Theater Critic Picks

These are the 20 can't-miss shows in Dallas-Fort Worth theater for June

Yes, you read that headline correctly: 20. This might be the biggest month in Dallas-Fort Worth theater history, with an incredible number of new plays, festivals, revues, musicals, and tours gracing the stages around town. If you say you can't find something to see, then you're lying.

Here are the 20 shows to see, in order by start date:

Lilies
Gordon Kelly & Robin Benson Linek, May 31-June 9
Using Linda Gaboriau's translation of Michael Marc Bouchard's script, independent producers Kelly and Linek are trying out a new grassroots-style approach to theater. Everyone involved in the production at the Bath House Cultural Center is splitting the revevue, which was secured through online fundraising along with traditional ticket sales. The story takes place in a men's prison in 1952, where Bishop Bilodeau has agreed to see his old friend, Simon. But through a series of vignettes performed by his fellow inmates, the Bishop is forced to relive their childhood memories and a long-held secret is revealed.

Little Mexico — Ayer y Hoy
Teatro Dallas, June 1-10
This 30-minute production depicts the experiences lived by Mexican Americans in Dallas, told through theater, dance, song, and music. Also: tacos. The show takes place at Taqueria Pedrito in North Oak Cliff, and tickets are free (though donations are encouraged).

Mamma Mia!
Casa Mañana, June 2-10
Here we go again: The ABBA musical set in a Greek paradise is back. On the eve of her wedding, a daughter's quest to discover the identity of her father brings three men from her mother's past back to the island they last visited 20 years ago. Local luminaries Denise Lee and Cheryl Allison are a few of the stars, and DFW's own Anthony Fortino appears fresh off the national tour of Fun Home.

The Second City Summer Blockbuster
Off Broadway on Flora, June 6-9
The famous Chicago improv group is ready to fight the summer heat by bringing the next generation of comedy superstars to Texas. Hunker down in the Wyly Theatre to see sketch comedy mixed with on-the-fly improv, as the troupe that gave us Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Amy Poehler, and more comes to town.

Dallas Solo Fest
Audacity Theatre Lab, June 6-10
Performers from around the country are converging at the Rosewood Center for the Arts to present six distinct one-person shows. This year's lineup includes The Biscuiteater by Jim Loucks, Drunk Lion by Chris Davis; PerVirgin by Nkechi Chibueze, magician Cody Clark's A Different Way of Thinking, and two entries from performers with Dallas ties. Former resident John Michael brings us his Meatball Seance from Chicago, while current resident John S. Davies gives us Oh, Jesus! Or… An Actor, a Cynic and a Savior Walk Into a Bar.

Guys & Dolls
Lyric Stage, June 8-10
Considered by many to be the perfect musical, Guys & Dolls is a romantic comedy involving the unlikeliest of Manhattan pairings: a high-rolling gambler and a puritanical missionary, a showgirl dreaming of the straight-and-narrow and a craps game manager who is anything but. Frank Loesser's score is filled with memorable tunes, including the hilarious "Adelaide's Lament," the romantic "I've Never Been in Love Before," the exuberant "If I Were a Bell," and the classic "Luck Be a Lady."

The Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew
Shakespeare Dallas, June 6-July 15 and June 13-July 13
Running in repertory, these two Shakespeare classics each deal in love and mischief. The first concerns two sets of twin brothers who arrive in Ephesus and are mistaken for their siblings, while the second is a battle of wills between the strong-willed Kate and her dauntless suitor, Petruchio. Bring a blanket and a bottle of wine (and the bug spray) to enjoy these open-air performances at Samuell-Grand Amphitheatre.

The Last Five Years
WaterTower Theatre, June 8-July 1
Through opposing, intersecting chronologies, this award-winning musical by Jason Robert Brown follows Jamie and Cathy, two 20-something artists in New York, as their relationship blossoms and sours. The beginning, the end, and everything in between is put into perspective in this touching and sympathetic tale of love, loss, and timing that's directed by Kelsey Leigh Ervi and stars Seth Womack and Monique Abry.

Bright Star
AT&T Performing Arts Center Broadway Series, June 12-24
Musician Edie Brickell and actor/author Steve Martin are the team behind this five-time Tony-nominated tale of love and redemption, set against the rich backdrop of the American South in the 1920s and '40s. Propelled by an ensemble of onstage musicians and dancers, the story unfolds as a rich tapestry of deep emotion, beautiful melodies, and powerfully moving performances. TodayTix has $25 mobile rush tickets — get them here.

Enemies/People
Second Thought Theatre, June 13-July 7
This world premiere by Dallas-based playwright and artist Blake Hackler is loosely adapted from Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. STT calls the play "a timely
world premiere about the search for truth in the age of alternative facts," and it will bring STT artistic director Alex Organ back to his company's stage for the first time since 2016. He'll be joined by Allison Pistorius, Christie Vela, Gregory Lush, Jovane Caamaño, and Sasha Maya Ada.

The Lion King
Dallas Summer Musicals, June 13-July 8
Its larger-than-life puppets and lush score by Elton John and Tim Rice have filled the Music Hall before, but not since 2013. If you haven't seen Julie Taymor's stunning and imaginative staging, now's your chance.

Broadway Our Way
Uptown Players, June 14-17
For the seventh straight year, B.J. Cleveland has written and directed this fundraiser, which features many of your favorite actors from past Uptown Players seasons performing selections from Broadway shows, both past and present, all done with a twist. For the last 16 years, this hot-ticket concert has been providing members of the LGBT community a previously unheard voice and seeing the world as they always wish it could be.

The Monarch
Echo Theatre & Soul Rep Theatre Company, June 15-30
Soul Rep co-founder and area playwright Anyika McMillan-Herod has turned her own personal experience with breast cancer into an inspiring, dark, and sometimes humorous exploration of the human spirit. The world premiere is co-directed by McMillan-Herod and Tonya Holloway, Soul Rep's co-artistic director and co-founder.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Theatre Three, June 14-July 8
You may know it as Dangerous Liaisons, the title of the 1989 film adaptation, or even as Cruel Intentions, a modern retelling set in NYC with elite, scheming teenagers. But this is the original, a tale of seduction set in France among aristocrats before the revolution. Nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play in 1987 and now adapted by Christopher Hampton from the 1782 novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, this fresh take by director Tiffany Nichole Greene includes an all-star cast, with Cindee Mayfield, Charlotte Akin, Gayle Cronauer, Lydia Mackay, and Brandon Potter.

Every Brilliant Thing
Circle Theatre, June 14-July 14
Zak Reynolds makes his Circle Theatre debut as the narrator of this theatrical experience, which engages its audience with the question "what's on your list of things that make you happy?" Written by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe.

Waitress
Broadway at the Bass, June 19-24
Grammy winner Sara Bareilles made her Broadway debut by penning the score for Waitress, based on Adrienne Shelley's cult film. An all-female creative team brought the show to Broadway, and it's a showcase for the lucky actress portraying the aspiring baker looking a way out of her small town and loveless marriage.

Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night
Trinity Shakespeare, June 19-July 8
Blake Hackler has a busy month, as he's also directing what many consider to be Shakespeare's greatest comedy. Clearly that's Twelfth Night and not Romeo and Juliet, which is being handled by Trinity Shakes' founding artistic director T.J. Walsh. TCU students work side-by-side equity actors in these repertory shows, which take place in the air-conditioned theater on the school's campus.

The Cherry Orchard
The Classics Theatre Project, June 21-July 14
The inaugural production from this new Dallas company is using an adaptation of Chekhov's script by local playwright Ben Schroth. Artistic director Joey Folsom is directing an impressive cast that includes Emily Scott Banks, Stan Graner, Matthew Eitzen, Francis Fuselier, Sterling Gafford, Taylor Harris, Gretchen Hahn, Courtney Mentzel, James Hansen Prince, Mary-Margaret Pyeatt, Rachel Reininger, and Dean Wray.

Shakespeare Dalla is mounting The Comedy of Errors in repertory with The Taming of the Shrew.

Photo courtesy of Shakespeare Dallas

Shakespeare Dalla is mounting The Comedy of Errors in repertory with The Taming of the Shrew.

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In Memoriam

Matthew Posey, founder of Dallas' Ochre House Theater, dies at 68

Ochre House Theater presents Dr. Bobaganush

Photo by Robert Hart

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Matthew Posey, the actor, director, and playwright who founded Ochre House Theater and was a founding father of Dallas' experimental theater scene, died at his home on October 2, 2026, the theater confirmed. He was 68.

In 2008, Posey opened Ochre House in Exposition Park near Fair Park. The 45-seat storefront venue became what the theater calls a legendary lab for raw, original art. Posey and his core company called themselves the "Pioneers of the Suavant-Garde," a name that promised surrealist, experimental performances delivered with a surprisingly sophisticated charm. The work was known for a deconstructed, musical-narrative style, built on live music, magic-realist imagery, and elaborate puppetry inspired by the Japanese Bunraku tradition.

Posey wrote, directed, and produced more than 40 plays there, including Morphing, Dr. Bobagonush, Moving Creatures, Mrs. Haggardly, Bill, Original Man, and Soft Noodle Map. Many began in his bound notebooks, which held more than a decade of original pieces. They examined love, family, class, addiction, violence, forgiveness, greed, and the search for one's place in the universe. He often staged them quickly enough that the theater reflected current social and political events as they unfolded (see: Moving Creatures, a politically charged satire about an evil and intolerable oligarch and his tyrannical rise to power). Ochre House also gave its core company of performers, designers, and musicians the chance to write and direct their own original work.

Posey also built a lasting bridge between Dallas and the flamenco world. For 15 years, he partnered with the Dallas-based Flame Foundation on original full-length plays featuring authentic flamenco. The collaboration brought international and local artists to stages in Dallas and New York.

Ochre House was not Posey's first venture in the city. After studying theater at Texas Tech University and interning at Houston's Alley Theater, he came to Deep Ellum and founded the Deep Ellum Theatre Garage. The venue hosted boundary-pushing work, including Sexual Mythology Part 1: The Underworld, a collaboration with another Dallas-based theater legend, Fred Curchack.

Posey later spent 12 years in Los Angeles, working in the film industry and ghostwriting, and he earned a master's degree in film from the American Film Institute. When he returned to Dallas, he joined the company at Undermain Theater before founding Ochre House.

In January 2017, Posey was shot in the face and thigh outside Cold Beer Company in Deep Ellum after leaving the bar with a friend. The attack came just days after previews began for his new musical Dr. Bobaganush, and that week's performances were canceled. But Dallas' arts community rallied around him with a benefit concert, and he returned to the Ochre House stage as the titular doctor that March.

Jerome Weeks, the former KERA and Dallas Morning News theater critic, recalled in an Oct. 3 Facebook post a story from that time. Weeks had reviewed Posey's first shows at the Deep Ellum Theatre Garage and ended up meeting his wife Sara, a member of Posey's first acting troupe, there. After the 2017 shooting, Weeks sent flowers to Posey's hospital room with an unsigned note: "This is what you get for introducing me to my wife." He knew Posey would appreciate the dark joke. Years later, Posey told him the flowers were the first public sign of what had happened, so when they reached the nurses' station, police grew suspicious of the sender. For a few hours that morning, Weeks was the chief suspect. The bullet had damaged Posey's teeth, cheek, and tongue, and, still groggy from anesthesia and painkillers, Posey could only gesture and mumble to the police that it was a joke — that the local theater critic had not tried to murder the artist. When Weeks learned of this long afterward, he was stunned and didn't know how to apologize. Posey, laughing, told him: "It was absolutely the only laugh I had that day."

Posey's career also reached well beyond Dallas. Over more than 35 years, he appeared in more than 60 major film and television productions, including Oliver Stone's JFK, the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, and The Magnificent Seven. On television, he appeared in Lonesome Dove, Rectify, AMC's The Son, and HBO's Love & Death. His recent work includes the independent film El Tonto Por Christo and a role in the Austin-set, Matthew McConaughey/Woody Harrelson series Brothers.

Matthew Posey was born July 31, 1958, in Houston, the youngest of five children of Marvin R. Posey and Mary Louise Wrba Posey. His family says his gift for performance appeared early, with him staging "interviews" with vegetable at age four. By his sophomore year at Coronado High School in Lubbock, he had found a bigger audience as the emcee Click Dark in a class play based on American Graffiti.

He was remembered as a beloved partner, brother, uncle, friend, and artistic father figure.

"He was a unique and unforgettable person whose humor, creativity, stories, and larger-than-life personality made an impression on everyone who knew him," the theater said in its obituary.

Posey was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his life partner, Suzanne Thomas. He is also survived by his sisters Marlis Hodges and Candis Posey, his brothers William Marvin Posey and Richard Daniel Posey, and numerous nieces and nephews, countless friends, and his cats Chet and Etta.

"His family will remember Matthew not only for the life he lived, but for the memories he created and the love he shared," says the theater's obituary. "His presence will be deeply missed, but his stories, his work, his humor, and the memories he gave to those who loved him will remain."

A celebration of life is being planned, and details have not yet been announced. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to Ochre House Theater at OchreHouseTheater.org.

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