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Tag: theater review

Review: Beautiful, The Carole King Musical in Dallas #BeautifulOnTour

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical on Broadway   When a major recording artist is featured in a jukebox musical, you can pretty much guess which songs will be recorded – or so I thought before attending Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. The national tour of this Tony Award winning show opened in Dallas, Texas last night to a packed house at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Not just Carole King songs Beautiful includes plenty of Carole King songs, but what surprised me was how many other familiar tunes came along for the ride. For instance, I didn’t know Carole King and her…

Review: Cabaret Musical in Dallas @ATTPAC #CabaretTour

Cabaret – surprisingly timely What could possibly be timely about a 50-year-old musical set in Berlin during Hitler’s rise to power? What, indeed. Had I seen Cabaret a year ago, I would have enjoyed it, but seeing it during the 2016 election cycle as we argue over transgender bathroom rights, immigration and religious freedom made this musical even more powerful, and rather unsettling! (In retrospect, I shouldn’t be surprised. John Kander and Fred Ebb, the same songwriting duo responsible for Chicago, another musical set in a different time period that also has uncanny modern day parallels, wrote the songs in Cabaret.) Set during the Weimar…

Review: IF/THEN A New Musical in Dallas @ATTPAC #IFTHENtour

Opening night ovation in Dallas, Texas Opening night of IF/THEN at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas ended with a cheering crowd and a standing ovation. This new musical by the Pulitzer Prize Winning duo, Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt, is a 2 and a 1/2 hour riff on the decisions we make in life and the consequences (both expected and unforeseen) these choices create.   IF/THEN vs Sliding Doors At first blush, the plot of IF/THEN sounds similar to “Sliding Doors,” a 1998 movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow. “Sliding Doors” shows the myriad ways a simple event – in this case, either catching or…

Review: Motown the Musical in Dallas, Texas

Crowd Pleasing Motown Hits in Dallas, Texas There was no second guessing needed to tell if the Dallas, Texas audience enjoyed Motown the Musical. From the moment the curtain lifted, people were clapping, whooping, and dancing in their seats. Based on a 1994 autobiography by Motown founder, Berry Gordy, this jukebox musical is chock full of toe-tapping nostalgia. With everything from “Baby Love” and “My Girl,” to “Brick House” and “Super Freak,” Motown the Musical packs in well over 50 major hits from the past 50 years. The show includes all the songs you remember, plus a few you may…

Review: Pegasus Theatre’s Living Black and White™ Play

Living Black and White™ Every January, Pegasus Theatre presents a unique production at the Eisemann Center in Richardson, Texas: a play that looks and feels like an old black and white movie. Through special trademarked make-up techniques, carefully chosen costuming, clever lighting and stylized acting, the experience is so good that when a woman in a bright red dress steps onto the stage after the curtain call, it’s jarring to the eyes. (Even my camera struggled to make sense of that moment; she came out looking splotchy and yellow in a few shots.) A Parody of Film Noir & Crime…

Review: The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess in Dallas, Texas

The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess: A Tony Award Winning Musical After winning several prestigious awards (including the 2012 Tony Award® for Best Revival of a Musical) The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess is now playing at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, Texas as part of the AT&T Performing Arts Broadway Lexus Series. Even if you have never seen Porgy and Bess, chances are you know its songs, since so many of them have been covered over the past 78 years. George Gershwin’s famous American opera intentionally weaves classical music with spirituals, blues and jazz, so it’s easy for artists in…