With world-class theater venues at their disposal, it makes sense that Dallas Summer Musicals and Performing Arts Fort Worth would team up to bring bigger and better shows to the area. Their respective 2014-2015 seasons do just that, while each maintaining their own identities.
The two organizations will each stage the first national tours of four different shows — Kinky Boots, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, Dirty Dancing and Pippin — with all but Kinky Boots transferring directly from Music Hall at Fair Park to Bass Performance Hall.
Each group will start its season with a little holiday flair, with Performing Arts FW hosting the Dallas-Fort Worth premiere of Elf the Musical November 18-23, 2014, while DSM's season will kick off with the musical adaptation of everybody's favorite holiday film, A Christmas Story, running December 2-14, 2014.
DSM's late winter show will be Kinky Boots, which will make its way to Fort Worth in October.
Performing Arts FW will put on a couple of productions before DSM gets started again in 2015. Disney's Beauty and the Beast, which played at Winspear Opera House in April, will be a special add-on show, running January 14-18.
They've also nabbed Once, the 2012 Tony winner for Best Musical, running February 18-22, about two months after it plays at the Winspear as part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center 2014-2015 Broadway season.
DSM's late winter show will be Kinky Boots, which won the 2013 Tony for Best Musical. It will play February 24-March 8 in Dallas, travel elsewhere for almost eight months and finally make its way back to Fort Worth October 27-November 1.
DSM's next show, Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I, running March 20-April 5, will be unique in that DSM is producing its own version of the show, just as they did with The Little Mermaid earlier in 2014. In so doing, they will be able to take more ownership of the show.
Performing Arts FW will stage a brief production of Chicago on April 3-4 as another non-season show, while DSM will move directly from The King and I to The Illusionists, running April 7-19, a magic show that features seven of the best illusionists the world has to offer.
Summer 2015 will be the season of sharing: Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella comes to DSM June 9-21 before going to Performing Arts FW June 23-28; Dirty Dancing stays in Dallas June 23-July 5 before moving to Fort Worth July 7-12; and Pippin, which won the 2013 Tony for Best Musical Revival, runs July 7-19 at the Music Hall and July 21-26 at the Bass.
Performing Arts FW will also stage two add-on shows in the smaller McDavid Studio at Bass Performance Hall: the return of Dixie's Tupperware Party, running April 8-19, 2015; and Robert Dubac's The Male Intellect: An Oxymoron?, May 27-31.
Season tickets for both Dallas Summer Musicals, which run $140-$775, and Performing Arts Fort Worth, which start at $226.60, are now on sale through their respective websites. Individual tickets will go on sale at to-be-determined future dates closer to each show.
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella will bring a little romance to DSM and PAFW's seasons in June 2015.
Rachel Simone Webb hosted the awards ceremony.Photo by Thomas Garza
Towdah Kiima of Rockwall-Heath High School accepts the award for Outstanding Lead Performer.Photo by Thomas Garza