Theater Critic Picks

Spooky thrills and clever comedy take over Dallas stages in October

Lyric Stage presents "The Rocky Horror Show."

Photo courtesy of Lyric Stage

October is here and it's spooky season onstage, with productions that include the cult classic Rocky Horror Show, The Addams Family, a piece inspired by Alfred Hitchcock, and a play about the trading of Luka Doncic away from the Mavericks — that's the scariest of all!

Here are 12 shows appearing in Dallas-Fort Worth theaters in September, listed in order of start date:

Latinidades Festival
Cara Mia Theatre, October 2-12
Dallas’s largest international Latino theatre festival is back for its sixth year with six mainstage productions and various second-stage performances spanning theater, dance, music, and poetry to highlight diverse Latin American voices. Also returning is the Arts Symposium: "How Our Arts Will Thrive in Times of Change." For a full schedule of events, go to the festival website.

cleaVage
MusicalWriters.com Productions & Lakeside Community Theatre, October 3-18
It's the world premiere of this a laugh-out-loud new musical comedy about the rise, fall, and rebound of silicone gel breast implants. Conceived by Dallas plastic surgeon Dr. Ron Friedman and co-written with Laura Goodenow, cleaVage has been described as “Hamilton with breasts” by Texas Monthly.

Noises Off
Dallas Theater Company, October 3-26
Michael Frayn’s uproarious classic British comedy is a play-within-a-play that plunges the audience into the chaotic world of Nothing’s On, a fictional touring production tormented by backstage romances and onstage blunders. From flubbed lines to slamming doors, witness the hilarious unraveling of a troupe of eccentric actors.

King Hedley II
Soul Rep Theatre Company & Bishop Arts Theatre Center, October 9-26
Set in 1985 Pittsburgh, August Wilson's King Hedley II follows an ex-convict's fight to rebuild his life and reclaim his future amid hardship, hope, and the weight of the past.

Mac Beth
Circle Theatre, October 9-November 1
After school‭, ‬seven teenage girls convene in an abandoned lot‭. ‬They drop their backpacks‭, ‬transform their uniforms‭, ‬and dive into a DIY retelling of Macbeth‭. As the girls conjure‭ ‬kings‭, ‬warriors‭, ‬and witches‭, ‬Shakespeare’s bloody tale seeps into their reality‭.

The Trade: A Tragedy in Four Quarters
Theatre Three, October 9-November 2
In this fast-paced, highly unauthorized, foam middle-fingered satire, the Dallas Mavericks are on the brink of greatness — so naturally, Nico slams the self-destruct button. With a Greek chorus narrating the tragic downfall, a Kiss Cam, “Luka Doncic,” “Mark Cuban,” and a cameo from “Anthony Davis’ Hernia,” The Trade skewers the madness behind the moves, the myth that millionaires and billionaires must know what they’re doing, and the heartbreak of loving something that doesn’t love you back. In Dallas, tragedy wears Nikes.

The Rocky Horror Show
Lyric Stage, October 10-26
In this cult classic, sweethearts Brad and Janet, stuck with a flat tire during a storm, discover the eerie mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. As their innocence is lost, Brad and Janet meet a houseful of wild characters, including a rocking biker and a creepy butler. Through elaborate dances and rock songs, Frank-N-Furter unveils his latest creation: a muscular man named “Rocky.” Complete with sass from the audience, cascading toilet paper, and an array of other audience participation props, this deliberately kitschy rock ’n’ roll sci-fi gothic musical is more fun than ever.

Incarnate
Second Thought Theatre, October 15-November 1
Incarnate, by STT’s own Parker Davis Gray, is a horror/thriller that follows two artists over the course of a year in their seemingly pointless pursuit of creation while suffering under great grief. Trapped in her cell, Rosamund is hellbent on escaping her fate while the Man who kidnapped her struggles with the consequences of what grief can do, and how far he will go to escape it. Can they live with themselves? Or, more importantly, who else is living with them?

Ride the Cyclone
Stage West, October 16-November 2
In this critically acclaimed cult musical, a freak roller coaster accident derails the lives of the entire St. Cassian High School chamber choir. Now dead, trapped in carnival limbo, they’re greeted by a mechanical fortune teller who proposes a talent show. The prize? One lucky winner will return to life.

The Birds
Amphibian Stage, October 17-November 9
Based on Daphne du Maurier’s story (the inspiration for Hitchcock’s famous film), The Birds brings a chilling and suspenseful look at human nature in the face of societal collapse. When killer birds start attacking, three strangers seek shelter in an isolated house. But as paranoia creeps in, they realize the biggest threat might not be coming from outside.

The Addams Family
Broadway at the Bass, October 24-26
Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family. A man her parents have never met. And if that weren’t upsetting enough, she confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he’s never done before: keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday’s “normal” boyfriend and his parents.

A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical
Broadway at the Bass, October 28-November 2
This is the untold true story of a Brooklyn kid who became a chart-busting, show-stopping, award-winning American icon, created in collaboration with Neil Diamond himself.

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All Eyes on Them

Dallas alt hip-hop group wins prestigious Tiny Desk Contest by NPR

Cure for Paranoia/Facebook

As winners of the Tiny Desk Contest, Cure for Paranoia will record their own Tiny Desk concert and go on tour.

Few live recording studios or musical web series have the cultural sway of NPR's Tiny Desk, and a Dallas band is poised to make an impactful debut: Cure For Paranoia, an alternative hip-hop project by rapper Cameron McCloud and producers Tomahawk Jonez and Jay Analo, has won the high-stakes annual Tiny Desk Contest for 2026.

They'll record their official Tiny Desk show "soon," the announcement by NPR says.

Winning the concert also means Cure for Paranoia is going on tour. The only Texas stop will be at Emo's Austin on June 24.

Tiny Desk is known for platforming both niche and majorly successful artists — NPR posted a new Foo Fighters set on YouTube on May 13 — for stripped-down sets that are literally played behind former All Things Considered director Bob Boilen's old desk. (Fun fact for Texans: Tiny Desk was created because folk artist Laura Gibson was disappointed with the sound at her South by Southwest show in Austin in 2008, and she wanted a redo.)

Most artists who appear on Tiny Desk more than 15 years later are already well-known, at least in their specific circles. But the Tiny Desk Contest, which launched in 2015, helps a growing group of newer, unsigned artists get their foot in the door. Contestants record one video of them performing a single song behind a desk, and a jury of radio staff and musicians chooses their favorite.

In their audition video, Cure for Paranoia gathered 11 musicians around a truly tiny desk and in front of downtown Dallas' iconic gigantic eyeball sculpture. They played the song "No Brainer," a frenetic track that starts with clever boasts and becomes a criticism of racism in the United States.

McCloud, a pre-school teacher, is known independently of Cure for Paranoia for rapping to his social media following about politics and current events. Some of those lyrics made it into "No Brainer." He says he started the group because he found that music was more helpful than medication for coping with bipolar depression and paranoid schizophrenia.

Alex Marrero, host of the Austin-based KUTX show Horizontes, was one of the judges this year. He was impressed with the visuals in Cure for Paranoia's audition.

“When this popped up, I immediately felt something different," he wrote in a blurb for the announcement. "It just jumped out. The visuals were super cool and creative, BUT I could still totally envision them bringing the heat behind the Desk.”

Madison McFerrin, jazz vocalist and daughter of the famous singer Bobby McFerrin, was one of the musical judges.

"Cure For Paranoia’s energy is infectious, fresh and distinctly theirs — exactly what you want in a Contest winner!" she wrote.

McCloud's post on Instagram announcing the group's win has only been up for three hours at the time of this article's publication, and it already has more than 8,000 likes. The YouTube audition has garnered 74,000 views.

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