Hold Onto Your Cowboy Hats

Cirque du Soleil's new country show line-dances into the State Fair of Texas

The beloved tradition is back: For the first time since 2013, Broadway Dallas is presenting a show during the State Fair of Texas.

It's a new Cirque du Soleil creation called Songblazers, which celebrates the pioneering spirit of country music’s trailblazers in partnership with Universal Music Group Nashville. Songblazers runs through the end of the Fair, October 20, and each show ticket purchased comes with free same-day admission to the State Fair of Texas.

This collaboration means that some of country's most recognizable songs — think "Crazy," "King of the Road," "Achy Breaky Heart," and "All My Exes Live in Texas" — are the live soundtrack to Cirque du Soleil's jaw-dropping athletics and acrobatics.

Cirque du Soleil Songblazers This scene is performed to "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!"Photo courtesy of Cirque du Soleil

The story follows Dusty, a young songwriter disheartened by a poor performance at a local carnival's talent show. He sets off on a quest to reignite his passion and find his voice, meeting his future songwriter partner, Wyatt, along the way.

Amidst campfire sing-a-longs, barn dances, and bar fights, the audience is taken on an emotional train ride through the heartlands of the American West, meeting a variety of unforgettable characters and muses, each embodying the spirit of country.

Outlaws, ranch girls, brakemen, and conductors all guide Dusty and Wyatt, offering lessons in life, love, and the relentless pursuit of dreams. Together, they navigate the highs and lows of the musical artist’s journey, sharing moments of triumph, despair, friendship, and rivalry.

Here's a sneak peek of the show:

There are also lots of fun facts about Songblazers, such as:

Country’s roots are deeply intertwined with African American musical traditions, as early country music blended blues, gospel, and spirituals. The African banjo — the "banjar" — and the European fiddle both contributed to the birth of country music and its unique sound. Throughout the show, the two main characters play both instruments.
Sam Williams, son of legendary country artist Hank Williams Jr. and grandson of Hank Williams Sr., has written an original song for the show, along with fellow songwriters PJ Harding and Ned Houston. It's called "Carnival Heart."
The Country Music Hall of Fame was established in 1961. One of its first inductees was Hank Williams, whose song "I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry" features in Songblazers.
As well as directing shows for many of the world’s most renowned musical artists, Songblazers director Amy Tinkham has also conceptualized numerous performances for the Country Music Awards.
Songblazers' costume designer Zerina Akers has dressed famous celebrities such as Megan Thee Stallion, Chloe, and Halle Bailey, as well as collaborating with Beyonce as her personal stylist for more than a decade.
More musicians and vocalists appear in Songblazers than in any other Cirque du Soleil show, with 13 musical artists in the cast.
Overall, Songblazers stars 29 artists and 21 crew members from 13 countries, communicating in over 10 languages.

Cirque du Soleil Songblazers A little country and a lot international.Photo courtesy of Cirque du Soleil

Photo courtesy of Cirque du Soleil

A skipping ropes act helps boost Dusty's spirits.

Every Songblazers ticket purchased comes with free same-day admission to the State Fair of Texas. The show is 95 minutes long and suitable for all ages. Purchase tickets here.

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Movie Review

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma gives horror a surreal twist

Photo courtesy of MUBI

Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

The horror genre really ramped up in the 1970s and ‘80s, bringing with it a new subgenre - the slasher - that gave audiences new visuals of gore, but also a reliance on sexism and homophobia that would come to define the era. The new film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma wrestles with that legacy in ways that are funny, thought-provoking, and downright strange.

Kris (Hannah Einbinder) is a queer filmmaker who has been hired to reboot the moldy IP that is the Camp Miasma franchise, one that was fresh in the 1970s but which numerous shlocky sequels have rendered irrelevant. In an attempt to get to know the property better, Kris has scored a meeting with the reclusive Billy (Gillian Anderson), the star of the original film who has shunned the public eye for decades.

Turns out that Billy lives deep in the woods at Camp Rivoli, which served as the location for the first film. As Kris tries to get to know Billy and convince her to be a part of the new film, she starts to fall under Billy’s spell and the lore of the franchise as a whole. That includes believing that the movie’s villain, Little Death - a transgender person who has an air conditioning vent as a head/mask - may not just be a character created for the movies.

Written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow), the film at first feels like it’s going to go the straight-up comedy route, with comic explosions of blood, a strange fascination with candy brands, and a production design that does nothing to hide that the two main actors are on a movie set with painted backdrops. This is backed up by Kris’ phone conversations with her girlfriend, Mari (Jasmine Savoy Brown) and her agent (Sarah Sherman), as well as numerous other details.

But the film starts to go down the surreal route the longer Kris stays at the camp with Billy, especially when they sit down to watch the original Camp Miasma. An extended sequence shows a good amount of that film-within-the-film, demonstrating why Kris and Billy have a love/hate relationship with the property. For Kris, though, the lines between the film and the real world start to blur, and Schoenbrun uses a variety of out-there elements to drive the point home.

The final act of the film can barely be described as Kris goes deeper down the rabbit hole, with Schoenbrun using her film to comment on the horror genre as a whole, its treatment of women and LGBT people, the movie industry, and more. All the while the “camp” of Camp Miasma maintains a presence, with candy wrappers showing up everywhere and the tongue-in-cheek references to Little Death (the French term La petite mort, which means “the little death,” is a euphemism for orgasm).

Einbinder, an Emmy winner for Hacks, is the perfect person to inhabit her role. Her established real-life and fictional personas color everything she does in the film, with her enthusiasm and curiosity shining through. Anderson leans heavily into another reference - Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard - to create a character that is as mysterious as she is alluring. Supporting actors like Brown, Sherman, Patrick Fischler, Dylan Baker, and Eva Victor keep the movie at the right pitch all the way through.

While other films have made fun of horror movie tropes before, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma finds a wholly unique way of doing so. It’s a funny and daring trip into the psyches of two women who may be victims of their own obsessions, and of the movies that made them that way.

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Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is now playing in select theaters

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