In 1899, French actress Sarah Bernhardt famously played Hamlet and brought an impishness to the Danish prince that audiences had never seen before. There is a movement catching fire now for women to take on these classic, meaty Shakespearean roles traditionally played by men: The latest production of Twelfth Night…
Sebastian Maniscalco performs at the Majestic Theatre on Thursday, April 13. Sebastian Maniscalco recently got one of the highest compliments any comedian can receive. Another comedian said he’s funny. On his web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, host and show creator Jerry Seinfeld described Maniscalco as someone who “just…
For the last 10 years, Kevin Moriarty has been the resident chemist in the Arts District, where his latest concoction is an outdoor production of the Greek tragedy Electra. As the Dallas Theater Center’s artistic director, manipulating text and space are his bread and butter. Moriarty comes by his curiosity honestly. At…
The Fort Worth Opera is set to open their 2017 season with a daring lineup that includes the regional premiere of a bizarre courtroom drama and a straight-from-the-headlines mariachi opera about the effects of immigration on families. It seems to be business as usual even though just two months ago…
Flooding in the Texas springtime is not unusual. But the Dallas Theater Center is suffering flood damage for reasons completely unrelated to weather. Last week, during a routine test of the fire system, an outside vendor triggered the release of the fire suppression pipe, or “deluge curtain,” which dumped water…
Steve Martin and Martin Short will perform at Verizon Theatre on April 8 When you’re talking to Steve Martin and Martin Short, everything is a setup to a joke. Even a joke. “I’m originally from Waco,” Martin says when we ask him a question about his hometown. “I moved away…
Almost one year ago, Prism Co. created what founders Katy Tye and Jeff Colangelo consider to be the company’s most successful work. That piece pitted a real Mixed Martial Arts fighter against a Dallas actress in an immersive, staged, competitive MMA fight. As with all Prism works, Animal vs Machine…
Midway on his life’s journey, 31-year-old René Moreno fell through a five-story window and was paralyzed from the waist down. The freak accident, which occurred in his then-home in Washington D.C., was the impetus for his return to Dallas, where he received physical therapy following the injury. What could have…
Women are often accused of talking too much, or feeling emotions too acutely, and a new theater company, Goat Song Theatre Collective, is taking this as inspiration for their four-part season, which is all about gender equality. Abigail Birkett, one of three “goats,” alongside Carissa Jade Olsen and Lauren Ferebee, says Goat…
If you haven’t heard about White Rabbit Red Rabbit, you’re doing it right. You aren’t supposed to know what it is. Though this play has been performed in theaters all over the world nearly 1,000 times, no one is allowed to talk about it. Not even the actors. Only those…
On TV, Kitty Carter is harsh and abrasive and honest to Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders hopefuls. In real life, she’s the same. But the TV only shows the cruel words, not the hugs she gives after. Kitty Carter is a former DCC, a dance studio owner, wife and mother of three…
Local theater stalwart Kitchen Dog Theater is in the midst of its 26th season, and big changes have been coming left and right for the company. One is the introduction of a new program that will release 20 free tickets for every performance. In 2016, Kitchen Dog Theater was forced…
It’s hard to review a production as huge as Public Works Dallas’ The Tempest, which featured 200 Dallasites in the cast and five professional actors. On the one hand, you had the play: lights, music, acting, words, dancing, chaos. And there was chaos. The Friday premiere was a gorgeous mess at…
On Saturday, Cara Mia Theatre Co. will give a Dallas debut to a play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes, who also collaborated with Hamilton playwright and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda on his first musical In the Heights. The play, Yemaya’s Belly, is the story of a Cuban boy’s dream to…
Today the Dallas Theater Center announced the full lineup for their 2017-2018 season. The season includes two world premieres, a sequel to 2016’s All the Way, and another round of the Public Works initiative. Seeming to respond to prior criticism regarding lack of diversity, DTC will produce works by two…
This weekend, Dallas will become the first city outside of New York to participate in the Public Works project, which taps hundreds of non-actors for productions of Shakespeare. The first play being tackled here is The Tempest. According to Dayron Miles, who moved here to head up Public Works Dallas, the…
Troy Maxson is the 53-year-old patriarch in August Wilson’s Fences. He is an authoritarian, gruff, brutal force who famously tells his son, “I ain’t got to like you.” The general public is now learning a lot about August Wilson thanks to Denzel Washington and his commitment to produce 10 of…
After completing the first season of Inside Amy Schumer, the show’s head writer wasn’t sure whether a second season would be greenlit. “It’s terrifying. It’s really scary,” Jessi Klein says. “You can kind of get better at handling that anxiety, and I think I have gotten better at it, but…
Joel Ferrell is tackling what might seem like familiar territory at the Dallas Theater Center right now. The DTC artistic associate and actual son of a preacher is directing Lucas Hnath’s The Christians. But he says comparing his dad, a former Methodist pastor in Fort Worth, to Hnath’s world of…
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is on its first national tour, and it opens in Dallas today. It’s the story of a German, genderqueer rock singer who’s obsessed with becoming a star. Her husband, Yitzhak, an Eastern European drag queen, is the victim of her verbal abuse and jealousy. The musical…
On April 30, comedian Bill Maher will attempt to kiss and make up with hundreds of fans who had purchased tickets to see him perform stand-up comedy at Music Hall at Fair Park on Sunday Jan. 22, and were informed just a few minutes before the start of the show…
Paul McKenzie, the founder and artistic director of a new theatrical production company called Not Right Productions, has a passion for plays that push boundaries. So naturally he and his team picked Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical for their first production. Yes, that Debbie Does Dallas. It didn’t get far…
