Tucked into a sleepy neighborhood on the edge of White Rock Lake, the Bath House Cultural Center is one of those venues only locals know. It’s part theater, party art gallery and the terrace overlooks the lake with a view of downtown Dallas in the distance. When the Texas sun…
It can seem a bit quiet around this city during the summer, because in case you just moved here, it’s about to get really freaking hot. Sure, these summer storms have kept the temperatures in the refreshingly high 80’s, but beware the “searing pain” our weather blogger predicts in regard…
One of the hallmarks of almost any production at Theatre Three, one of Dallas’ oldest theater companies, is how much time they waste moving furniture between scenes. So often the shifting of sagging sofas and rickety tables in and out of the in-the-round space seems unnecessary. T3’s penchant for choosing…
The first and last time I saw Forbidden Broadway, one of the sketches lampooned Les Miserables by having the actors run in circles, executing costume changes and singing dramatic songs. The 1985 musical about a man who stole a loaf of bread is infamous for having a stage that rotates…
Summertime can lead to feelings of wanderlust, boredom, and – if you’re lucky – a really good tan. In the summer, it’s super easy to just want to relax all day long, stare out your window, and daydream. But it is in those dreams that something great can come. The…
Paul Varghese, one of the funniest men in Dallas, has organized another Dallas Observer Comedy Crawl. After last fall’s inaugural crawl was hilariously successful, we couldn’t even wait a year to bring back more laughs. If you’re sick of listening to your friend’s jokes at a bar, but still want…
Now, I like Eddie Izzard. I do. Like you, I watched his tapes (yes, they were tapes then) at college while doing things I can’t tell my parents or any potential employers about, and his sheer commitment to ridiculousness endeared me to him in a way it did with few…
Summer is Shakespeare season on both sides of the Trinity River. If you like soaking up your classical works in a steam bath with added sound effects from drag racers, police sirens and cicadas, head over to the grassy outdoor amphitheater at Samuell-Grand Park in East Dallas for productions by…
The Comedy of Errors at Trinity Shakespeare Festival in Fort Worth offers some of one and too much of the other. It’s a weak play by Shakespearean standards, a one-note farce that blows that same note over and over and over. Director Joel Ferrell tries to liven things up with…
Funny or Die’s touring comedy show, the Oddball Comedy and Curiosity Festival, is coming back to Dallas this fall, with an even stronger lineup than last year: Louis CK, Marc Maron, Hannibal Buress, Sarah Silverman, Jeff Ross, Whitney Cummings and still others. The show is Friday, September 19, at Gexa…
For 32 years, Ballet Concerto has been ringing in summer with an outdoor end-of-the-season concert series at the Trinity Park Pavilion in Fort Worth. Well attended every year, with more and more people coming out, laying down their blankets, and cuddling up with a glass of wine, and chowing down…
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…
In the past month, I have received five press releases about upcoming productions of 13 Shakespeare plays. Well, technically one is a performance of his sonnets. If Mama Mia! is ubiquitous, Billy Shakes is omnipresent. As a nerdy lit major in college, the idea that I would someday grow tired…
“They are all untitled, and I think he did it on purpose, so as to minimize preconceptions that might influence anyone looking at them,” curator Dr. Karin Oen tells me as she walks me through the installation of artist Shen Wei’s exhibition at the Crow Collection of Asian Art. The…
“What I hope people gain from my work is a glimpse of beauty, and to engage in the mysteriousness of the unknown.” Shen Wei. Dancer. Choreographer. Painter. Art historian. Creator of the internationally lauded Shen Wei Dance Arts in New York City, and coming to Dallas’ Winspear Opera House on…
When The Dallas Opera decided to stage Death and the Powers, Tod Machover’s challenging modern sci-fi opera, they called on conductor Nicole Paiement to handle the complex score. Paiement was a smart choice: as Artistic Director of San Fransisco’s Opera Parallèl, a professional company dedicated to producing contemporary operas, she’s…
Plan to treat yo self, Dallas. Tom Haverford Aziz Ansari announced via Twitter this morning that he’ll be bringing his swag to the American Airlines Center September 13. All year, he’s been taking his cheesy smile and well-pressed suits to cities across the U.S. on his “Modern Romance” tour and…
On the heels of a number of dance companies following the theatrical standard of announcing their season’s offerings, fledging company Avant Chamber Ballet is presenting a line-up that promises to keep audience and dancers busy in the coming year. Avant Chamber Ballet is one of the newest ballet companies on…
Playwrights seek inspiration everywhere. Dallas-based writer Jonathan Norton is no exception. The prolific dramatist is constantly on the hunt for a good story, particularly one that strikes a chord with him. For his newest play Mississippi Goddamn, inspiration arrived on a trip to the titular state where he was reminded…
When a new play hits a stage in near-perfect form — like Matt Lyle’s Barbecue Apocalypse, the sizzling comedy headlining as a world premiere at Kitchen Dog Theater’s New Works Fest this month — it can look too easy. Dialogue crackles with originality; the plot veers off in unexpected directions…
