There are ghosties in the treezies all over town. Halloween yard decorations are adding spookily Goth touches to lawns, especially in Highland Park, where not a few elegant mansions are under attack by giant spiders and haunted by specters dangling from tree limbs or dancing in circles by the driveway…
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. Thanks to some fine acting, the dry civics class taught by Jon Marans’ play 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. To see the next generation of hot theater artists in Dallas, try to catch one…
What would an Uptown Players production be without a naked man in it? Its core audience, gay middle-aged men who flock to Uptown’s gay-themed musicals and plays, seems to appreciate it. And really, who doesn’t? More nudes is good news. The actor in the altogether in The Temperamentals is Gregory…
Back in the 1960s, there was a Milton Bradley board game called Mystery Date. Advertised during Saturday morning cartoons with a nifty jingle — “Open the doooooor for yooooour mystery date” — it was aimed at girls age 6 to 14. The game went like this: You took turns picking…
We take the State Fair of Texas for granted. Every fall it comes around, preceded by a few fluffy TV news pieces and food blogger posts about the latest fried snacks to bubble up from the grease. This year it’s fried bubblegum that people are chewing on (it’s actually bubble-gum-flavored…
For Spring Awakening to work its magic, it needs young performers who look hot, sing hotter and radiate sexuality with the heat of a thousand suns. At Addison’s WaterTower Theatre, where the first local production of the Tony-winning musical is now running, the temperature’s rising. It’s exciting to see this…
The new musical version of Edna Ferber’s Giant, about a mid-century West Texas oil-and-ranch family, won’t open at Dallas Theater Center until January. But to prime the pump, the theater, ATTPAC and the Dallas Film Society are hosting a free screening of the 1956 epic movie of the same name…
In a big cast of hot young actors, two of the stars of WaterTower Theatre’s current production of Spring Awakening are sizzling standouts: Adam Garst, a 2010 Baylor theater grad in only his second role on a local stage, and Kayla Carlyle, who’s been acting and singing professionally in Dallas…
If there’s anyone we’d like to see be funny for a continuous 48 hours, it’s Dallas actor and improv comic Jeff Swearingen. He’s a funny guy on and off a stage, but especially on. And starting at 8 p.m., Friday, October 7, he’s going to try to be funny and…
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…
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…
“Life begins here.” That’s the current advertising slogan for a famous product many of us reach for every day. Can you guess which one? Take 10 seconds. Ready, go. Time’s up. It’s Coca Cola, the No. 1 soft drink in the world. Tens of millions were spent with competing ad…
At the Fashionistas event the other night at the Trinity River Audubon Center, the buzz wasn’t about the clothes on the runway. It was about the blond in the audience rocking a sparkly tube-dress and motorcycle mukluks. Is this a look now? Sequined mini cocktail frock with ugly strapped footwear?…
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,…
Oh, no, not that again. But there she is, actress Michelle Williams on the cover of the October Vogue, trussed into a white gown and done up as Marilyn Monroe for an Annie Leibovitz photo shoot. Williams, from Dawson’s Creek to now, is a good little actress. But dressing her…
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…
