Texas in New York

Tony and Drama Desk award nominations put Texas in the spotlight

Theater award season fever has struck New York, but we are feeling the effects all the way down in Texas. The nominations for the Drama Desk Awards came out yesterday, and this morning theater-turned-TV stars Sutton Foster (Bunheads) and Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family) announced who would soon be vying for a Tony Award. Shows with Texas ties showed up on both lists.

Productions from Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway are eligible for the Drama Desk Awards, which are voted on by theater critics, journalists, editors and publishers covering theater “without any vested interest in the results.” The ceremony will be held May 19 at The Town Hall (a nonprofit culture organization and performance venue) in Manhattan.

The Antoinette Perry “Tony” Awards are a joint venture by the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing and salute “excellence in Broadway theater.” The three-hour show will be broadcast live by CBS on June 9.

Below, a quick rundown of who’s in the hunt and how it relates to Texas:

Giant
Dallas Theater Center and New York’s The Public Theater co-produced the reworked musical version of Edna Ferber’s sprawling, Texas-set 1952 novel last January, and it made the jump to Off-Broadway in October. Now it leads the pack of Drama Desk contenders with nine nominations, including Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Music and Outstanding Lyrics for Michael John LaChiusa, and Outstanding Book of a Musical for Sybille Pearson.

Kate Baldwin and John Dossett, who played Leslie Benedict and Uncle Bawley, respectively, during both the Dallas and New York runs, are up for Outstanding Actress in a Musical and Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.

Ann
Holland Taylor is getting recognized by both groups for her turn as the late Ann Richards. The one-woman show about the charismatic former Texas governor — which she also wrote — has been playing on Broadway since March, following productions mounted in Galveston, San Antonio and Austin, as well as Chicago and Washington, D.C. Taylor is up for a Tony for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play; she is a nominee for Outstanding Solo Performance at the Drama Desk Awards.

Bring It On: The Musical
Okay, so there are no Texans behind this show per se, but it did make a surprisingly well-received stop at Dallas Summer Musicals before hitting Broadway for a limited engagement in August. Dallas critics were pleasantly taken in by the show’s infectious music (by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Amanda Green and Tom Kitt) and high-flying choreography (by Andy Blankenbuehler).

The Tonys are recognizing both with nominations for Best Musical and Best Choreography. The Drama Desk Awards are doling out the love with noms for Outstanding Director of a Musical and Outstanding Choreography (both Blankenbuehler), Outstanding Lyrics for Green and Miranda, Outstanding Sound Design for Brian Ronan, and Outstanding Book of a Musical for Jeff Whitty.

Hands on a Hardbody
Even though it shuttered on the Great White Way earlier in April, the documentary-based musical about a yearly competition in Longview, Texas, where contestants see who can keep their hands on a pickup truck the longest, scored quite a few nominations. Besides one for Outstanding Musical, the Drama Desk bestowed eight others on the show, tying it with Giant for most nominations.

The rest are Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Keala Settle) and Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (Keith Carradine), Outstanding Choreography for Sergio Trujillo, Outstanding Book of a Musical for Dallas native Doug Wright, Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical for Steve Canyon Kennedy, Outstanding Music for Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green, Outstanding Orchestrations for Anastasio and Don Hart, and Outstanding Lyrics for Green (who’s having a killer awards season so far).

As for Tony nominations, Hands on a Hardbody weighed in with three: Best Original Score and Best Featured Actor/Actress in a Musical for Carradine and Settle.

Dallas Theater Center's co-production of Giant leads the nominations of Drama Desk Awards.

Giant was co-produced by Dallas Theater Center

Photo by Karen Almond

Dallas Theater Center's co-production of Giant leads the nominations of Drama Desk Awards.

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Theater News

Dallas' Kitchen Dog Theater unveils powerful 2026-2027 season lineup

Photo by Cameron Cobb

Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas will put on three mainstage productions for their 2026-2027 season.

Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas has revealed the lineup for the 2026-2027 season, featuring a slate of plays that boasts power players like kings, prime ministers, space force commanders, and would-be presidents.

According to a release, the theater company's 36th season — their "most powerful yet" — will consist of three mainstage productions at its new permanent home in the Design District, as well as the annual New Works Festival, featuring a readings series and the 26th annual D-PAC PUP (Playwrights Under Progress) Fest.

The season will start with The Absentee by Julia Doolittle, running September 10-October 4, 2026. The play was the winner of the 2019-2020 Woodward/Newman Drama Award.

Far out in the Milky Way, “Beacons” serve as lighthouses for warping spaceships around the galaxy. When a U.S. Space Force ship explodes in the galaxy, the Operator finds herself alone in deep space, with only her ship’s AI for companionship. That is, until a persistent canvasser calls, desperate to convince her to vote absentee in the 2088 election.

As the Operator waits for the clean up to be over, she finds she has to come to terms with her isolation, grief, and her political voice.

The season's second production comes four months later, with Equivocation by Bill Cain, running February 4-28, 2027. In 1605 England, a terrorist plots to assassinate King James I and blow Parliament to kingdom come. Shagspeare (after a contemporary spelling of the Bard's name) is commissioned by the prime minister, to write the “true historie” of the plot. And it must have witches — the king wants witches.

But as Shag and the acting company of the Globe investigate the plot, they discover that the king's version of the story might, in fact, be a coverup. Shag and his actors are confronted with the ultimate moral and artistic dilemma. Speak truth to power and perhaps lose their heads? Or take the money and lie? Is there a third option? Equivocation?

A high-stakes political thriller with contemporary resonances, Equivocation gallops from the great Globe to the Tower of London to the halls of Parliament to the heart of Judith, Shag's younger daughter, who finds herself unexpectedly at the very heart of the political, dramatic and — ultimately — human mystery.

The final mainstage production of the season comes at the 2027 New Works Festival with Black Republican by KDT Artistic Company Member Jamal Gibran Sterling, running June 3-27, 2027.

Originally featured as a Staged Reading in the 2026 New Works Festival, the ambitious first play by Sterling centers on a Black Republican candidate on the national stage who finds his campaign threatened by an activist who challenges everything he claims to stand for. Their battle exposes uncomfortable truths about race, politics, and the stories we tell ourselves.

In addition to Black Republican, the 2027 New Works Festival will showcase four staged readings of some of the newest and most exciting Texas-based playwrights. Each reading will feature accomplished Dallas-Fort Worth actors and directors to highlight the breadth of talent in the area.

The final part of the festival is D-PAC PUP (Playwrights Under Progress) Fest, featuring six staged readings of jury-selected plays written by Dallas-Fort Worth high school students and featuring student actors directed by area professionals. PUP Fest is the culmination of Dallas Playwriting Arts Collective (D-PAC), a partnership with Dallas ISD and Junior Players.

Kitchen Dog Theater offers two season subscription packages for their inaugural season in their new facility. The Kitchen Dog package includes a ticket to all three mainstage productions for any performance date for $90+ $8 fees for adults and $75 +$8 fees for students and seniors (ages 65+). The Saver Dog package includes a ticket to all three mainstage productions for Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays only. It is $60 + $8 fees for adults and $45 + $8 fees for students and seniors.

Both packages grant full access to the Staged Reading Series and PUP Fest. Subscribers also receive premium reserved seating for in-person performances, as well as subscriber-only discounts on additional single tickets, 2026 special events, and KDT merchandise.

Subscription packages are on sale now, and single tickets for each show will go on sale on Monday, August 24, at kitchendogtheater.org.

design district kitchen dog theater new works festival performing-arts plays theater