2015 unfolded as a stunner of a thespian year, from classics to new work, dynamic paradigm-shifters to re-invigorated audience favorites, ensemble achievements to compelling solo work. Youth to senior artists. And music? Glorious music! Performance art in our region thrives with energy, respect, initiative and genuine variety. Dedicated, impassioned creative people form the backbone … Continue reading
Tagged with lyric stage …
Magnificently Grand: GRAND HOTEL at Lyric Stage
Grand Hotel isn’t just grand. It’s magnificent. Normally discussion of a show’s music jumps first off the page in a review of a work staged by a regional leading musical theatre presenter. In the case of Luther Davis, Robert Wright and George Forrest’s Grand Hotel, with additional music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, running though … Continue reading
Best on the Boards: DFW Theatre Critics Forum 2015
Another year of outstanding D/FW thespian endeavor rolls by. Herein I post the decisions arrived at by the Dallas-Fort Worth Theatre Critics Forum after three hours of deliberation, negotiation, advocacy and munching David Novinski’s delicious gluten-free brownies to finish our potluck meal at Martha’s. I’m stoked by the diversity and quality of performance art in … Continue reading
Diana Sheehan: Enjoying A First-rate Second Act
Diana Sheehan’s blue eyes sparkle with inner warmth, reflecting her confidence, generosity and adventurous spirit. “You sure know how to make a girl feel at home, Dallas,” she exclaims, reflecting on the nearly seven years she has lived here. “How grateful I am for all of the wonderful actors, directors, designers, stage managers, dressers, … Continue reading
Best of 2014 On Stage: the view from Criticalrant
“I operate on the premise that a theatre’s job is to prevent people from leaving their seats before the entertainment is over.” I concur wholeheartedly with Tom Stoppard, who uttered those words in … Continue reading
Finding True Home with Lyric Stage’s “The Golden Apple”
Imagine this : An American Puccini wins a Guggenheim grant and writes an epic American musical score based on Western civilization’s most catalytic Greek myth with a wunderkind “Jules Verne” lyricist in the early 1950’s…. and you have The Golden Apple: exhilarating, stately, saucy, poignant, immersive, seductive, demanding amazing depth, scope and stamina from its … Continue reading
Bite Down: “The Golden Apple” at Lyric Stage
1950’s Broadway audiences backed away from The Golden Apple. It was all Greek, all intimidating Classical Greek, to them, they reasoned, even if it was sung in English. It didn’t follow the era’s conventional format for successful musical theatre. Never mind that the critics praised it highly with almost unanimous voice. Never mind that it … Continue reading
Jason Kane’s Tevye Tradition: On to Lyric Stage!
If you see Jason Kane slap his face while singing “If I Were A Rich Man” in Fiddler on the Roof, he’s not just expressing his character’s emotion. He may be paying tribute to a performance that ignited his love for the theatre twenty-five years ago. Kane plays Tevye in Lyric Stage’s fully orchestrated production … Continue reading
“Blue Roses”: Lyric Stage’s Ethereal Launch
Blue Roses…Blue roses. Whisper the words aloud and imagine what those roses might look like. Fragile, haunting, tragic, illusory? When lyricist Mimi Turque plucked the words out of Tennessee William’s drama “The Glass Menagerie” to form the title of the adaptation she wrote with composer Nancy Ford, she hoped their collaborative endeavor would capture the … Continue reading
DFW Theatre Critics’ Forum Awards: 2013
Critics’ Forum Awards in 2013: a testament to the diverse, dynamic thespian output produced in our North Texas region, from originals to Classics, contemporary and edgy to the beloved, tried-and-true. In 2013 a youth theatre program figures prominently in the honors, and a 12-year-old member of its dedicated ensemble earns recognition for giving one of … Continue reading
