If you think summer movies are clamorous, try a current Broadway musical. Watching Jersey Boys onstage is like soldiering through some extreme eating contest where you’re force-fed dessert for three hours. It’s all falsetto heroics and hustled-through character drama, every beat of every scene over-scored, over-rehearsed and overbearing. And it’s…
This isn’t the maiden voyage for the musical Titanic at Lyric Stage. The company did it in 2003 using the same staging by director Drew Scott Harris and the same stripped-down set designed by Scott Osborne that merely suggests, with three levels of steps and metal railings, the gleaming decks,…
Instead of producing the American premiere of British musical Soho Cinders, Uptown Players should’ve taken script and score and burned them. What a tawdry, creepy adaptation of Cinderella. If a musical could carry an STD, this one would come with a warning from the CDC. With music by George Stiles,…
David Lindsay-Abaire’s two-act dramedy Good People at WaterTower Theatre argues both sides of the same argument. Are good choices or good luck the reason why some people succeed and others don’t? Struggling South Boston single mom Margie (marvelous Jessica Cavanagh), desperate for work, begs old high school boyfriend Mike (James…
Six weeks before opening night for the next show at Fun House Theatre and Film, it is audition day, nervous time for the 40 actors lined up on a late mid-May afternoon in a crowded hallway outside a tiny rehearsal studio in Plano. Some fan themselves with “sides,” short pages…
Recently, Star Wars fans, along with much of the planet’s pop-culture collective, nearly ruptured the Internet in their enthusiasm to share set-building photos from next year’s long-awaited new feature film. But these weren’t shots of just any set. They depicted the construction of the Millennium Falcon. You’ve never heard of…
Comedies about the battle of the sexes tend to have one clear loser: the audience. Driven by an oppositional view of romance that proved outmoded and seldom funny, Think Like a Man introduced us to six men living in Los Angeles and their corresponding flames. Some of these entanglements were…
Do you like sitting outside in 100 degree heat, skinny Brando and craft beer? The Design District Market is holding a Brew & View. That’s right, come watch the outdoor screening of the classic 1953 film, The Wild One. “What about the brew?” you ask. Well, you’re in luck because…
It seems as if the thing to do these days is host excessively diverse art parties. Well, basically, the people at Dallas Fashion Art were throwing progressive art events before they were cool. This year’s Dallas Fashion Art part art event part fundraiser party’s theme is ‘Man as Machine.’ What…
Think back to the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the dancers who “magically” painted a large-scale intricate landscape of mountains and waters with just their hands and feet. Do you remember who choreographed that? Probably not, but TITAS and the Crow Collection of Asian Art are ready…
With a Friday the 13th freshly tucked under our belts and Mercury spending some serious time in retrograde this month, it’s easy to feel that everything is all black cats and bad luck lately. Air conditioner failures, car wrecks … it’s all going south and you gotta pin it on…
Everybody loves Dirk. Including other athletes. That’s why he’s the perfect face to slap on a charity. This weekend, he invites his famous friends to join him in a friendly game of catch at Dirk Nowitzki’s 2014 Heroes Celebrity Baseball Game. The proceeds benefit his nonprofit organization that offers sports…
There was once a time when a movie about Michael Jordan joining up with a basketball team comprised of Looney Tunes characters could earn a “thumbs up” from Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. That era was the 1990s, and it was a simpler time — a time when someone actually…
The code of the Samurai says that “there is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment.” Dallas is taking a moment to celebrate the history and culture of the ancient warrior-poet class of feudal Japan with Matsuri! A Samurai Celebration. The event is being held June,…
Before you correct me with your endless knowledge of American history, no, this is not a typo: The Juneteenth Blues & Jazz Festival is happening on from 3-9 p.m. on Sunday, June 22. The African American Museum’s annual celebration may be a few days late, but it’s worth the wait…
Soccer ranks somewhere just below lawn darts and non-metaphorical rat racing in American popularity. It’s got some American fans but not the kind of ravenous sports head who can start riots if a rival fan celebrates a goal just a little bit too long. Of course, that means you don’t…
You know what word gets a lot of play? “Indie.” There was a time when that was merely the nickname of the world’s sexiest archeology professor, Indiana Jones. Now we shorten and then overuse every word in the English language, until our vocabulary melts into oblivion. But it’s like totes…
Since its inception three years back, the Oak Cliff Film Festival has proven there’s plenty of room at the cinematic table for another Dallas fest offering. Hubbed at the Texas Theatre (231 W. Jefferson Blvd.) the fellas of Aviation Cinema designed OCFF with the goal of keeping it hyperlocal –…
Get your fat pants ready for Flavors of Dallas, a five-course dinner spectacle full of fine wines and gourmet food. This unique event is an assembly of the top chefs around Dallas-Fort Worth where guests are sat at elegantly decorated tables, each one designed by one of the chefs. Patrons…
It’s impossible to accurately describe an Eddie Izzard show. Intellectually dazzling, multi-lingual stream of consciousness? Well, yeah, it’s that, but way, way more fun than that sounds. He dives into history, religion, culture, nature and language – but with silly voices and physical comedy that can leave a crowded hall…
The late proto-beat poet/filmmaker James Broughton currently exists as little more than a footnote in the annals of queer underground cinema. A poet’s poet, Broughton’s works have remained largely unknown outside of San Francisco’s experimental cognoscenti. The good people behind CinéWilde -the monthly LGBTQ film series at Texas Theatre (231…
Fun House Theatre and Film had preteens play Stalin. It cast kids in a play by Neil LaBute. They spoofed potty-mouth playwright David Mamet. It’s all been good, clean fun. But we wonder about this Game of Thrones, Junior show opening at Fun House (1301 Custer Road., Plano) at 7:30…
