The show is set in New York in the ’50s. The original Broadway production was in 1957. But sitting in the Music Hall at Fair Park last night, I felt sad at how much the heart of West Side Story still rings true today. Sure, you don’t find many gangs…
Theater Caps are bite-sized punch-packing capsule reviews by resident theater critic Elaine Liner. Use them as a reminder — or a teaser, if you procrastinate — of her full-length reviews in The Mixmaster’s weekly sister. If you’re worried about hearing all of Shakespeare’s timeless poetry in an outdoor production of…
Director’s Notes documents, from planning to performance, the challenges of local artist Katie Toohil as she mounts an original, independent theatrical dance production. Well, it’s time for rehearsal! We hold rehearsal in three separate spaces: SPACE – Mixed Arts Collaborative, Tranquilo and Move Studio. First, please allow me a moment…
Theater Caps are bite-sized punch-packing capsule reviews by resident theater critic Elaine Liner. Use them as a reminder — or a teaser, if you procrastinate — of her full-length reviews in The Mixmaster’s weekly sister. We expect nudity in Hair. That’s what made the “tribal love-rock musical” shocking in 1968…
Outdoor theater offers scant opportunity for subtlety, but Dallas Shakespeare’s current Hamlet, performed to audiences perched on parched grass at Samuell-Grand Amphitheatre, is overacted with such scorched-earth intensity, you worry it might spark a wildfire. From his first big speech as Hamlet — “O that this too too solid flesh…
Playwright Sarah Ruhl knows how to construct plays. Focus tightly on a topic — a crime, a scandal, some scurrilous bit of history. Then follow a Law & Order-style template of revelations and crises up to a semi-shocking finale. She does exactly this for In the Next Room, or the…
We’ve seen old Scrooges and fat Scrooges and bearded ones and bald-headed ones. Now for Dallas Theater Center’s annual staging of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, we’ll get to see a tall, good-looking one. And three other lanky chaps in the other major male roles. As Scrooge, it’s Kurt Rhoads,…
Theater Caps are bite-sized punch-packing capsule reviews by resident theater critic Elaine Liner. Use them as a reminder — or a teaser, if you procrastinate — of her full-length reviews in The Mixmaster’s weekly sister. Every season Dallas Theater Center’s artistic director Kevin Moriarty finds a way to soup up…
Starting the fall theater season seeing Shakespeare is like being served a big dose of cod liver oil as an aperitif. The stuff is hard to swallow, but you know it’s supposed to be good for you. You just hope that what comes after is more enjoyable. Dallas Theater Center,…
We’ve been hypnotized and we’ve been to comedy shows, but we’ve never experienced both at one time. That’s what Flip Orley, comic hypnotist, is all about. Orley, who tours packed — like sold-out packed — clubs and other venues (including a corporate event here and there), takes a different approach…
The Age of Aquarius may have become the Age of Activia, but Hair, the anti-war “tribal-rock musical,” somehow stays young. The 44-year-old show opens Tuesday, September 20, for a two-week run at the Winspear Opera House. This production is the latest Broadway incarnation of Hair, directed by Diane Paulus (she…
Theater Caps are bite-sized punch-packing capsule reviews by resident theater critic Elaine Liner. Use them as a reminder — or a teaser, if you procrastinate — of her full-length reviews in The Mixmaster’s weekly sister. A short play starring Marisa Diotalevi and a totally naked man? We’re there. The hilarious…
Theater Caps are bite-sized punch-packing capsule reviews by resident theater critic Elaine Liner. Use them as a reminder — or a teaser, if you procrastinate — of her full-length reviews in The Mixmaster’s weekly sister. A few days before the opening of Gypsy at Lyric Stage, one of the co-stars…
The Office is 10 years old. The first episode aired in the UK in the summer of 2001, assigned a 9:30 p.m. timeslot on a Monday because the BBC thought it was a loser. By the time it debuted on NBC in March 2005, it was anything but. (It returns…
A strong Patti LuPone vibe buzzes through Lyric Stage’s Gypsy, running through September 18 at the Irving Arts Center, and not just because the company purchased all the costumes from the most recent Broadway production, the one that starred LuPone as that mother of all stage mothers, Momma Rose. The…
Here’s the set-up: Long-time laughers, short-time bloggers. We here at the Mixmaster love comedy and from before the launch of this blog we were looking to do a series of Q&As with local comics (stand-up, improv, musical, all of it). But we had to get it right. Finally, we settled…
The votes are in from the Dallas/Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum for the latest round of honors recognizing the best work on local stages big and small. The awards are decided at an annual potluck lunch at critic Martha Heimberg’s Lakewood home, where the critics writing for DFW’s magazines, newspapers…
George C. Scott has been forced to watch the Jack & Jill trailer recently, and now he’s pretty fed up with Rick Perry. Follow the Mixmaster on Twitter and Facebook…
Whatever you had planned for tonight, forget it. Go see The Sunshine Boys at the Eisemann Center in Richardson. If you can’t make it tonight, see it Saturday night at Casa Mañana in Fort Worth. After that, it’s gone, possibly to Broadway (there’s an offer on the table), or maybe…
The Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs and a bunch of Dallas theaters are once again offering free tickets for performances as part of the National Free Night of Theater. Starting today, September 9, enter to win tickets for performances at local theaters in October. Once you’re on the site, you’ll…
Over the past year he’s played Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and a Nazi officer in Cabaret. Now, cast in the lead as Prospero in Shakespeare’s mighty drama The Tempest, actor Chamblee Ferguson steps into the biggest role of his long career at Dallas Theater Center. The Tempest, opening…
Theater Caps are bite-sized punch-packing capsule reviews by resident theater critic Elaine Liner. Use them as a reminder — or a teaser, if you procrastinate — of her full-length reviews in The Mixmaster’s weekly sister. Playwright A.R. Gurney has written more than 40 plays, but it’s a good bet Sylvia…
