Mixmaster presents “100 Creatives,” in which we feature cultural entrepreneurs of Dallas in random order. Know an artistic mind who deserves a little bit of blog love? Email lauren.smart@dallasobserver.com with the whos and whys. One doesn’t quickly forget their first visit to WAAS Gallery – or the first time meeting…
The Dallas Theater Center’s version of Les Miserables has turned quite a few heads for its contemporary take on the classic tale of the French Revolution. Director Liesl Tommy’s politically charged update has earned comparisons to Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring. The musical when placed in a modern…
Traffic is lighter on the roads, the sun is hotter, and the words “back to school” are popping up on advertisements throughout the city. It must be August. An easier way to learn this might’ve been looking at a calendar, which would also point out that the weekend is arriving…
Williams in Moscow on the HudsonOn this week’s Voice Film Club podcast, Alan Scherstuhl and Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice and Amy Nicholson of L.A. Weekly remember Robin Williams, who died on Monday. He was 63. They also recommend We Are Mari Pepa, a slight movie about growing up…
Land Ho! is a How Grandpa Got His Groove Back for the geezer set, a buddy road trip through Iceland, starring two divorced men with a combined age of 150 years. The writer-directors, Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz, are 30 and 34, respectively, young enough to be their leading men’s…
“Picture it, Dallas, Texas.” The wind-ups in Candy Barr’s Last Dance at Theatre Three are something worthy of Sophia Petrillo. And perhaps The Golden Girls is the best foundation for understanding a comedy about aging women, sitting around a kitchen table, laughing over scandalous memories. Despite the popularity of that…
When musicals make the trek from the Great White Way to the silver screen, it’s likely they’ll find a way back to the stage. There is no better publicity than a two-and-a-half-hour blockbuster film. Currently in the Arts District, the Dallas Theater Center mounts a reinterpretation of Les Misérables —…
When you put a pair of losers in uniforms, at the end of the day they’re still losers. Best friends and roommates Justin (Damon Wayans Jr.) and Ryan (Jake Johnson) learn that the hard way but not without finding some joy in the fantasy that you can become the success…
Titles don’t get more ironic than The Expendables 3. The franchise claims to be about death-seeking mercenaries yet stars ’80s action heroes, who refuse to die. Three films in, everyone in the sprawling team is still alive and ass kicking, save for Bruce Willis, whose million-dollar-a-day asking salary has caused…
Maybe you think you know what Woody Allen did or didn’t do in that summerhouse all those years ago. Maybe you look at his history — shacking up with a Stuyvesant high school girl in the late ’70s; marrying his longtime partner’s adopted daughter in the ’90s — and simply…
Plenty of art doesn’t belong inside the halls of a museum. There are sculptures too large for the ceilings; paintings better suited for the outdoors; and performances for the streets. (Wo)manorial’s latest exhibition breaks the tradition of white-walled encasement in more ways than one. Inside)(Outside started online earlier this month,…
There is something eerie and beautiful about the song “Pure Imagination.” Of course, the story of Willy Wonka’s disciplinary chocolate factory bears its own creepy portrayal of strangers with candy. And the song, with lyrics about viewing paradise in “the world of my creation” has inspired quite a few remakes…
For anyone who laments the lack of role models for little girls in film, Hayao Miyazaki is your go-to moviemaker. His ten-year-old heroine Chihiro Ogino was borne of Miyazaki’s frustration that books and movies marketed to young girls were all about silly crushes and superficial whatnot—in response, he created a…
Every cringe comic can spout off a list of midget and dwarf jokes like a high school chemistry student reciting the list of noble gases for a verbal exam. Brad Williams has heard them all. The diminutive comic may be physically small but his bold and animated presence can take…
What’s so great about ballet? If you’re not swept away by the tutus, the pink-ribboned shoes, or the graceful athleticism of the dancers, it might be difficult to convince you of the art form’s merit. But by god, you are missing out. We recommend opening your mind for just one…
As part of its mission to broaden the general public’s awareness of the cultural aspects of Middle Eastern dance and music, The Isis Foundation will be presenting its 14th annual Yaa Halla, Y’All event. Hundreds of local, national, and international professional, amateur, and student belly dancers and Middle Eastern musicians…
Here’s the lowdown: The Lot’s Geeks Who Drink trivia night is a 120 minutes long. Teams of up to six players each compete in eight rounds of eight questions, with rounds 1, 4 and 6 being themed rounds, while rounds 2, 3 and 7 are … Jesus Christ! Whatever happened…
The One-Minute Play Festival at first glance sounds a little like the 21st century’s ADD addled response to the art of theater. It’s actually anything but. This August audiences will have three chances to see Dallas’ inaugural One-Minute Play Festival, a festival Artistic Director Dominic D’Andrea calls a “barometer project.”…
Elvis Presley, God love him, was a man of excess. He was a glam rocker before glam rock — sporting eye shadow and plowing through mass inventories of rhinestones. He drank a case of soda a day, had shag carpet laid in his bathroom and required that his pantry be…
What do hyenas, haikus and theater have in common? One man: Matt Tomlanovich. If you’re friends with the beloved director and actor on Facebook, you have probably been exposed to his “Hyena Haikus,” and you’ve probably noticed that they have been absent as of late. That’s because Tomlanovich has been…
We remember very little about the day we took the SAT. There was a strange school, pencils that weren’t our favorite pencils, flop sweat and intense paranoia. What we do know for certain is that we didn’t prep for it, aside from taking the PSAT, and in retrospect, a tutor…
The threat of having any one of your senses taken away can be frightening, but when you consider that condition could make you a target, the fright start to multiply. Within that fright lays the power of Frederick Knott’s play, Wait Until Dark. As the audience, we aren’t the protagonist—a…
