Theater Critic Picks

Dallas theater heats up August with Broadway hits and bold premieres

Taha Mandviwala as Pi and puppeteers Anna Leigh Gortner, Shiloh Goodin and Toussaint Jeanlouis as Richard Parker in the national tour of "Life of Pi."

Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Your onstage choices for August are varied and very fun, ranging from new works to Broadway tours, concerts to classic revivals, and even a few puppets. Here are 12 local shows, listed in order of start date:

The Heart Sellers
Amphibian Stage, through August 17
Thanksgiving, 1973: Jane and Luna are new to America, a bit lost, and definitely homesick. When they meet by chance, a simple grocery store run turns into a night of laughter, wine, and instant connection. From a botched frozen turkey to dreams of Disneyland, The Heart Sellers beautifully captures the highs and lows of new beginnings.

Old Mother West Wind
Hip Pocket Theatre, through August 24
Old Mother West Wind makes its return to Hip Pocket Theatre in celebration of the upcoming 50th anniversary season. First produced in the theater’s third season, the company will revisit the Simons and Balentine legacy production. A soulful balm for these unsteady days, Old Mother West Wind comes down from the purple hills to teach us all, young and old, to love each other.

SheDFW Theater Festival
SheDFW Arts, August 5-10
Now in its second year, the festival is dedicated to amplifying the voices of women, trans, and non-binary playwrights and theater artists from Texas and the central U.S. The festival will showcase four new productions, including two musicals and two plays, at the Studio Theatre on the UT Arlington campus.

Life of Pi
Broadway Dallas, August 5-17
Based on the novel that sold more than 15 million copies and became a worldwide phenomenon, Life of Pi is told with jaw-dropping visuals, world class puppetry, and exquisite stagecraft. After a shipwreck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a 16-year-old boy named Pi survives on a lifeboat with four companions: a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a Royal Bengal tiger.

The Book of Mormon
Broadway at the Bass, August 8-10
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.

Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds
Jubilee Theatre, August 8-31
Set against the backdrop of Jamaica, the heartwarming tale follows the adventures of Ziggy, a young boy who embarks on a journey of self-discovery and bravery. With the help of his friends, Nansi and Doctor Bird, Ziggy learns valuable lessons about courage, friendship, and the power of hope.

Imagine
Uptown Players and Bruce Wood Dance Dallas, August 9-10
Uptown Players and Bruce Wood Dance join creative forces for the first time to blend the expressive styles of cabaret, contemporary dance, and live music, offering audiences a moving and multidisciplinary experience that honors the LGBTQ+ community and its allies.

The Last Five Years
Circle Theatre, August 14-September 6
A powerful piece that speaks to the universal experience of love and loss‭, ‬Jason Robert Brown's musical explores the five-year romance between Cathy and Jamie‭, ‬two aspiring artists‭, ‬through a unique narrative structure‭: ‬Cathy’s story unfolds from the end of their relationship moving backward‭, ‬while Jamie’s perspective moves forward from the start‭.‬

Guys & Dolls
Lyric Stage and Turtle Creek Chorale, August 15-17
Set in Damon Runyon’s mythical New York City, Guys & Dolls follows gambler Nathan Detroit as he tries to find the cash to set up the biggest craps game in town. Meanwhile, his girlfriend and nightclub performer Adelaide, laments that they’ve been engaged for 14 years. Nathan turns to fellow gambler Sky Masterson for the dough, and Sky ends up chasing the straight-laced missionary Sarah Brown as a result.

The Penumbra
Ian Ferguson and Lauren LeBlanc, August 20-21
A team of Dallas-based creatives will present a workshop of the brand-new musical The Penumbra, with music by composer/lyricist Ian Ferguson and libretto by writer Lauren LeBlanc. Based on LeBlanc’s unpublished young adult novel of the same name, The Penumbra is a supernatural thriller told in a three-part narrative: a teenage girl in a struggling family, a town reeling from an escalating pattern of missing children, and an ancient folktale of love and destruction.

Fat Ham
Stage West Theatre, August 28-September 14
Juicy’s got a lot on his plate, considering his mom just married his uncle. All he wants is to make his own way as a queer Black man in a Southern family. But here’s the rub: His father’s ghost just turned up at a backyard barbecue demanding vengeance. In this reinvention of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, a young man vows to break the cycles of violence in service of his own liberation and joy.

An Evening with Bernadette Peters
Plano Symphony Orchestra, August 30
Throughout her illustrious career, Peters has dazzled audiences and critics with her performances on stage, film and television, in concert, and on recordings. Expect a one-of-a-kind night of songs with selections from great music masters like Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, and more.

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Theater News

Dallas' Kitchen Dog Theater unveils powerful 2026-2027 season lineup

Photo by Cameron Cobb

Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas will put on three mainstage productions for their 2026-2027 season.

Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas has revealed the lineup for the 2026-2027 season, featuring a slate of plays that boasts power players like kings, prime ministers, space force commanders, and would-be presidents.

According to a release, the theater company's 36th season — their "most powerful yet" — will consist of three mainstage productions at its new permanent home in the Design District, as well as the annual New Works Festival, featuring a readings series and the 26th annual D-PAC PUP (Playwrights Under Progress) Fest.

The season will start with The Absentee by Julia Doolittle, running September 10-October 4, 2026. The play was the winner of the 2019-2020 Woodward/Newman Drama Award.

Far out in the Milky Way, “Beacons” serve as lighthouses for warping spaceships around the galaxy. When a U.S. Space Force ship explodes in the galaxy, the Operator finds herself alone in deep space, with only her ship’s AI for companionship. That is, until a persistent canvasser calls, desperate to convince her to vote absentee in the 2088 election.

As the Operator waits for the clean up to be over, she finds she has to come to terms with her isolation, grief, and her political voice.

The season's second production comes four months later, with Equivocation by Bill Cain, running February 4-28, 2027. In 1605 England, a terrorist plots to assassinate King James I and blow Parliament to kingdom come. Shagspeare (after a contemporary spelling of the Bard's name) is commissioned by the prime minister, to write the “true historie” of the plot. And it must have witches — the king wants witches.

But as Shag and the acting company of the Globe investigate the plot, they discover that the king's version of the story might, in fact, be a coverup. Shag and his actors are confronted with the ultimate moral and artistic dilemma. Speak truth to power and perhaps lose their heads? Or take the money and lie? Is there a third option? Equivocation?

A high-stakes political thriller with contemporary resonances, Equivocation gallops from the great Globe to the Tower of London to the halls of Parliament to the heart of Judith, Shag's younger daughter, who finds herself unexpectedly at the very heart of the political, dramatic and — ultimately — human mystery.

The final mainstage production of the season comes at the 2027 New Works Festival with Black Republican by KDT Artistic Company Member Jamal Gibran Sterling, running June 3-27, 2027.

Originally featured as a Staged Reading in the 2026 New Works Festival, the ambitious first play by Sterling centers on a Black Republican candidate on the national stage who finds his campaign threatened by an activist who challenges everything he claims to stand for. Their battle exposes uncomfortable truths about race, politics, and the stories we tell ourselves.

In addition to Black Republican, the 2027 New Works Festival will showcase four staged readings of some of the newest and most exciting Texas-based playwrights. Each reading will feature accomplished Dallas-Fort Worth actors and directors to highlight the breadth of talent in the area.

The final part of the festival is D-PAC PUP (Playwrights Under Progress) Fest, featuring six staged readings of jury-selected plays written by Dallas-Fort Worth high school students and featuring student actors directed by area professionals. PUP Fest is the culmination of Dallas Playwriting Arts Collective (D-PAC), a partnership with Dallas ISD and Junior Players.

Kitchen Dog Theater offers two season subscription packages for their inaugural season in their new facility. The Kitchen Dog package includes a ticket to all three mainstage productions for any performance date for $90+ $8 fees for adults and $75 +$8 fees for students and seniors (ages 65+). The Saver Dog package includes a ticket to all three mainstage productions for Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays only. It is $60 + $8 fees for adults and $45 + $8 fees for students and seniors.

Both packages grant full access to the Staged Reading Series and PUP Fest. Subscribers also receive premium reserved seating for in-person performances, as well as subscriber-only discounts on additional single tickets, 2026 special events, and KDT merchandise.

Subscription packages are on sale now, and single tickets for each show will go on sale on Monday, August 24, at kitchendogtheater.org.

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