Season Announcement

Hamilton, Wicked, and more big Broadway shows are Dallas-bound in 2021

UPDATE 6-28-2021: Single tickets for Hamilton will go on sale at 10 am Friday, July 2 at DallasSummerMusicals.org or Ticketmaster.com, according to a release.

Prices will range from $49 to $189 with a select number premium seats from $299, and there will be a maximum purchase limit of eight tickets per household for the engagement. A lottery for 40 $10-seats will take place for all performances; more details will be announced closer to the engagement.

For presale access before tickets become available to the general public, sign up for DSM eNotes here or sign up to receive mobile alerts here by midnight on June 29.

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Only a day after a comprehensive COVID-19 plan was outlined by the newly sworn-in President Biden, Dallas Summer Musicals felt optimistic enough to announce a 2021 line-up, with live, in-person touring musicals ostensibly coming to Dallas in August of this year.

It's an ambitious announcement, as Actors' Equity Association is still mandating that "there must be a sustained decrease in new COVID-19 cases for a minimum of 14 days with a local community rate less than 5 per 100,000 population and a positive test rate of new tests done for COVID-19 less than 5 percent for at least one week prior to the start of the work session."

And those regulations were first written and released in May 2020. Granted, sometimes touring operators like DSM and AT&T Performing Arts Center present non-equity tours, which are not beholden to the same restrictions. But Hamilton, which is on DSM's list for a triumphant return engagement, is definitely equity.

But we'll push all skepticism aside for now. Thought DSM does not indicate a contingency plan if these shows are not able to go on as scheduled (something that happened frequently last year), president Ken Novice does say this:

"Broadway is coming back to Dallas in a big way. This is a massive season spanning an entire calendar year, and we can't wait! Our announcement today is made with great optimism related to in-progress wide-spread COVID-19 vaccinations and the soon-to-come reopening of our in-person cultural economy. As the months progress, we will be closely monitoring the on-going health crisis while developing, adapting, and sharing safety protocols to ensure everyone's safe return to live theater."

Assuming that DSM is able to safely present it, here is its proposed lineup:

Wicked flies back into Dallas' Music Hall at Fair Park August 4-September 5, 2021, to open the season as an optional add-on (this was its originally scheduled date). The tale of what happened before Dorothy dropped in follows the green-skinned Elphaba and her bubbly best friend Glinda as they navigate growing up and challenging authority.

Jersey Boys, the hit jukebox musical about pop group Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, is next (another season add-on). They were just four guys from Jersey, until they sang their very first note. They had a sound nobody had ever heard, and the radio just couldn't get enough of. But while their harmonies were perfect onstage, off stage it was a very different story. It runs at the Music Hall at Fair Park October 19-31, 2021, (rescheduled from November 10-22, 2020).

The mega-smash Hamilton returns to Fair Park November 16-December 5, 2021. It was last here in April 2019, bringing rap battles and hip-hop to America history and the story of one of America's Founding Fathers. Currently, the only way to guarantee a ticket to Hamilton is to purchase a season ticket to the six-show Germania Insurance Broadway Series which launches with Jersey Boys above.

Hadestown, the big winner at the 2019 Tony Awards, will be at the Winspear Opera House January 18-30, 2022, (it was originally scheduled for May 18-30, 2021) as part of an ongoing collaboration with AT&T Performing Arts Center. Intertwining two mythic tales — that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone — the musical invites you on a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back.

There's one more season option: Jonathan Larson's genre-changing musical Rent, playing at the Music Hall February 18-20, 2022. A retelling of Puccini's La Boheme set in 1990s New York, it covers true love, artistic disillusionment, and the AIDS crisis.

There are also a few reschedulings from the 2019-2020 season:

Come From Away, March 8-20, 2022, at Music Hall at Fair Park (remember, this closed prematurely when the pandemic started)
Jesus Christ Superstar, April 5-17, 2022, at Music Hall at Fair Park
Mean Girls, May 3-15, 2022, at Music Hall at Fair Park
Oklahoma!, May 31-June 12, 2022, at Winspear Opera House
Disney's Frozen, July 20-August 7, 2022, at Music Hall at Fair Park

Tootsie, previously rescheduled to play in 2021, has been canceled and will no longer be included in the season.

Season tickets for the revised line-up are available now, with single tickets on sale at a later date. For more information, patrons can visit DallasSummerMusicals.org or call 1-866-276-4884.

Surprise! Hamilton's coming back to Dallas.

Photo by Joan Marcus

Surprise! Hamilton's coming back to Dallas.

theater tours

Season Announcement

Echo Theatre introduces Dallas audiences to a season of strangers in 2026

Photo by Julieta Cervantes

'The Roommate' was recently on Broadway.

It's a "Season of Strangers" for Echo Theatre this year, as the Southwest's premier company for promoting dramatic works by women+ focuses on how someone different than you can change your life.

The 28th season begins with the new musical Silhouettes by Jordan Ealey and Ari Afsar. This score-in-hand workshop was developed in the aftermath of the fall of Roe v. Wade, and examines a pivotal moment in American history through the intersecting lives of two women navigating the decision to have an abortion. Echo's managing and artistic director Kateri Cale directs, with Vonda K. Bowling as musical director.

In a joint statement, Ealey and Afsar say that Silhouettes was born from their need to process the emotional and political aftermath of Roe’s fall. “We continue to see that history is cyclical and equity is fleeting,” they say. “But when policy fails, art has the opportunity to step in. Silhouettes is a musical about choice, sisterhood, and intergenerational courage.”

They add that presenting the work in Dallas reflects their commitment to community-building in states like Texas, where bans and restrictions have made women and gender minorities particularly vulnerable. “We want this musical to be a safe and brave haven amid attempts to create a culture of fear and a reminder that people are not alone.”

It runs January 16-17, 2026, and admission is free, though a $20 donation is suggested.

The world premiere of You Must Wear A Hat by C. Meaker is next, and plugged-in Dallas theater fans might recognize the play from its reading at Kitchen Dog Theater in 2019.

Tuesday and Weeks make hats on the Great Barrier Reef, waiting for the world to end. It's described as "A play for two. And a rabbit."

C. “Meaks” Meaker (they/them) is a playwright, essayist, and teacher whose work often explores queerness, monstrosity, and the end of the world. Their plays have been performed and developed across the United States, including the Kennedy Center, Seattle Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Annex Theatre (Seattle), Hub Theater (D.C.), Fat Theater Project (Chicago), and About Face (Chicago). They’re a two-year finalist for the Dramatist Guild National Fellows program and a recent finalist for the Jerome Hill Theater Arts Fellow.

You Must Wear a Hat runs February 27-March 14, 2026.

The season closes with The Roommate by Jen Silverman. The play was on Broadway in 2024 starring marquee names Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone.

In it, a divorced Midwesterner takes a roommate from The Bronx. A relationship evolves and secrets unfold into a darkly comedic exploration of life choices. It runs June 19-July 4, 2026.

All shows this season will be performed at the Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther Dr., in White Rock Lake Park.

Tickets range from Pay-What-You-Can to $40, with discounts available for students and seniors.

Additional events this season include Cake by the Lake on April 21, Echo's free birthday party fundraiser that also launches its reading series, Echo Reads.

Echo Reads runs April through September, presenting six plays in six month. All plays will be performed on Tuesdays at 7:30 pm, and then read the next day at different venues around the city.

Echo Offstage Podcasts is going monthly. The free podcast series interviews women+ who are making art and making a difference.

And Echo is already teasing its 29th season, which will begin in the fall of 2026 and run the more traditional September through August instead of the calendar year.

The season 29 opener is a co-production, the company mysteriously hints, involving three Dallas theaters, two shows, and an internationally known writer. We'll all just have to wait and see what this intriguing production might be.

echo theatre podcasts world premieres echo reads the roommate play theater