Theater Critic Picks

These are the 10 can't-miss shows in Dallas-Fort Worth theater for September

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof makes for a steamy September.

Photo courtesy of The Classics Theatre Project

The theater calendar is getting busier as the weather (finally) cools down — in fact, fall is the perfect time to bring a picnic to Samuell-Grand Amphitheatre for Shakespeare Dallas' final production of the year.

In order of start date, here are 10 local shows to watch this month:

Big Scary Animals
Theatre Three, September 1-25
An older white couple from the country moves to the city to be closer to their granddaughter and unknowingly settles in the gay neighborhood. What begins as polite dinner conversation with their gay, multi-ethnic neighbors careens out of control in this updated version of the Matt Lyle's play, presented at Theatre Too in 2017.

Lonesome Blues
Undermain Theatre, September 1-18
This is the true story of the legendary bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson: born blind, but ultimately able to express his deepest emotions through music. Discovered on a street corner in Deep Ellum in 1925, Jefferson made more than 80 records over the next four years, becoming one the most prolific and influential performers of his generation and propelling the growth of rhythm and blues, soul, doo-wop, rap, and hip-hop.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The Classics Theatre Project, September 2-11
With a romanticism rooted in reality, the story unfolds on a night in the Mississippi Delta as the Pollitt family gathers to celebrate the birthday of its aging and ailing patriarch, Big Daddy. His two sons vie for an inheritance with former football hero, Brick, also contending with his wife’s, Maggie-the-Cat’s, unbridled sexuality and the nature of his own, in a relationship burdened by repressed love.

Fences
Circle Theatre, September 2-24
Troy Maxson, a former star baseball player, is excluded as a black man from the major leagues during his prime in this classic play by August Wilson. Troy’s bitterness takes its toll on his relationships with his wife, who reevaluates their marriage when Troy comes home with a baby he fathered with another woman, and his son, who now wants his own chance to become a football star.

Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations
Broadway Dallas, September 6-18
This Broadway musical follows The Temptations’ extraordinary journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. With their signature dance moves and silky-smooth harmonies, they rose to the top of the charts, creating 42 top 10 hits, with 14 reaching No. 1.

The Bridges of Madison County
WaterTower Theatre, September 7-11
Francesca Johnson, a beautiful Italian woman who married an American soldier to flee war-ravaged Italy, looks forward to a rare four days alone on her Iowa farm when her family heads to the 1965 State Fair. When ruggedly handsome National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid pulls into her driveway seeking directions, what happens in those four days may very well alter the course of Francesca's life.

St. Ella
Ochre House Theatre, September 7-24
St. Ella takes a satirical look at the iconic women found in 20th-century plays and explores their roles as oppressed women and the brutish men who ruled over them. The dark comedy is filled with song, dance, new vaudevillian techniques, and exposes the woman’s "world that is dying within her."

Hamlet
Shakespeare Dallas, September 7-October 15
Known as one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays, Shakespeare Dallas’ interpretation of Hamlet features an all-woman cast (led by Jenny Ledel) and is directed by celebrated local actress and director Christie Vela.

Clue
Dallas Theater Center, September 8-25
Based on the iconic 1985 Paramount movie, which was inspired by the classic Hasbro board game, Clue is a hilarious farce-meets-murder mystery. The tale begins at a remote mansion, where six mysterious guests assemble for an unusual dinner party where murder and blackmail are on the menu. When their host turns up dead, they all become suspects.

Disney's Winnie the Pooh
Irving Arts Center, September 16-18
Featuring the Sherman Brothers' classic Grammy Award-winning music with further songs by A.A. Milne, this fresh stage adaptation is told with life-sized puppetry through the eyes of the characters we all know and love in a new story from the Hundred Acre Wood.

tours theater

Lawsuit news

Artist sues FIFA for $25 million over painted-over Dallas whale mural

Facebook/Wyland

Artist Wyland's Whaling Wall mural being painted over for a FIFA World Cup-related mural in Dallas.

The artist who painted a giant mural on a building in downtown Dallas of life-sized swimming whales has filed a $25 million lawsuit against soccer's international governing body and others, saying they illegally painted over his work to promote the city's upcoming World Cup matches.

The artist Wyland says he hand-painted the sprawling mural that covered roughly 17,000 square feet (1,580 square meters) across two of the building's walls.

The mural stood for nearly three decades before workers began painting over it last month, causing an uproar among residents who admired the mural's grand scale and message of ocean conservation.

The area’s World Cup organizing committee said in a statement that, in place of Wyland's mural, new artwork is planned "that captures this current historical moment and reflects the energy, unity, and global spirit surrounding the World Cup 2026.” It said a portion of Wyland's mural would be preserved.

Wyland filed suit Monday, June 1 in U.S District Court in Dallas saying that World Cup organizers, along with the building's owner and management company, painted over his mural without his consent or even notifying him. He says their actions violated a 1990 federal law passed to protect visual artists from destruction of publicly displayed works.

Wyland is seeking at least $25 million in damages. His lawsuit says world soccer's governing body, FIFA, and other defendants “hastily and irrevocably destroyed a civic landmark” to promote the World Cup.

“Though FIFA claims they were working to develop art for the host city, in truth, they defaced an historic fixture of the host city,” the artist's lawsuit says.

A FIFA spokesperson said Tuesday the federation “has no involvement in this whatsoever” and referred a reporter to the tournament's local organizing committee.

A spokesperson for the North Texas FWC Organizing Committee declined to comment. The committee isn't named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

A spokesperson for Slate Asset Management, which manages the building where the mural was painted over, said in a statement that local World Cup organizers asked Slate in March to donate the mural space for “a new public art installation.”

“Slate is not being compensated in any way for the use of the wall space and was told by the local groups that Mr. Wyland had been notified,” the management company's spokesperson said in an email.

Dallas is hosting more World Cup matches than any of the other sites in the event co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, with nine matches set to be played at AT&T Stadium in suburban Arlington, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

Wyland's Dallas mural, titled “Whaling Wall 82,” was finished in 1999 and is among more than 100 similar murals known as Whaling Walls the artist painted around the world to promote the conservation of ocean life.

An online petition protesting the mural's destruction and calling for protecting of public artwork in Dallas has received more than 2,600 signatures.

Wyland's lawsuit alleges violations of the Visual Artists Rights Act, a 1990 federal law that protects artwork of “recognized stature” even if someone else owns the physical artwork.

A judge cited that law in 2018 when he ordered a property owner to pay a group of New York graffiti artists $6.7 million for whitewashing dozens of their spray-painted murals on buildings that once housed a factory in Queens. The ruling was upheld on appeal.

fifa world cup fifa world cup 2026 lawsuit wyland whaling mural murals downtown dallas