Hamilton’ arrives at Fair Park in April. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.
From ‘Doll’s House’ to Dahl, the arts in North Texas
ARNOLD WAYNE JONES | Executive Editor
jones@dallasvoice.com
PLAYS AND MUSICALS
Dallas Summer Musicals and Performing Arts Fort Worth (Broadway at the Bass)
The two companies again share marketing and booking this season, with plenty of overlap.
Aladdin’ from Dallas Summer Musicals.
DSM’s season starts with its holiday add-on, Elf (Nov. 27–Dec. 2), quickly followed by another season extra, the return of the irreverent musical The Book of Mormon (Jan. 29–Feb. 3). The mainstage season begins with the encore of The Phantom of the Opera (Dec 19–Jan. 6, 2019), which comes on the heels of its just-closed sequel, Love Never Dies: The Phantom Returns. Then comes the stage adaption of the animated musical Anastasia (Feb. 19–March 3). But let’s not fool ourselves: The gem of the season comes with the local debut of the megahit Hamilton, the Tony Award-winningest show of all time (April 2–May 5). Miss Saigon (May 14–26) takes over, followed quickly by the Disney stage version of Aladdin (June 6–23). Local icon Betty Buckley leads the national touring cast of the classic revival of Hello Dolly! (July 17–28) and the season ends with Fiddler on the Roof (Aug. 7–13). All performances take place at Fair Park Music Hall. DallasSummerMusicals.org.
Four of those shows will also make their way to Bass Hall this season, though first the current season has to close up, with Love Never Dies and School of Rock concluding within the month. PAFW ends 2018 with two add-ons: The Illusionists: Live From Broadway (Sept. 19–20), featuring eye-popping magic, and then Rodgers+Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Nov. 15–18) before beginning its season in January. It kicks off with The Book of Mormon (Jan. 22–27), followed by Jersey Boys (Feb. 12–17) and On Your Feet! (April 10–14), both of which ended runs in Dallas this season. Then Anastasia (May 28–June 2) crosses the Trinity, followed by Les Miserables (June 25–30). A Bronx Tale (which in Dallas runs at the Winspear opens in after that July 23–28), and finally Fiddler on the Roof (Aug. 20–25) closes the season. Performances are at Bass Performance Hall. BassHall.com.
AT&T Performing Arts Center
The Broadway Series starts with two non-subscription shows in December: A Christmas Story (Dec. 12–16) and Chicago (Dec. 18–23). Those are immediately followed by the first mainstage production. The musical based on Chazz Palmintieri’s biopic A Bronx Tale (Dec. 26–Jan. 2, 2019). The classic, Tony-winning gay William Finn musical Falsettos (Feb. 12–17) takes over, followed by the only play of the season, the award-winning farce The Play That Goes Wrong (June 11–16). It’s back to musicals with the Meat Loaf/Jim Steinman jukebox musical Bat Out of Hell (June 27–July 7). The final subscription show of the series is Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Aug. 22–Sept. 1). Also booked is the add-on return of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (June 18–23). All performances are at the Winspear Opera House. ATTPAC.org.
Dallas Theater Center
The Tony Award-winning regional theater starts off its season with the gayest of plays, Steel Magnolias (Sept. 28–Oct. 21) at the Wyly, which establishes a season ripe with female empowerment plays. That is followed by local playwright Will Power’s Fetch Clay, Make Man, the story of Muhammad Ali and Stepin Fetchit (Dec. 5–Jan. 13, 2019) in the Wyly’s Studio Theatre. The 2017 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Lynn Nottage’s Sweat (Jan. 18–Feb. 10), moves the season to the Kalita. Sweat bested another Pulitzer finalist, The Wolves (March 6–April 14), which shows at the Wyly Studio. Artistic director Kevin Moriarty returns to one of his passions, Shakespeare, for Twelfth Night (March 29–April 28) at the Wyly. Then Real Women Have Curves (April 26–May 19) goes to the Kalita. The season ends with a world premiere by local gay playwright Jonathan Norton, Penny Candy (June 5–July 14), about life in Pleasant Grove at the Studio Theatre. As always, the holiday add-on A Christmas Carol is back at the Wyly (Nov. 21–Dec. 30). DallasTheaterCenter.org.
Uptown Players
The gay-centric troupe still has two more shows in its 17th season — Perfect Arrangement (Aug. 24–Sept. 2) and Angels in America Part Two: Perestroika (Sept. 28–Oct. 7) — before its 18th season begins later this winter. It starts with Janelle Lutz returning to the Kalita as Judy Garland for A Very Judy Christmas (Dec. 1–16). Uptown returns to the Moody Performance Hall for a multi-cultural production of Spring Awakening (Jan. 31–Feb. 3). The Moody is also the site, for the first time, of the annual Broadway Our Way fundraiser (May 10–12). The other mainstrage shows at the Kalita at are Disaster! (March 22–April 7), the musical parody of disaster flicks; The musical The View UpStairs (June 21–July 7), about a fire at a gay bar that killed dozens; and the timely comedy The Cake (Aug. 9–25). UptownPlayers.org.
WaterTower Theatre
The Addison company concludes its current season with Hand to God, but artistic director Joanie Schultz kicks off the next season with a new production of A Doll’s House (Oct. 12–Nov. 4), followed by the return of the holiday show The Great Distance Home (Nov. 23–Dec. 16) by WTT artistic associate Kelsey Leigh Ervi. Detour: A Festival of New Work, will run Jan. 17–20, followed by five more female-centric shows: Guadalupe in the House (Feb. 22–March 17); Everything Is Wonderful (April 19–May 12); The Ballad of Little Jo (June 7–30); Unveiled: A One Woman Play (June 12–30); and Origin Story (Aug. 2–25). All performances at the Addison Theatre Centre. WaterTowerTheatre.org.
Theatre 3
The theater’s 57th season is now underway with the double feature Heisenberg/Actually (through Aug. 26), followed in September with the chamber musical Once (Sept. 13–Oct. 7); The Moors (Oct. 25–Nov. 18); the holiday show Solstice: A New Holiday Adventure (Dec. 6–30); the musical The Manufactured Myth of Eveline Flynn co-written by locals Ian Ferguson and Michael Federico (Jan. 31–Feb. 24); Foxfire (March 14–April 7); Raptured: A Sex Farce at the End of the World, co-written by Matt Lyle and Matt Coleman (April 25–May 19); and finally The Armor Plays: Cinched and Strapped (June 6–30). Theatre3Dallas.com.
Stage West
While WTT will begin its season with a redo of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Stage West in Fort Worth begins its 40th season (of all regional premieres) with the recent Lucas Hnath play A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Oct. 25–Nov. 25), set 15 years later in Nora’s life. The season continued with Everybody (Dec. 27–Jan. 27, 2019); Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been (Feb. 14–March 10), set during the McCarthy-era witch hunts; Holmes and Watson (May 30–June 30); Lungs (July 25–Aug. 18) and finally the add-on musical First Date (Sept. 12–Oct. 13), a co-production with Theatre TCU. StageWest.org.
Lyric Stage
The musical theater company enters its 20th season again at the Majestic Theatre in Downtown Dallas with the Disney musical Newsies (Sept. 21–23), followed by the acoustic sounds of the theater in The Majestic Unplugged (Nov. 16–18). The season picks up in 2019 with the Schmidt and Jones two-hander I Do! I Do! (Feb. 14–17) and finally Man of La Mancha (June 14–16). LyricStage.org.
OPERA AND MUSIC
Dallas Opera
The Dallas Opera begins the 2018-19 under the direction of maestro Emmanuel Villaume with works by probably the most important of all opera composers: Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman (Oct. 12–20), followed by Bizet’s Carmen (Oct. 19–Nov. 4); a twofer of Puccini: his often overlooked Manon Lescaut (March 1–9) and his enduring La boheme (March 15–31). Finally, it’s Verdi’s comic Falstaff (April 26–May 4). DallasOpera.org.
The world premiere opera ‘Companionship’ debuts at the Fort Worth Opera Festival.
Fort Worth Opera
North Texas’ oldest opera company returns to Bass Hall with its spring festival (April 26–May 31), featuring mainstage productions of Porgy and Bess (April 26–30), the world premiere Companionship (May 1–5), El Pasado Nunca Se Termina (May 10–12), as well as a Frontiers special presentation of The Last Dream of Frida and Diego (May 31). FWOpera.org.
BALLET AND DANCE
Texas Ballet Theater
As usual, many shows will perform both at Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall and Dallas’ Winspear Opera House. The season begins this month with Prokofiev’s Cinderella at the Winspear (Aug 24–26), followed next month with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Cleopatra at Bass (Sept. 28–30), accompanied by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Winter, of course, brings multiple opportunities to see The Nutcracker (at the Winspear Nov. 23–Dec. 2, at Bass Dec. 8–24, plus the irreverent Nutty Nutracker Dec. 14). A program of three short ballets by various composers follow (Bass, March 1–3), and then a program of three more (Bass. March 29–31). The season concludes with Pinocchio Winspear May 17–19, Bass May 24–26). TexasBalletTheater.org.
TITAS
Kyle Abraham in Motion comes courtesy of TITAS
TITAS jumps into its season of dance later this month with Camille A. Brown & Dancers (Aug. 24–25); then Diavolo (Sept 14–15); Stephen Petronio Company (Oct. 19–20); the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet (Oct. 26–27); Complexions Contemporary Ballet (Nov. 9–10); Dorrance Dance (Feb. 1); the Beijing Dance Theater in its Dallas debut (Feb. 8); Kyle Abraham A.I.M. in a tribute to David Bowie (March 1–2); Ezralow Dance (March 29–30); and finally Pilobolus (April 5–6). The Command Performance Gala (June. 1) is a fundraising add-on. All performances at Moody Performance Hall, except Dorrance, Beijing. Ezralow and the gala, which take place at the Winspear. ATTPAC.org.
Bruce Wood Dance
The company will be back at Moody Performance Hall with a concert of all classic Bruce Wood repertoire pieces, including his Bolero for a program called All Bruce (Nov. 16–17). BruceWoodDance.org.
This list is not, and cannot be, exhaustive. For more season information, visit the following arts organizations’ websites: KitchenDogTheater.org. STT.co. Undermain.org. WingspanTheatre.com. CircleTheatre.org. TurtleCreekChorale.com. MBSProductions.net. TheWomensChorusOfDallas.com. EisemannCenter.com. DBDT.com. DMA.org. KimbellArt.org. TheModern.org. TicketDFW.com. ATTPAC.org. BassHall.com.
