Performing Arts

Jaylan Ford dances every day. Not in a dance class or privately in front of a mirror, like many casual dancers. He dances out in the open, for everyone to see.

If you shush your friends when an obscure song comes on at the bar just to impress them with your knowledge of who it is, when it came out, its track number and the inspiration behind it, you probably annoy your friends.

Bill Maher loves red states. Not their politicians, necessarily, and certainly not laws like the Heartbeat Bill (“You can have an abortion as long as you know you don’t need one” he says. “That is so Texas”).

The announcement of the cast list for WaterTower Theatre’s upcoming production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time drew quite a few angry comments from its online followers.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] is sort of like a humorous Cliff Notes version of Shakespeare’s entire library of work.

The loss of the Dallas Comedy House (DCH) — the Deep Ellum improv comedy theater that got swallowed up by the pandemic last August — was swift and sudden, but a new set of owners stepped in with plans to open the theater almost one year later.

Dallas’s Over the Bridge Arts presents FIRST DRAFT, a two-part live theater experience. In the first half, artists from Echo Theatre including Kateri Cale, Chad Cline and Leslie Patrick will read opening scenes from selected entries to Big Shout Out 3, an international new play contest for “women+” playwrights.

You’ve probably heard the news by now: Hamilton is back. After a year of closures, the musical favorite (at least among the people who don’t listen to musicals) will be returning to Broadway in September, along with other marquee favorites such as The Lion King and Wicked.

When Joe Rogan made a much-publicized move to Austin during the pandemic, he brought along his friend and colleague Tony Hinchcliffe. Apparently they didn’t get the memo that Austin wants to stay “weird,” not racist. Hinchcliffe is a successful comedian who’s been a staff writer for Comedy Central and currently…

Thursday, May 13 Official Watch Party & Music Festival of the AT&T Byron Nelson The long-anticipated AT&T Bryon Nelson golf tournament is here. Watch the action unfold at Craig Ranch Fitness and Spa during the watch party, which will have music and outdoor games. The four-day event runs from Thursday,…

Wednesday, May 5 Cinco de Mayo on East Oak St. Still stumped for Cinco de Mayo plans? Head over to East Oak St. businesses East Side, Miss Angeline’s and Oak St. Drafthouse. East Side will have food trucks and drinks to make sure the celebration is done right. Also, 5%…

Comedian Erik Myers, a Florida native, died on Tuesday in a car accident in Amarillo while he was traveling to Dallas to perform at Hyena’s Comedy Nightclub. Myers could do something very few comics are capable of doing: He could make audiences and comedians laugh. “You kind of get jaded…

Exactly a year ago, theater director Kara-Lynn Vaeni was helping Dallas build and maintain a flourishing theater scene packed with stellar and wide-ranging productions. Dallas and Fort Worth theaters were showing us some of their best work during the 2019-2020 season before the promising future for local theater was struck down, like…

The silence of comedy stages has been deafening. The coronavirus outbreak has made it hard for comedy venues (and all others) to pack the house for headlining comedians and for local comics to open for traveling acts while working on new material. “Until we get a vaccine in the majority…

There’s a certain experience that you’re probably familiar with at this point in the pandemic: You log into a Zoom meeting and are greeted by your own horrendous face. You needed a haircut a month ago, and it shows. The cruel, uncontrollable lighting does you no favors. Beauty is lost…

It only takes 15 minutes for Kara Cannella to choreograph a dance seen by millions. Addison Rae Easterling and Charli D’Amelio, the two most-followed creators on TikTok, recently performed Cannella’s choreography to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Cry Baby,” granting Cannella a few thousand extra followers and bragging rights. “It was definitely crazy to…

When Jessica Zeller went to a show at Pocket Sandwich Theatre for the first time three years ago, she thought she was settling in for a night of serious theater. Then the popcorn started flying. “The first show I saw was a melodramatic comedic reimagining of Jekyll and Hyde for Halloween,”…

Madison Shepard and her dog Lexi sit on a couch in their home in Los Angeles, where it’s 75 degrees and sunny on a late November day, just like most days of the year in California. The multi-hyphenate comedian-writer-actor is currently “unemployed” during the pandemic, but for an artist, that’s…

Thanks to a military coup and a brutal dictatorship with 60 years of oppressive experience, Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef had to move with his family to America because he dared to openly mock governmental authority. Not long afteward, Youssef found himself standing on the floor of the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse…

Comedy clubs are in uncharted territory thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Places that once attracted sold-out crowds are having to cut their audience limits in half or close altogether. The Backdoor Comedy Club is a little more familiar with the struggle to stay open. It has opened and closed 12…

Four women accused actor and stand-up comedian Bryan Callen of sexual misconduct as far back as 1999 in a Los Angeles Times story published in July. This news came on top of revelations that Callen and his partner Brendan Schaub on their former podcast Fighter and the Kid tested positive for COVID-19 following…

Comedians may be fearless enough to get on stage and perform, but steel nerves and supernatural bravery don’t help when facing a particular kind of audience. We’re not talking about talent scouts from major cable networks who sum up entire careers based on two minutes of material nor about mobs…