Teatro Dallas hosts its 15th International Festival and Theater Workshop Feb. 10 through 12. Costa Rica, Colombia, Japan and Texas will be represented in this compact multicultural extravaganza.

Elia Arce's multimedia performance piece First Woman on the Moon explores landscapes from the Costa Rican jungle through lunar desert solitude. Feb. 10 at 8:15 p.m. $15 to $20.

Ximena Garnica and Seige Moriya's Trace of Purple Sadness is rooted in Butoh dance. Feb. 11 at 8:15 p.m. $15.

Former Dallas artist Adelina Anthony, a San Antonio native now living in California, takes a humorous approach to the problems gay people face. Feb. 12 at 3 p.m. $15.

- Lawson Taitte/Theater Critic

All programs at South Dallas Cultural Center, 3400 S. Fitzhugh, Dallas. 214-689-6492. teatrodallas.org.

Free Man of Color tells the story of a freed slave, John Newton Templeton, who graduated from Ohio University 35 years before the Emancipation Proclamation. Charles Smith's script won a 2004 Jefferson Award in Chicago for best new play. African American Repertory Theater opens the regional premiere of the piece this weekend. Company co-founder Regina Washington directs a cast that includes Christopher Dontrell Piper as Templeton, Vince Davis as his mentor Robert Wilson, and Mary-Margaret Pyeatt as Wilson's wife.

- Lawson Taitte/Guide

Feb. 3-26 at DeSoto Corner Theatre, 211 E. Pleasant Run Road, DeSoto. $15-$20. 972-572-0998. aareptheater.com.

A highlight of Second Thought Theatre's first season was the world premiere of local actor-playwright Steven Walters' Pluck the Day. A bunch of young West Texas guys -- some high, some just plain drunk -- sit around a porch, talk philosophy and eventually try to kill each other. Of course, there's a good-looking woman involved. Walters revised the play for a New York production last year. So now Second Thought begins its new season, back in Uptown Dallas, with a new production. Matthew Gray directs a terrific cast. Previews begin this weekend for a Feb. 9 opening.

- Lawson Taitte/Guide

Feb. 3-26 in Bryant Hall (next to the Kalita Humphreys Theater), 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd., Dallas $15-$22.50. 866-811-4111. secondthoughttheatre.com.

Richard Greenberg's Take Me Out, about a Major League baseball star who announces he's gay, created a furor on Broadway and won the 2003 Tony Award for best play. WaterTower Theatre's area premiere in 2006 somewhat toned down the prolonged male nudity. Now Uptown Players is reviving the show with a cast of mostly younger actors -- and, goodness knows, Uptown has never been afraid of a bit of beefcake.

-Lawson Taitte/Guide

Feb. 3-19. Kalita Humphreys Theater, 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd., Dallas. $25-$35. 214-219-2718. uptownplayers.org.

Get out your calendar and start jotting down the dates. Target is hosting Breaking Dawn parities, Norton Juster is heading to town, kids going to the new Sesame Street Live: Elmo Makes Music show can play on Sesame Street Live's new Play Zone, DCT is presenting The Secret Life of Girls and Casa Manana has Charlotte's Web coming up. I've got the details in my Family Fun Looking Ahead column here.

PHOTO: Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in Breaking Dawn -- Part 1

While most area theaters have given up on great names from world literature, the off-beat MBS Productions keeps doing its bit. Most of the company's shows are original scripts with sexy, often gay, themes. But occasional MBS does an original take on a Greek or even Roman tragedy. This time, though, the great writer it's tackling is pretty sexy himself, for a 300-year-old Frenchman. Pierre de Marivaux wrote comedies about mismatched love, mistaken identities and broken hearts. MBS opens a new translation of his The Game of Love and Chance on Feb. 2.

Through Feb. 18 at the Stone Cottage Theatre, Addison Theatre Centre, 15650 Addison Road, Addison. $18 to $26. 214-477-4942. mbsproductions.net.

-Lawson Taitte/Guide

Mark your calendars -- there's some cool stuff heading here for kids in February and March: The Piccadilly Circus, award-winning children's book writer Richard Michelson, the amazing Norton Juster, Charlotte's Web and The Secret Life of Girls. You can get all the details in my Family Fun Looking Ahead column here.
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I've found a great variety of fun for the kids this week. You can introduce them to opera with the kid-friendly Doctor Miracle from the Dallas Opera, show off the explosive ball handling skills of Harlem Globetrotter Fatima "TNT" Maddox, learn about the science of sports at Sci-Tech Discovery Center, watch Madeline and the Gypsies and catch the last weekend of Dinosaurs Live! at the Heard. You can get all the details in my Family Fun briefs here.

PHOTO: Dallas Opera will present the kid-friendly Doctor Miracle opera at the Rosewood Center for Family Arts Jan. 27 and Feb. 3. Photo by Karen Almond

WaterTower Theatre will extend its run of The Diary of Anne Frank (read DMN theater critic Lawson Taitte's review here) by one performance. An additional show has been added Sunday, January 29th at 7 pm.

Tickets for this performance are $20 per person (no discounts, coupons or special offers allowed) and are now on sale at WaterTower Theatre's box office at 972-450-6232 or online at www.watertowertheatre.org.

The Diary of Anne Frank opened January 6 at the Addison Theatre Centre. The cast includes Molly Franco as Anne Frank, Stan Graner as Otto Frank, Emily Scott Banks as Edith Frank, Jessica Renee Russell as Margot Frank, Travis Tope as Peter Van Daan, Lucia Welch as Mrs. Van Daan, Paul T. Taylor as Mr. Van Daan, Ted Wold as Mr. Dussell, Dana Schultes as Miep Gies, Andrew J. Kasten as Mr. Kraler, Arvin Combs as the Nazi Officer, and Jacob Aaron Cullum and Wes Cantrell as Nazi Soldiers.

Lots of fun for kids this week: Junie B. Jones at the Eisemann Center in Richardson and Bass Hall in Fort Worth, a Chinese New Year festival at the Children's Museum at the Museum of Nature & Science, World Record Night at the Texas Brahmas game, an etiquette class with a great meal at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek and a chance to score free annual passes to the Children's Aquarium at Fair Park if they can come up with the best name for the facility's 70-plus-year-old, 175-pound alligator snapping turtle. I've got all the details in my Family Fun briefs here.

PHOTO: Kids have a chance to win annual passes for their families in a contest to name the Children's Aquarium's 70-plus-year-old, 175-pound alligator snapping turtle.

Maybe you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but you sure can teach a mouse -- particularly if hat mouse is played by Karl Schaeffer in If You Give a Mouse of Cookie.

Karl has been working with 8th generation circus artist Fanny Kerwich on an aerial silk act that he's slipping into his mouse antics. The show runs through Feb. 26 but if you catch tonight's opening night, you'll see Fanny's Lone Star Circus performers do THEIR tricks in the lobby from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Tiff's Treats will supply free milk and cookies and each family will get a free show poster. PLUS, 12 lucky individuals will win a voucher tonight for a dozen warm, delivered sponsors AND two lucky winners will receive vouchers for a free class in the Lone Star Circus school. Want to know more about the show? I've got all the details in my Family Fun column here.

I was so moved by 17-year-old Molly Franco, who plays Anne in Monday's opening night performance of The Diary of Anne Frank at WaterTower Theatre in Addison. The more she brings Anne to life -- the effervescence, the mischievous humor, the joyous life force -- the more I found myself wincing because I know how the story of this young girl captured by the Nazis ends -- and you keep hoping that just this one time it could end differently.

But one thing I have learned from this play and from two other remarkable works about children of the Holocaust -- Through the Eyes of a Friend at the Aaron Family Jewish Community Center and the "Every Child Has A Name" exhibit at the Dallas Holocaust Museum -- is that we all can play a role in making sure the story of what happens to kids in the face of bigotry and hate does end differently in the future. To that end, I felt lifted up by the contribution local children made to the "Every Child Has A Name" exhibit -- a collection of 1.5 million pennies, one for each child who died in the Holocaust. The idea, says Sheryl Pidgeon of Plano, the mom of Bryce and Jaxie Plano who spearheaded the efforts to raise the last 300,000 pennies, is that "every penny represented a child's soul."

Just when I find myself consumed with sadness about what did happen, it helps me understand what Anne meant when she wrote, "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."

You can read my story about The Diary of Anne Frank, Through the Eyes of A Friend and Every Child Has A Name here.

PHOTO: Molly Franco and Travis Pope star as Anne and Peter in The Diary of Anne Frank at WaterTower Theater in Addison

Over the weekend, I was flipping through the recently released second volume of Stephen Sondheim's self-annotated lyrics, Look, I Made a Hat. It goes without saying -- strike that, he would not tolerate such lazy writing -- it is a must-read for any theater fan, and great inspiration for anyone who values the power of words and the art of theater.

I was skimming the section on 1990's Assassins, which features a climactic scene with Lee Harvey Oswald in the Texas Book Depository. Sondheim discloses a fascinating bit of might-have-been for Dallas:

More cool things for kids this week: a dancing Cinderella by the young performers of Plano Metropolitan Ballet, farm activities at the Heritage Farmstead Museum in Plano, Rumple-Steal-Skin at Artie's Playhouse at Artisan Center Theater in Hurst, your last weekend to catch Bob the Builder (in person!) at the Museum of Nature & Science in Fair Park and a special screening of The Adventures of Tintin for kids with special needs at four AMC locations. You can get the details in my Family Fun column here.

I found some great free things to do with kids of all ages this week, from Pictures and Pages at the Kimbell Art Museum for preschoolers to Junior Players acting workshops at Dallas Public Library locations for the teens. And then there's juggler David Slick at NorthPark Center, Critterman at Galleria Dallas and Norman Rockwell and the Art of Scouting exhibit at the National Scouting Museum in Irving. I've got all the details here.

FORT WORTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA The FWSO starts the new year with music director Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducting works by Beethoven and Brahms. Brazilian pianist Arnaldo Cohen will guest star. Jan. 13 at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 14 at 8 p.m., Jan. 15 at 2 p.m. at Bass Hall, 525 Commerce St., Fort Worth. $10-$79. 817-665-6000. fwsymphony.org.

TYLER PERRY'S THE HAVES & HAVE NOTS The touring musical deals with tough topics -- financial woes, mental health and drugs, for instance -- but in a comedic way. Jan. 13-15 at Verizon Theatre, 1001 Performance Place, Grand Prairie. $42.50- $48.50. Ticketmaster.

NOISES OFF Michael Frayn's hilarious farce, about a befuddled group of British actors on tour, gets a staging at one of the area's best community playhouses, Theatre Arlington. Alcohol, lingerie and sardines all make startling appearances. Jan. 13-29 at 305 W. Main St., Arlington. 817-275-7661. theatrearlington.org.

BLACK MUSIC AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT CONCERT WITH CECE WINANS The Grammy Award-winning gospel-R&B star headlines the 29th annual production of this concert, a tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In addition to music, the show will feature film footage, narration and dance. Jan. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Meyerson, 2301 Flora St., Dallas. $20.75-$37. Ticketmaster.

LIVE AND LET DIE: THE MUSIC OF PAUL McCARTNEY Singer-musician Tony Kishman, who has appeared in the Broadway show Beatlemania and has toured with Twist and Shout, Classical Mystery Tour and Legends in Concert, stars in this look at McCartney's career. A four-piece band and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra will also perform. Jan. 20-21 at 8 p.m. and Jan. 22 at 2 p.m. at Bass Hall, 525 Commerce St., Fort Worth. $27-$79. 817-665-6000. www.fwsymphony.org.

Compiled by Joy Tipping

The late playwright Wendy Kesselman did a new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank for Broadway in 1997. This moving tale of a girl and her family hiding from the Nazis during World War II starred the young Natalie Portman. Now WaterTower Theatre is producing Kesselman's version with Molly Franco as Anne. Stan Graner and Emily Scott Banks play her parents, under the direction of Terry Martin.

Jan. 6-29 at WaterTower Theatre, 15650 Addison Road, Addison. $20-$40. 972-450-6232. watertowertheatre.org.

Lawson Taitte

Photo by staff photographer Nathan Hunsinger: Molly Franco plays Anne Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank at WaterTower Theatre.

Among younger contemporary American playwrights, Sarah Ruhl has been especially favored by local companies, with productions from Kitchen Dog Theater, Undermain Theatre and Stage West. Going back to Ruhl's first published work, Upstart Productions now pitches in with Melancholy Play. Despite the title, it's a romantic comedy marked by Ruhl's usual fantastical imagination. Natalie Young, who had a terrific year onstage in 2011, plays the mysterious and -- temporarily, at least -- melancholy heroine.

Jan. 11-Feb. 4 at the Green Zone, 161 Riveredge Drive, Dallas. Ticket prices TBA. upstarttheater.com.

- Lawson Taitte / Theater Critic

After making his reputation with short, inventive comedies in the late 1980s, playwright David Ives has become a kind of theatrical literary handyman. He has translated and adapted and fixed works by all kinds and nationalities of other writers, while creating his own work in all sorts of genres.

The last thing one would have expected Ives to write, given those early pieces, is a work about the religious struggles of a 17th-century philosopher. New Jerusalem gives us a portrait of the young Baruch de Spinoza as his fellow Jews in Amsterdam interrogate him about his beliefs -- and finally expel him from their congregation.

Stage West opens the new year with New Jerusalem's area premiere. Jerry Russell directs a cast that includes Garret Storms as Spinoza. Fort Worth's theaters have done very well by intellectual dramas of this sort in recent seasons, so there's hope that this one will enthrall, rather than pall, with all its talk.

Jan. 6-29 at Stage West, 821 W. Vickery, Fort Worth. $26-$30. 817-784-9378. stagewest.org.

Lawson Taitte

Longhorns and oil rigs. East Coast invaders vs. good ol' boys and rising Mexican-American expectations vs. entrenched attitudes.

Edna Ferber's massive novel Giant became the archetypal Texas movie back in the 1950s, and the Dallas Theater Center is hoping that its new stage version by Sybille Pearson and Michael John LaChiusa becomes the archetypal Texas musical.

Michael Greif (Rent, Grey Gardens) is the celebrity director. The company's most ambitious project to date is a co-production with the New York Public Theater and will play the Wyly Theatre Jan. 18 to Feb. 19.

Lawson Taitte, theater critic

I was feeling a little guilty about taking so long to get up this blog post about Cirque Banquiste!. The international circus experience put together right here in Texas by Fanny Kerwich, an eighth generation circus artist and married Dallas mom of two, opened Thursday.

But then I found out that the Thursday AND Friday performances are sold out. So I'm feeling a little better about that. But I still want to alert you that there are only four performances left of this astonishing celebration that will feature international stars like Luciano Anastasini and his irresistible dogs and juggler extraordinaire Rejean St. Jules alongside homegrown Lone Star talent such as the remarkable Raphaele Daubois with her all-new Hula-Hoop routine. It's all happening at the Dallas Children's Theater's Rosewood Center for Family Arts (where Fanny will be coming back to coach veteran actor Karl Schaeffer in some circus moves for his Mouse in If You Give A Mouse A Cookie opening Jan. 20). I've got all the details on Cirque Banquiste here. And there'll be more Mouse tales in an upcoming Family Fun column.

PHOTO: Raphaele Daubois, 20, of Dallas, a graduate of Fanny Kerwich's Lone Star Circus school, is debuting her new Hula-Hoop routine at Cirque Banquiste! at the Rosewood Center for Family Arts through Sunday.

I've found some fabulous free fun for the kids this week that starts at the end of December and will take you through the first week of the New Year. If you haven't seen the amazing Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art, you should jump at the opportunity to take the kids to First Tuesdays where the theme is "Dress Up" and they can make paper dolls, transform ordinary art supplies into royal jewels and see a production of The Ugly Duckling. First Tuesdays is free; the Gaultier exhibit will be $10 on that day as opposed to the usual $16 on weekdays.

You can also see Nutcracker in a Nutshell puppet show at Bookmarks at NorthPark Center, catch singer, songwriter, picture book writer and recording artist Willy Welch at Galleria Dallas, learn about the inventiveness of Ben Franklin at the Irving Arts Center and celebrate Kwanzaa with a show by Soul Children's Theatre at South Dallas Cultural Center.

I've got all the details in my Family Fun column here.

PHOTO: A children's program on Jan. 5 at the Irving Arts Center will focus on Benjamin Franklin.

KATHY GRIFFIN The socially incorrect, boisterously witty comedian brings her act to town. Jan. 6 at 8 p.m. at Verizon Theatre, 1001 Performance Place, Grand Prairie. $39.75-$59.75. axs.com.

THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK Terry Martin directs the stage adaptation of the moving tale about a young girl in hiding in Amsterdam during the Holocaust. Jan. 6-29, presented by WaterTower Theatre at the Addison Conference and Theatre Centre, 15650 Addison Road, Addison. $20-$40 (Jan. 8 is pay-what-you-can). 972-450-6232. watertowertheatre.org.

BRIAN REGAN The comedian, whose second album All By Myself came out in November, is a fan favorite on The Late Show With David Letterman and Comedy Central Presents. Jan. 7 at 8 p.m. at Fair Park Music Hall, 909 First Ave., Dallas. $61.58-$73.20. Ticketmaster.

CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF FORT WORTH Pianist Támas Ungár will appear as guest artist in a program of works by Mozart and Schubert. Ungár, a member of the Texas Christian University piano faculty, has performed in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Columbia, England, Hong Kong and China. Jan. 7 at 2 p.m. at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell St., Fort Worth. $28. 817-877-3003. chambermusicsocietyoffortworth.com.

New Year's can be a blast for kids -- and parents -- especially when it's a Noon Year's Eve celebration like the one Radio Disney is having at the Main Event in Fort Worth or the one at the Legoland Discovery Center in Grapevine or the countdown to 9 p.m at This Side Up Family Fun Center in Plano. And then there's the lock-in like the ones at Eisenbergs Skatepark in Plano where you know they'll have fun and be safe while parents are having adult time.

Plus, on Jan. 1 Disney's Phineas and Ferb are heading to Garland in a live show with some new songs. You can get the details in my Family Fun column here.

John Hardman of Le Theatre de Marionette told me many wonderful stories when I interviewed him in 2008. But my favorite was when he aimed his zingers at a man in green plaid pants only to find out, later, that the man was Raymond Nasher. For those who get a kick out of his Scrooge's curmudgeonly ways, you may want to check out his last performance on Dec. 24 when Scrooge, after reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol, starts to have a change of heart. You can read all about it in my Kids' Corner here.

PHOTO: Scrooge at NorthPark Center will have a change of heart at the last performance on Dec. 24.

I had such a blast talking with the two precocious and very sweet young boys -- and best friends -- alternating as Tiny Tim and Young Scrooge in Dallas Theater Center's A Christmas Carol, which earned a rave from our own Lawson Taitte. You still have a couple of chances to catch them before the show's final performance Satruday at 12 noon. Read about these remarkable guys in my Family Fun column here and you just may find another reason to catch it before it closes.

PHOTO: Mark Fisher (right) with Kurt Rhoads and Abbey Siegworth in A Christmas Carol. Mark alternates with his good friend, Kuran Patel, as both Tiny Tim and Young Scrooge

I still remember the first time I took my boys, who were so little at the time, to our first panto put on here by Theatre Britain in 2002. "Remember to sit still and not to say a word during the show," I told them on our way to the theater. So what was the first thing that happened? The narrator starts talking directly to the kids, urging them to boo the villain and cheer the hero. And then there was the singalong!

A panto, I soon realized, is all about letting go, having fun and sharing an experience with the actors. "Bring your lungs and check your manners at the door for a raucous and engaging production of The Sleeping Beauty that no one will be able to sleep through," I wrote back then. No wonder it's such a holiday must in England, where it brings parents and kids and the community together in common merriment. Years later, when I interviewed Daniel Radcliffe about Harry Potter, he told me that going to the pantos is what spurred his love of theater.

It's also become a holiday tradition of our own as one of my boys returns with me every year to see Theatre Britain's new panto. This year we had a blast at Dick Whittington, which continues through Dec. 28 at the Cox Building Playhouse in Plano. You can read my review here.

PHOTO: Michael Speck plays Jack Of All Trades in Theatre Britain's performance of "Dick Whittington." Photo by DMN Special Contributor Matt Strasen.

J. Mark McVey, who stars as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, has had some of his biggest life moments on the stage. He fell in love with Christy Tarr, whom he married after they were cast as husband and wife in The Who's Tommy on Broadway. He knew he wanted to be a father after playing father to Little Cosette in Les Misérables on Broadway. Now he is playing the father to his actual eight-year-old daughter, Kylie McVey, who will make her debut as Little Cosette (alternating as Young Éponine) in the 25th annual tour of the blockbuster musical at the AT&T Performing Arts Center's Winspear Opera House Tuesday.

"I'm absolutely ecstatic," Mark told me on the phone from a tour stop in Grand Rapids, Mich. "I don't think it can get much better than this. I consider it an honor to deliver a message of redemption and grace each evening, but now from a human aspect as the father of the child I am performing with, I just can't even imagine what emotions it's going to bring forth." You can read all about it here and in the Guide on Friday.

Even Santa can't resist the aroma of fresh-baked bread. He'll be landing his sleigh at Mrs Baird's Bakery, where kids can get free photos with him, color pictures and take home one of Mrs Baird's sweet treats. I've found lots more free fun for the kids, too, this week -- Le Theatre de Marionette's The Little Drummer Boy at the Latino Cultural Center, a Curious George exhibit at the Mesquite Arts Center (paired with a Curious George craft time at the Mesquite Main Library), Nutcracker excerpts, a folklorico performance and a chance to adopt pets at NorthPark Center. Kids can also give back as they celebrate Christmas the old-fashioned way, stringing popcorn and cranberries and hanging them on real trees for the birds to enjoy at Trinity River Audubon Center. I've got all the details in my Family Fun Free Fun column here.

PHOTO: Ballet Folklorico will be performing for free, along with the Texas Ballet Theater School, Dallas and Dallas Ballet Company. The ballet companies will be doing excerpts from The Nutcracker.

Kristin Chenoweth brought charm, humor and elegance -- if not height -- to the Nasher Sculpture Center on Thursday evening, as part of the Nasher's splendid Salon series. The star of Wicked, Glee and ABC's upcoming Dallas-set nighttime soap GCB joshed several times at her own teensy stature, notably when talking about getting the call for Wicked. "I thought, 'They want me to play a munchkin!' " She played Glinda the good witch, of course, and earned a Tony nomination for the role (she won a Tony for You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, as well as an Emmy for the lamentably canceled TV comedy Pushing Daisies).

The 43-year-old star, who hails from Broken Arrow, Okla. (just outside of Tulsa), was interviewed onstage by KERA's Jeff Whittington. Earlier in the day, she had met with about 400 students at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She called the students her "fellow artists" and expressed amazement at the sculpture, photography and performances she saw at the school. "It made me mad that I didn't get to go there," she joked, then added, "They [the students] very much inspired me. I wanted to go to the practice room immediately."

PHOTO by Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer: Kristin Chenoweth greets a student Thursday at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

The Dallas Theater Center's Christmas Carol is a guaranteed tear-jerker. Richard Hellesen's adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, directed again by Joel Ferrell, doesn't just grab you at the expected moments such as Tiny Tim's cry of "God bless us, every one!"

It sneaks up on you when the aged Ebenezer Scrooge (returning former company member Kurt Rhoads) sees his long-dead sister as a young girl, when an unanticipated event awakes pangs of conscience in the miser, or when he makes a quick aside to the audience as he awakes to a happier new day.

Dickens admitted freely that his holiday fable is a ghost story. This production takes the scary parts so seriously it might provoke tears of another sort in very young audience members. David de Berry's score, which keeps the actors singing through much of the show, is another source of this Carol's powerful emotions.

-Lawson Taitte / Theater Critic

Through Dec. 24 at the Kalita Humphreys Theater, 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd., Dallas. $15-$85. 214-880-0202. www.dallastheatercenter.org.

Photo by Brad Loper/The Dallas Morning News: Ebenezer Scrooge, played by Kurt Rhoads, center, in the opening act of the Dallas Theater Center's annual staging of "A Christmas Carol."

View a photo gallery of the show here.

Lots of fun -- and a chance for kids to give back -- this week!.The Dallas Symphony Orchestra offers its annual "Deck the Hall" concert (with part of the proceeds going to support music education programs for youth) and an 11-year-old "Annie" is performing in a show that will raise money in memory of her best friend who died of cancer. Plus, kids can go Christmas caroling on a hayride and decorate elegant gingerbread houses at the Rosewood Crescent Hotel.

You can get the details in my Family Fun briefs here.

PHOTO: Deck the Hall features young performers in addition to the DSO, activities, crafts, a professional photo and, of course, Santa.

Dallas became the first city to get Medieval Times' new show in November (it will be rolled out to the eight other locations by summer) and, not to worry, it's still medieval, but with fresh costumes, script, score and fighting sequences for faithful fans. As for the newbies, all you need to know is that the Andalusian stallions prance, a falcon soars, six knights joust, lances splinter and sparks fly as swords, battle-axes, bola and shields clash. A winner emerges and faces off against a dark challenger who seeks to steal the fair princess for his own lord against the wishes of the king, while romantic music swells and colored lights weave their misty magic.

It's a blast, but it can be pricey. That's why I've compiled my five tips for making the most of your Medieval Times experience. You can get them in my Guide cover story here. Would love to hear your tips, too!

PHOTO: Wes Irving, The Green Knight (left), and Crew Wyard, Assistant Head Knight, for feature on the new show at Medieval Times. Photo by DMN Staff Photographer Evans Caglage.

Theatre Three has always specialized in Molière's comedies from the 17th century, so it makes sense that the company should program a postmodern American salute to the great French playwright.

David Hirson's La Bête attracted notice in New York in 1991 and won London's Laurence Olivier Award for best comedy the next year. A major revival hit both cities in 2010. Now Jac Alder, still a very busy guy 50 years after he co-founded Theatre Three, is directing this Dallas production.

Like Molière himself, the hero of La Bête, Elomire, runs a prestigious theater company that caters to the French aristocracy. The Princess Conti insists that an interloper, Valere, join the troupe. His crude humor, indeed everything about him, offends Elomire. Does the artist compromise and keep his job or stay true to his ideals?

Jakie Cabe plays Elomire, and Bradley Campbell is Valere. Two actresses long absent from the stage make a welcome return: Georgia Clinton plays the Princess, and Sara Weeks is Catherine de Brie.

-Lawson Taitte / Theater Critic

Dec. 9-Jan. 14 (no performances Dec. 19-28) at Theatre Three in the Quadrangle, 2800 Routh St., Dallas. $10-$50. 214-871-3300. www.theatre3dallas.com.

Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Schmidt: Jakie Cabe and Georgia Clinton appear in La Bete.

Visual minds, rejoice! Recently we added to dallasnews.com/arts a special section for photos, where you'll find shots from our staff photographers of plays, musicals and exhibits, as well as spotlights on local artists.

If you are an artist based in Dallas-Fort Worth with an upcoming show locally and would like to be considered for an Artist Spotlight photo gallery or blog feature, email me (1) a short bio, (2) 1-2 photos or a link to your work, and (3) info on your upcoming exhibit with "Artist Spotlight" in the Subject line at least two weeks before the show's opening date.

Got some Yo Gabba Gabba fans at home? Check out my Kids' Corner in today's Guide section of the Dallas Morning News for details of tomorrow's big concert at Verizon Theatre in Grand Prairie. Click here for details.

Fabulous fun for kids this week includes a Polar Express Pajama Party, where they can see the movie, have dinner, take pictures with Santa and experience "snow" inside the building, Santa Claus: The Christmas Musical , adapted from Rankin & Bass musical specials at Studio B Performing Arts Center and a screening of The Muppets for kids with special needs at Studio Movie Grill and select AMC Theatres.

Plus, kids can give back at the Teddy Bear Toss at the Brahmas ice hockey game (throw a stuffed animal on the ice after the first Texas Brahmas goal; the toy will go to kids for the holidays) and Camp Gingerbread at NorthPark Center (where proceeds from decorating gingerbread cookies will benefit Shared Housing, a non-proift that facilitates affordable housing for those in need).

Get the scoop in my Family Fun Guide Picks here. For details on the AMC Sensory Friendly Screenings, which I didn't get in time for the column, click <

Twelve-year-old Olivia Wilkerson of Plano had no idea what to think when her parents too her to her first panto -- a British holiday tradition presented by Theatre Britain here. "I didn't know what a panto was," she told me. "It surprised me that in one of the parts a man played a woman, a ghost pops out for some random reason and they make you sing along. I was like, 'Hey, why are they doing this?' "
But Olivia and her family loved it and now they can't wait to check out Theatre Britain's latest panto, Dick Whittington, at the Cox Building Playhouse in Plano. You can read my story about how some homesick British transplants helped turn a British holiday tradition into a Texas one here.

PHOTOS: (top) Twelve-year-old Olivia Wilkerson of Plano loves to take pictures with actors at Theatre' Britain's pantos -- part of her family's annual holiday tradition. (bottom) Kate Rutledge as Queen Rat in Theatre Britain's new world premiere panto, Dick Whittington.

As part of a mini-festival devoted to composer John Bucchino, Theatre Three is presenting a revue, It's Only Life, confected by the composer himself. It shows off a lot of fresh -- and most impressive -- talent. The five young singers are fine storytellers. Also, as they need to be here, they're actors of depth and subtlety. They sing in tune, and they don't need amplification in Theatre Three's intimate basement space. What you remember, however, is not the voices but the emotions. Darius-Anthony Robinson's rendition of "Grateful" is almost biblical in its reach. Seth Grugle brings the house down with the funny, bitter hymn to denial "On My Bedside Table," and Jennifer Noth follows that with a more poignant response to loss, "I've Learned to Let Things Go." Erica Harte and Angel Velasco make vivid Theatre Three debuts.

Through Dec. 11 in Theatre Three's basement space, 2800 Routh St., Dallas. $25-$30. 214-871-3300. www.theatre3dallas.com.

-Lawson Taitte / Theater Critic

Tons of free fun this week! Slappy's Holiday Circus at Galleria Dallas, horse-drawn carriage rides at Watters Creek, Mrs. Claus' puppet tales at the Parks at Arlington and Jumpstart: Stories and Art at the Irving Arts Center. Check it out in my Family Fun Guide Picks; Free Fun column here.

PHOTO: Lily Monday, daughter of married clowns Tiffany 'Slappy' Riley and Dick Monday, performs alongside her big brother, juggler Chet Monday, at Slappy's Holiday Circus at Galleria Dallas through Dec. 23.

By Lawson Taitte:

Sentiment isn't a thing you'd usually associate with Kitchen Dog Theater, but 26 Miles is a sentimental play. Grittily sentimental, if you like, but sentimental nonetheless. Christina Vela plays Beatriz, a Cuban immigrant who lost custody of her daughter Olivia (Allie Donnelly) years ago. Olivia's father, Aaron (Ashley Wood), is going through a crisis in his current marriage, and things aren't going so smoothly for Beatriz and her new husband, Manuel (Christopher Carlos), either. The volatile mother, risking trouble with the police, picks up her daughter and just starts driving. The growing relationship between Beatriz and Olivia is the whole point of 26 Miles. In some ways, their being almost strangers makes a different sort of mother-daughter communication possible.

Through Dec. 10, presented by Kitchen Dog Theater at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary, 3120 McKinney Ave., Dallas. $15-$25; discounts available. Pay-what-you-can specials will be available to the first 25 patrons on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 7 and 8. There'll also be a "Feeding Frenzy Friday" fundraiser on Dec. 2, where $10 of every ticket sold will benefit the North Texas Food Bank. 214-953-1055. www.kitchendogtheater.org.

By Lawson Taitte:

'White Christmas' at Bass Hall

Bing Crosby actually starred in two films featuring his beloved Irving Berlin holiday song classic. White Christmas was the name of the remake. A stage adaptation of this fable about romance in a wintry resort, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, played on Broadway in recent seasons. Now Performing Arts Fort Worth is bringing a touring version out of Atlanta to Bass Performance Hall. It features Berlin's seasonal favorites like "Happy Holiday" as well as all-time hits such as "Blue Skies." The show should make a refreshing alternative to the standard holiday seasonal fare.

Nov. 29-Dec. 4 at Bass Performance Hall, 525 Commerce St., Fort Worth. $38.50-$110. 1-877-212-4280. www.basshall.com.

By Lawson Taitte:

Greetings' at the Bath House Cultural Center

Playwright Tom Dudzick has become well-known to Fort Worth theatergoers, thanks to productions at both Stage West and Circle Theatre. Now One Thirty Productions is giving Dallas its first look at him. Dudzick's Greetings falls into that genre now firmly established in the movies, the home-for-the-holidays comedy. Its New Age inspiration may seem closer to Shirley MacLaine than to Charles Dickens, but One Thirty has assembled a fine cast including Sonny Franks and Gene Raye Price as the parents, John Venable as the older son, Julie Osborne as the girl he brings home and Ben Bryant as the handicapped brother who demonstrates some unexpected abilities.

Nov. 30-Dec. 17 at the Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther Drive at White Rock Lake, Dallas. $12-$14. 214-532-1709. www.bathhousecultural.com.

The NasherSALON featuring Broadway and TV actress Kristin Chenoweth, originally set for Nov. 15, has been rescheduled to Dec. 8 to accommodate the actress' filming schedule of the Dallas-set nighttime soap GCB, planned as a mid-season replacement on ABC stations.

Current ticketholders for the sold-out Nov. 15 NasherSALON will have the first chance to transfer their tickets to the Dec. 8 event. If there are any available tickets as of Nov. 10, the remaining tickets will open for sale to the public.

The Nasher will also collaborate with Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts to bring Chenoweth to the school for an afternoon Salon at 3 p.m. Dec. 8. When all seats are sold to the evening Salon, a limited number of tickets will become available for the student-led Salon at Booker T. Tickets for this Salon are $30; check the Nasher website starting Nov. 11.

"West Side Story" was originally choreographed and directed by Jerome Robbins as a modern take on the story of "Romeo and Juliet." Of course "modern" means something different over 50 years later. The story, set in the 1950s, follows two rival New York City gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, and the two young lovers from opposite sides.

Upon hearing my plans to see the show Tuesday night, two guys I would not have expected it from, my friend's husband, and my boss, each broke into, "When you're a Jet, You're a Jet all the way..." that they still had memorized from their days as Jets in high school productions of "West Side Story."

The Dallas Children's Theater opened up its season with a new idea: an opening night pajama party for the audience of each of its upcoming shows, starting with Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

The show was a success (you can read my review here), and so was the party. It was cool to see a full audience of kids, many of them wearing pajamas and clutching blankets or cuddly toys. During intermission they feasted on ice cream from Sam's (ice cream is an Alexander favorite) and listened to Willy Welch, aka Mr. Willy, perform. They also received free gum (another Alexander fave) on the way out after the show; smart way to avoid having gum end up in the carpet before the next performance!

"Hair," not to be confused with "Hairspray," is in short, a musical about the hippie culture of the '60s.

First performed over 40 years ago, and now fresh off a revival on Broadway, it contains all your typical 1960s stereotypes of drugs, sex, anti-war and protesting.

When it began, "Hair" was not a typical musical of the '60s, and made a statement being a far cry from shows like "Hello Dolly" and "Fiddler on the Roof" out at the time. Everything from the rock music, to the controversial social issues, to the cast, was nontraditional. The director didn't want classically trained dancers, but rather raw talent. All of this did not sit well with some audience members at the time and the theater actually dealt with a few bomb scares. Find out more about the turbulent origin of the show on the tour website.

Before seeing the Dallas premiere of Broadway's Hair last night at the Winspear Opera House, I knew only three things about it: There will be hippies. There will be nakedness. And there will be singing and dancing.

So, if you're in the same boat and haven't seen the 1979 movie or any of the musical's revivals since it debuted in 1967, here's a few more things I wish I knew about this production before seeing it.

1. All three of the above things are true. But what there is not, is much of a storyline. Something about homeboy gets drafted and doesn't want to go to war. So he cleans out his room and gets high. (Our critic Lawson Taitte actually does a much better job of filling in plot points I missed last night.) Having not lived through the '60s myself, I found it very difficult to relate to the plot. Read up on the time period and be prepared to bring your personal connection if you didn't live it.

2. This show is an interactive experience! You may or may not get a lap dance, walked on top of, or asked to dance onstage. Fun, right? Though mostly dangerous only for the first few rows, wear comfortable shoes and put on your clapping hands anyway -- there is so much upbeat music to get you moving.

3. Twenty to 30 people will be singing onstage at the same time nearly the whole time. This rock musical is almost all singing, and most of those songs are done in chorus. I had a hard time understanding what was being said, no matter how passionate about it or beautiful sounding they were. Could have been my seats (center orchestra), technical issues or that I hadn't heard most of the songs before. Who knows? But I recommend you look up the lyrics beforehand.

If you see it, or have before, I'd love to know what you thought about it.

A fabulous touring production of Xanadu, the Broadway musical that spoofs the dreadful 1980 movie starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly, came through Dallas a couple of summers ago. Level Ground Arts, doing the first regional production of the show, goes Broadway one better: Because Level Ground's budget is slim, the tackiness level skyrockets, and so do the laughs.

Here, the more rat's-nesty the 1980s wigs, the better. The more ill-fitting and unflattering the costumes, the funnier. The more low-budget the props, the more you'll be spewing your soft drinks. That "pasted together with glue and feathers, by a 5-year-old at art camp" look has never been pulled off with more aplomb, reaching its apex with a pudgy, lopsided-winged papier-mache Pegasus who looks as though he might dissolve into sparkly purple puddles of goo AT ANY MOMENT. Extra kudos to director Bill Fountain, co-director and co-choreographer Andi Allen, and Ande Bewley, who came up with the props.

The entire cast makes a fine art of inelegant goofiness, with Misty Venters drawling in a just-slightly-off Australian accent as Clio, the muse who tries to inspire human Sonny Malone into living his dream of building a roller disco. Angel Velasco, as Sonny, might as well walk around with a big blinking "DUH!" sign over his head, his aura of clueless vapidity is so perfect. Allen (yes, she's also IN the show) and Sara Shelby-Martin chew the scenery (literally, in Allen's case) as evil sister muses who plot against the budding romance of Clio and Sonny. All the muses are excellent, in fact, with a special nod to the male "sisters," Michael B. Moore and Marcus Jauregui.

As Allen's character proclaims at one point, the whole thing is a little "like children's theater for 40-year-old gay people." Or anyone else, for that matter, who enjoys laughing so hard your eyes will hurt by the end of the show. Audiences will thank Zeus that it was Level Ground that set its cadre of warped minds on this one. It runs through Aug. 27. See the website for details and tickets, or call 214-630-5491.

PHOTO by Bill Fountain: Misty Venters and Angel Velasco skate rings around logic and elegance in Level Ground's wacky Xanadu.

I am constantly amazed by the high level of acting talent among the teens in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I've been consistently impressed by the Junior Players annual Shakespeare production in Samuell Grand Park Amphitheater. I had the fun of reviewing their Twelfth Night here. Be sure to see it if you get a chance and tell me what you think!

There also seems to be no shortage of talent for the National High School Musical Theater Awards, which now have THREE companies selecting local winners for the national competition: Lyric Stage in Irving with the Schmidt and Jones Awards, Casa Manana in Fort Worth with the Betty Lynn Buckley Awards and starting this year, Dallas Summer Musicals with the DSM High School Musical Theatre Awards.

Last year Casa's Betty Lynn Buckley winner, Molly Franco, went to New York for playing the title role in Peter Pan at Keller High School. You can see her this weekend on stage at Casa Manana as Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden, a teen apprentice program in which all the participants earned their parts through competitive auditions. You can read about it in my KidBeat briefs here.

This was Lyric's first year to participate. Mackenzie Orr, now 18 and a recent graduate of Coppell High School, won best actor for his portrayal of the Baker in his school's production of Into the Woods in May; he ended up as one of the three male finalists for the Jimmys, as the national New York awards are called. If Mackenzie's name sounds familiar that's because Dallas Morning News' Lawson Taitte raved about Mackenzie's performance as Hugo in Lyric Stage's production of Bye Bye Birdie last year. You can read Lawson's review here.

Mackenzie, who is heading to the University of Michigan to work towards a BFA in musical theater, won a $500 scholarship and trophy at the Schmidt and Jones Awards and a $2,500 scholarship from the National High School Musical Theater Awards. After college, he says he hopes to move to New York City and begin auditioning for shows on Broadway.

"The high point in this experience was definitely performing the opening number of the Jimmy Awards on the stage of the Minskoff Theater on Broadway with 49 of the most talented kids I've ever had the privilege to know," Mackenzie emailed me. "After a week jam-packed with rehearsals, we had finally made it to a Broadway stage, performing in front of 1800 supportive friends, family members, and people from the New York theater industry. The energy on that stage was electric; we all couldn't believe what we were doing! I wouldn't trade that experience for anything in the world. It was phenomenal."

PHOTO (TOP): Ian Patrick Stack (from left), Claudia Hullet, Afton Welch and Matthew Eitzen in "Twelfth Night," presented by Junior Players. (BOTTOM) Mackenzie Orr as Hugo Peabody in Bye, Bye Birdie at Lyric Stage last year.

Before last night, I had only ever been to high school plays. I was used to seeing teenagers singing too flat or too sharp, delivering their dialogue with emphasis on the wrong words or acting out serious scenes too terribly for the audience to actually care. That's probably why I went into last night's opening performance of Little Shop of Horrors at WaterTower Theatre with such low expectations. But I was pleasantly surprised -- people sang in tune, emphasized the right words and managed to act well. I mean, I'm no theater critic, but at least they acted better than the teenagers at my school.

Little Shop of Horrors tells the story of Seymour, an employee at Mushnik's Skid Row Florist, and his rise to fame after obtaining a Venus Flytrap-looking plant, which he names Audrey II. Seymour notices that his plant isn't growing, despite his tireless efforts to feed and nurture it, and it isn't until he cuts his finger that Audrey II's pod opens hungrily. Seymour realizes that what his plant has wanted all along isn't boring old plant food, but blood.

This being the first real play I've seen in a venue outside of my high school auditorium, I hesitate to say anything more than this: Little Shop of Horrors was absolutely enjoyable. The singing was good, the story was hilarious and the actors obviously had fun in their roles.

Seeing this play was a new experience for me -- it introduced me to a culture and group of people I had never been around before. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of the night, from the people on stage, to the people in the audience around me. This was the first legitimate play I've ever seen, and I'm confident it won't be my last.

Performances run from July 25 to August 21, 2011 at WaterTower Theatre in Addison. For performance times and ticket information, click here and the scroll to the very bottom for Little Shop of Horrors.

If you follow Dallas theater, you may know about the recent dust-up at Broken Gears Theatre Project. Having not interviewed all the parties involved, I'll just give you the basic details: Before the scheduled June 16 performance of The Hand, a world premiere by Spanish playwright German Madrid (translated by Loren Roark), actor Joey Folsom unexpectedly left the show. It's a 55-minute, two-man show, so that left the company in something of a fix, you might say.

Most low-budget theaters would have thrown up their metaphorical hands and said, "OK, we're done." Not Broken Gears. Director Andy Baldwin stepped into the role, and he and fellow actor Jeff Swearingen rehearsed their you-know-whats off, helped by producer Elias Taylorson and pinch-hitting director Robin Armstrong. A couple of shows had to be cancelled, but then The Hand, in fine theatrical tradition, went-the-expletive-ON. Hurray for them. Broken Gears, you ROCK.

I hadn't seen the original with Folsom, but I saw Baldwin and Swearingen on Saturday night at the final performance. I don't know either actor (I've seen them in a couple of shows, but I would have had to look it up to remember their faces, to be honest), and I COULD NOT TELL which one had subbed in. That's the highest compliment I can pay, and I'm still thinking about that crazy, twisty, blow-your-mind script. If you want to follow Broken Gears in the future (and you should), visit the website.

One of the three elements that struck me most deeply in The Pied Piper's Magic at Dallas Children's Theater is the power of friendship -- both on stage and off stage in form of the special relationship between Pied Piper author Steven Kellogg and the theater itself; DCT executive artistic director Robyn Flatt and her longtime staff are the only ones to whom Kellogg has entrusted the rights to adapt his warm and whimsical work. You can read my review here and my feature about it here.

Another element is the power of words -- this piper's magic is that he can pipe words that come to life and he can reverse the letters of those words to create new images (a welcome message about the importance of looking at things from another perspective). And finally, it is very cool to see that in the wake of Harry Potter mania, nobody blinks at a character being a witch as Elbavol is here. To put it in perspective, some audience members gave the theater a hard time for the witch in Kellogg's A Christmas Witch in 1995. That's two years before Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in England and three before the retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was published in America. So you could say A Christmas Witch was just ahead of its time.

PHOTO: Ruby Long (far left) and Maurice V. Johnson (second from left) and Maurice V. Johnson (far right) are villagers charmed by Brian Hathaway's Pied Piper.

Let me just add my voice to the chorus of acclaim that has met Uptown Players' regional premiere of the Tom Kitt/Brian Yorkey musical Next to Normal. The show, which was nominated for a best-musical Tony Award, is definitely not musical-comedy. This is musical-as-serious-as-it-gets, with only brief funny moments to lighten the feeling of impending doom.

The show takes on the topic of bipolar disorder in a gripping and truthful way. As someone who has suffered from major depression, I was struck both by how brilliant Patty Breckenridge's portrayal is of someone suffering from mental illness, and how beautifully the book and lyrics show the effects on that person's loved ones. When you're in the grip of the illness, you don't really see what's happening to your spouse, kids, etc., and this show was a real wake-up call for me. Thank you, husband-o-mine, for sticking with me.

I've only seen a snippet of the Broadway production (on the 2009 Tony Awards) and heard the cast album. From what I've seen and heard, I much prefer Breckenridge's take on the role of Diana to that of the original Broadway actress, Alice Ripley, and Ripley won a Tony Award for it.

Don't let yourself be turned off by the show's serious subject matter. This is one of the best locally produced musicals we've seen in a long time, and I think it's the best show I've seen Uptown do. Which is saying a lot. Here's Lawson Taitte's review. For tickets, visit Uptown's web site or call 214-219-2718.

PHOTO BY Nan Coulter/Special Contributor: Gary Lynn Floyd (from left), Patty Breckenridge, Erica Harte and Anthony Carillo in Uptown Players' brilliant Next to Normal.

Now it's time for the remembrances segment. Mavs by 7.

The second of the big four: War Horse.

Having a "Spiderman" excerpt made sense, since it was the Broadway season's most talked about show for most of the last year. (It isn't eligible because it never officially opened...it could still be up for awards a year from now.)

But having a number from "Memphis" is pure commercialism. And a number from a week-long New York Philharmonic special presentation of Stephen Sondheim's "Company"? Really?

You can blame (or credit) the lack of musical revivals this year. Only two...first time in a very long time.

The Normal Heart, already with two acting wins, takes the best play revival. Pulling out the napkin speeches -- bad sign. Mavs closing the third period strong.

Robin Williams, looking Santa Claus-like introduced the award with this: "The only beard here is on my face."

Bono and The Edge mix it up in a Frank-and-Dino Rat Pack introduction to the Spider-Man number. Best line: Harold Camping predicts the show will open. Other best line: "Thanks for your patience."

U2's Bono confirmed that "Spiderman" will finally open (after eight months, is it? of performances) officially next Tuesday...and we actually got a number from it.

John Larroquette wins for best featured actor in a musical for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Nod to Daniel Radcliffe for box office draw. It's halftime.

When Andrew Rannells sang "I Believe" from the notoriously profane frontrunner, though it's by far the cleanest number in the show, they still had to bleep out one expletive. (The African with an automatic weapon he was trying to convert blurted out, "What the [***}?"

Rannells, up for a best actor Tony, starred in the Dallas Theater Center's "Give It Up!" last year -- it's now an off-Broadway hit, retitled "Lysistrata Jones," without him. He also played Bob Gaudio in the "Jersey Boys" tour stop at the Dallas Summer Musicals.

Favorite line: "And I believe. That in 1978 God changed his mind about black people."

Nikki M. James takes best featured actress in a musical for The Book of Mormon. Excellent blubbering and hyperventilating in her speech. LeBron still on bench, but 16-1 run for Heat.

That's very upbeat for the subject matter. 9-0 move for the Heat.

Featured actor winner John Benjamin Hickey, a Plano native, warned his family they'd better not be watching the game rather than the Tony broadcast.

Trey Parker gives a shout-out to South Park fans.

Neal Patrick Harris did half a minute of "Spider-Man" jokes, then ended with "I sent Bono a congratulatory cable, but it snapped." Huge run for Mavs.

Musical number and a big run on skinny ties and fedoras. Great steal and layup from Terry.

John Benjamin Hickey snags best featured actor for The Normal Heart. Some off-camera winners here. Mavs back up by 1.

Ellen Barken took the first prize, best featured actress in a play, for The Normal Heart. Long speech. Mavs down by 3.

The Tony Awards are one of my favorite awards shows to watch because it's just so entertaining. There's singing and dancing and props and stage sets, and wonderful stage actors. Granted, I haven't seen any of the plays or musicals that are nominated, but I like to take this three-hour time block to preview them.

Won't you watch the show with me on Twitter? I'll be tweeting throughout on @guidelivearts.

And our arts writers will pop in on the blog here. So check back Sunday night (the show starts at 7 p.m. on CBS) for fun insights and commentary.

The opening-night audience, cast, musicians and staff at Fort Worth Opera's "Hydrogen Jukebox" were twice sent to the basement of the Fort Worth Community Arts Center Tuesday night because of tornado warnings in the area. The first time was not long after the Philip Glass/Allen Ginsberg opera started, the second time at the end of the intermission. The audience was quite chipper about the whole thing, and each time just lasted about 10 minutes.

The concrete-bunker basement of the arts center would be a good place to be during a tornado, but fortunately none struck in the Museum District. During the performance driving rain could be heard on the building's roof, but by the end of the performance, around 10:30, the storms had moved off well to the east.

Uptown Players has come up with yet another hilarious, rip-roaring edition of its popular Broadway Our Way series. The musical revue is the theater's annual fundraiser, and it always attracts the cream of Dallas' singer-actors, where they get to sing songs they normally never (or very rarely) would; the hook is that the men sing songs originally meant for women, and vice versa. "Vice" being the operative word -- director-writer Andi Allen does a fiendishly superb job of injecting salacious humor into just about every number, to the audience's delight.

This year's BOW, sub-titled "Divas Rising," is one of the best I've seen. The highlights are ... well, just about every song, with the exception of Michael Jackson and Billy Joel numbers that, despite the fact that yes, they have been done on Broadway, just don't translate well to the stage. Also, the performers aren't the strongest dancers in town. But the voices more than make up for that; where else could you see Denise Lee, Sara Shelby-Martin, Chad Peterson, Amy Stevenson, Wendy Welch, Kayla Carlyle, Angel Velasco, Darius Anthony Robinson, Paul J. Williams and Coy Covington, just to name a few, on one stage?

I especially loved the "Stepsisters' Lament" by Lon Barrera and Drew Kelly, "Listen" by Angel Velasco, "Big, Blonde and Beautiful" by Darius Anthony Robinson, "Madam's Song" by emcee Paul J. Williams, "Big Love" by Denise Lee, "Another Suitcase" by Coy Covington (also his ultra-fab impression of Sue Sylvester from Glee), and "I'm Not That Girl," which Rick Starkweather gave a whole new level of poignancy. It's got cross-dressing (I want to look as good as Coy Covington in a sequined gown), it's quite naughty, and it's most definitely rated R.

Really, just take my word for it and run see it, at the Kalita Humphreys Theater on Turtle Creek. Only four shows left: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m.Tickets are $40, and there's also a fun silent auction going on in the lobby. Check here for tix and details.

PHOTO by Mike Morgan: The cast of Broadway Our Way

Budget cuts may be looming as a sword over the heads of high school arts programs, but theater companies are stepping up to reward those schools that pump resources into their musical theater programs.

The shining prize for the best actress and actor in a high school musical will be a chance to go to New York City to compete for the Jimmy Awards (named for theater impresario James Nederlander). There will soon be three local companies offering Tony Awards-style programs, with local scholarships in multiple categories along with winners being sent to the New York contest.

Dallas Summer Musicals announced the debut of the DSM High School Musical Theatre Awards at a press conference today at the Music Hall at Fair Park. We had the story Sunday, which you can read here. It promises to be a big, splashy event, with as many as 30 to 40 schools competing starting this fall, with local scholarships for winners in 15 categories.
Lyric Stage in Irving is hosting the Schmidt & Jones Awards, named after Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, with its first awards being given out Friday at 7:30 at the Irving Arts Center in 14 categories. You can purchase tickets for $20 here. Lyric has eight schools competing and does not plan to increase past 16, says Managing Director Valerie Galloway Chapa.

And then there are the Betty Lynn Buckley Awards, that will be given out May 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Casa Manana in 16 categories. Tickets will be available May 19 at Ticketmaster. You can find out more about the Betty Lynn Buckley awards here.

One catch -- because you can only be nominated by one organization for the national program, the best actress and actor in one program will not get the national nod from a subsequent awards program. But overall, having three companies doing this looks a win-win-win -- it all adds up to more opportunities to cheer on hard-working, talented kids, see great work and maybe even catch some future stars on the rise.

PHOTO: Michael Jenkins, president and managing director of Dallas Summer Musicals, announced the launch of the DSM High School Musical Theatre Awards today at the Music Hall at Fair Park

The Dallas Children's Theater's The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs (which they're billing as the "best piggy show since Ham-let,"), has been extended through March 6. Which just extends a question for me. Will the kids in the audience, who get to vote on Mr. Wolf's guilt or innocence, ever turn in a guilty verdict? Evidently the cast which has to be ready to perform one of the two endings on a moment's notice has had to brush up on the rehearsal for the guilty song because they haven't done it once since the show opened.

So, what does that say about kids and how they're willing to give even big bad wolves the benefit of the doubt? In any case, if you go and hear a guilty verdict, let us know how it goes. You can read my review of the show here.

PHOTO: L to R: BJ Cleveland, Lee Jamison, Bob Hess, Catherine Carpenter Cox and Deborah Brown in The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, photo by Mark Oristano

Kitchen Dog Theater had already moved the official opening night of its "Macbeth" from Saturday to Wednesday. At that point, Saturday was supposed to still be a public preview. Now word comes down that Saturday's preview is canceled, period.

Echo Theatre has postponed the opening of its "The Executioner's Sons" till Saturday evening at the Bath House Cultural Center. There will be no Friday performance.

Just got word from the Dallas Theater Center that Friday night's "pay what you can" preview of Arsenic and Old Lace, starring Betty Buckley and Tovah Feldshuh, will go on as planned.

There are still a very few seats available for purchase online, and tickets will also be available at the Kalita Humphreys Theater box office beginning at 5:30 p.m. The show starts at 8 at the Kalita, 3939 Turtle Creek Blvd. in Uptown.

Preview performances run through Thursday, and opening night is Feb. 12.

African American Repertory Theater, which was supposed to open Flyin' West tonight in DeSoto, has canceled all performances this weekend.

Another one bites the dust. Snow. Whatever.

WaterTower Theatre has announced that Friday's performance of The Lieutenant of Inishmore has been cancelled due to the weather. Ticket holders for Friday evening's performance will be called by the box office staff on Saturday to reschedule their tickets.

For more information and updates, visit www.watertowertheatre.org.

Never mind the Big Bad Wolf. It's the Big Bad Weather, or rather a Big Bad Burst Pipe, that's causing the cancellation of Friday's and Saturday's performances of The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! at Dallas Children's Theater. The theater is also canceling Friday's Launch Party for its Teen Scene Festival and its Friday performance of hard 2 spel dad. However, for those looking forward to meeting Texas Rangers star second baseman Ian Kinsler Saturday, THAT show will go on.

Remember to arrive early at 12:45 p.m. prior to the 1:30 p.m. show to see Kinsler speak about learning differences in advance of Linda Daugherty's play on this subject. While Kinsler is in the building, the American League Trophy that the Rangers won will be in the lobby. And tickets for Rangers games will be on sale as well.

Call 214-740-0051 for tickets and more information. Click here for my KidBeat story on Kinsler and his appearance at DCT Saturday.

WaterTower Theatre has announced that it will not perform The Lieutenant of Insishmore on Wednesday. No word yet from most of our theaters about whether scheduled performances will take place later in the week and weekend.

The Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical "Next to Normal" will have its first appearance in North Texas in Dallas from June 10-July 2, 2011.

While it was to be expected that the musical would be produced sooner rather than later -or seen in national tour- maybe AT&T Performing Arts Center's Lexus Broadway Series or the Dallas Summer Musicals grabbing it up -the surprise is that the rights were snatched up by Uptown Players.

"Next to Normal" is closing on Broadway in a couple of weeks. The musical, about a woman with bipolar disorder, is currently on a national tour, but it won't be coming to Dallas. As of right now, Uptown Players will have the first American post-Broadway production.

Tickets are $30-$40, and are on sale now at www.uptownplayers.org, or by calling 214-219-2719.

This is so exciting I had to share, as seen on Studio Movie Grill's Facebook page:

"On Jan 10th at 6:30pm we will have the cast of the musical MEL BROOK'S YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN at our Royal Lane location to sign autographs followed by a free screening of the original movie.

And if you use promo code 'SMG' you can get 10% off your tickets to the Musical at the AT&T Performing Arts Center by visiting attpac.org/frank or ...call 214-880-0202"

The show opens at the Winspear Opera House on Jan. 4 and runs through the 23rd.

The "musical within a comedy" The Drowsy Chaperone has been extended through January 15, 2011. In case you haven't heard, the homage to early musicals is a delight.

Here are the details.

Miser's Night Out Performance:
Sunday, January 2, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. All tickets $10 for this performance.

Special Hooky Matinee Performance:
Wednesday, January 5, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. All tickets $10 for this performance.

Extension Performances:
Sunday, January 9, 2011 at 2:30 p.m. )
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, January 14, 2011 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, January 14, 2011 at 2:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m

To order tickets online and for more information go to: http://www.theatre3dallas.com
or call:

214.871.3300

In a desire to fill every remaining seat for THE TRINITY RIVER PLAYS (which closes this Sunday, December 5), Dallas Theater Center is promoting a discount that hopefully removes all barriers from attending. Every remaining seat, regardless of performance time or seat location, will be sold for $20.

Here's all an interested person needs to do:

1) Contact DTC by phone (214-880-0202) or through the internet (www.dallastheatercenter.org).

2) Pick your performance and your seats.

3) Use the promotion code RIVER to get the discount.

It's tradition in my house to watch A Christmas Story at the family holiday get-together. So this is a bit exciting.

From The Scoop:

"Peter Billingsley, the original Ralphie Parker in the much-loved holiday film "A Christmas Story," is executive producing a musical adaption of the film.

"'A Christmas Story' has always meant a lot to me personally," Billingsley told The Hollywood Reporter. "I'm excited to bring this film to the stage because the story and the characters lend themselves so well to the world of musicals."

The show, playing at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre, and running through Dec. 30, is said to remain true to the film version. This isn't Billingsley's first time producing; he's credited as executive producer for "Iron Man" and "Four Christmases." "

The musical version isn't a new concept. According to the website, a stage adaptation was created in 2000, and the musical theater world premiere debuted last year at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre.

What's so great about Raphie's version? "Composing team Benj Pasek & Justin Paul promise to bring exciting and memorable new songs to the show, and the creative team, led by Director Eric Rosen, look forward to making even more magic on this legendary stage."

Would you see this musical if it came to Dallas? I probably would.

The newly regrouped Second Thought Theatre just announced a three-show season that will run in the Addison Theatre Centre's Studio Space in dates ranging from January through June. The shows are Will Eno's Thom Pain (Based on Nothing), Jan. 13-29; Adam Rapp's Red Winter Light, April 21-May 7; and Christopher Shinn's Dying City, June 16-July 7.

For those who want further details, I've posted the press release after the jump.

Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim had to postpone his Sept. 23 appearance at the Nasher Salon series because of illness. He has now rescheduled for Dec. 15 (student Salon at Booker T. Washington High School at 3 p.m., tickets $30; and regular Salon at 8 p.m. at the Nasher Sculpture Center, tickets $65).

The original events were sold out, but because of the rescheduling, a few tickets have become available. Get 'em while they last, at www.nashersculpturecenter.org.

Bonnie & Clyde, the bound-for-Broadway musical about the pair of outlaws who terrorized Texas and other states during the 1930s, debuts at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Fla., in mid-November. (Click here to access the Florida theater's Web link to the show.) Michael Jenkins, president and managing director of Dallas Summer Musicals, is a producer of the show, which will, he says, eventually make it to Broadway with Dallas the first stop on a post-Broadway road tour. The Sarasota production will, however, not have Highland Park's own Stark Sands playing Clyde, as he did in the show's world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. (Please click here to read my feature on Sands, who's the grandson of Texas oilwoman, hotelier and philanthropist Caroline Rose Hunt.) Sands is one of the stars in the Broadway production of American Idiot, inspired by the music of Green Day.

Photo: Stark Sands in the La Jolla Playhouse world premiere of Bonnie & Clyde

One year ago today Dallas' grand AT&T Performing Arts Center opened its doors to begin sharing theater, opera, Broadway, dance and music experiences with us.

It started last October with gala talks from stars Bruce Willis and Kristin Chenoweth. The inaugural 2009-2010 Lexus Broadway Series brought South Pacific, August: Osage County, Spring Awakening and Avenue Q to the Winspear Opera House. The Dallas Theater Center brought A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Christmas Carol, Give It Up!, The Beauty Plays, Death of a Salesman, and It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman to the Wyly Theatre. The Dallas Opera brought Otello, Così fan tutte, Don Pasquale, Madame Butterfly and the world premiere of Moby-Dick.

And those are just the big ones. There have been countless more events at the Center since, including Brinker International Forums featuring guests like Sir David Frost and Frank Langella, weekly Patio Sessions of live music, Blue Man Group, and more.

So, just as our critics have taken a moment to reflect on how the Center's been holding up over past year, let's share our experiences too.

Use the comments section below to talk about what you've seen at the Center, and continuing reading for a recap of my experiences there too.

The first act of African American Repertory Theatre's area premiere of August Wilson's Jitney proved quite powerful on Friday. But after a protracted intermission, artistic director Irma P. Hall and managing director Regina Washington came onstage to announced that the show could not go on. An actor in a major role had taken ill with stomach cramps and couldn't walk. As I left the theater, an ambulance was pulling up. When I hear news about the resumption of the run, I'll let you know on this blog.

In a coup, Lyric Stage announced today that Davis Gaines will star opposite Texas' own Julie Johnson in its upcoming "The Night of the Hunter." The star, who played the title role in "The Phantom of the Opera" more than 2,000 times on Broadway in addition to many other top credits, will do the scary role that Robert Mitchum played in the 1955 movie version.

The show will run Oct. 29 through Nov. 7 at the Irving Arts Center.

The playbill that Dallas Summer Musicals patrons will receive when they come to Shrek tonight and later has an ad for the 2010-11 season -- which hasn't been announced yet, either to the press or to subscribers. Seems to be a snafu on someone's part -- and rumor has it that it is incomplete at best. Anyhow, for the curious, here's what the ad says:

Tommy Tune in Steps in Time, March 15-20
Burn the Floor, April 5-17
9 to 5, May 18-29
Stomp, June 7--12
Monty Python's Spamalot, June 14-26
Guys and Dolls, July 19-31
West Side Story, Oct. 4-23

That's a total of five regular shows and what appear to be two one-week specials. Even if one or two more shows are on the final, official season announcement, it'll be a compact schedule compared to those of recent years.

Free Night of Theater, designed to attract new audiences to performances, will start taking reservations for this year's tickets beginning today at noon. Dallas is one of 120 communities across the country taking part, and there'll be about 2,000 free tickets up for grabs. The Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs is presenting the program locally, in conjunction with Theatre Communications Group.

Reservations will be taken starting on Mondays each week through Oct. 25. The program features performances Oct. 1-31. Tickets can only be reserved online, require an e-mail address, and are handled on a first come, first served basis.
(The photo by Nan Coulter is of Kitchen Dog Theater's Betrayal, one of the shows you can catch as part of the program. The production features Max Hartman, Cameron Cobb and Leah Spillman.)

Broadway composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim has had to postpone his planned Nasher Salon appearances today (at 3 at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and at 8 p.m. at the Nasher Sculpture Center). Here's direct word from the Nasher's website:

"Today's NasherSALON Speaker Series appearances with Stephen Sondheim have been postponed due to illness. Ticket holders may choose to hold on to their tickets for guaranteed seating at a future Salon date with Mr. Sondheim yet to be determined, or have the option to receive an immediate refund by calling Click N' Print tickets at 888.695.0888. We are sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding."

As soon as we hear anything about rescheduling, you'll be the first to know.

Ten critics met at Martha Heimberg's fabulous century-old house on Abrams Saturday to wage a two-hour war on behalf of our favorite shows, performances and designs of the last year (the season is defined as stretching from Sept.1 through Aug. 31 opening dates).

Happily, most of my nominees made it onto the final list. I thought B.J. Cleveland deserved a director's nod for Uptown Players' Forbidden Broadway's Greatest Hits, and I probably would have voted for director awards to Kevin Moriarty for both A Midsummer Night's Dream and It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman (as well as the grand prize for all The Beauty Plays directors).

The only of African American Repertory Theatre's shows I didn't see was the one that won. I voted for The Gospel at Colonus in its place, actually. I firmly believe that Denise Lee (for Echo Theatre's Bible Women) and Abby Siegworth (for Midsummer) were robbed, robbed, robbed of actress awards. I liked Give It Up! at the Dallas Theater Center and Blue Moon Dancing at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas as well as the three winners in the best new play or musical category, though no better. I thought it was a good, but not great, year for new work here.

For the statistics, read the story that got printed in the paper. For the complete list, read on past the break.

In Friday's Guide, and online, we give you our Fall Arts Preview: a look at upcoming events for arts lovers interested in visual arts, theater, classical music and opera, dance, comedy and more. Take a look-see and get to planning your autumn days and nights.

Below theater critic Lawson Taitte talked about his approach to theater criticism, how the local scene compares to the national one, what to expect from the upcoming Shrek and Henry IV, and thoughts over Wicked.

I was giggling before a performer ever stepped onstage for Uptown Players' Forbidden Broadway. The transformation of the stately Kalita Humphreys Theater into a sorta-tacky, sorta-fabulous proscenium -- complete with huge gold letters shouting "KALITA!" above the stage, had me in stitches (Frank Lloyd Wright's ghost, who is probably writhing in pain at the very thought, not withstanding). Two numbers in, especially after watching Beth Albright skewer any fond memories of Annie with "I'm 30 years old ... tomorrow," and I was totally gone.

For those unfamiliar, Forbidden Broadway takes the Great White Way's finest shows and puts them on a sharply honed roasting stick. No show, no performer, is sacred: Not Carol Channing (Wendy Welch, you are my heroine forever more). Not Patti LuPone (local newcomer Tyce Green, who I am hereby dubbing The Palest Man in Dallas, with eyebrows that would cut Her Pattiness like a knife if she got too close). Not Mandy Patinkin (Shane Strawbridge, pretension personified). Not Ethel Merman (the phenomenal Sara Shelby-Martin, stridently chastising the Phantom -- a superbly stolid Jim Johnson -- about his lack of projection). Not even Les Miserables, when the entire cast gets together to sing "I Dreamed a Show," or Rent ("Seasons of Hype") or Cats ("I Enjoy Being a Cat" -- really, they should get Drew Kelly to frantically chase spotlights around in a cat outfit in every show). Who've I left out? Melissa Farmer, whose wicked send-up of ... erm, Wicked ... closes the first act in screaming, utterly diva-esque non-subtlety.

OK, I'm cracking myself up just thinking about it. You've only got through Sunday to see this one; get over there if you know what's good for your musical-theater-loving heart. (FYI, my husband, who isn't as much of a theater geek as I am -- well, honestly, he's not a theater geek at all -- loved the show, even though he didn't know most of the shows being spoofed.) Go to www.uptownplayers.org, or call 214-219-2718.

PHOTO by Michael Ainsworth: Beth Albright (from left), Tyce Green and Drew Kelly in Forbidden Broadway.

You've got through Sept. 5 to see playwright-choreographer-actress Andi Allen's Bollywood Lysistrata, a send-up of Greek comedy by way of saris, cricket matches and wayyyy over-the-top (intentional) over-acting. The show, co-directed by Allen and Bill Fountain for Level Ground Arts, revamps Aristophanes by changing the setting to 1899 India, where the local men have become so enchanted with the game of cricket that they play for days on end, leaving their frustrated wives and girlfriends as "cricket widows." The ladies camp out in a temple, refusing to leave until the men meet their demands.

It's worth seeing for Allen's gloriously silly-yet-precise choreography, which -- unless you are in a coma or on a stretcher -- will have you bouncing in your seat and wondering where you can take a good Bollywood dance class around here. (My husband is Very Very Afraid.) The cast is also excellent, with especially witty performances from Camille Monae (Chandini) and Krishna Smitha (Mahdavi), the sidekicks to Rhonda Durant (Lakshmi, leader of the women's rebellion).

And what's more fun that watching gorgeous saris and jewels sparkle onstage? Taking them home! Level Ground has come up with what I think is a brilliant ploy -- theater-plus-gift shop. For every show, Fountain says, local artists whose work somehow correlates with the show will be invited to set up shop in the lobby. For Bollywood, Anu Cherian is selling sumptuous saris and textiles, skirts, dresses and jewelry. I scored a skirt and five pairs of earrings for less than $50 total. For Carnival of Souls: Purgatorium, set in Katrina-era New Orleans, there'll be voodoo dolls and such.

For tickets or more info, visit www.levelgroundarts.com or call 214-630-5491.

PHOTO by Mathew Butler: Camille Monae, left, Rhonda Durant and Krishna Smitha (with Kyle Dupree in background) in A Bollywood Lysistrata.

How many times do musicals have sequels? Then again, how many musicals are about Harry Potter?

A Very Potter Sequel is the sequel musical to the YouTube sensation known as A Very Potter Musical, a full-length show which was made and produced by a bunch of University of Michigan students called StarKid Productions. Though the second show has a bit of a bigger budget due to the first's success, both rely on creativity in terms of set design and props that makes it quite unique. Most of the cast from the original is back (though some have switched around roles,) so fans such as myself were able to transition between the original and the sequel.

The best thing about these musicals, however, is their indescribably funny dialogue and musical numbers; there will never be another time when you will see a tap-dancing Voldemort or hear a chorus erupt with "You're Harry Freaking Potter". Fans of Harry Potter are, in my eyes, required to