Stage Notes is a weekly aggregate post about theater, classical music, dance, comedy and stage news, events, reviews and other pertinent information.
Opening this week:
Broadway Dallas: Club 909 with Reeve Carney, today-Saturday at Music Hall at Fair Park.
Symphony Orchestra: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in Concert, Sept. 4-6.
Artists Sans Frontieres: HAZARDS, Sept. 4-6 at Moody Performance Hall.
ATTPAC: Undertale: The Determination Symphony, Sept. 4 and 6 at the Winspear.
Theatre Off the Square: Groundhog Day, Sept. 4-20.
Show Pony Revue: Spin & Bare, 8 p.m. Saturday at The Nines.
Meraboxoffice Entertainment: Jaane Pehchaane Anjaane, 8 p.m. Sept. 7 at the Eisemann Center.
SheDFW: Summer Theater Festival, Sept. 8-13 at Stage West.
Broadway Dallas: The Sound of Music, Sept. 8-20, pictured.
Onstage now:
Art Centre Theatre: Clue, through Sept. 13.
Pegasus Theatre: Big Mouth, Thunder Thighs, through Sept. 13 at The Stone Cottage, pictured.
Upright Theatre Co.: In the Heights, through Sept. 13.
Drunk Shakespeare Society: Romeo and Juliet, through Sept. 20 at Deep Ellum Art Co.
Pocket Sandwich Theatre: It’s a Scream, through Sept. 26.
OperaOn75 announces inaugural production
The new a nonprofit company, OperaOn75, will launch with a production of Puccini’s La Bohème. Performance have been announced for Nov. 20 and 21 at Church Street Auditorium in downtown McKinney. The production will be led by conductor Keith Chambers.
The principal cast features Hanna Atsedewoin as Musetta, David Hobbs as Marcello, Uram Park as Schaunard, Andrew Reidel as Rodolfo, Adeniyi Samuel as Colline, Colman Scheibmeir as Benoît/Alcindoro and Xinjin Yang as Mimì with Emma Gulovsen as cover.
Earlier this week, the company revealed the original show poster designed by local artist Stormy DeHorney.
Tickets will go on sale Oct. 1. For more information, visit the company’s website.
Dallas creatives to release the cast album for the locally-created musical The Penumbra
Dallas composer Ian Ferguson and writer Lauren LeBlanc announced Wednesday that the cast album of their original musical, The Penumbra, will be available to stream and download starting Sept. 22 on all streaming platforms.
The musical had two workshops in Dallas: a self-produced run at the Bath House Cultural Center in August 2025 and Dallas Children’s Theater’s first-ever staged reading in April 2026. It was also the 2025 recipient of the Donald Fowler Theatre Arts Memorial Fund, which awards one seed grant per year to a DFW artist or team creating innovative works of theater.
The album comprises the cast of the April 2026 workshop, including Caitlin Chapa, Aubrey Ferguson, Kris Black Jasper, Sydnie Roy, Via Rubio, Emma Sanchez and Libby Serber. Ian Ferguson and Lauren LeBlanc also perform on the album.
“I think the most remarkable thing about Ian’s music is that it’s instantly familiar, even on the first listen,” LeBlanc said in yesterday’s press release. “I can’t wait for the world to hear this album.”
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.
For more information about The Penumbra, visit WhatIsThePenumbra.com.
Dallas Theater Center to present a staged reading on Friday at the Bush Center
DTC will host a special live reading of Reykjavik86 in the very place where history was made as detailed in the play. The show also serves as the opening production for DTC’s new season. The reading takes place Friday at 11 a.m. in the Situation Room at the center.
Reykjavik86 was inspired by the historic 1986 summit between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, Reykjavik86 brings this moment in history to the stage.
After the reading, guests can stay for a conversation with the actors and director Jaime Castañeda, DTC’s Enloe/Rose Artistic Director. Those in attendance will receive a special discounted offer to see the full production when Reykjavik86 premieres at the Wyly Theatre later this month.
The live reading is free with museum admission.
The play stars Blake Hackler and Bob Hess as the nation’s leaders and runs Sept. 11-27.
Dallas-based artist Katie Burks’ HAZARDS returns for limited engagement this weekend
For a stranded explorer, survival means escape, until he discovers that peace is worth defending. Created by Katie Burks, HAZARDS is a hybrid of dance and theatre blending movement, drama, action stunts and cinematic projection mapping.
The show made its world premiere in 2024 by way of the Elevator Project. This version though is a new iteration. According to Burks, this weekend’s run is a new show with a new cast and new narrative.
For tickets, click here.
Garland Civic Theatre’s Angel Street delivers a triggering thrill with a few bumps
Garland Civic Theatre’s newest production Angel Street (Gaslight) served up some solid melodrama on its opening last Friday night. Originally written by Patrick Hamilton as Gas Light in 1938 and later adapted into an Oscar-winning 1944 film, the classic play birthed the term “gaslighting” to describe psychological abuse and manipulation.
This show certainly had that.
Set in 19th century England, Angel Street (Gaslight), follows Bella Manningham as her overbearing husband, Jack, systematically tries to convince her she is going insane. As Jack secretly searches a neighboring apartment for a murdered woman’s jewels—causing the gaslights to dim and leading Bella to believe she is hearing things—police detective Rough steps in on the track to locating the jewels and reveals to Bella her husband’s actions and tactics.
Emily Rahm gave an earnest performance as Bella, capturing the role’s need anxiety and insecurity blending relatability with that old British propriety. In contrast, Dan Servetnick’s Jack was a proper villain. Servetnick tapped into the character’s diabolical nature with a staunch performance that was easy to dislike — which was crucial to the character.
Jane Talbert and Kylie Shoemake both communicated their characters’ distinct traits, as the housekeeping staff Elizabeth and Nancy, but their performances leaned heavily into caricature. Talbert brought an unneeded comedic approach that broke the mounting tension. Meanwhile, Shoemake’s depiction of the seductive bad girl depended much on eye-rolling and facial expressions, which didn’t always flesh out Nancy’s deceitful motives.
Through a spirited performance, Jon Morehouse injected a feisty energy into the atmospheric production. Stepping into the role of Rough, his total immersion gave a punch to the play’s deliberately measured pace. Rough’s driven nature gave Morehouse the opportunity to serve up a compelling performance.
Mark Hawkins crafted a fully-realized show both as the director and set designer. Kerra Sims’ costuming looked on point for the era matched by Diamond Flores’ properties. Catherine Luster’s lighting had to be spot-on for a show called Gaslight and she certainly brought moody, warm tones of varied brightness that reflected the show’s tone.
In today’s dialogue of #metoo and empowerment, an opportunity felt slightly missed by not giving Bella some sort of defiance even in the face of her lack of power. The dynamics here worked, but it was hard not to pull a Cher and tell Bella to snap out of it.
Nonetheless, Angel Street (Gaslight) was a compelling start to Garland Civic Theatre’s 59th season. Hamilton’s 90-ish year-old play about abuse and manipulation was a painful reminder that some things never change. GCT was mindful about including a trigger statement in its program addressing the show’s themes.
The show runs through Sept. 13.
–Rich Lopez