2020 ushers in my fifteen-year mark of writing theatre critique, advocacy and arts features in the Texas/Oklahoma region. How tempus does fugit. I saw an array of well wrought, engaging productions throughout the year. The endeavors of young, adventuresome artists encourage me to think that the region has enormous growth potential. Small companies with strict … Continue reading
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
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
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’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
“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
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
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
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…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
