Dirty Dancing

No, Forbidden Broadway Dances with the Stars isn’t a production about the many terrible things you can do with the prosthetic leg of a certain Beatle’s ex-wife. But it is naughty. Culminating from all the Broadway musicals that will never leave your inner sanctum, this production knows no bounds, shows…

Aidan Goes Country

If you’re a Sex & the City fan, a Northern Exposure fan or a United States of Tara fan, we’ve got some great news for you. John Corbett, the actor known for his rugged, romantic everyman roles, is coming to a stage near you, Dallas. But don’t expect him to…

Use Your Illusion

One of the more buzzed about competitions in the 2011 Oscar race was the Best Animated Feature showdown between How to Train Your Dragon, Toy Story 3 and a quaint little French film by Sylvain Chomet, the man behind 2003’s The Triplets of Belleville. The Illusionist, definitely not to be…

Night of Noir

To the casual first-time viewer, The Maltese Falcon’s plot — loaded with red herrings, rabbit trails and double crosses — must seem dizzying. But, as Roger Ebert writes in his book The Great Movies: “the plot is the last thing you think of about The Maltese Falcon.” Rather, it’s the…

The British One

This Saturday, John Oliver — sometimes cast member of NBC’s Community and beloved Daily Show correspondent — will appear at the House of Blues, and probably perform a stand-up routine of some kind. We say probably, because rumor has it that John Oliver loves American football, but hates the Dallas…

D ‘Em Up

Sure, you could watch a basketball game at home on your HD TV while sitting on your brand new leather sofa and drinking your imported European beers. But maybe you’re like us, and you’re poor. Maybe you’re even a fan of D-League teams like the Texas Legends, who hardly ever…

A Good Dirking

The interminable gap between All-Star Weekend and the Western Conference playoffs must be a hellish version of Groundhog Day for Mark Cuban, watching his Mavericks fumble year after year as the Lakers (or Spurs) head to the Finals for yet another shot at yet another title. Zen master Phil Jackson…

Who’s Tommy?

If you’ve seen the classic movie, Goodfellas, you should already know that Tommy don’t shine shoes anymore. But that’s Tommy DeVito, and we’re here to talk about Tommy Tune, the timeless dancer, singer and choreographer. He’s won nine Tony awards, so please, don’t ask him to go home and get…

Home Ec., Circa 1860

Spring break is supposed to be a break from the rigors of education, but if your kids go to DISD schools, that education probably isn’t too rigorous, mounds of rote homework notwithstanding. And with the budget crisis the district faces, the value of that education looks like it could plummet…

Moving Pictures

Nothing says love like reeling through the musings of the family table. The pokes, the prods and incessant meanderings about how things were “way back when” are enough to drive anyone back to the kids’ table. But despite all the annoyances, our family is ultimately what brings focus to our…

Locally Crafted

Regardless of what you may think, “Hecho en Mexico” is not the brand name of the 3-foot-wide sombrero you bought during a cruise to Cabo San Lucas last spring (Read: Made in Mexico). So before you write-in to Ask a Mexican to find out what Hecho en Dallas means, do…

Kicking Off Foote

When it comes to playwrights, few are bigger and better than Texas-born Horton Foote. Foote won all the big awards — two Oscars, an Emmy, a Writers Guild of America Screen Award, a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and a National Medal of Arts — and he was known for such…

Marwencol: A Self-Help Project Becomes Moving Outsider Art.

Exactly the sort of mysterious and almost holy experience you hope to get from documentaries but rarely do, Jeff Malmberg’s Marwencol is something like a homegrown slice of Herzog oddness, complete with true-crime backfill and juicy metafictive upshot. It begins with context: In 2000, Mark Hogancamp, an Upstate New York…

The Adjustment Bureau: Time to Rejigger Your Expectations

In Bourne Ultimatum screenwriter George Nolfi’s directorial debut The Adjustment Bureau (an extremely loose adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s 1954 short story “Adjustment Team”), Matt Damon plays David Norris, a Brooklyn-born, bar-fight-prone congressman rocketing to the front of a Senate race apparently on the strength of his charisma and the…

Snap-On Stage Success

Think plastic is fantastic? If you’re a fan of Tupperware, the popular line of plastic storage containers and serving pieces, you’ve probably attended one of those legendary Tupperware parties and bought your fair share of pastel cake carriers and bowls with snap-on lids. Tupperware is still cool, and now you’re…

Celebrating a Century

Ebby Halliday has become an institution as synonymous with the state of Texas as the State Fair itself…or even the Dallas Cowboys. In your mind, you are probably picturing the inimitable script used as her real estate logo, because if you have lived in the Lone Star State for even…

Raw Brings the Rasslin’

If you were a child of the ’80s, you might have spent some time watching men in tights on your tube television. You don’t have to be ashamed to admit a childhood fascination with wrestling stars Hulk Hogan, Jake “The Snake” Roberts or Randy “Macho Man” Savage. These muscular, excessively…

Come Into the Room

Dr. Seuss, king of kids books, had the formula down. Pair cute creatures with a couple of bad-ass rhymes, and boom: instant gold. It can’t be that hard, right? Here goes: Seuss is a pimp/ He ain’t no wimp/ That green eggs and ham/ Much better than Spam. Word. If…

Barks on Parade

Whether they’re tall and fluffy or short and stubby, they make your heart melt into a puddle of goo. From goldens to pugs to labradors to ones with mean mugs, yes sir, dogs are a man’s best friend. And what better way to show your furry friend how much you…

Taste of Today

There aren’t too many ways to get a bunch of people together these days. School, work and life in general can make it almost impossible to go out on the town without feeling a little guilty about the growing to-do list at home. This year’s Raiser Grazer, Dames in the…