Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Performing Arts, Visual Arts and Concert reivews

12/02/2008

Classical Music Review: Music of the Spheres Society has good intentions, but ...
Every so often there's a concert whose good intentions you applaud, and yet... .

11/30/2008

Classical Review: Orchestra of New Spain brings 'villancicos' tradition back to life
In 18th-century Spanish churches, villancicos were precursors of today's pop-idiom "praise music." To catchy, dancing tunes, these quasi-cantatas wove folksy contemporary tales into religious observances, often with what today would be thought politically incorrect humor.

Theater Review: Woosters has plenty of that signature Wodehouse wit

Rex C. Curry / DMN

Regan Adair and Emily Scott Banks

Larceny, blackmail, random violence: the stuff of British drawing-room comedy, or at least of The Code of the Woosters.

Theater Review: Kids do the darndest 'Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant'
FORT WORTH – After seeing A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant at Circle Theatre on Saturday, my husband says he's never going to anything with adult actors again. I could almost agree with him, so splendid are the eight young actors-singers-dancers who star in this perfectly wonderful spoof.

11/29/2008

Theater Review: WaterTower's Beautiful Star exudes the rarer virtues
ADDISON – Whether you go to a church with its own Christmas pageant or never darken the door, you owe it to yourself to see WaterTower Theatre's version of one, Beautiful Star . Not because it's slicker and more professional, as you might expect, but because it exudes the rarer virtues of simplicity and faith.

11/26/2008

Dance Review: Dallas Black Dance Theatre's studio show placed the audience near the action
A free lunch-hour performance by Dallas Black Dance Theatre on Monday at the company's rehearsal studio in downtown Dallas placed the audience on the sidelines of the action. Chairs lined three walls of a former YMCA gym that serves as the troupe's home.

Comedy Review: Terry Fator and puppets laugh it up at Bass Performance Hall
FORT WORTH – It wasn't enough for ventriloquist Terry Fator to win America's Got Talent last year.

Concert Review: Much love for Usher at House of Blues
The songs changed, but the sentiment remained the same Tuesday night at the House of Blues: Usher was in the mood for love.

11/23/2008

Comedy Review: Howie Mandel is a hyper guy

Associated Press

Howie Mandel

The bit where he puts a surgical glove on his head and inflates it with his nose is gone; likewise his tangle of black curls and role on a long-running dramatic TV series (St. Elsewhere).

Theater Review: Undermain Theatre's Eurydice is delightfully entertaining
The seeds of loss begin to germinate even as a great love begins. You still can't guess how much it is going to hurt, though, when their tendrils squeeze the life out of you in the end.

Classical Review: Meadows Symphony fires up with a witty concert
Some Meadows Symphony Orchestra concerts this season are programmed around the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Sunday afternoon's concert, at Southern Methodist University's Caruth Auditorium, celebrated fire, in quite a provocative musical mix of Haydn, Liszt, Wagner and Tan Dun. Led by music director Paul Phillips, SMU's student orchestra again gave professional and compelling performances.

Choral Review: UNT faculty, students sing Saul oratorio at Dallas Museum of Art
Horchow Auditorium, at the Dallas Museum of Art, used to be a pleasant place to hear small-scale music. But Saturday afternoon's Fine Arts Chamber Players concert confirmed rumors that the acoustics have been ruined by a recent renovation.

11/21/2008

Classical Review: Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra delivers audience-friendly 20th-century music
The Prokofiev Fifth Symphony got the best music-making in Friday's opening performance at Bass Performance Hall.

11/20/2008

Concert Review: Coldplay lives up to its billing as one of pop music's top touring bands

Associated Press

Coldplay

In this age of media hype, when it seems as if any doofus willing to embarrass himself or herself on TV can get at least the beginnings of a music career, too many events elicit no reaction stronger than "muh." So it was great Wednesday night at American Airlines Center to actually go to an undeniably Important Rock Show. The air at the sold-out show was charged with anticipation as fans of Coldplay, perhaps the biggest British band currently touring, milled about and texted each other excitedly.

11/17/2008

Dance Review: Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal surprise

Sonya N. Hebert/DMN

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal

What more could you want than a stunning appearance from Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal.

11/16/2008

Classical Review: Pianist Stephen Hough stops time in memorial concert
PLANO – We would all like to be so warmly remembered as to merit the memorial recital Stephen Hough played Sunday afternoon. Honoring the late David Grice, a beloved Plano piano teacher, Mr. Hough reminded us just how transcendent an experience music can be.

11/15/2008

Opera Review: 'Figaro' at Music Hall one of best Dallas Opera productions in memory
The decors and dress are 18th-century, but the Marriage of Figaro that opened Friday at Fair Park Music Hall is as lively, as au courant, as a first-class TV sitcom.

11/14/2008

Theater Review: The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? at Kitchen Dog
Imagine the worst trespass, the worst betrayal that can violate a marriage. Then think about its impact on spouse, family and friends. That's what The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? is all about.

Concert Review: Dallas Symphony Orchestra makes magic with unexpected Elgar piece
What's the very last piece you'd expect to hear on a Dallas Symphony Orchestra concert? A pretty good guess would be Sir Edward Elgar's The Music Makers , a 40-minute piece for mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra set to poetry by Arthur O'Shaughnessy.

11/13/2008

Dallas Opera 'Figaro' is easy on the eyes, ears

Natalie Caudill/DMN

Lyubov Petrova (left) as Susanna, and Daniel Okulitch as Figaro

Opera has a reputation as an indulgence for the mature set.

11/12/2008

Concert Review: Sarah Brightman delivers elegant, arresting performance
A Sarah Brightman concert always proves to be an all-encompassing experience. Her shows are elegant banquets for the ears, the eyes and the mind.

11/11/2008

Concert review: Annuals live up to expectations at House of Blues
Although most folks think of a band's first major release as being the big challenge facing them, it's actually the second album that's often the deal-breaker: After all, the first effort is the summation of an entire lifetime of work; the second, a year or two.

11/09/2008

Concert Review: Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton at American Airlines Center

BEN TORRES/Special Contributor

Blake Shelton performs with girlfriend Miranda Lambert at American Airlines Center on Saturday Nov. 08, 2008.

Lindale's Miranda Lambert is the firecracker to Oklahoman Blake Shelton's slow burn, and they make one heckuva couple in concert – and apparently in real life, as well. If they keep up the momentum, they've got what it takes to become the next Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.

11/08/2008

Classical Music Review: Richardson Symphony Orchestra rounds up unfamiliar all-American works
RICHARDSON – Local orchestras have been venturing a little beyond the tried and hackneyed lately, and good for them. On Saturday night, the Richardson Symphony rounded up some unfamiliar suspects for its all-American concert at the Eisemann Center. Even Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue was presented in a newish edition with quite a few surprises.

Theater Review: DeSoto show sets a powerful tone with one-woman 'Neat'
DESOTO – In Neat , Charlayne Woodard personalizes more than a half-century of black history in America. It's amazing to watch, especially in view of this week's historical election.

Van Zweden can't work miracles every night with Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Jaap van Zweden has been working miracles. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra's new music director has tightened and polished the ensemble and stretched its pianissimos as well as its fortissimos.

11/07/2008

Theater Review: Ochre House opens with the spook Sèance
Going to a show at Ochre House is like getting invited into someone's newly redecorated living room – someone very artistic. Which, in point of fact, is exactly what it is.

11/06/2008

'Topdog/Underdog' a good fit for Deep Ellum's Hub Theater