Dallas-Fort Worth Entertainment Columnist Lawson Taitte | News for Dallas, Texas

03/06/2010

Theater review: Out of the Loop fest's 'My First Time,' 'Power Lunch' and 'I Sing!' share focus on sex - and great acting
ADDISON – Maybe theater audiences are graying. But the people who put on theater, especially in smaller venues, are mostly young. And a lot of the shows they put on are about sex, sex and sex. The three shows I saw at WaterTower Theatre's Out of the Loop Fringe Festival on Saturday prove the point.

Classical CD Review: Schönberg Orchestral Works, Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn, Blunier

03/05/2010

Theater review: Dallas Theater Center delivers humanity and heartbreak in 'The Shape of Things'
People do insufferable things in Neil LaBute plays. What keeps the works from becoming inhuman is the quality of the suffering you feel in the victims.

03/04/2010

Circus comes to town at Out of the Loop fest
ADDISON – WaterTower Theatre's Out of the Loop Fringe Festival is like a three-ring circus – with simultaneous events in a trio of spaces at every show time. Appropriately, the main event at Thursday's opening was a performance piece about P.T. Barnum.

03/03/2010

WaterTower's Out of the Loop fest opens with some promising components

Chris Bennion

Monologuist Mike Daisey brings his solo act to the festival this weekend.

WaterTower Theatre's annual Out of the Loop Fringe Festival always seems to provide something racy and something tacky, something memorable and something you really want to forget. It really is the closest thing we have to a genuine fringe event – and it may well drive you loopy, as the T-shirts loudly proclaim.
Link: WaterTower Theatre's Web site

03/01/2010

Theater review: Broad comedy in Theatre Three's 'Bedroom Farce' brings mixed results
You expect a bedroom farce to be about sex. Bedroom Farce takes place entirely on or near a series of beds. The joke is that sex is almost the only thing that doesn't happen on any of them.

Actress Connie Nelson back in Dallas for play revival - 30 years later

Amy Gutierrez/Special Contributor

Connie Nelson, returns to Dallas to perform in Theatre Three's Three Bedroom Farce, a show she performed in 30 years ago.

Connie Nelson is acting beside herself. It's a phenomenon that occurs more frequently with dancers: Performing a different part in a show you've done before – and it sometimes produces an eerie sense of déjà vu or split personality.
Event details: 'Bedroom Farce' at Theatre Three
Theater review: Broad comedy in Theatre Three's 'Bedroom Farce' brings mixed results

02/28/2010

Theater review: Level Ground Arts' 'Cannibal! The Musical' is all about the laughs

NAN COULTER/Special Contributor

Zac Ramsey, as Alferd Packer, and Tyler Wilson, as Frenchy, perform in the Level Ground Arts presentation of Cannibal! The Musical.

Wear a raincoat to Cannibal! The Musical or risk a big cleaning bill from all the blood spatter. You'll never sit through a sillier, or messier, evening of mayhem.
Event details: 'Cannibal! The Musical' at Dallas Hub Theater

02/27/2010

Theater review: Acting in Uptown Players' 'Equus' is over the top
Uptown Players' Equus works hard at bringing to life playwright Peter Shaffer's musings about pagan gods and the passions they awake. Way too hard.

02/26/2010

DTC's Neil LaBute triple bill opens Wyly's Studio Theatre

Courtesy photo

Abbey Siegworth as Evelyn, right, and Steven Walters as Adam perform in The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute at Dallas' Wyly Theatre.

As the last step in unveiling the Arts District’s Wyly Theatre, the Dallas Theater Center needed to inaugurate the tiny Studio Theatre on the sixth floor. Characteristically, artistic director Kevin Moriarty wanted to make the opening noteworthy.
Last chance: See Cosi Fan Tutte at Winspear Opera House
Weekend editor picks: arts | theater

02/25/2010

Classical CD Review: Bach Goldberg Variations by Matthew Halls

02/23/2010

Classical CD review: Avner Dorman concertos

02/21/2010

Theater review: 'Copenhagen,' 'Opus' show that a dash of pretentiousness can be good for you

Courtesy

(Top) Copenhagen actors Jerry Russell and Chamblee Ferguson; (bottom) Opus actors Mark Shum and Meg Bauman

Pretentiousness is a relative thing. Two plays currently on the boards in Fort Worth sound highfalutin enough. Copenhagen at Stage West portrays two of the greatest scientists of the 20th century arguing over quantum mechanics and moral philosophy. Opus at Circle Theatre deals with interpersonal struggles between the members of a famous (fictional) string quartet. High culture just doesn't get any loftier than nuclear physics or chamber music.
Event details: 'Copenhagen' at Stage West
Event details: 'Opus' at Circle Theatre

02/19/2010

Theater review: African American Rep's 'Having Our Say' brings outspoken centenarians' story to stage

Rex C. Curry/Special Contributor

Irma P. Hall and Selma Pinkard perform a scene from Having Our Say at the DeSoto Corner Theatre

What's better than the company of a charming lady? The company of two charming ladies. Even if they're each over 100 years old. African American Repertory Theater's production of Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, reviewed Friday, features two of the most winning actresses in North Texas, Irma P. Hall and Selma Pinkard. This pair could put silly grins on the stone faces of Mount Rushmore.
Event details: 'Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years' DeSoto Corner Theatre

02/18/2010

Theater review: Fine performances guide Echo Theatre's talky 'End Days'

Ron Heflin/Special Contributor

T.A. Taylor (left) and John Dana Kenning in a scene from End Days

In End Days, the members of the Stein family get by with a little help from their friends. Mostly imaginary ones. Rhonda Blair directed Deborah Zoe Laufer's play, reviewed Thursday, for Echo Theatre. A couple of Dallas' top actors share the stage with two Southern Methodist University students who keep up with them all the way, and then some.
Event details: 'End Days' at Bath House Cultural Center
Story: Jeffrey Schmidt keeps busy designing theater sets, acting and directing

02/17/2010

Jeffrey Schmidt keeps busy designing theater sets, acting and directing

Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer

Set designer Jeffrey Schmidt on the set he designed for Echo Theatre's End Days, which is showing at the Bath House Cultural Center. At the play's intermission the audience seating arrangement will be moved along with the set.

Jeffrey Schmidt has compiled a sensational record in area theaters over the last year. He says it's all because of the recession. Schmidt, 36, has been active on the Dallas theater scene since college. Most years, though, Schmidt earns the greatest part of his income on-screen – a small role in the new TV series The Deep End recently, commercials, voice-overs, even industrial work.
Event details: 'End Days' at Bath House Cultural Center

02/14/2010

Classical CD review: Bartok, '44 Duos for Two Violins'

02/13/2010

Theater review: Contemporary Theatre's 'Sisters Rosensweig' blends comedy and weighty themes
Contemporary Theatre of Dallas was founded on the premise that female actors should get more great roles. With The Sisters Rosensweig, mission accomplished.

02/14/2010

Theater review: Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's 'Boom' at Kitchen Dog Theater is good, weird fun
Valentine's weekend seems as good a time as any to introduce a weirdly romantic comedy about evolutionary biology featuring the world's most unlikely couple.

02/06/2010

Teatro Dallas reaches across the globe for 14th International Theater Festival
Unsurprisingly, Dallas' most cosmopolitan theater artist produces one of its most cosmopolitan artistic events. Cora Cardona put together Teatro Dallas' 14th International Theater Festival, which opens tonight at the Latino Cultural Center.

02/08/2010

Theater review: 'From the Mississippi Delta' offers an earthy exploration of a difficult past

Buddy Myers

Charlet Dupar, Yolanda Davis and Evette Perry Buchanan appear in From the Mississippi Delta, presented by Jubilee Theatre.

From the Mississippi Delta is a model of how to turn the most serious matters into entertaining theater. In 1997, Endesha Ida Mae Holland wrote a memoir about growing up in difficult circumstances before becoming a Civil Rights worker, then an acclaimed author and professor. She experimented by performing an adaptation herself, then turned it into a play for three virtuoso actresses. That's the show Jubilee Theatre opened Friday.
Event details: 'From the Mississippi Delta' at Jubilee Theatre

02/04/2010

Theater review: 'Danny and the Deep Blue Sea' a magnificent match for Broken Gears' small company
Maybe it's the Pulitzer and all the other prizes that Doubt won, but John Patrick Shanley is starting to look like one of the major American playwrights.

01/29/2010

Theater review: Lyric Stage in Irving offers a restored 'Show Boat'

MONA REEDER/Staff Photographer

Lyric Stage's concert version of Show Boat

Lawson Taitte: Audiences at Lyric Stage's concert version of Show Boat have a glorious opportunity to hear the first – and in some ways still the greatest – American musical drama in a more complete form even than the 1927 Broadway premiere.
Event details: 'Show Boat' at Irving Arts Center

01/27/2010

Theater review: 'Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps'

Craig Schwartz

Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps is so popular that the show is touring in 22 countries, and an off-Broadway run is in the works.

Full disclosure: I have an allergy to British whimsy.

'Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps,' which the Dallas Summer Musicals brought to the Majestic Theatre on Tuesday, had the audience around me laughing. But I sat there wondering why everybody was sitting for two hours watching bad acting.
Event details: 'Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps' at Majestic Theatre

After a tough start in life, Keron Jackson has found his voice
IRVING – In his early 20s, Keron Jackson was living in his car. Now he's living his dream.

01/26/2010

Dallas Summer Musicals brings in witty 'Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps'

Craig Schwartz

Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps is so popular that the show is touring in 22 countries, and an off-Broadway run is in the works.

A pair of British actors had the idea for a two-person version of John Buchan's novel The Thirty-Nine Steps and asked Patrick Barlow, of England's National Theatre of Brent, who had done two-man theatrical mini-epics on the Zulu wars, the romance of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, and even the Bible. Barlow decided he'd rather rewrite it and base the script on the film version. That's how Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps came to be.
Event details: 'Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps' at Majestic Theatre

01/24/2010

Beane juggles plays opening in Dallas, New York and London
Douglas Carter Beane is the busiest playwright in America right now.

01/23/2010

Playwright Peter Nachtrieb known for his strong content
Until recently, even the most ardent Dallas theater fans had probably never heard of Peter Sinn Nachtrieb. But Second Thought Theatre is performing the San Francisco playwright's Hunter Gatherers . Right after it closes, Kitchen Dog Theater will open his Boom .

Theater review: Dallas Theater Center's 'Give It Up!' hilariously raises bar for musicals

Brandon Thibodeaux

Katie Boren, Patti Murin, Andrew Rannells and Carla Duren appear in Give It Up!, presented by Dallas Theater Center.

Lawson Taitte: Give It Up! OMG! Text all your BFFs and pass on the news. The new musical that had its world premiere at the Dallas Theater Center on Friday is hot, hot, hot.
Event details: 'Give it Up!' at Wyly Theatre
Story: Douglas Carter Beane juggles plays opening in Dallas, New York and London
Guide to the AT&T Performing Arts Center

01/22/2010

Theater review: 'Ban the Tal' by Project X: Theatre offers lessons on Afghanistan, Taliban

John F. Rhodes/DMN Staff

Dancers Tawanda; Anna Marie Ewert-Pittman and Jennifer Mabus dance in a sandbox in Project X: Theatre's production of " Ban the Tal"

Pakistan-born artist and actor Maryam Baig Lush decided she wanted to learn more about the Taliban and the other groups warring in next-door Afghanistan, so she did some research. Eventually the process morphed into a multimedia performance piece, presented by Project X: Theatre and seen at the final rehearsal on Wednesday.
Blog: Arts

01/20/2010

Theater review: Forced glee at odds with grim material in 'The Color Purple'
It's possible to write a good musical about spousal abuse, incest, rape and murder. It's harder to write a good-time musical about such things.

01/17/2010

Theater review: WaterTower Theatre offers plenty of chuckles in 'Laughter on the 23rd Floor'

MATT NAGER/Special Contributor

Brian Gonzales stars as Max Prince, Ted Wold stars as Ira Stone and Brandy McClendon stars as Helen.

Lawson Taitte: Before Neil Simon became America's most popular playwright, he wrote jokes for Sid Caesar's classic TV show in the early '50s. His comedy about that experience, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, is one of the most affectionate memory plays ever. Also one of the funniest.
Event details: 'Laughter on the 23rd Floor' at WaterTower Theatre

Theater innovator Fred Curchack's legacy of inspiration
As the title character in Milarepa , currently at the Bath House Cultural Center, Fred Curchack evolves from becoming a disciple to training disciples. He can relate: His former students are some of the most creative people in Dallas theater.

Theater review: Uptown Players' 'Legally Divas' revue is anything but a drag
Broadway Our Way: Legally Divas features Liza Minnelli onstage at the Kalita Humphreys Theater. Two Lizas, actually. And one doesn't seem very happy about it.

01/15/2010

Theater review: 'Milarepa' a divine experience at Dallas' Bath House Cultural Center
The recipe for becoming a saint: First, kill 35 people through black magic. At least that's the beginning of the story in Milarepa, the third installment of Fred Curchack and Laura Jorgensen's Great Eastern Sun Trilogy.

01/14/2010

Theater review: Second Thought Theatre's 'Hunter Gatherers' a bit too broadly outrageous

Jason Janik/Special Contributor

Gregory Lush and Lydia Mackay perform a scene from Hunter Gatherers in Addison.

Lawson Taitte: Edward Albee ended one of his most outrageous plays with an animal sacrifice. Peter Sinn Nachtrieb begins Hunter Gatherers with one, and the play gets wilder and raunchier from there. I'm not sure this is cultural progress.
Event details: 'Hunter Gatherers' at Addison Theatre Centre Studio Space

Theater review: 'August: Osage County' at Winspear Opera House proves itself worthy of all the honors

SONYA N. HEBERT/Staff Photographer

Photo taken during the opening night performance of the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, August: Osage County, at the Winspear Opera House

They don't usually give Pulitzer Prizes for comedy. Maybe that's why Tracy Letts put every known family dysfunction into August: Osage County. Certainly incessant, if bitter, laughter is what you remember most about the 2008 Pulitzer drama, which the Lexus Broadway Series brought to the Winspear Opera House on Tuesday.
Event details: 'August: Osage County' at Winspear Opera House
Story: 'August' role suits star stand-in Estelle Parsons just fine
Guide to the AT&T Performing Arts Center

01/13/2010

Veteran actress Connie Coit adds another layer with 'Amy's View'

SONYA N. HEBERT/Staff Photographer

Connie Coit

Connie Coit might seem typecast in David Hare's Amy's View. Like Esme, the role she's playing at Theatre Three, she's a lifelong actress, a widow and the mother of an adult child. Unlike Esme, though, she doesn't live in a fantasy world in which she blocks off unpleasant truths.
Event details: 'Amy's View' at Theatre Three
Lawson Taitte's review: Theatre Three's production of 'Amy's View' proves to be rewarding

01/10/2010

'August' role suits star stand-in Estelle Parsons just fine

Robert J. Saferstein

From left: Shannon Cochran, Jeff Still and Estelle Parsons appear in August: Osage County.

Estelle Parsons won an Oscar for Bonnie and Clyde and has been a Broadway star for decades. But she's probably known best to the public as Beverly, the title character's annoying mother on Roseanne. You might be surprised which group of fans she found to have the least class and consideration.
Event details: 'August: Osage County' at Winspear Opera House
Guide to the AT&T Performing Arts Center

Classical CD reviews: Elgar and Italian composers

01/08/2010

Theater review: 'Death Express!' at Eisemann Center is over-the-top, well-designed fun

NATHAN HUNSINGER/Staff Photographer

Ben Bryant plays Nigel Grouse, A. Ramond Banda plays Lt. Foster and Kurt Kleinmann plays Harry Hunsacker in Death Express! at Eisemann Center.

Harry Hunsacker's back, dumber and funnier than ever. Pegasus Theatre has brought its black-and-white comedy-mysteries to the Eisemann Center. These shows are by Kurt Kleinmann, for Kurt Kleinmann and with Kurt Kleinmann. This time he has substantially revised an earlier script, Death Express!, reviewed Thursday.
Event details: 'Death Express!' at Eisemann Center