Long regarded as a commentary on the nuclear panic of the Cold War, Samuel Beckett’s 1961 absurdist comedy Happy Days now seems more like a cartoon of a long, rotten marriage. Wingspan Theatre Company is doing the play right now at the Bath House. Director Susan Sargeant amps up the…
Clybourne Park is the second great major American drama about the hell of dealing with a homeowners’ association. The first was Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Clybourne’s source material from half a century ago. Both shows are running at Dallas Theater Center (at the Wyly Theatre), sharing cast…
What’s illegal at Disneyland? Dogs, drugs, alcohol, pamphlets, flags and large coolers. Not listed? Secretly shooting a feature-length movie. But Disneyland couldn’t have imagined director Randy Moore would have the courage to film Escape From Tomorrow on location — and that it would be so horny. In the black-and-white theme…
Kimberly Peirce changes almost nothing in her rallying remake of Brian De Palma’s classic about a troubled telekinetic teenager. She doesn’t have to. Yes, now the mean girls who pelt Carrie with tampons upload a cell phone video of the attack, and the well-meaning jock who squires the school outcast…
Few things can cause rifts in friendships like disagreements over what is and isn’t OK to eat. But fad diets and molecular gastronomy are rarely the source of contention as much as meat-eating is. Many a dinner party of barbecue has fallen apart once some unwitting attendee realizes there’s no…
There’s a vampire for everyone. Sulky teens, poor decision-makers, fashionable dames … there’s a fictional vamp to suck it up for you. And if you’re a citizen of Louisiana, then you got the neck biters in spades. Legend (and premium cable) would have us believe that in all that swampy,…
When night falls on the Dallas Arts District tonight, expect the whole area to come to life, like when forests of mushrooms crop up after a rainstorm. The Aurora Project, presented by The Dallas Morning News, is a massive open-air exhibition that allows artists to turn the nearly 70-acre district…
Gen X peeps know that back in the day, when you got called to a conference in middle school, it meant sitting through an hour of videos about the evils of drug use and how best to narc on your partying parents. Plus, there was that one video with projectile…
Has the government shutdown still got you down? Looking for a reason to get out of bed now that summer is over, at least in the strictest technical sense? Or maybe you’re just disappointed at the newest crop of freshmen Saturday Night Live players. What you need is a healthy…
The Nasher Sculpture Center decided to tackle its 10-year anniversary in the biggest, rowdiest way imaginable: It’s holding a multi-million dollar public art project called Nasher Xchange and it opens Saturday. Ten artists, each with a solid background in taking art outside of museum walls, have been selected for the…
Some people are simply more interesting than the rest. You can attempt to deny that, but will eventually reach acceptance during TEDxSMU, the locally licensed branch of the global idea exchange. It returns to the Wyly on Saturday with its 2013 edition, “And Then …” where it will delight a…
Today’s technology has transformed Lou Ferrigno’s Hulk into Mark Ruffalo’s, with its lifelike animation and graphics. It vivified scenes such as Neo fighting Mr. Smith in the courtyard (excluding Reeves’ acting), Ironman flying through an army of Chitauri fleet while beaming down missiles, and gave old man Carl Fredrickson a…
Sometimes a bloodbath is a good thing — and we’re not talking about occult ceremonies and traditions. When it comes to horror and gore, the bloodier the better, so thank God two local cinephiles joined together to create the Blood Bath Film Festival. The two-day festival that celebrates independent horror…
If you grew up anywhere near the ’80s (beat it, Biebers), your TV lineup included CHiPs and Dukes of Hazzard and somewhere in that menagerie of good old boys and tight tan pants you had your first crush. Back then you would’ve done just about anything to meet the legends…
We live under the assumption that cats defy training. That they are instinctively ambivalent to our desires. But that ain’t true, and should I know, because I’ve seen the mother-effin’ Circus Cats. This traveling crew of renegade rescue felines not only performs tricks, but does them on stage in front…
Spend an evening with the ghosts of composers past on Monday when the Dallas Chamber Music Society opens its 69th season with a concert by the acclaimed American String Quartet. The quartet, originally founded by a group of Juilliard students, will begin the concert with the haunting modernist sounds of…
Like Fred and Ginger, Laurel and Hardy, and chocolate and peanut butter, great pairs make the world spin. So when we heard that The Ochre House and the 2013 Dallas Flamenco Festival were teaming up for something special, we knew that the outcome would be truly awesome. And awesome it…
When you think about Sandra Bernhard, you likely picture Nancy, Arnie’s wife on Roseanne, but you need to think a little harder. Bernhard is an octuple threat — she writes, performs, sings, puts on shows, wins awards, write books, puts out albums and back-up sings for big-timers. On Wednesday she’s…
We love a good movie making contest, as evidenced by the Observer’s critically *acclaimed, *award-winning entry in the 24 Hour Video Race (shown above). Well there’s a new challenge on the table, divined through the intoxicated holy union of the Oak Cliff Film Festival and Four Corners Brewery. It’s called…
“The Ring has awoken, it’s heard its masters call.” — Gandalf Attention Free Peoples of Middle-earth: an epic auditory journey will occur at the Music Hall at Fair Park. Appointed to task by Dallas Summer Musicals, the Dallas POPS will courageously bear the burden of The Precious and present Howard…
Tatiana CraineLove is in the air at New York Comic-ConEditor’s note: We’ve been receiving dispatches from New York Comic-Con from our sister paper, The Village Voice. Since you’re stuck in a costumeless Dallas cubical, we thought we’d share a bit of that dark, east coast magic with you. It’s a…
Tatiana CraineSmaug the dragon and Sherlock Holmes at New York Comic-Con.Editor’s note: We’ve been receiving dispatches from New York Comic-Con from our sister paper, The Village Voice. Since you’re stuck in a costumeless Dallas cubical, we thought we’d share a bit of that dark, east coast magic with you. It’s…
