Very Merry Theater

10 Dallas stage productions wishing you a very merry Christmas

Now that Thanksgiving is out of the way, you can start celebrating Christmas without feeling guilty. Here are 10 shows guaranteed to get you in the holiday spirit (holiday spirits not included).

A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration
Theatre Three, through December 14
Historical figures sing alongside regular folk in Paula Vogel's American answer to the British A Christmas Carol. While there aren't technically any Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present or Future, there are plenty of spirits hanging around circa 1864, and they make for some pretty heavy storytelling. Thankfully, more than 20 traditional hymns and carols — sung by a cast including Stormi Demerson, Stan Graner, Bryan Lewis and Bryan Pitts — lighten things up.

A Christmas Story
Dallas Summer Musicals, December 2-14
"You'll shoot your eye out" was just begging to be turned into a chorus, no? Songwriters Benj Paul and Justin Paul were nominated for Tony Awards for the stage adaptation of the cult classic holiday film, which includes an Italian-ish leg lamp, bunny pajamas and one very famous Red Ryder BB Gun. Two local kids, Peyton Nicholson and Grace Moore, perform with the children's ensemble during the run at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

A Christmas Carol: A Radio Show
One Thirty Productions, December 3-20
B.J. Cleveland makes his onstage debut with One Thirty Productions in this one-man radio retelling of Charles Dickens' classic. Cleveland made microphone magic two years ago with It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play at WaterTower Theatre, so listening to him inhabit 20-plus characters (and sound effects) here is sure to be a treat. As noted by the company's name, all performances are 1:30 matinees.

Yes Virginia Woolf, There Is a Santa Claus
Fun House Theatre and Film, December 5-12
The ingenious (and sometimes twisted) team at Fun House has spoofed everything from family-friendly musicals to modern superhero films (with a dancing Nazi thrown in there and there for good measure), so combining Edward Albee's hard-drinking play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf with a heartwarming tale about the existence of Santa Claus isn't too out there. Wait, yes it is. It's completely bananas, which is what makes it so good. If you ever wanted to see a 16-year-old play Drunk Santa, here's your chance.

Christmas Our Way
Uptown Players, December 11-14
Normally Uptown Players' fundraiser Broadway Our Way is held at the first of the year. This time, the group is giving the annual concert a holiday twist with the first-ever Christmas Our Way. More than 30 Christmas-themed tunes from Broadway musicals are performed by some of DFW's finest performers, all of whom donate their time and talent to benefit the company, whose mission is to promote acceptance and awareness.

Miracle on 34th Street
Dallas Children's Theater, through December 21
There's magic in the air with this stage version of the Twentieth Century Fox film, as Kris Kringle goes on trial and skeptics start believing. A large cast of kids (natch) bring a bubbly excitement to the stage, playing excited children and merry elves. Stick around after to meet Santa (Francis Fuselier), who looks so real you might start to wonder yourself.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical
Bass Hall, December 5-7
Majestic Theatre, December 16-21
This stage adaptation brings the beloved 1964 stop-motion holiday special to life, with Rudolph and his cast of holly-jolly pals tasked with saving Christmas. Santa and Mrs. Claus, Hermey the Elf, the Abominable Snow Monster, Clarice, Yukon Cornelius — they're all here, celebrating Rudolph's 50 years on television.

A Christmas Carol
Dallas Theater Center, through December 27
Kevin Moriarty and DTC shook things up last year by debuting an all-new adaptation of the holiday classic, and they're taking it a step further this year by having DTC's director of new play development, Lee Trull, assume directing duties, with Home by Hovercraft's Shawn Magill overseeing the music. Trull has been involved with Carol in some way or another for 10 years, so it should be interesting to see what he does with resident company member Chamblee Ferguson returning to the role of Ebenezer Scrooge.

The Santaland Diaries
WaterTower Theatre, December 5-28
Garret Storms returns as Crumpet the Elf, the surliest employee at Macy's North Pole. WaterTower has been producing this one-man show, adapted from a popular essay by David Sedaris, for years, but last year Storms brought a no-nonsense intensity that somehow made his character's oh-so-wrong musings even funnier. Director Kelsey Ervi is rumored to have some tricks up her sleeve for this year's incarnation.

The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical
WaterTower Theatre, December 5-January 4
Everyone's favorite trashy trailer park dwellers are back, as Christmas comes to Armadillo Acres. Sara Shelby-Martin, Cara Serber and Megan Kelly Bates reprise their roles as Betty, Linoleum and Pickles, respectively, having starred in the original The Great American Trailer Park Musical at WaterTower in 2007. "Contains adult content" is an understatement.

Cara Serber, Sara Shelby-Martin and Megan Kelly Bates in The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical.

WaterTower Theatre presents The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical

Photo by Kelsey Leigh Ervi

Cara Serber, Sara Shelby-Martin and Megan Kelly Bates in The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical.

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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.

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