Nuts and Merries

Gray and Lovett are admirably supported by the rest of the cast, with one exception. Stan Graner as Bernard, an inept doctor obsessed with his annual marionette show, has all the pizzazz of a sock puppet. His accent is wrong, his hair full of painted-on gray streaks that scream "community theater," and his timing so unpredictable, he throws off the better actors, particularly the wonderful Leslie Turner as Bernard's boozy wife Phyllis. Graner alternates in the role with H. Frances Fuselier, so be sure to ask the box office who's on when.

Other than that, Season's Greetings is joyous whirl.

Oh, the hoopla that surrounded the recent Sound of Music presented at the Dallas Theater Center by the Salzburg Marionette Theater, directed by DTC's former artistic honcho Richard Hamburger. What a weird show that was, complete with a human Mother Abbess who looked like a giant next to the little wooden nuns, and a human Nazi who shot a Bambi puppet dead while the strung-up Von Trapp tykes warbled "Edelweiss."

For more graceful puppetry and a nicer experience all around, see The Nutcracker presented by the Kathy Burks Theatre of Puppetry Arts at Dallas Children's Theater. This nontraditional version of the Tchaikovsky classic is performed with exquisitely designed "black theater" rod puppets. Opening the 90-minute show, the composer appears (in puppet form) to explain how and why he wrote the ballet about little Clara, who dreams of a toy nutcracker that comes to life and whisks her to a land of sugar snowflakes and mouse armies. That part's a little slow, frankly, but the gentle intro seems to lull little ones into the music.

Puppeteers Douglass Burks, Kathy Burks, Sally Fiorello, Ted Kincaid and Patricia Long—cloaked in black velvet that renders them invisible behind their characters—make Clara and her Nutcracker Prince magically dance and fly. Watch for the sassy white poodle who stands in (on tippy-toes!) for the Sugar Plum Fairy in the ballet's most familiar solo.

Several good shows! And a plum part for a pup. Can't beat that.