Theater Critic Picks

These are the 7 can't-miss shows in Dallas-Fort Worth theater for August

The Little Glass Slipper was recorded in Dallas last month, and is streaming as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Photo by Frank Del Corral

Besides Dallas making history as the first venue in the U.S. to host a big Broadway touring show following the COVID-19 shutdowns, there are still a handful of other impressive debuts happening.

From an Edinburgh Fringe participant to free community performances, there's a show for every taste during August.

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

12th Night: A Rock Musical
Junior Players and Shakespeare Dallas, August 3-8
Illyria is the new Coachella as The Bard's poetry is mixed into original infectious rock/pop style melodies in a new production of this classic gender-bending comedy. The madness for love unfolds after a shipwrecked Viola falls onto the Illyrian Shores.

Wicked
Dallas Summer Musicals, August 3-September 5
The first national Broadway tour post-pandemic has flown into the Music Hall at Fair Park, bringing with it an extraordinary green-skinned woman, her bubbly best friend, and a different angle on The Wizard of Oz.

Death on Delivery!
Pegasus Theatre, August 5-21
The setting is City Hospital, where Lt. Foster’s wife (Beverly, a.k.a. Bubbles) has just given birth to their first child, Harriet. But danger lurks around every corner, so the intrepid trio (Harry, his paid-by-the-hour assistant Nigel Grouse, and Lt. Foster of the “real” police) must solve a mysterious string of murders before a madman claims one of their own. RadioVizion is an alternative technique devised by Pegasus Theatre for the presentation of the Living Black & White series of Harry Hunsacker adventures. While RadioVizion does not employ the trade-secret makeup, it instead focuses on evoking the experience and glamour of being in a live radio studio of the 1930s and 1940s (though in this case you'll be at the Bath House Cultural Center). Live sound effects, actors at period-style live microphones, and costumes suggestive of the era complete the effect.

The Little Glass Slipper as Performed by the Queen of France and Her Friends
Cara Johnston, streaming August 6-30
France: 1789. Tensions are high and whispers of revolution fill the halls of Versailles. We are at the Queen’s Theatre attending a performance given by Marie Antoinette and her aristocratic friends. It is the 14th of July and today the Bastille will be stormed. Chaos ensues as both play and Ancien Régime fall apart. Follow as actors flee, assassination is attempted, and the age-old saying “the show must go on” is pushed to the limit. The show was recorded at Dallas' Majestic Theatre on July 14, 2021, in front of a small audience and is being streamed as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Your Healing is Killing Me
Cara Mía Theatre Co., August 19, 21-22
Playwright-in-residence Virginia Grise is performing her manifesto in the neighborhoods of Pleasant Grove, Oak Cliff, and Bachman Lake for free. Part performance, part writing and movement workshop, this interactive community tour asks audiences to come in comfortable, ready-to-move attire as they will become part of Grise’s performance. The script is based on Grise’s lessons learned in San Antonio free health clinics and New York acupuncture schools; from the treatments and consejos of curanderas, abortion doctors, Marxist artists, community health workers and bourgie dermatologists.

Fun Home
Uptown Players, August 20-28
Based on Alison Bechdel’s 2006 graphic memoir of the same name, Fun Home, developed by Lisa Kron (book/lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori (score), is hailed as the first mainstream musical with a lesbian protagonist, and it explores themes of family, sexuality, and secrets. Originally postponed from last season, the musical is finally making its debut at the Kalita Humphreys Theater.

Libra Season
Second Thought Theatre, streaming August 20-September 4
Commissioned as part of the 2020 S.T.E.P. Program (Second Thought Emerging Playwrights), Libra Season has been in development for the past year specifically for zoom by Erin E. Adams. This play will be performed live each night and streamed via Zoom webinar from each actor’s own home. The employees of Libra Ltd. are having a bad autumn. After several stressful months of working from home, they now face a leaked memo with possible disastrous consequences. Plus, an impending public nervous breakdown from their teen spokesmodel.

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RIP, Irma

Dallas actress and 'Soul Food' star Irma P. Hall passes away at 91

Courtesy photo

Irma P. Hall

Dallas actress and longtime resident Irma P. Hall, best known for playing Big Mama Jo in the 1997 film Soul Food, died Tuesday, November 10, surrounded by loved ones, according to an announcement from her family. She was 91.

Hall built a nearly five-decade career in film, television, and theater, earning an NAACP Image Award for Soul Food and a Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for her performance in The Ladykillers.

"Her commanding presence and remarkable ability to bring depth and authenticity to every character made her one of Hollywood's most respected and recognizable character actresses and a cultural icon," her family says in a statement.

Before becoming a familiar face on movie screens, Hall spent more than 20 years teaching English and foreign languages in Dallas public schools. She maintained her ties to her native Texas throughout her Hollywood career.

Born Irma Dolores Player on June 3, 1935, in Beaumont, Hall grew up in Chicago before returning to Texas to attend Texas College in Tyler. Her path to acting began unexpectedly when actor and director Raymond St. Jacques discovered her talent during a poetry reading in Dallas, her family says.

She made her film debut in Book of Numbers in 1973, launching a second career that would take her from Dallas stages to Tinseltown sets.

Hall became widely recognized for her portrayal of Big Mama Jo in Soul Food, the 1997 film about a close-knit family whose Sunday dinners bring generations together. She starred alongside stars Vanessa Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Nia Long, and Michael Beach.

"One of the most iconic mother roles in film history, "A Song for Mama" by Boyz II Men was written and produced by Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds, specifically centering on Irma P. Hall's character in Soul Food," the family statement says. "Decades after its original release, this song is still one of the most popular and enduring Mother's Day anthems of all time."

Hall's other credits included A Family Thing (1996), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), Beloved (1998), Patch Adams (1998), The Ladykillers (2004), Collateral (2004), and Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (2008). She also reprised her role as Mama Joe in the television series based on the film.

Hall's performance in Soul Food earned her an NAACP Image Award for outstanding supporting actress in a motion picture. In 2004, she shared a Jury Prize at Cannes for The Ladykillers, in which she starred opposite Tom Hanks. She also received honors from the Chicago and Kansas City film critics associations for A Family Thing and was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame.

Courtesy photo

Irma P. Hall stayed connected to the Dallas arts and theater community throughout her life.

Hall remained connected to Dallas and its arts community her whole life, her family says. She co-founded the Dallas Minority Repertory Theatre in 1973. Her contributions are also remembered through the Irma P. Hall Black Theatre Awards, known as The Irmas, an annual celebration of performing and technical theater talent across Dallas-Fort Worth, founded in 2015.

Education remained another lifelong passion. Hall received an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts and Education from Texas College in recognition of her work in the arts and education. At Inspiring Body of Christ Church in Dallas, where she was a longtime member and cherished Church Mother, she regularly visited the church's University of Dreams school to read to children and share her love of storytelling. She also participated in the church's theater ministry.

“Today, we celebrate the extraordinary life of a woman whose faith, wisdom and love touched so many," senior pastor Rickie G. Rush says in a statement. "Our beloved Church Mother, Irma P. Hall, has taken her final bow on the stage of life and stepped into eternity.”

Hall is survived by her only daughter, Irma Hall Crayton, who remembered her mother's influence as both an educator and a mentor.

“She started as a teacher in the classroom but ended up being a teacher to the world,” Crayton says. “My mom used to always say, ‘To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.’ And she was just that to many people.”

Funeral services and memorial arrangements will be announced at a later date.

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Theater Critic Picks

These are the 7 can't-miss shows in Dallas-Fort Worth theater for August

RIP, Irma

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