Theater Critic Picks

These are the 8 can't-miss shows in Dallas-Fort Worth theater for May

They're trying to make "fetch" happen at the Music Hall.

Photo courtesy of Broadway Dallas

There's a nice mix of classic big Broadway and shows with international flair this month, touching on Mexico, Russia, and Africa (beyond Mean Girls).

In order of start date, here are eight local shows to watch this month:

Mean Girls
Broadway Dallas, through May 15
Do you even go here? Cady Heron may have grown up on an African savanna, but nothing prepared her for the vicious ways of her strange new home: suburban Illinois. Soon, this naïve newbie falls prey to a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming but ruthless Regina George. But when Cady devises a plan to end Regina’s reign, she learns the hard way that you can’t cross a Queen Bee without getting stung.

Orígenes/Origins
Cara Mía Theatre, May 5-7
A collab with Mexico City’s Laboratorio de la Máscara, this workshop production focuses on youth immigration and will be performed mostly in Spanish with English supertitles. After each performance, audiences are invited to contribute ideas to further flesh out the play in a discussion with the actors and creators.

Macbeth
Fair Assembly, May 5-15
This interdisciplinary performance at Arts Mission Oak Cliff uses live sound, original music, and dance to tell Shakespeare's story of power, greed, and hauntingly bad decisions.

Michael Cavanaugh: The Music of Billy Joel & Elton John
Eismann Center for the Performing Arts, May 6
Michael Cavanaugh scored his big break when Billy Joel handpicked him for the lead in Broadway’s smash hit Movin’ Out. The role garnered him rave reviews and accolades, culminating with Grammy and Tony Award nominations. In this one-night-only concert, he will lead his band through the biggest hits by Joel and Elton John.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
Lyric Stage, May 12-15
Set in Ancient Rome, this musical laugh-fest combines the 2000-year-old comedies of Roman playwright Plautus with the infectious energy of classic vaudeville, all backed by an 18-piece orchestra directed by Vonda K. Bowling.

Waitress
AT&T Performing Arts Center, May 10-15
Meet Jenna, a waitress and expert pie-maker who dreams of a way out of her small town and rocky marriage. When a baking contest in a nearby county — and a satisfying encounter with someone new — show Jenna a chance at a fresh start, she must find the courage to seize it. Featuring an all-female creative team and original music and lyrics by eight-time Grammy nominee Sara Bareilles.

Sex, Guns & Vodka
The Classics Theatre Project, May 20-June 11
In a work that remained untitled and went undiscovered until 1923, two decades after his death, Anton Chekhov turns a farcical eye to a Russian retelling of the story of Don Juan. It wouldn't be Chekhov without parties, suicide attempts, and affairs, blended together in a tragi-comedy.

If Pretty Hurts, Ugly Must Be a “MF”: An African Folktale
Jubilee Theatre, May 27-June 26
Combining West African folklore and contemporary American culture, this show follows four teenage girls — Kaya, Massassi, Adama and Akim — all in their respective internal wars with the societal definitions of beauty and how it makes them feel. Set in the fictional village of Affreakah-Amirrorkah, the young women are given an opportunity to live in a society where their individual beauty can reign supreme. But that high stature also brings heart-wrenching pitfalls they must deal with to keep their souls sacred.

theater

All Eyes on Them

Dallas alt hip-hop group wins prestigious Tiny Desk Contest by NPR

Cure for Paranoia/Facebook

As winners of the Tiny Desk Contest, Cure for Paranoia will record their own Tiny Desk concert and go on tour.

Few live recording studios or musical web series have the cultural sway of NPR's Tiny Desk, and a Dallas band is poised to make an impactful debut: Cure For Paranoia, an alternative hip-hop project by rapper Cameron McCloud and producers Tomahawk Jonez and Jay Analo, has won the high-stakes annual Tiny Desk Contest for 2026.

They'll record their official Tiny Desk show "soon," the announcement by NPR says.

Winning the concert also means Cure for Paranoia is going on tour. The only Texas stop will be at Emo's Austin on June 24.

Tiny Desk is known for platforming both niche and majorly successful artists — NPR posted a new Foo Fighters set on YouTube on May 13 — for stripped-down sets that are literally played behind former All Things Considered director Bob Boilen's old desk. (Fun fact for Texans: Tiny Desk was created because folk artist Laura Gibson was disappointed with the sound at her South by Southwest show in Austin in 2008, and she wanted a redo.)

Most artists who appear on Tiny Desk more than 15 years later are already well-known, at least in their specific circles. But the Tiny Desk Contest, which launched in 2015, helps a growing group of newer, unsigned artists get their foot in the door. Contestants record one video of them performing a single song behind a desk, and a jury of radio staff and musicians chooses their favorite.

In their audition video, Cure for Paranoia gathered 11 musicians around a truly tiny desk and in front of downtown Dallas' iconic gigantic eyeball sculpture. They played the song "No Brainer," a frenetic track that starts with clever boasts and becomes a criticism of racism in the United States.

McCloud, a pre-school teacher, is known independently of Cure for Paranoia for rapping to his social media following about politics and current events. Some of those lyrics made it into "No Brainer." He says he started the group because he found that music was more helpful than medication for coping with bipolar depression and paranoid schizophrenia.

Alex Marrero, host of the Austin-based KUTX show Horizontes, was one of the judges this year. He was impressed with the visuals in Cure for Paranoia's audition.

“When this popped up, I immediately felt something different," he wrote in a blurb for the announcement. "It just jumped out. The visuals were super cool and creative, BUT I could still totally envision them bringing the heat behind the Desk.”

Madison McFerrin, jazz vocalist and daughter of the famous singer Bobby McFerrin, was one of the musical judges.

"Cure For Paranoia’s energy is infectious, fresh and distinctly theirs — exactly what you want in a Contest winner!" she wrote.

McCloud's post on Instagram announcing the group's win has only been up for three hours at the time of this article's publication, and it already has more than 8,000 likes. The YouTube audition has garnered 74,000 views.

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