Here’s something that ought to happen more often between theaters on opposite sides of the Trinity: Fort Worth’s Stage West has imported the entire cast, and their puppet alter egos, of Theatre Too’s hit production of the musical Avenue Q. Back onstage again with their arms up the backsides of…
Vanessa Hudgens was 17 when High School Musical made her famous, the tail end of a generation of Mouseketeers that included her contemporaries Zac Efron, Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez, and her elders Justin Timberlake, Hilary Duff, Britney Spears, Keri Russell, Christina Aguilera, Shia LaBeouf and Ryan Gosling. If you’re…
There are four good things we can say about I, Frankenstein, another muscles-and-rubble comic book adaptation just un-terrible enough not to alienate its core audience, yet never consistently grand or surprising enough to win over anyone else. First, Aaron Eckhart brings it, scowling like a champ beneath his jigsawed scar…
This Thursday is why you grew up, because this Thursday is Free Pie Day. Uh-huh. Had 10-year-old you known such a thing existed, she would have stolen the keys, sat on several phone books and peeled out to the nearest diner. Grown-up you doesn’t need to ask permission or hassle…
Thanks to a charmed roll of the 20-sided die, Dallas conjured up a one-night-only screening of Knights of Badassdom, a cinematic LARPing tale. The story is a touching one and the soundtrack is metal enough to inspire you to knock over a pinball arcade, buy a novelty sword or ask…
What you’re about to read is going to make you say “Who?” and “whaaa?” and then make a Tim the Toolman Taylor grunt. It’s a lot of names, but muddle through, it’s worth it. MatrimonEy Clothing teamed up with graphic artist Blakely Dadson to release two All That Glitters T-shirts…
If you know nothing else about Tyler Perry, you should know about his ability to prodigiously produce material and you should be in awe of it. He writes and directs his own stuff for theater and movies, and even stars in other people’s work, like the action movie Alex Cross…
We’re at that dead part of the season where it’s not consistently sweater weather, but we can’t quite get away with spring stuff — despite what The Gap would have you believe. But in this late-winter sartorial purgatory, there is so much hope for the coming season: the promise that…
Successful philanthropies have managed to understand a key fact that drives human behavior: We are always looking for an excuse to drink. We like it even more when the reason for our drinking allows us to drink without feeling any guilt, because hangovers suck already and no one needs to…
If intercepted web chatter is any indication, the only thing necessary to say is that Parker Posey will read you a story in the DMA’s Horchow Auditorium (1717 N. Harwood St.) as part of beloved NPR literary series Selected Shorts. The evening’s theme is Danger and Desire: Tales of Hopper’s…
Austin is experiencing an identity shift. It’s still a music hub — you can’t shop for used tires without encountering an in-store Americana showcase — but the bigger story is what’s happening in the city’s comedy scene. Sketch troupes, improv street gangs and renegade stand-up acts are taking over, making…
In February, The Dallas Opera is producing Death and the Powers, a modern, tech-savvy opera by composer/MIT professor Tod Machover. The details of what goes on behind the scenes of any opera are fascinating, but production design takes on a whole new dimension when an opera involves robots. At 3…
Every true fan has some grand adventure cooked up in their heads. A way to honor the thing they love most. Only a few dare to actually put that to paper and share it with the world. If your passions involve stories of fire-and-ice-breathing dragons, aliens who travel to Earth…
It’s been eight years since the Dance Theatre of Harlem went on hiatus, and now that the vacation is over, it’s back to work and back to Fort Worth. Because everyone has to come back to reality sometime. At 7 p.m. the Dance Theatre of Harlem will take the stage…
There’s an unfair assumption about critics that all they do is mercilessly critique the work of others, never actually producing or contributing anything of their own, all while eating bonbons and whole truffles (the fungi, not the candy). Dallas Observer theater critic Elaine Liner has organized the awesomely named YOLO…
You can’t make this stuff up … said no fiction writer, ever. Mostly because they are pretty sure they can. But despite the twisty plot lines, similarities to our own lives and outta-nowhere narrative bends that authors, screenwriters and playwrights create in their minds, there’s nothing we connect with more…
If you’ve forgotten how ridiculously handsome Jake Ryan is and how you never fully understood his attraction to Samantha, then it’s time for a refresher course at Alamo Drafthouse. Tuesday is Girlie Night and they’re showing Sixteen Candles. Relive headgear, Long Duk Dong and a time when John Cusack was…
Denton’s art scene gains momentum with the inclusion of world-renowned artist Kiki Smith, who is serving an artist’s residency at UNT for the 2013-2014 academic year. Known as one of the most influential artists of her generation, Smith spent her childhood in a household she compares to the Addams Family,…
If you happened into Ro2 Gallery’s downtown space in late 2013, you might have caught One Day, an installation of totem-like structures fabricated from discarded Starbucks waste. If you missed Val Curry and Robert Reedy’s exploration of consumer culture, you have another chance to take it in during Objective Strategies,…
Jeff Gibbons is a tinkerer. An inventor. A renovator. An artist. And whether you catch the CentralTrak artist-in-residence unveiling a whirling collection of projections at Oliver Francis Gallery; experimenting with rotting citrus, ice blocks and late-model electronics at the MAC; or teasing out impermanence through foodstuffs, like in El Centro’s…
Your toddler just dropped a Cheerio on the floor and said, “Aww, motherfucking dickjob!” We’ve all been there. But what do you do about it? (After you take a video of it happening one more time, because these days your happiness is based on Facebook “likes” and this moment will…
The Dallas Opera has announced the six-work line-up for its 14th season. In it you’ll see a blend of popular moneymakers, like Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, starring Italian bass-baritone Mirco Palazzi and Austrian soprano Beate Ritter, and the thrill of new with the world premiere of Everest. We’ve been…
