Opening night for THE COLOR PURPLE in Dallas ended with a cheering crowd and a standing ovation at the Winspear Opera House in the downtown Dallas Arts District. THE COLOR PURPLE is a Tony Award-winning musical revival based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Alice Walker. The story spans the years 1910 through 1940, and the Grammy-winning score expertly infuses the musical flavors of that era, everything from gospel, jazz, ragtime, and blues. For those unfamiliar with the source material, the opening scene of THE COLOR PURPLE may come as a jolt. The casual manner in which 14-year-old Celie…
Tag: theater
Opening Night for Once On This Island Opening night for ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, brought Caribbean heat to chilly North Dallas at the Winspear Opera House in the downtown Dallas Arts District. I was excited to attend since Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s catchy lyrics and island rhythms won the 2018 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical with this captivating production. Storm-ravaged Tropical Paradise ONCE ON THIS ISLAND is set on an island in the French Antilles, although we never find out precisely which one. Even before the show starts, we quickly realize that the world of…
Opening Night Ovation for ONCE Opening night for ONCE, a multiple Tony award-winning folk musical, ended with a cheering crowd and a standing ovation at the Winspear Opera House in the downtown Dallas Arts District. Onstage Pub and Jam Session If you’re someone who frequently runs late, make sure you come early for ONCE. If you arrive after the show starts, you will not be allowed to enter for a full 30 minutes. The show is very quiet at the beginning and latecomers could disrupt the plot for the rest of us. The other reason to come early is…
Thought provoking play by Thomas Gibbons What does it really mean to be sentient? If we create a convincing facsimile of a person and use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reproduce a personality, does the end result truly replace the original person? Or is it a modern-day chimera? In any case, exactly what sort of legal rights would, or should, such an entity have? How should existing biological family members treat this new being? Questions such as these (and many more) have kept my husband, Larry, and I chatting for days after seeing Black Flag Theatre Company’s production of “Uncanny Valley,”…
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…
Anything Goes: A Tony Award Winning Musical Revival Anything Goes is not just a classic musical, it’s what every musical strives to be. Whether you’ve seen it before or not, if you grew up in the USA, you’ve certainly heard all (or very nearly all) of the songs in this show before. The first act alone contains such classics as: “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “You’re the Top,” “De-Lovely,” and, “Anything Goes.” See what I mean? After seeing the show in Dallas at the Winspear Opera House, it’s easy to see why this revival by New York City’s…