microphone to punctuate his jokes or screaming like a banshee to exorcise some deep seeded emotional pain that brings some comics to a stage. Enriquez never…
Texas Ballet Theater has nailed the perfect fairy tale in its production of Cinderella, a dreamy and funny ballet that appeals to aspiring princesses and cynical mamas alike. The Ben Stevenson version, using Sergei Prokofiev’s wide-ranging score, is a beautifully danced and vivid rendition of the classic tale. For parents…
Will Eno has much to say about life in the 21st century and a deft way of saying it in The Realistic Joneses, a play which premiered on Broadway in 2014 (in a production directed by Sam Gold) to rave reviews. The same could be said of director David Denson’s…
When Margo Jones opened a Dallas theater she wanted to establish a theater community outside of New York. Jones created much of what would become the regional theater model- theater that existed within a city’s own community and reflected its identity without just regurgitating Broadway hits. Jones wanted theater that…
Given the amount of rain we’ve had in the Metroplex this winter (and now, this spring), it’s fitting that the most anticipated musical to hit Music Hall at Fair Park takes place under the sea. Disney’s The Little Mermaid, part of the Dallas Summer Musical series, is wowing sold-out audiences…
Terri Doty is a morose teenager trying to assassinate her teacher. She plays one at work, anyway, where today she’s in the sound booth giving life to Kirara in Assassination Classroom. Her teacher/foe is a smiley face with tentacles who blew up the moon and is on a mission to…
The first scene of All the Way, now playing at Dallas Theater Center, lasts approximately four minutes. President Kennedy has just been shot; Lyndon B. Johnson is on his way to take over. Dramatic music, lights fade, scene change. This Tony Award-winning political drama moves along at TV speed, written…
The issue of parity (parity: the state or condition of being equal) is a hot one these days. As corporate America slowly comes around to the idea of giving women luxuries like equal pay and the privilege to have a room with a chair that’s not a toilet to pump…
When the Dallas Opera continued its season Friday night with Manon, the five-act opera by French composer Jules Massenet, the Winspear Opera House was far from full. Perhaps because, although this opera is performed regularly, it doesn’t have the widespread name recognition of earlier offerings this season like Tosca or…
Before Stephen Costello finished graduate school, he was charming North Texas audiences. Enrolled in Academy of Vocal Arts in his hometown of Philadelphia, the operatic tenor was tapped to fill in for a night as Rodolfo in a Fort Worth opera production of La bohème. “I’d worked with director David…
What is Shakespeare for a young audience? What should it be? Should it accessorize a high school lit class? Should it be a training tool for emerging actors? Should it be a compelling work of theater? Does it need to be forever produced to preserve and progress the theatrical…
DR Hanson is a busy man: he’s an actor, director, and most recently a feminist crusader. Hanson has been hired as a director by Bishop Arts Theatre Co., which is producing a One Act Festival of six plays- all written by female playwrights “I am consistently shocked at how few…
It’s probably not a coincidence that February, the worst month of the year, becomes the busy season in Dallas theater. The post holiday hangover has passed but it’s still not spring. We need something to do, to invigorate us into leaving the couch. New works and premieres are popping all…
Even if you aren’t familiar with the drunken, poetic stories and words of comedian Kyle Kinane, you’ve at least heard his voice. The Chicago native who has three very funny comedy albums and two Comedy Central specials to his name has also done voices on animated series such as “Aqua…
Familial dysfunction and tales of addiction reign supreme on two Dallas stages currently. I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard a 2015 two-hander at Kitchen Dog Theater owes a lot to Long Day’s Journey Into Night the classic Eugene O’Neill play at Undermain Theatre. Similarly both plays feature star turns…
If you’re looking for a rowdy night out, there’s one more weekend to catch Ochre House Theater’s latest Brothers’ Harvest. Writer and director Matthew Posey’s off the wall comedy digs into the life of a small town girl named Indigo Sue (an irresistible Cassie Bann). It’s a musical romp through…
Endless plays have been written about the brittle matriarch; the woman whose vulnerability intertwines with a vitriolic instability. Many, many playwrights it seems struggle with the mother-child relationship, or perhaps more accurately, the mother-son relationship. But as the work of female playwrights reaches more stages, it follows that new dynamics…
When the Out of the Loop Fringe Festival hits stages at WaterTower Theatre February 25- March 6, there will be numerous shows to choose from. A particularly interesting production at this year’s festival arrives via Brooklyn from the minds of Daniel Robert Sullivan and a handful of New York teenagers…
Eric Bogosian does not suffer fools gladly. The theater veteran from New York City commands a room like few others. He has a tremendous confidence and loose delivery that only comes with serious chops. Occasionally he glanced stage side at a list of characters unique to each particular performance; he…
Somewhere in our apartments, we’ve all got one — a box filled with written mementos, whether they’re old diaries, letters from sleep-away camp or lyrics for that career as an acoustic singer-songwriter that never took off. But the difference between most of us and the cast of Mortified, a confessional…
Arts writer Katy Lemieux falls in love all over again with the actor playing Paris in Romeo & Juliet at Dallas Theater Center. Sure, he’s her husband and all, but based on his performance in this show she’d marry him twice. Wedding planning is super hard. Like, really hard. Sometimes…
