Lose weight. Stop smoking. See a play?

Commitments you can keep: 5 New Year's theater resolutions

Sometimes smaller companies yield bigger surprises, such as Nouveau 47's On theEve in 2012.
Wicked is bound to be "Popular" with Dallas Summer Musical audiences thisspring.
Photo by Joan Marcus
Fly By Night is getting its regional premiere at Dallas Theater Center in 2013.
Based on the story of Peter Pan, Fly is a new musical set to premiere at DallasTheater Center in 2013.

Some New Year’s resolutions you’re never going to keep (ahem, losing those pesky 10 pounds), but others are surprisingly easy to accomplish. Perhaps instead of vowing for the umpteenth time that you’re finally going to fit into your high school jeans, use this year as a chance to expand your cultural horizons by trying one — or all — of these theater resolutions.

1. Discover a new theater company
You might be familiar with the big names (you know, the ones that can afford billboards and major advertising campaigns), but DFW is flush with smaller theater companies that often do excellent and challenging work. On The Eve, a new rock musical about “the almost entirely true story of Marie Antoinette and the first time-traveling hot air balloon,” recently proved a gargantuan success for Nouveau 47 Theater and Spacegrove Productions.

A show produced by one of these less-publicized companies is usually not only a cheaper option and more intimate experience, but it also makes you look like someone “in the know.” And don’t we all want to be trendsetters?

2. Indulge in a guilty pleasure
Theater doesn’t always have to be a serious endeavor. Dallas Summer Musicals’ upcoming season is a roster of familiar titles (Wicked, Sister Act, The Lion King), most of them beloved musicals that have visited Dallas before and/or have been adapted from popular films.

There’s no shame in attending a musical based on a cult flick; Bring It On: The Musical surprised the heck out of me by being one of the most energetic and entertaining shows I saw this past year. Crowd pleasers are called so for a reason.

3. See something you know nothing about
There’s a certain thrill that comes from going into a show blind. Sure, the play may turn out to be a turkey, but there’s also a very good chance you might discover something amazing that you otherwise wouldn’t have considered.

This coming year, Dallas Theater Center is premiering Fly, a new musical based on J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, and Fly By Night, a rock musical co-written by Kim Rosenstock, one of the staff writers for Fox’s hit comedy New Girl. Both shows have accessible entry points but promise new and exciting destinations.

4. Attend a festival
Each March, WaterTower Theatre sponsors the Out of the Loop Fringe Festival, a collection of locally produced plays, musicals, dance performances and visual art displays. Often smaller in scale and time commitment, these bite-sized shows provide an astonishing bang for your buck over the two weeks, making it easy to while away a Saturday dropping in and out of vividly different performances.

Kitchen Dog Theater's annual New Play Festival and the Festival of Independent Theatres are other examples of dramatic potpourri, the latter giving smaller companies a month in the summer to produce new, seldom-seen or avant-garde works at the Bath House Cultural Center.

5. Introduce someone else to live theater
Whether it's a youngster you're accompanying to Dallas Children's Theater or Pocket Sandwich Theatre, or a more mature individual who's tagging along for anything from Shakespeare's greatest hits to a grand musical at the Winspear to an experimental play downtown, it's hard to beat a first-timer's reaction.

Live theater is immediate. Being a part of that exhilarating give-and-take is a wondrous experience. It doesn't matter what kind of theater you see in 2013 — what matters is that you see something.

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Hottest headlines of 2025

From Guy Fieri to Princess Di: Dallas’ 10 biggest A&E stories of 2025

Photo by Anwar Hussein via Arlington Museum of Art

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Editor's note: Our most-read arts and entertainment stories of 2025 show Dallas' love of pop culture and high culture. Highlights include restaurant visits from Food Network star Guy Fieri and movie star Tom Cruise; a Dungeons & Dragons attraction making its U.S. debut; a blockbuster exhibit of Princess Diana photos taken by royal photographers, and the return of the beloved Hammering Men sculptures to NorthPark Center.

Read on for our top 10 arts and entertainment stories of 2025:

1. Dallas' Starship Bagel breaks silence on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. A Dallas bagel shop in late May revealed that it would be featured on Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Starship Bagel, the artisan bagel shop with three locations in the Dallas area, would appear in the series starring charismatic host Guy Fieri in an episode called “All Kinds of Cookin'," which would debut on June 6 at 8 pm.

Guy Fieri Oren Salomon Guy Fieri and Oren Salomon Courtesy photo

2. Dungeons & Dragons immersive attraction makes U.S. debut in Plano. The classic role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons came to life in a new way when Dungeons & Dragons: The Immersive Quest made its U.S. debut in Plano on October 15. Plano was its second city, giving Texans — and Americans — their first opportunity to literally walk through adventures they’ve imagined at the game table. (It is still open.)

3. Tom Cruise fulfills vow to eat BBQ in Dallas on Mission Impossible tour. Movie star Tom Cruise promised he was going to eat BBQ in Dallas and he stood by that vow: While on a tour through Texas to promote his new film Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning, Cruise hit Pecan Lodge in Deep Ellum on May 22, where he was treated to a spread that included a specially-made sausage.

Tom Cruise in Dallas Tribal Cafe

4. Official list of 4th of July events and fireworks around Dallas in 2025. The Dallas area sure knows how to celebrate the 4th of July, with some kind of celebration taking place nearby no matter which city you call home. We gathered as close to a comprehensive list as there can be of the big 4th of July-themed events happening in the Dallas area in 2025.

5. Ultimate guide to spring break 2025 family fun in Dallas-Fort Worth. Spring break fun got super-sized to two full weeks in Dallas-Fort Worth this year. That's because the area's largest districts took back-to-back weeks off. This big guide to fun events and activities helped families plan the perfect staycation.

6. Register now for tickets for 2026 FIFA World Cup games in Arlington. The application period for the first ticket draw for the FIFA World Cup 26 was set to open on September 10, but football/soccer fans could register ery to get their hands on tickets to matches at AT&T Stadium in Arlington and elsewhere.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington and other venues in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Photo courtesy of CONCACAF

7. New Princess Diana exhibition brings famous royal photos to Arlington. A new exhibition at Arlington Museum of Art showcased one of the most-loved and most-photographed women in the world: Princess Diana. "Princess Diana: Accredited Access Exhibition," featuring 140 photos by the late official royal photographer Anwar Hussein, ran from January to April, 2025. The exhibition told the story of the world’s most loved Princess "through an intimate new lens."

8. 2 Dallas museums partner on landmark Roy Lichtenstein acquisition. The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) and the Nasher Sculpture Center will present works from the joint acquisition of more than 50 artworks generously gifted by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, showing prints, drawings, and sculptures by the groundbreaking American artist at the two neighboring institutions in the Dallas Arts District. The installations will be on view from January 31 to August 16, 2026 at the Nasher and from January 1 to July 5, 2026 at the DMA.

9. Hammering Men return to NorthPark Center Dallas after 4-year nap. A signature sculpture at Dallas' NorthPark Center returned to its stomping grounds: Five Hammering Men, 1982, a series by American artist Jonathan Borofsky, returned to the mall following a four-year absence, which they describe as "a period of rest" to conribute to its longevity and lifespan.

Hammering Men, 1982 at NorthPark Center Hammering Men, 1982 NorthPark Center

10. Global art exhibit Balloon Museum bounces immersively into Dallas. A new museum tour featuring huge airy installations — also known as balloons — has come to Dallas: Called Let’s Fly – Art Has No Limits, it's a multisensory exhibition from an entity called the Balloon Museum, and it touched down at Dallas' South Side Studios at 2901 Botham Jean Blvd. on Saturday, November 22, where it will reside until April 16, 2026.

museums guy fieri guy fieri dallas tom cruise celebrities spring break 4th of july world cup hot headlines