Theater Critic Picks

Here are the 14 must-see shows in Dallas-Fort Worth theater for September

The immersive theatrical experience "See Me" is premiering at the Eisemann Center.

Photo courtesy of OutLoud Dallas

That headline might say 14 shows, but there are so many more. That's because it's festival time in DFW — and we don't just mean Oktoberfest and the like. Festivals are happening onstage too this month, covering new work, international offerings, and so much more. Plus, the State Fair show is back!

In order of start date, here are 14 local shows to watch this month:

The Importance of Being Earnest
Stage West, September 5-22
So, there are these two rich and eligible English bachelors. Both are pretending to be a man named Ernest, because they are trying to woo these two ladies who have decided they are all about that name. But when their romantic schemes collide, the whole charade unravels in a whirlwind of wacky surprises and dazzling wit from Oscar Wilde.

Athena
Undermain Theatre, September 5-29
Mary Wallace and Athena are brave, seventeen, and fencers training for the Junior Olympics. They practice together, they compete against each other, they spend their lives together. They wish they were friends.

Fort Worth International Fringe Festival
Theatre Network of Texas, Inc. and Arts Fort Worth, September 6-8
Sample a variety of acts ranging from rarely produced theater to dance, storytelling, poetry, and more. Fifteen different programs will be performed multiple times over three days. For a full schedule of events, go to the festival website.

Big Love
Hip Pocket Theatre, September 6-29
Based on the Greek play The Suppliants by Aeschylus, Big Love is a perfect match for Hip Pocket: lyrical, sexy, beautiful, bloody, hilarious, and untamed. Written by Charles Mee and directed by Emily Scott Banks, it follows multiple brides who flee to a manor in Italy to avoid marrying their cousins and instead find sisterhood, independence, true love — and murder.

Million Dollar Quartet
Casa Mañana, September 7-15
This is the true story of the famed recording session that brought together Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. Travel back to 1956 and the early days of rock ‘n’ roll with smash-hit songs including "Hound Dog," "Great Balls of Fire," "Blue Suede Shoes," "I Walk the Line," and more.

SheDFW Theater Festival
SheDFW Arts, September 10-15
This inaugural festival spotlights three new full-length plays and one original musical, all written by women, trans, and non-binary writers. The titles areFor Bo by Ayvaunn Penn, The Martyr by Leo Rodriguez, Under the Jello Mold by Jennie Fahn, and Olivia O, The Musical with book and lyrics by Jessica Carmona and Diane Currie Sam, and music and lyrics by Gil Yaron and Angela Ortiz.

Julius Caesar
Shakespeare Dallas, September 11-October 13
Pack a picnic and sit out under the stars while you watch Shakespeare's nail-biter of a political play. Concerned that Julius Caesar poses a threat to democracy, revolutionaries take the violent decision to murder him. As the world spins out of control, chaos and superstition lead to civil war.

Jet Fuel
Bishop Arts Theatre Center, September 12-22
Amy Evans' groundbreaking new play embarks on an unforgettable journey through the world of elite sports. Inspired by the extraordinary tale of Olympic sprinter Caster Semenya, the production casts a spotlight on the intricate intersections of gender, race identity, and the quest for fairness in the realm of athletics.

The Secret Keepers
Echo Theatre, September 12-28
Erin Malone Turner's Southern gothic, coming-of-age play centers on a group of high-school seniors during their last semester at a run-down boarding school. Nightmares plague the unspoken leader of the group, shadowy figures come and go, skeletons tumble out of their closets, and one of the teens goes missing.

Company
Broadway at the Center, September 25-29
It’s Bobbie’s 35th birthday party, and all her friends keep asking, “Why isn’t she married? Why can’t she find the right man, and isn’t it time to settle down and start a family?” As Bobbie searches for answers in this Stephen Sondheim and George Furth musical, she discovers why being single, being married, and being alive in the 21st-century could drive a person crazy.

Cirque du Soleil: Songblazers
Music Hall at Fair Park, September 25-October 20
The State Fair show is back. This new theatrical experience pays tribute to the legendary and modern trailblazers of country music, charting the journey of two main characters as they forge their own path to country recognition. Per usual with Cirque du Soleil shows, audiences will also witness acrobatics, aerial acts, and displays of strength.

Latinidades Festival & Symposium
Cara Mía Theatre, September 26-October 13
Now in its fifth year, Dallas’ largest international Latino theater festival is expanding from three productions to 11, including live theater, dance, music and poetry to celebrate diverse Latin American voices. Productions hail from Dallas, San Francisco, Miami, Barcelona, Mexico City, Bogotá, and San Juan.

See Me
OutLoud Dallas, September 27-October 5
The world premiere of this immersive theatrical experience was inspired by the stories of young people from across North Texas, and is bringing their voices to life using cutting-edge technology, projections, and holograms. Exploring how existing in a hyper-connected world impacts the human condition, this show at the Eisemann Center offers a poignant dialogue between technology and the arts.

Grace For President
Dallas Children's Theater, September 28-October 20
Adapted from Kelly DiPucchio's book, this family-friendly musical centers on Grace Campbell, who discovers one day in class that there has never been a female president. "Where are the girls?" she asks, as her teacher rolls out a poster of all U.S. presidents. Frustrated by the lack of female faces in the White House, Grace decides she wants to be president and inspires a school election.

musicals plays festivals tours theater

Season Announcement

'Come find your people' in Echo Theatre Dallas' 2025 season

Photo by Joan Marcus

A scene from the Off-Broadway production of Catch As Catch Can.

The theme for Echo Theatre's 2025 season is family, with the tagline "Come find your people." Echo, if you need a reminder, is the Dallas-based company that solely produces plays written by women-plus.

"We recognize the limiting nature of the binary use of the word 'woman,'" the company explains on its website. "We use the term 'women-plus' to include an expansive and diverse array of people, including those born female, those who identify as women, and those who are gender non-conforming."

“This season, my thoughts have turned to family in all its forms,” says artistic director Kateri Cale. “Every person experiences generations of family expectations, judgements, competitions, celebrations, and disappointments, over and over again. If we're lucky, we experience the fierce love of family too.”

First up is the regional premiere of Catch as Catch Can by Mia Chung.

Double-cast across gender, generation, and race and set in a blue-collar New England town, the drama follows two families — the Irish-American Phelans and the Italian-American Lavecchias — as the prodigal son returns home for a holiday gathering. Two off-stage characters, who are Korean and Korean-American, impact the families as they face the weight of generational expectations.

“With Catch as Catch Can, I wanted the audience’s experience of what they’re watching to mirror that felt by the characters; the character doubling articulates and enhances the propulsion of the play," says Chung in a release about the play's Off-Broadway debut in 2022. "I believe in performance, I believe in the actor’s capacity to inhabit a character to the extent that an audience may stop seeing that the actor is a man, or is Asian, or is 30 years younger than the role they’re playing. The cognitive dissonance is by design.”

It runs February 3-March 8, 2025, at the Bath House Cultural Center.

Next is OPEN by Crystal Skillman, a queer love story told by an amateur magician, presented during Pride Month.

A woman called the Magician presents myriad tricks for our entertainment, yet her performance seems to be attempting the impossible: to save the life of her partner, Jenny. But is our faith in her illusions enough to rewrite the past? The clock is ticking, the show must go on, and, as impossible as it may seem, this Magician’s act may be our last hope against a world filled with intolerance and hate.

It runs June 6-21, 2025, at the Bath House Cultural Center.

Last is El Rey del Pollo, a world-premiere "nuevo comedy" by Anna Skidis Vargas that the playwright describes as "a Shakespearean telenovela that’s loosely based on King Lear, but it’s a lot shorter and a lot sillier."

Reymundo Lear is about to retire from his fried chicken empire, and he is leaving everything to his three daughters. But things aren’t as easy as they seem. Cordelia gets disinherited, and Gisela and Raquel hike the prices. El Rey del Pollo features a hungry old man, essential oils, a giant chicken suit, and all the family drama you can eat.

It runs September 11-27, 2025, at the Bath House Cultural Center.

The Echo Reads free play readings will continue next year, and are scheduled for the months of March, April, May and September, October, November.

Season tickets are on sale now at echotheatre.org. Single tickets will be available at a later date.

A fun fact about Echo Theatre productions: Up to 10 free tickets are set aside for every performance and given out on a first-come, first-served basis. Patrons must email the box office directly at reservations@echotheatre.org to participate.

echo theatre theater