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    Best Onstage

    The 7 most memorable onstage moments in Dallas-Fort Worth theater 2016

    Lindsey Wilson
    Dec 26, 2016 | 2:30 pm

    The Dallas-Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum (of which I'm a member) already honored its favorites from the August 2015-September 2016 season, but there are a few onstage moments from this calendar year that I personally can't shake.

    Rather than declare an overall best shows list, here are seven of those moments within the play or musical that made it especially clear that we were experiencing live, raw, human theater.

    The stagnant cigarette smoke, 'Night, Mother at Echo Theatre
    When Jessie tells her mother that before the night is over she will kill herself, she's sitting at the kitchen table calmly folding tea towels and smoking a cigarette. After Jessie drops her bombshell, she forbids her housebound mother, Thelma, to call friends or family to stop her and then heads off to find her father's old gun.

    Marsha Norman's Pulitzer Prize-winning play is a struggle of power and emotion between these two women, who were embodied fiercely by Jessica Cavanagh and Amber Devlin in Echo Theatre's production. As we watched Devlin cycle through panic, fear, desperation, and sadness, a cloud of Cavanagh's cigarette smoke hung, in a barely moving cloud, above the table as a reminder of Jessie's presence.

    I can't say for certain if this happened at every show, or if the one I attended just happened to avoid the air conditioner at just the right moment, but it was a haunting, almost menacing, addition to the scene.

    Mary Tyrone's morphine haze, Long Day's Journey Into Night at Undermain Theatre
    ​Joanna Schellenberg's fragile performance was only one part of Undermain's excellent production, but anyone who's familiar with Eugene O'Neill's intense family drama knows that there's a difficult scene that can make or break an actor's portrayal of Mary Tyrone. Near the end of the three-hour play, the Tyrone matriarch finally succumbs fully to her morphine addiction and appears in her wedding gown, disoriented and glassy eyed and finally beyond the reach of her family.

    It's easy to go heavy handed here, making Mary into a cartoonish ghost, but Schellenberg and director Katherine Owens made sure to retain recognizable bits of the Mary we saw earlier. With the eerie fog rolling at her feet, Schellenberg dipped in and out of reality with just the right touch of otherworldliness.

    The twist in The Nether at Stage West
    I'm still not going to ruin this techno-thriller's surprise, because it was so satisfying to hear all the gasps and exhales when the audience figured out the truth. In a mere 70 minutes, director Garret Storms and his cast created an immensely detailed and superbly creepy dystopian world wherein people could assume an online identity, enter a "realm," and commit gruesome acts that have no real consequences (think Westworld but with avatars instead of robots).

    You could feel the audience shifting uncomfortably in their seats each time a character leapt into this online world, and hear a murmur of concern for each dreadful emotional and physical act, but when playwright Jennifer Haley's big reveal happened the reaction was priceless.

    Audience participation at Ghost Quartet presented by Flora Off Broadway
    AT&T Performing Arts Center's experimental season of smaller, quirkier shows expanded all the way into Deep Ellum for the tour of Ghost Quartet, which was unlike anything DFW audiences had seen or heard before. Composer Dave Malloy currently has a hit on Broadway with his Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, but he was here in the spring with two Natasha cast members and a fourth musician to perform this circuitous meditation on death.

    It was a weird show for sure, with music that wasn't always pleasant to the ear, but it also defied audiences' preconceived notions about theater. The performers would interact with the spectators, some of whom were seated on cushions right beside them, by passing off instruments for them to play and at one point doling out a few bottles of whiskey. Watching the confusion, then disbelief, and finally delight on people's faces as they poured themselves a stiff drink was a fitting reaction for this show.

    Familial generations in The Big Meal at WaterTower Theatre
    ​Dan LeFranc's 90-minute play had a complicated structure that flowed effortlessly thanks to Emily Scott Banks' precise direction. In short bursts we saw Nikki and Sam meet, fall in love, break up, get back together, marry, reproduce, receive grandchildren, and live out their lives together. Not a particularly unusual story, but the emotions — and there were a lot of them — came from the unique way it was told through the eight-person cast.

    The six adult actors each took a turn at playing the couple at different points in their lives, but when Lois Sonnier Hart as the elderly Nikki glanced around at the family she had created, something about the wonder in her realization softened this mean critic's heart and brought on the waterworks.

    Preacher with a secret, Bootycandy at Stage West
    Each of the vignettes in Robert O'Hara's scathingly funny play about race, sexuality, and class had at least one laugh-out-loud moment and several truth bombs. But Djoré Nance truly grabbed the audience early on as an impassioned preacher delivering a sermon about the "questionable" behavior of some of the choir boys. He says that he received a letter signed "by the folks who pay your salary" that expresses concern that these boys may be homosexual or engaging in improper behavior.

    You think you know where this speech is going, but director Akín Babatundé conceals the preacher's true message until the last possible moment. Nance steps out from behind the pulpit to reveal he's wearing high heels (and a fabulous gown, when he sheds his robes), then basically tells the congregation they can shove their judgmental concerns where the sun don't shine. Commitment doesn't even begin to describe Nance's performance in that scene.

    Mother Holly in Wild, Wicked, Wyrd: Fairytale Time by The Drama Club
    The latest original work from this collective of DFW theater artists was uneven, with three of the four short plays failing to gather much steam. But Mother Holly, penned by Michael Federico, wove a dark tale about a kind-hearted girl who's desperate to save her family and the forest witch who grants her wish. Jeffrey Schmidt's simple set — three large W's that could illuminate when needed — and Amanda West's lighting started the creep factor before Korey Kent's costume for the witch, played with terrifying physicality by Nicole Berastequi, truly began to inspire nightmares.

    When Berastequi finally revealed her face, a twisted mask with glowing red eyes, and climbed onto the middle W like a creature stalking its prey, it was a chilling visual that lasted long past Halloween.

    Joanna Schellenberg and Bruce DuBose in Long Day's Journey Into Night at Undermain Theatre.

    Undermain Theatre presents Long Day's Journey Into Night
      
    Photo courtesy of Undermain Theatre
    Joanna Schellenberg and Bruce DuBose in Long Day's Journey Into Night at Undermain Theatre.
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    Season Announcement

    Big spenders + bigger voices fill Lyric Stage's 2025-26 Dallas season

    Lindsey Wilson
    Jun 18, 2025 | 12:29 pm
    Rocky Horror Picture Show with Tim Curry
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
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    For its 2025-26 season, Lyric Stage is pairing a sweet transvestite with Civil War-era sisters, a dance hall hostess with harmonizing ghosts, and a whole bunch of divas with their much-deserved spotlight.

    Now in its 32nd season, the nonprofit Lyric Stage is dedicated to the development and preservation of musicals, having produced more than 125 productions, which include 21 world-premiere musicals and two Off-Broadway shows.

    Under the helm of newish artistic directors Tricia Guenther and Scott Guenther, four of its current shows will take place in its Lyric Studio Space near the Trinity River, with one at Moody Performance Hall in the Dallas Arts District.

    First up (and just in time for Halloween) is The Rocky Horror Show — note the missing "Picture." This is the stage version on which the cult classic movie was later based, but don't worry, audiences are still encouraged to shout at the performers and throw toilet paper and other props.

    Sweethearts Brad and Janet, stuck with a flat tire during a storm, discover the eerie mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. As their innocence is lost, Brad and Janet meet a houseful of wild characters, including a rocking biker and a creepy butler. Through elaborate dances and rock songs, Frank-N-Furter unveils his latest creation: a muscular man named “Rocky.” It runs October 10-26, 2025 at Lyric Stage Studio and is not family-friendly.

    For the holiday season, Forever Plaid - Plaid Tidings brings Francis, Jinx, Smudge, and Sparky back to Earth on the orders of Rosemary Clooney to put a little harmony into a discordant world.

    Stewart Ross' musical is sprinkled with Christmas offerings and audience favorites, like the riotous three-minute-and-eleven-second version of The Ed Sullivan Show, this time, featuring the Rockettes, the Chipmunks, and The Vienna Boys Choir. It runs December 5-21, 2025, at Lyric Stage Studio.

    For one night only, the Dallas Divas return just in time for Valentine’s Day.

    Showcasing some of the most talented voices in Dallas, singing songs ranging from Broadway to pop, the performance is a Lyric Stage tradition. It is February 11, 2026, at Moody Performance Hall.

    Inspired by Federico Fellini’s Night of Cabiria, Sweet Charity explores the turbulent love life of Charity Hope Valentine, a hopelessly romantic but comically unfortunate dance hall hostess in New York City.

    With a tuneful, groovy, mid-1960s score by Cy Coleman, sparkling lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and a hilarious book by Neil Simon, Sweet Charity captures all the energy, humor, and heartbreak of Life in the Big City for an unfortunate but irrepressible optimist. The production is the original 1966 Broadway (not the movie version) with such hit songs as “Big Spender,” “If My Friends Could See Me Now,” “I’m a Brass Band,” and “Baby, Dream Your Dream.” It runs April 17-May 3, 2026, at Lyric Stage Studio.

    Closing out the season is Louisa May Alcott's timeless Little Women, with a book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and music by Jason Howland.

    The musical follows the adventures of sisters Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy March. Jo is trying to sell her stories for publication, but the publishers are not interested in a woman's creativity. Her friend, Professor Bhaer, tells her that she has to do better and write more from herself. Begrudgingly taking this advice, Jo weaves the story of herself and her sisters and their experience growing up in Civil War America. It runs July 17-August 2, 2026, at Lyric Stage Studio.

    Season tickets, which range from $40-$60, are available beginning July 1. Lyric Stage is located at 1170 Quaker St. in Dallas.

    dallas divasfederico felliniforever plaidlittle womenlyric stagemoody performance hallnight of cabiriarockettesrocky horror showsweet charitysweet transvestitetheatertime warpvienna boys choirmusical theatremusicals
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