Showdown in the Heavens

Had there not already been a Japanese cartoon from the 1970s with the same name, Firebomb Production's The Secret War might have been titled Battle of the Planets. Two teams of stage performers (the Chaldean Enforcers and Hermatic Pymanders) lock orbits and duke it out for celestial domination of the "multiverse." A mash of live theater, metaphysics, astrological mythology, March Madness brackets and America's Got Talent-style elimination, each performance pits planet against planet (Jupiter vs. Saturn, Uranus vs. Mercury, etc.) with the audience deciding each bout's winner and the victors advancing to semis and final rounds. The Secret War premieres 8 p.m. Friday at the Dallas Hub Theater, 2809 Canton St., and continues Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights through September. Call 877-238-5596 or visit thesecretwar.net for more info.
Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Starts: Sept. 7. Continues through Sept. 30, 2007