“Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,” wrote William Shakespeare. Easy for him to say. He didn’t have to endure three-hour productions of his works outdoors in a blistering Texas summer. This has been a particularly punishing season so far for Shakespeare Dallas. Getting people through the gates isn’t…
Once upon a time, we were in a high school English class, staring off into space or sleeping during those obligatory Shakespeare lectures. This dead guy has been popular through hundreds of years of English literature, but thou aren’t as witty as he. Lucky for us, Collin College is presenting…
The final show of Second Thought Theatre’s seventh and so far strongest season is Christopher Shinn’s Dying City (reviewed in this week’s paper). The two-actor (Grace Heid, Rhett Henckel), three-character drama was directed by Dallas Theater Center company member Lee Trull, his first time staging a full-fledged production. Trull’s been…
The second season of Louis C.K.’s latest half-hour comedy, Louie, starts up at 9:30 Central tonight on FX. If it’s anything like his stand-up, his first show (Lucky Louis on HBO), or the first season of Louie, it will be a wonderfully and purposefully disjointed driving tour of C.K.’s head…
For most people, Mondays suck, but not for playwright Kristoffer Diaz who got to do triple the celebrating this past Monday. First, The New York Times crowned him as the 2011 New York Times Outstanding Playwright, and then The Public Theater in New York awarded him with the first Gail…
In their shiny bridesmaids’ gowns, the title characters in Contemporary Theatre of Dallas’ fun, frothy comedy Five Women Wearing the Same Dress resemble bright dollops of strawberry sherbet. Plopped on their heads are matching hats, shaped like the top tiers of a wedding cake. Across their bosoms and backsides are…
Last week, The Hand got the finger. The two-man show so good I reviewed it twice is still running through Saturday, June 25, at Broken Gears Project Theatre, but actor Joey Folsom has been replaced by director Andy Baldwin, who now is playing the role of “Poor Man.” Actor Jeff…
Chelsea Handler brought her filthy mouth and other naughty bits to Verizon Theater in Grand Prairie on Saturday. Joining Ms. Handler on the Lies Chelsea Handler Told Me tour were her eponymous show’s regulars — Brad Wollack, Josh Wolf, and Heather McDonald. The flame-haired and bespectacled Wollack opened up the…
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. Say you’re not in the mood for a feel-good musical. Say you’re in the mood…
Our theater critic, Elaine Liner, thought Billy Elliot The Musical was a blast. Set against the backdrop of the 1984 British National Union of Mineworkers strike, the story of a miners’ son who defies his dad by taking ballet lessons and preparing for an audition with a prestigious dance academy…
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. Even if Theatre Three’s production of Pippin were stripped of all the weird gimmicks imposed…
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 the son of a Geordie coal miner can become a ballet dancer, anyone can…
High season for musical theater has arrived. Orchestras are tuning up and audiences are turning up to see a couple of vintage and rarely revived oldies, Oliver! and Pippin, and to get their first looks at two hot-from-Broadway hits, Billy Elliot the Musical and Next to Normal. There may not…
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. Intrigued by the title — Abraham Lincoln’s Big, Gay Dance Party — I booked a…
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. For Shooting Star, the two-person play now running at WaterTower Theatre in Addison, playwright Steven…
A couple of things you’ll likely need for the non-stop improv Megaphone Marathon at the Dallas Comedy House on Saturday: a brain full of suggestions and some sort of cheek cream to soothe your laugh-aching face bones. It’s going to be a shotgun blast of good comedy: 19 acts from…
This may be the week of big-budget musicals in Dallas theaters, but a 45-minute play with a $900 budget might be the hottest show on any stage right now. The Hand, which opened at the tiny Broken Gears Project Theatre last weekend, stars just two actors, Jeff Swearingen and Broken…
The only thing this poster for the Josh Howard Weekend Comedy Show is missing is a couple of strippers twerking their asses out at the camera. Otherwise, it’s perfect. The weekend events are a fundraiser for the Addison-based Josh Howard Foundation, which rewards middle- and high-school students’ scholastic and social-work…
A play using only a pair of actors is often called a two-hander. The Hand, the boffo season finale at Broken Gears Project Theatre, fits the description, though between the two men onstage are just three human hands. The fourth is missing in a tale that packs a powerful, dramatic…
First it was her Fosse-esque dance steps in the “Single Ladies” video. Now the digital effects and dancing for the video of Beyoncé Knowles’ new single “Run the World (Girls)” have some critics and fans buzzing about similarities to other artists’ work. With “Single Ladies” and its wrist-popping, hip-swiveling choreography,…
Saturday night’s Cirque! Anything Goes! event at Edison’s proved to be a very successful fundraiser for TCC. They raised $60,000 plus. (They’re still shy of the $100,000 they need since 60% of their budget is from donations and the Meyerson costs them $10,000 a pop to use.) The place was…
Why you no dance, Dallas? 691 people. That’s all they needed from you, Dallas. So, why you no dance! Let’s back up for a second. What are we talking about? Saturday, at 11 a.m., at the the AT&T Performing Arts Center, the Largest Remote Dance Lesson was to break the…
