Actor Spotlight

Why this fire-eating Broadway star loves being back in Dallas

Back in 2012, the UK's National Theatre brought to Broadway a groovy update of the commedia dell'arte play The Servant of Two Masters. Called One Man, Two Guvnors, the laugh-out-loud comedy starred a then-little-known actor named James Corden. Understudying Corden was an actor from Dallas: Brian Gonzales.

In the years since, Corden has gone on to late-night hosting fame and Gonzales has continued his Broadway streak, currently appearing in Disney's Aladdin. But now Gonzales is taking a short break from the Great White Way to return to his hometown. He's starring in WaterTower Theatre's regional premiere of One Man, Two Guvnors, along with his wife, Ashley Puckett Gonzales.

Before the show opens on August 8 (running through August 28), Gonzales took the time to fill out our survey of serious, fun, and sometimes ridiculous questions.

Name: Brian Gonzales

Role in One Man, Two Guvnors: Francis

Previous work in the DFW area: Actor at WaterTower Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Lyric Stage

Hometown: Dallas

Where you currently reside: New York

First theater role: A Christmas Carol

First stage show you ever saw: The Nutcracker

Moment you decided to pursue a career in theater: When I saw Jerry Haynes onstage. [Haynes was a Dallas actor who starred for 30 years as the host of one of the longest-running local children's shows on television, Mr. Peppermint.]

Most challenging role you’ve played: Leaf Coneybear in The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee.

Special skills: Fire-eating, puppetry

Something you’re REALLY bad at: Soccer, being tall

Current pop culture obsession: Star Trek

Last book you read: Over the Top and Back: The Autobiography by Tom Jones

Favorite movie(s): Night of the Hunter, Patton, To Kill a Mockingbird, Shaft

Favorite musician(s): Lyle Lovett, Michael Kiwanuka, Dolly Parton, Paul Weller, Tina Turner

Favorite song: The theme from Mission: Impossible

Dream role: John Adams in 1776 [Gonzales played the role at Lyric Stage in 2012], Georges Seurat in Sunday in the Park with George [he played the role in 2001 at Plano Repertory Theatre].

Favorite play(s): Equus; One Man, Two Guvors

Favorite musical(s): 1776, Sunday in the Park with George, Ragtime

Favorite actors/actresses: My wife, Roscoe Lee Brown, Dame Judi Dench, Peter O'Toole, Angela Bassett

Favorite food: All of it.

Must-see TV show(s): River on Netflix

Something most people don’t know about you: I'm terrified of water and swimming.

Place in the world you’d most like to visit: New Zealand

Pre-show warm-up: Rolling and stretching, iTunes on the mp3 player.

Favorite part about your current role: The audience interaction.

Most challenging part about your current project: The audience interaction. And the physical comedy.

Most embarrassing onstage mishap: It involved vomit, and we'll leave it at that.

Career you’d have if you weren’t in theater: A chef

Favorite post-show spot: Home

Favorite thing about Dallas-Forth Worth: My friends and family are here.

Most memorable theater moment: Going on for James Corden.

Brian Gonzales as Francis in One Man, Two Guvnors.

Photo by Karen Almond

Brian Gonzales as Francis in One Man, Two Guvnors.

interview qa theater

Mural News

Netflix House will debut in Dallas with murals from acclaimed artist

Netflix House

Jeremy Biggers at Netflix House

A long-awaited immersive venue is opening in Dallas, and it will debut with local art on its walls: Netflix House, a year-round exhibit revolving around Netflix shows and movies, will open at Galleria Dallas on December 11, with two murals from award-winning Dallas multi-medium artist Jeremy Biggers.

Netflix House is an immersive dive complete with merchandise store, film house, arcade, and restaurant-bar. When it opens, Dallas will be the second location in the U.S., following Philadelphia, where it debuted in November 2025, also with murals from a local artist.

A graduate of Booker T. Washington High School for Performing and Visual Arts, Biggers is a renowned artist whose murals can be found spashed on walls across Dallas. Many, such as the Selena portrait on the wall outside Top Ten Records at 306 S. Bishop Ave., have become local landmarks.

He's a logical choice, having worked with a number of corporations including Nike, Adidas, the Dallas Mavericks, and IBM, for whom he created the "THINK" mural in their Dallas corporate office. His works have also been exhibited nationally, including a 2024 solo exhibition "be safe out there bro" at Band of Vices, a gallery in Los Angeles.

"Being chosen to be the artist to paint this mural, it would have been a disservice to myself, as well as the art scene in the city, not to try to infuse myself into it," he says.

$\u200bJeremy Biggers at Netflix House$ Jeremy Biggers at Netflix HouseNetflix House

Biggers did two murals featuring his interpretation of Netflix figures including the Squid Game Young-hee doll, characters from KPop Demon Hunters and megahit series Stranger Things, plus Pandy and DJ Catnip, the best friends in the interactive series Gabby’s Dollhouse.

Both murals are intensely colored works that incorporate Biggers' signature motif: a grid of polka dots spread across the image.

One is on the exterior of Netflix House, at the parking entrance, a colorful collage of characters, measuring 38 feet x 50 feet — the tallest mural Biggers has tackled. He painted it with aerosol; it took him two months to complete.
The other is on the interior, on the mall side entrance of Netflix House, measuring 57 feet x 12 feet — a study in moody blacks and blues, with accents of neon-red that give it a 3D effect.

“I'm trying to tell the story of Netflix, and the story of where Netflix has been historically, where Netflix is headed in the future, and then also infusing my own narrative and my own language visually into that story,” he says.

“They could have opened this anywhere, so for Dallas to be one of the very first locations — that’s a testament to us as a market, as consumers of arts and consumers in general," he says.

Jeremy Biggers at Netflix HouseNetflix House

galleries openings