Theater Critic Picks

These are the 9 must-see shows in Dallas-Fort Worth theater for August

Cinderella opens Lyric Stage's 30th season.

Photo courtesy of Palette Studio

It's some of the best scheduling ever to have Frozen playing in Texas during August. Like, we just really needed that, you know?

But there's more than just ice princesses this month! There are regular princesses, princes, dukes, Mormons, vampires, and a dude named Josh, all onstage in air-conditioned theaters and ready to entertain you.

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

Crowns of Power: Henry IV
Junior Players, August 1-6
Set in a kingdom plagued with rebellion, treachery, and shifting alliances in the period following the deposition of King Richard II, the two parts of Henry IV focus especially on the development of Prince Hal (later Henry V) from wastrel to ruler rather than on the title character. Produced in collaboration with Shakespeare Dallas.

The Book of Mormon
Broadway Dallas, August 1-6
This nine-time Tony Award-winning Best Musical is an outrageous comedy that follows the misadventures of a mismatched pair of missionaries, sent halfway across the world to spread the Good Word.

As You Like It
Fair Assembly, August 3-13
“All the world’s a stage,” and when at court, Celia and Rosalind know their parts. But when the two young cousins are unexpectedly thrust into exile in the Forest of Arden, the disguises they adopt allow the women to write roles of their own. Far from the death sentence intended by the usurping Duke Frederick, banishment into the Forest of Arden becomes an opportunity for rebirth — a place for the exiled to discover themselves, find (and test) true love, and ultimately seek redemption us adventure for all those daring enough to venture into the forest.

Let the Right One In
Outcry Theatre, August 4-13
Oskar is a bullied, lonely teenage boy living with his mother on a housing estate at the edge of town when a spate of sinister killings rock the neighborhood. Eli is the young girl who has just moved in next door. She doesn’t go to school and never leaves the flat by day. Sensing in each other a kindred spirit, the two become devoted friends. What Oskar doesn’t know is that Eli has been a teenager for a very long time.

The Homecoming
Auriga Productions, August 4-26
One of Pinter’s earliest plays is a comedy of menace, concerning a family of four men living all together but who are all alone. When the eldest son returns home after six years with a wife whom no one else has met, the family must come to grips with the hidden truths that have infected their relationships for decades.

Frozen
Broadway at the Bass, August 10-20
Frozen features the songs you know and love from the original Oscar-winning film, plus an expanded score with a dozen new numbers by the film’s songwriters, Oscar winner Kristen Anderson-Lopez and EGOT winner Robert Lopez. An unforgettable theatrical experience filled with sensational special effects, stunning sets and costumes, and powerhouse performances, Frozen is everything you want in a musical.

One Year in Egypt
Bishop Arts Theatre Center, August 10-27
This world premiere details the journey of writer and Oak Cliff native Camika Spencer during her first time abroad as a middle school ESL teacher in Al Giza, Egypt, the same year she turned 50.

Cinderella
Lyric Stage, August 24-27
Lyric Stage opens its 30th season with the 2013 adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella that had a successful run on Broadway, one of the last remains R & H titles that Lyric has yet to produce. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s enchanting adaptation of the timeless fairytale brings new spirit to the story of a young woman forced into servitude who dreams of – and achieves – a better life. The musical features some of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most beloved songs, including “In My Own Little Corner,” “Impossible,” and “Ten Minutes Ago.”

The Other Josh Cohen
Circle Theatre, August 24-September 16
Josh Cohen just can’t get a break. He’s single, broke, and to top it all off, his apartment’s been robbed of everything but a Neil Diamond CD. Soon though, his luck takes a turn when a mysterious envelope arrives that changes his life forever. Thus begins the hilarious and quirky romantic comedy about a good guy caught in a lifelong battle with bad luck, making its regional premiere at Circle Theatre.

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