Theater Preview

These are the 13 can't-miss shows in Dallas-Fort Worth theater for April

Just like 2016 brought you an extra day we're giving you an extra show this month, a baker's dozen of plays and musicals you should really just buy your tickets to already. They run the gamut from dark and existential to goofy and easy to sing along to, but these shows all personify the variety of theater available in Dallas.

Here's are the 13 shows in order by start date:

Temple Spirit
Echo Theatre, March 31-April 16
A world premiere recently developed in Chicago, this ghost story involves demons and Japanese folk legends. It continues Echo's mission to produce plays written by women (Susan Felder, in this case) and also travels to a new venue: The Creative Arts building at Fair Park, a place that's normally only used during the fair.

End of the Rainbow
Uptown Players, April 1-17
Janelle Lutz practically stole the show two summers ago in Uptown's The Boy From Oz with her cameo as Judy Garland. Now audiences can have more than two hours of Lutz as Judy in this dark yet hilarious play with music about the legendary entertainer near the end of her troubled life. And Lutz doesn't just channel Garland's signature singing style — she improves upon it, making the big numbers even more exciting.

Ghost Quartet
Off-Broadway on Flora, April 7-9
Dave Malloy's Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 may be prepping for its Broadway debut this fall with Josh Groban, but Dallasites can hear the composer's offbeat music in this chamber musical about death and drinking. It's not as depressing as it sounds, but definitely don't go in to the immersive show looking for a rollicking good time.

Topdog/Underdog
Soul Rep Theatre Company, April 7-17
Suzan-Lori Parks scored the Pulitzer Prize for drama nearly 15 years ago with this work, which examines for two brothers what it's like to be male and African American.

Jonah
Undermain Theatre, April 13-May 7
Len Jenkin returns to his beloved Undermain, which has produced five of his previous world premieres. This time we're following the titular character as he skips across the world, meeting fascinating characters along the way.

[title of show]
The Firehouse Theatre, April 15-May 1
Talk about meta. The four-person show-that-could began as a joke, when the writers were trying to meet the deadline for a musical theater festival. The resulting work about the road to creation, which is littered with ego, crippling self-doubt, and friendship, ended up playing Broadway and now it lives again in Carrollton with a stellar cast.

Show Boat
Dallas Opera, April 15, 17, 20, 23, 29 and May 1
This is the musical that changed musicals, making them the plot-driven experience we know today. Dallas Opera's version promises to be big and lush, bringing in talent from all over the world to sing iconic songs such as "Old Man River" and "Why Do I Love You."

The Big Meal
WaterTower Theatre, April 15-May 8
Family stories usually happen around the dinner table, and playwright Dan LeFranc uses that conceit as the setting for his play. We see two people meet as a suburban restaurant, fall in love, build a family, and say goodbye, all throughout one meal.

The Great God Pan
Second Thought Theatre, April 20-May 14
After giving us the haunting Belleville last season, Second Thought revisits Amy Herzog and her penchant for seemingly happy yuppies who are really anything but. Drew Wall returns here, joined by STT artistic director Alex Organ and Natalie Young.

Wicked
Dallas Summer Musicals, April 20-May 22
You can't defy this one — the blockbuster musical flies back into Dallas again, bringing with it the powerhouse score by Stephen Schwartz and more than a few flying monkeys. The backstory to Glinda the Good and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, is still just as captivating as it was when the show premiered on Broadway more than a decade ago.

Animal vs. Machine
PrismCo., April 23
The dancers and movers over at PrismCo. are always looking for a new way to wordlessly tell a story, and this time that involves MMA fighting. Two female mixed martial artists will duke it out over three rounds for dominance in the ring, all without speaking.

Deferred Action
Dallas Theater Center/Cara Mia Theatre Co., April 29-May 14
It was big news when Cara Mia announced its collaboration with Dallas Theater Center on the next installment of the "Dreamers" series. These powerful plays are shedding light on the reception immigrants receive when entering and living in America, focusing here on one man's experience as he grows up undocumented. Resident actors from both companies populate the cast list, with Ivan Jasso starring.

Morphing
Ochre House, April 30-May 21
If you missed it five years ago, get yourself to Deep Ellum this time for Matthew Posey's unique take on Long Day's Journey Into Night. As with everything Ochre House does, it's weird and wonderful, and something you definitely can't see anywhere else.

Drew Wall, Alex Organ, and Natalie Young in The Great God Pan at Second Thought Theatre.

Second Thought Theatre presents The Great God Pan

Photo courtesy of Second Thought Theatre

Drew Wall, Alex Organ, and Natalie Young in The Great God Pan at Second Thought Theatre.

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Mall Art News

Hammering Men return to NorthPark Center Dallas after 4-year nap

NorthPark Center

Hammering Men, 1982

A signature sculpture at Dallas' NorthPark Center has returned to its stomping grounds: Five Hammering Men, 1982, a series by American artist Jonathan Borofsky, has returned to the mall following a four-year absence, which they describe as "a period of rest" to conribute to its longevity and lifespan, according to a release.

Borofsky began his Hammering Men series in 1979; it became one of his best-known bodies of work with installations in Basel, Frankfurt, Los Angeles, Seattle, Seoul, and Dallas.

The piece can now be found in its original location in SouthCourt, located on Level One between Neiman Marcus and Dillard’s, their motorized arms slowly moving in a hammer-like gesture.

“My original concept was to have many Hammering Men, all hammering at different locations around the world – all at the same time – sort of a worldwide installation connecting us all together,” said Borofsky in his artist statement on the series.

When he was 25, Borofsky started counting for three hours a day, meticulously writing numbers in his sketchbook, convinced that this meditative process would reveal an underlying truth about the human spirit. He eventually began signing his works with numbers instead of his name — which can be found on the feet of the Five Hammering Men.

The installation was removed in 2021 for this period of rest and restoration, the details of which — who did it, where they were stored — NorthPark Center does not reveal. However, NorthPark did post a video of the re-installation on Instagram.

For its 20th anniversary in 1985, NorthPark corralled “A Celebration of Contemporary Art” — an exhibition of 33 works by 24 artists — many never seen in Dallas before, and the first time Five Hammering Men was shown in the U.S.

NorthPark Center developer Raymond D. Nasher said in a statement at the time that it was their goal to give NorthPark an artistic dimension, confirming it as more than a commercial entity and abetting Dallas' dream to become an international place.

That 1985 exhibition included these other works of art, still on view at NorthPark:

Barry Flanagan’s Large Leaping Hare, 1982
Antony Gormley’s Three Places, 1983
Roy Lichtenstein’s Double Glass, 1976,
Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure: Angles, 1979.

Additional works by Borofsky have been displayed at NorthPark throughout the years, and a larger, singular Hammering Man, 1984-85, from the Nasher Sculpture Center, is currently on view outside of Neiman Marcus off Boedeker Street.

NorthPark will celebrate its 60th anniversary this year, and this installation — which is from the Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Collection — the first of several exciting additions to celebrate this milestone.

"Five Hammering Men has been a favorite landmark at NorthPark Center for 40 years, catching the imagination of shoppers of all ages throughout the decades," NorthPark Development Company president Nancy A. Nasher says in a satement. "Bringing this iconic series by Jonathan Borofsky back to NorthPark is aligned with our mission to make museum-quality art accessible to the public and a wonderful way to celebrate our 60th anniversary."

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