Stage Notes: Broadway returns to Theatre Arlington; review of T3's 'Next to Normal'

Theatre Arlington’s next production for its 50th anniversary season will be the musical Fly by Night by Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick, and Kim Rosenstock. The story centers on star-crossed characters in New York City during the 1965 blackout. A bit of Broadway will come to TA to offer some magic to the production. Actor and Fort Worth native Major Attaway will direct the show.

Attaway debuted on Broadway as The Genie in Disney’s Aladdin in 2016. With more than 1,500 performances, Attaway holds the record for playing the part. Other acting credits include Orange is the New Black and Kingdom. He also performed with the Turtle Creek Chorale in 2021.

He also appeared on the TA stage in The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, Big River and Little Shop of Horrors. Other theaters he’s performed with locally include Theatre Three, Jubilee Theater and Dallas Theater Center.

So Fly By Night is certainly a homecoming for Attaway. The show opens June 16 and runs through July 2.

“I’m honored and elated to return to a place so influential in my theatrical upbringing.” Attaway said in a press release. “This story is a beautiful tragedy with a universal message. I believe the only thing any of us possess with real value is time. This story highlights what that could mean to multiple generations at once. Whether it’s the urge to remain in motion as you pursue a reason to slow down and ruminate on what may be the best time in your life or trying to slow down time to stay as close as possible to our fondest memories of special people. We address it all in this story. This show had a profound effect on my theatrical perception when I saw it in Dallas a decade ago. My goal is to offer a similar experience to audiences today.”

Alongside Attaway will be Vicky Nooe as the music director. Creative also includes stage manager Michael Green, assistant stage manager Javier Casablanca, set and lighting by Bryan Stevenson, sound by Ryan Simón, costumes by Hannah Bell and property designer Robin Dotson.

The cast includes David Lugo, Landry Beckley, Sydney Dotson and Donovan Marie Lawson along with David Coffee, Parker Fitzgerald and Billy Bestill.

Tickets are available here.

REVIEW: Theatre Three has a strong finish to its season with Next to Normal

T3 Executive Director Jeffrey Schmidt did his opening night speech on Monday expressing to the audience that in the theater’s four walls, we are all family. Apropos to the production Next to Normal directed by Christie Vela which is all about family which followed after he walked offstage. Through collective tears and sniffles, the audience felt a bit bonded by the end of the show’s emotional turmoil.

The Pulitzer-winning musical dives into one family’s struggle with the mother’s chronic bipolar disorder. Doctors, medicines, shock treatment are a part of their world as is teenage love, grief and inherently the breaking of a family. “I’m excited about getting this group of spectacularly talented singers together,” Associate Artistic Director Vela said in T3’s press release about the show. “Not in the least because our family in the show look nothing alike and I am just in love with that. This is a powerful story about a family dealing, or not dealing, with trauma and grief. We don’t need to look alike to empathize with another human experiencing pain.”

They may not look alike, but the family onstage was connected by chemistry.

The show stars Cara Serber as the mother Diana, Ian Ferguson as the father Dan, Presley Duyck as their daughter Natalie, Aiden Valentine as their son Gabe. Alejandra Saucedo plays Natalie’s stoner high school love interest Henry and Colin Phillips plays the rock star doctor to Diana.

Solid casting carried the show’s weaving energy and emotions. Serber honed in on the mother’s layers of affectation from her treatments but also of her attempts to connect to her own family. Her wielding of emotions or even lack of them at times made an unforgettable impression. As Dan, Ferguson’s trick was to sustain both a patriarchal vibe to maintain his family and be the story’s villain by deciding on his wife’s recovery. His character’s choices are made through pain and frustration and Ferguson layered it all into a sympathetic performance. What Duyck does with younger roles is something unexplainable. Following her turn in Theatre Arlington’s Gypsy and now there, she tapped into Natalie’s angst so easily. When Natalie turned to drugs to deal with her mother’s treatment, Duyck morphed into a hazy version of the character that was jarring but impressive.

As with all his roles, Saucedo can’t help but be charming and he hit all the right notes as the good guy who wanted to see Natalie thrive. As two doctors, Phillips radiated both as Diana’s hallucinatory rock star and as her serious doctors all with a standout singing voice.

Valentine – where to begin. His was perhaps one of the purest performances throughout this season of area theater. Not only could he belt out a song, he gave such a weighted performance each moment onstage and even when he had nothing to do – although his character’s presence was crucial to his mother’s malaise. He brought a needed delicacy to the role that felt wonderfully natural. He understood the value of stillness while other characters swirled around him. Watching him felt like a revelation.

Track Curtis’ set was a wonderfully clever construction of tongue depressors enhanced by Amanda West’s lighting and Brian McDonald’s sound. As music director, Vonda K. Bowling’s four-piece band filled the house with the pop-rock showtunes, but Bowling’s piano work was so distinctive and epic.

Next to Normal runs through July 2.

Pocket Sandwich Theatre announces new melodrama

Pocket Sandwich Theatre’s melodrama ‘Captain Blood: A Pirate Melodrama.’ (Courtesy photo)

Get your popcorn-throwing hand ready. PST has announced its first summer melodrama in its new theater. Now located in historic downtown Carrollton, PST will premiere Captain Blood-A Pirate Melodrama on June 28-Aug. 12. The show is written by Joe Dickinson and directed by Nick Haley.

From PST:

Arrrgh, me mateys! Send up the signal, gather your crew and ready your popcorn throwin’ arm for the Pocket Sandwich Theatre’s thrilling pirate melodrama Captain Blood-The Pirate Melodrama!! We’re going back further than ever before to capture a tale of blood- thirsty cutthroats versus proper scoundrels of her Majesty’s navy. There is fighting, singing, laughs, love, betrayal and tender moments that would melt even the darkest blaggard’s heart. Sound like your household? Get the kids out of the house and take them to a show!

Tickets are available here.

–Rich Lopez

Stage Notes: Broadway returns to Theatre Arlington; review of T3’s ‘Next to Normal’