Stage Notes is a weekly aggregate post about theater, classical music, dance, comedy and stage news, events, reviews and other pertinent information.
Stage Notes Calendar
Opening this week:
Theatre Arlngton: Play Reading Club: Tiny Beautiful Things, today and Saturday.
Theatre Off the Square: Dorothy Meets Alice, today-Aug. 3.
McKinney Repertory Theatre: Barefoot in the Park, today-Aug. 9.
Theatre Frisco: Disaster! The Musical, today-Aug. 10.
Runway Theatre: Kodachrome, today-Aug. 10.
Cara Mia Theatre: Mariachi staged reading, Saturday at the Latino Cultural Center.
Basically Beethoven: Septet, 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Moody Performance Hall.
Broadway at the Bass: Shucked, Tuesday-Aug. 3 at Bass Hall, pictured.
Onstage now:
Second Thought Theatre: Your Wife’s Dead Body, through Saturday.
Shakespeare Dallas: The Importance of Being Earnest, through Saturday at Samuell-Grand Amphitheater.
Buzzed!, through Sunday at T3’s Theatre Too.
Garland Summer Musicals: Catch Me If You Can, through Sunday, pictured.
Mesquite Arts Theatre: Grease, through Sunday.
Stolen Shakespeare Guild: Hairspray, through Sunday.
Theatre Denton: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, through Sunday.
MainStage ILC: Noises Off, through Aug. 2.
Repertory Company Theatre: Something Rotten, through Aug. 3.
Uptown Players: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, through Aug. 3.
Pocket Sandwich Theatre: Star Trip: A Tale of Two Captains, through Aug. 23.
Moody Fund for the Arts grants close to a half-mil to area nonprofit arts groups
Earlier this week, The Moody Fund for the Arts (MFA) announced grant awards to 66
Dallas arts organizations for this year’s funding cycle. Ranging from $3,500 to $12,000, the grants will benefits groups in multiple art forms suchs as theater, music, dance, visual arts, film and more.
“For small arts groups, finding financial support is hard, especially in those early years,” Moody Foundation Chairman Francie Moody-Dahlberg said in a press release. “These grants help support their programs, their operations and their vision so they can continue their impactful work and contribute to the vibrant cultural tapestry across the city.”
The fund awards flexible grants within five categories: General Program and Operating Cost Support (41); New Works, Commissions and Unique Presentations (11); Community Focus Performances/Artist-in-Residency Programs (6); Cultural Equity, New Initiatives (6); Capacity Building (2).
Among this year’s recipients are Arts Mission Oak Cliff, Beckles Dancing Company, Echo Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theater, OK2BX, Soul Rep Theatre Company and Uptown Players. For a full list of the 66 recipients, click here.
Undermain Theatre announces its 42nd season — The Season of Solace
Deep Ellum’s Undermain Theatre revealed its roster of productions for its 42nd season this week. This season’s theme is The Season of Solace where the company explores relationships where we find commonality and companionship as the disasters that befall us slide into absurdity. The season launches this November and includes a total of four shows with an added stage reading for next year.
The season includes:
Nov. 6-30: Action by Sam Shepard. Four friends seek solace in each other by sharing a house over the Christmas holidays after a catastrophic event has thrown the world into chaos. Their ordinary tasks and unusual pastimes are all tinged with a dark, funny absurdity. Directed by Christina Cranshaw.
Feb. 12-March 8: The Skin of our Teeth by Thornton Wilder. The three-part allegory follows a New Jersey family through an impending Ice Age, a world war and a devastating flood, all of which they survive by the skin of their teeth. Directed by Stefan Novinski.
March 20-22: St. Miles by Jarrett King, a staged reading of an Undermain World Premiere in Development. The Ellis family lost one of its members, a young Black man named Miles, to an act of police violence. Now Miles’ mother Opal wants him to be recognized as a saint.
There are 10,000 saints in the Catholic Church—not one of them is African American. Yet. Directed by Jiles R. King II.
April 30-May: Saturn Return by Gracie Gardner (Katherine Owens/Undermain Fund for New Work recipient). In this world premiere comedy, friends on the cusp of turning 30 seek solace in each other and compare experiences of the path to adulthood. Directed by Cranshaw.
June 11-28: The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe by Jane Wagner. This play stars Marianne Galloway in a parade of engaging and insightful character studies all performed by her alone in this iconic one-woman piece. Directed by Ashley Puckett-Gonzales.
Subscriptions are available now with single ticket sales to be open at a later date. For more information, visit Undermain.org.
Review: RCT’s Something Rotten kept the laughs but faltered technically
The surefire thing about Something Rotten is it’s gonna be a funny show, no matter what. The material is rich, the songs are hilarious and the sheer spectacle of it fuels perpetual laughs. Repertory Company Theatre’s cast brought a sharp energy to the stage last Saturday on its opening weekend that was marked with strong performances.
The meta musical centers on Nick and Nigel Bottom in 16th century London where William Shakespeare rules as the world’s premiere writer. The brothers, both writers, intend to best Shakespeare with a show of their own. Older brother Nick will do whatever it takes despite taking on his more talented younger brother’s work that has garnered the approval of their acting company and the attention of Shakespeare himself. Nick hires a fortune teller who foresees a whole new type of theatrical production – a play where the dialogue stops and the plot is conveyed through song – and foresees a show about…eggs?
Debra Carter’s brisk direction perfectly complemented the show’s lively pace. Phillip Slay, as Nick, delivered a frenetic yet controlled performance, impressively handling the extensive stage time and dialogue. Molly Grace Robinson, playing Beatrice Bottom, Nick’s wife, provided a balancing presence with her calm energy, creating excellent comic chemistry with Slay. Jack Agnew’s portrayal of Thomas Nostradamus, the soothsayer, was hilariously uninhibited.
Alex Bigus brought a distinct flair to the Puritan, Brother Jeremiah who is against all things creative, while having some questionable gazes toward his male cohort always by his side. Bigus was able to convey humor without delving into any unnecessary caricature even with his sassy snaps and sashays. Jakob Schlegel was a pure rock star as the smug and pompous Shakespeare. As a Bottom investor, Scott Volmer was unrecognizable as Shylock but embodied the brassy character with ease without disappearing into the costume.
Young love was another layer to the show through the characters of Nigel Bottom and Portia, Brother Jeremiah’s daughter. Both poetry geeks, the two find a common attraction and Timothy Crisp and Brooke Bishop gave charming performances. Bishop could have rested on her voice and acting skills, but she leaned into the show’s silliness with nice comic skill. Crisp was a standout as the innocent and naive Nigel. Where Bishop leaned in, Crisp cannonballed into Rotten’s humor fusing a goofus physicality with a wonderfully dopey demeanor.
No production is without its imperfections, but for this show it was its lighting and sound. The lighting struggled with consistency, occasionally leaving performers in shadow or in contrast, stark lighting washed out the actors when blocked downstage. Abrupt shifts or even mistaken and missed light cues often pulled me out of the moment. Vocally, there were no weak links, but the sound mixing was often uneven. Some duets suffered with one clear mic that sang over the other making it difficult to fully catch every witty lyric or piece of dialogue. The tap dancing was also entertaining but drowned out most vocals – particularly Schlegel’s in Shakespeare’s duel with Nick.
Carter also designed an ideal Renaissance-style set that fit the story as did Megan A. Liles’ costume design. Kudos must be given to Music Director Byron Holder and the Something Rotten cast. These showtunes are quick and dense with lyrics. Under Holder’s direction, the cast nailed every one of those fast-paced tunes with crystal clear perfection.
Even with the show’s technical difficulties, these Bottoms were definitely a good time in Something Rotten.
The show runs through Aug. 3.
–Rich Lopez