Friday 02.07
DBDT marks Black History month with 2 world premieres
There’s some special significance with the Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s Cultural Awareness Series this weekend: This will be the final Black History Month for the troupe founded by Ann Williams, who steps down in the spring. It’s poignant, then, that a person who gave so many dancers a chance will oversee two world premieres from emerging young choreographers. It’s what the legacy of dance should be about.
DEETS:
Wyly Theatre
2400 Flora St.
Feb. 7–9.
ATTPAC.org.
Wednesday 02.12
Dallas Opera presents regional premiere of the futuristic modern opera ‘Death and the Powers’
You could think of Death and the Powers as the world’s first “nerdpera:” A tech-savvy modern opera about a man named Simon Powers (baritone Robert Orth, who also performed in the Dallas Opera’s Moby-Dick and The Lighthouse) who, nearing the end of his life, transfers his consciousness into a robot and indeed an entire room, which comes to life courtesy of the MIT labs. That’s no accident: The composer, Tod Machover, is an MIT professor who knows his way around technology. Also featured is mezzo Patricia Risley, Orth’s real-life wife.
DEETS:
Winspear Opera House
2403 Flora St.
Feb. 12–16.
DallasOpera.org.
Thursday 02.13
Ariel swims into Fair Park with all-new staging of Disney’s ‘Little Mermaid’
Disney has come up with some creative solutions to bringing their fairy-tale animated features to the stage,
with spectacular costuming for Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, but how do you create a leg-less mermaid in an underwater world? Dallas Summer Musicals has found a way witrh this re-staging of The Little Mermaid, a minor Broadway hit, premiering here for its first national tour. It’s appropriate that it would open in Dallas — the author of the musical’s book, Doug Wright, grew up in University Park. The songs, by Alan Menken, are delightful.
DEETS:
Fair Park Music Hall
901 First Ave.
Feb. 13–March 2 (in previews through Feb. 16).
DallasSummerMusicals.org.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition February 7, 2014.