The Goodman Theater will present the Chicago premiere of Tracey Scott Wilson’s drama, The Good Negro — which got its world premiere at the Dallas Theater Center in October 2008 – before it opened at New York’s Public Theater last spring. The nine-member cast at the Goodman naturally includes a host of Chicago-area actors — and Billy Eugene Jones (left), the former Dallasite who played the Martin Luther King-ish main character at the DTC.

Did you make it up to New York a few years back to see Spring Awakening? Me neither. And I kinda wish I did – the musical only won eight Tonys in 2007, including best musical.

We can all remedy that this month, though, when the touring version of the show settles in at the Winspear Opera House. If you saw South Pacific there in December, you already know that it’s a great venue to see a musical in.

If you’re itching to see Spring Awakening, we’ve got a pair of tickets to opening night to the first three people who e-mail me (sbecker@kera.org) with the correct answer to this trivia question: Who wrote the music for Spring Awakening?

UPDATE: That was quick – all the tickets are gone.

MUSIC BITS: Fort Worth Weekly has news of a very 817-centric day of music at SXSW called Fort Wizard Grab Bag. The Burning Hotels, Whiskey Folk Ramblers, The Orbans, Fate Lions and many others are on the bill. (fwweekly.com) … DC9 at Night continues its series of posts asking bands from outside of North Texas to weigh in on the scene here. Up this time: Tallahassee’s Mayday Parade. (DC9 at Night) … Mario Tarradell checks in with jazz guitarist and former Brookhaven College teacher Jim Shannon about his return to performing. (dallasnews.com)

ALL EYES ON HAITI: The Dallas Museum of Art’s “Jacob Lawrence: The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture” looks at the American painter and printmaker’s infatuation with the Haitian revolutionary. Also interested in L’Ouverture: author Madison Smartt Bell, the author of both Toussaint Louverture: A Biography and the Haitian revolution novel All Souls Rising. The author spoke with dallasnews.com ahead of his appearance Thursday at Arts & Letters Live.

THE ONION WEIGHS IN: Last week, Jerome pointed you to a Wall Street Journal report that found that during the recession, museum attendance is actually up. That prompted America’s Finest News Source, The Onion, to ask average people on the street (who amazingly have had the same faces for years and years) about the trend. My favorite response came from a woman who said, “”There’s nothing like the isolating bleakness of long-term joblessness to make people finally appreciate Andrew Wyeth.”

Did you miss the Oscar roundtable discussion featuring Chris Vognar, Chris Kelly and Yours Truly today on Think? Or did you tune in for it, and now you just want to replay it over and over and over again?

Well, now you can. Click the audio player below to listen to the entire episode in podcast form:

A few days ago, rehearsals began in New York for Red-Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, starring Kathleen Turner (right) as the late Texas columnist-wit. The one-woman play, written by journalists and twin sisters Margaret and Allison Engel, opens March 19 at the Philadelphia Theatre Company – and is widely seen as a Broadway tryout. In fact, the show is directed by Broadway vet David Esbjornson (Edward Albee’s The Goat), while Dallas’ own Tony Award-winner John Arnone (The Who’s Tommy) is designing the set.

A few years ago, a fire took the old Arcadia Theatre on lower Greenville. And this morning, just up the avenue, a four-alarm fire apparently started in Terilli’s and took out the whole 2800 block of restaurants. These were some of the last, remaining 1930’s storefronts in the area. Terilli’s, the great old Greenville Avenue Bar and Grill, Mick’s and Hurricane Grill are all complete losses. I woke up to four helicopters, fire trucks, billowing smoke — and my neighbor Henley taking this picture.

UPDATE: One thing that might be salvaged from this disaster is the decorative brick facade on Hurricane and Terilli’s — just about the last of their kind in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the buildings had no historic designation so there’s no legal impetus for the owner (a limited liability corporation) to preserve them. But Unfair Park reports that the fire-rescue teams did try to save the facades and that council member Angela Hunt has been making calls to see what can be done.

And more shots from Henley Quadling below the fold — very dramatic, very sad images.

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POETRY IN PRINT: You’ve heard the old adage, “those who can’t do, teach?” Well that’s not the case with University of North Texas creative writing professor Bruce Bond. His poem Blaze was published in the fall 2009 edition of The Southern Review. The journal receives about 15,000 entries and publishes just two percent. The Denton Record-Chronicle caught up with Bond to find out what sets his poetry apart.

RECENT THEATER REVIEWS: Theatre Three debuted its latest farce on Monday night, Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce. Consider Lawson Taitte torn: “A lot of funny actors perform the eight roles, though sometimes it seems they’re in different plays,” he writes in his dallasnews.com review. … Meanwhile, Lawson and Alexandra Bonifield are split on Uptown Players’ Equus. Alexandra calls the sets “visually stunning” and calls the show “genuinely entertaining. Lawson, however, says, “much of the acting is way over the top.” … Mark Lowry’s got one major beef with Level Ground Arts’ musical spoof Cannibal!. “There’s one major element missing: Non-stop chuckles,” he writes in his theaterjones.com review.

PROGRAMMING NOTES: Think all the major Oscar races are wrapped up? That seems to be how a lot of critics feel. But more importantly, how does yours truly feel? Find out today at 1 when I join Fort Worth Star-Telegram Film Critic Chris Kelly and Dallas Morning News Movie Critic Chris Vognar on Think (90.1 FM – but you already knew that). Then later tonight, be sure to set those DVRs for Channel 13 at 10 p.m. That’s when the best documentary of 2009, The Eyes of Me, airs during Independent Lens. The film follows four students over the course of a year at the Texas School for the Blind and was made by Plano director Keith Maitland. It screened at both South by Southwest and the AFI Dallas International Film Festival. Watch a trailer and read my interview with Maitland here.

Getting some calls already on this one  because of the promos that have aired.

You can see the story listed in our front-page “NPR Arts headlines.”  But you won’t be able to hear the story by John Burnett and Wade Goodwyn until — well, now — during All Things Considered.

So here’s the summary from NPR: “There’s a showdown brewing in Texas: between the neighboring cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. They’re not fighting over land, or water, or oil or gas rights; they’re fighting for cultural supremacy. Who’s got the best art museum? Who’s bigger in the music world?”

And does anyone need this?

On Thursday night, a pretty interesting collection of people will come together to discuss the creative process as part of the Brinker International Forum. Participants include actor Bob Balaban, Mandalay Entertainment founder Peter Guber and director Brett Ratner. CNN anchor Campbell Brown will moderate the discussion, which will be held at the Winspear Opera House.

We’ve got a pair of tickets for the first three people who e-mail me (sbecker@kera.org) with “Brinker” in the subject line. On your mark. Get Set. E-MAIL!

. . .  it means an art organization might be able to get a good deal on a new home. After 25 years in the same office/rehearsal space in Fort Worth at 6845 Green Oaks, Texas Ballet Theater is moving to a new home at 1600 Green Oaks Road, right alongside Ridgmar Mall near I-30 and Alta Mere.

“We are fortunate to have found such an amazing facility in Fort Worth to call our new home,” states managing director Margo McCann. “Our new landlord presented us with an incredibly competitive rental rate in combination with a substantial tenant improvement package allowing the Texas Ballet Theater to achieve a move we never thought possible.”

The new facility even includes a studio about the size of the stages at Bass Hall and the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Renovations of the new space will start in a few weeks; the move should happen within four months. The full release is below the fold.

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