Venus in Fur is about sexual domination, but not one person over another. Although, there’s a bit of that too. Rather, David Ives’ play is about BDSM of the soul, the masochism of humanity and the perversion of artistry. It’s about the self-flagellation necessary to bring a play to fruition,…
This week, the cool kids know what’s up. They’re swinging their way into some shows and driving to the drama, to let the good times roll in a theater. All around town, the theaters are getting hip and mounting plays worth a good old heel-kicking happy dance. So, if you…
“Check the dictionary,” I scream at my friend, Annie. The zombie is growling just inches from my feet and the clock is ticking down to the end of the hour. Somewhere in the small, locked room there are clues to open the combination lock that secures the zipper of the…
“This is the pyrotechnics of dance,” says executive director Charles Santos about the upcoming 20th anniversary of the TITAS’ Command Performance Gala. Now, if that doesn’t spark your interest in dance, I don’t know what else can. Pyro-technics, people…
Tommy Davidson will be at the Arlington Improv for a special engagement May 1-4, telling jokes, singing, and fingers crossed — doing his spot-on President Barack Obama impersonation…
There’s a functional way to drag a corpse off a stage and there’s a funny way. The young actors in Fun House Theatre and Film’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead do it the funny way. Every time. Fun House, for theatergoers who haven’t yet discovered its extraordinary shows, is Jeff…
Last week, my sister invited me to be her date to Beauty & the Beast at the Winspear Opera House. I happily obliged, because I’m a sucker for nostalgia. She’s also a member of the press, so we had killer seats in the center of the orchestra section. We purchased…
You may not recognize his face, but if you’ve gone to an opera in Dallas at some point over the last 30 years, you’re likely familiar with the result of his work. Jonathan Pell, The Dallas Opera’s artistic director, has been the company’s resident taste-maker for three decades, making important…
It’s not fair to call the Kids in the Hall’s upcoming show at the Majestic a “reunion.” The troupe and their fans know that fate will always conspire to keep them together. “We’re part of what the Black Crowes call the river,” troupe member Bruce McCulloch said. “We just keep…
Opening night of any show is nerve-wracking. What if someone forgets their lines? Or walks onstage at the wrong cue? What if the lights don’t work or the music won’t play? It can make even the most polished professional feel the urge to nervous puke all over their shoes. Now…
Talking to comedian Doug Stanhope for the first time can be an intimidating experience. It’s not that he’s an angry comic or even an angry person. He’s probably one of the most pleasant, affable comics you’ll ever meet, but he also has a legendary streak of self-loathing that sets the…
The 2014 Fort Worth Opera Festival starts this weekend and you know what that means: time to head to Cowtown and binge-watch opera. Instead of spreading productions out across several months, the Fort Worth Opera presents their entire season in just three, short, drama-packed weeks (April 19 through May 11)…
Hipster, flipsters and finger-poppin’ daddies, it’s time to slip your orbs toward one Lord Buckley. He was a regal cat-daddy, an original, a performer of jazz-infused stand-up drawn from the scribblings of master scribes. Ochre House theater’s own in-house hipster Matthew Posey has penned a new play, and directed it,…
It was a mistake to put a clock on the wall of the set for Gidion’s Knot, the two-character Johnna Adams one-act now running at Kitchen Dog Theater. Set in a schoolroom, the play unfolds in real time, though you’d swear it warps and slows down somewhere in the middle…
A Saturday Night Live cast member who Rolling Stone called the show’s “secret weapon” is on the docket to do a one-night only show at the Addison Improv…
Comedian and actor Todd Barry will be in Dallas April 25 at the Sons of Hermann Hall to promote his Louis C.K.-produced “Todd Barry: The Crowd Work Tour.” It won’t be the typical guy-stands-before-crowd-and-tells-jokes show. Instead, it’s complete improv and his main source of material is you, the audience…
Nocturne begins and ends with death and speaks of little else in between. Don’t let that put you off. The play by Adam Rapp, now running at Second Thought Theatre, announces its mordant theme in the first line uttered by the only character who speaks for nearly two hours. He…
A small show that deserves a bigger audience than it’s getting is Soul of Sam: The Sam Cooke Story, now on at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. Written and directed by Sheran Keyton for her Fort Worth-based DVA Productions, it tells the life story of the 1950s-’60s singer/songwriter known…
A transvestite, an Oscar nominee, a football team, a mother who kills her kids and some Jane Austen. Dallas Theater Center’s 2014-’15 season has all of those, plus Scrooge and a play about a book club called, what else, The Book Club Play. No big family-oriented show, however, unless that’s…
Dallas Theater Center is just hours away from releasing its official announcement of its 2014-’15 season, but we already know this: No Dracula, no Shakespeare…
For my money, Miss Great Plains was robbed. At each performance of Pageant: The Musical, on now at Uptown Players at the Kalita Humphreys Theater, the same six contestants vie to be named Miss Glamouresse. The winner is picked by a panel of judges selected from the audience. Opening night…
“Just so you know, the first act is an hour and a half long,” the attendant warned as she handed me a program for The Dallas Opera’s Sunday matinee performance of The Barber of Seville and directed me to my seat. While I’m sure her comment was meant as a…
