It's 2019 and a fresh start, and one way you can be a better person is by being more cultured. There's a lot of theater in Dallas-Fort Worth, so get out there and see some, including a Shakespeare classic, a play about vibrators, a musical about teenagers discovering their sexuality, and a show about a guy who steals Einstein's brain.
Here are the eight shows to see, in order by start date:
Hamlet
Shakespeare Dallas, January 11-20
For its inaugural indoor performance, Shakespeare Dallas is going with the famously indecisive young prince (Seth Magill) in a production directed by executive and artistic director Raphael Parry. The troupe's new winter season, of which this show is the first, will be designed with a smaller cast in mind, making the performances more intimate for audiences.
In the Next Room (Or the Vibrator Play)
Imprint Theatreworks, January 11-26
Set in the 1880s at the dawn of the age of electricity — and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used "devices" to treat women for imagined hysteria — Sarah Ruhl's play centers on a doctor, his wife, and how his new therapy affects their entire household.
Sweat
Dallas Theater Center, January 18-February 10
Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for playwright Lynn Nottage, Sweat takes an unflinching look at life in the industrial working class that has been hailed as "the first theatrical landmark of the Trump era." It's the year 2000 in the steel town of Reading, Pennsylvania, and all best friends Tracey and Cynthia need are their steady factory jobs, their favorite bar, and each other. But as years pass and a recession hits, hard times at the factory threaten their livelihoods and test the limits of their friendship.
The Book of Mormon
Performing Arts Fort Worth, January 22-27
Dallas Summer Musicals, January 29-February 3
Trey Parker and Matt Stone's award-winning and utterly inappropriate musical about Mormon missionaries is back for yet another round of performances. If you somehow missed the blockbuster the other times it's been here, now's your chance in both Fort Worth and Dallas.
Obama-ology
Jubilee Theatre, January 25-February 24
When African-American college graduate Warren takes a job with the 2008 Obama campaign, he's fired up and ready to go, until he lands in the troubled streets of East Cleveland. But somewhere between knocking on doors, fending off cops, and questioning his own racial and sexual identity, he learns that changing society isn't as easy as he imagined.
Incognito
Second Thought Theatre, January 30-February 23
STT artistic director Alex Organ returns to direct STT company member Drew Wall in Nick Payne's twisty play, which combines unbelievable true stories of love, murder, memory, and the fate of Albert Einstein's brain to reveal that, like the universe itself, the human mind remains a mystery.
Spring Awakening
Uptown Players, January 31-February 3
Director Jeremy Dumont takes on this Tony-winning musical based on the 1906 play by Frank Wedekind, which follows the unforgettable journey of a group of students in late-19th century Germany as they move from adolescence into adulthood. This landmark musical is an electrifying fusion of morality, sexuality, and rock and roll.
The Manufactured Myth of Eveline Flynn
Theatre Three, January 31-February 24
A brand-new musical by Dallasites Michael Federico and Ian Ferguson follows a young woman whose very birth signaled a great change in the world ... as far as she tells. In actuality, as Eveline loses her connection to her family and friends, her grasp on reality slowly slips away.
Seth Magill stars in Hamlet for Shakespeare Dallas.
Miranda Lambert, right, with rodeo queens onstage at the 45th Cowgirl Hall of Fame Induction Luncheon at Dickies Arena. Photo by Ashley Gongora 