Karen Almond News

The return to live entertainment brought a lot of honesty and authenticity, and some singing actors who had a lot to say. This is the list of shows that rose, in some way, to a new level for audience member and cabaret journalist Stephen Mosher.

Such a big stage and a big job... and Kristin Chenoweth is totally equal to the task.

The Metropolitan Opera will welcome back its youngest opera lovers with a family-friendly holiday presentation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute for nine performances December 10, 2021–January 5, 2022. This English-language adaptation of the classic fairy tale, performed in a 115-minute abridged version, is a holiday treat for audiences of all ages.

Dallas Theater Center's (DTC) city-wide community engagement program, Public Works Dallas, offers free fall workshops starting this month. The workshops will be aimed at people of all ages and offered at different locations around the city.

It's hard to take advice, but not when it comes from Sugar. The stories of the characters in TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS will allow you to reflect and heal in ways you didn't know you needed to.

The Met has announced themed lineups for five weeks of its Nightly Met Opera Streams, a free series of encore Live in HD presentations and classic telecasts streamed on the company's website during the coronavirus closure.

The Old Globe presents West Coast premiere of Little Women by Kate Hamill. This brand-new version of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel about Jo March and her three unforgettably distinct sisters is presented in association with Dallas Theater Center and is directed by Sarah Rasmussen (Artistic Director of Jungle Theater, which originally commissioned the play).

I admit this is an absolutely personal, totally one-sided view of what gave one man opera thrills last year and what I will look back on with delight. Some are old works, some are new, some are individual performers, some are ensembles, some are complete productions, some are merely the highlight of an evening, most are domestic, a few are foreign. In any case, as the new decade begins, I recall that these are the vocal highlights that made my heart beat a little faster and made me look forward to the year ahead.

For a composer so well known for his dramatic operas--SALOME and ELEKTRA the most famous of them--Richard Strauss's most popular work remains the more comic DER ROSENKAVALIER, which just made its season debut under the scintillating baton of Sir Simon Rattle, with a bevy of first-rate singers.

First Unitarian Church of Dallas, Texas Instruments, Capital One and PwC are part of the collaboration which has national lead funding support from the Theater Communications Group and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

It has taken 35 years for Philip Glass's AKHNATEN to get to the Met, since its premiere at the Staatsoper in Stuttgart in 1984. If you're an acolyte of Glass, Phelim McDermott's production, designed by Tom Pye, made it well worth the wait; if you're not, there's enough going on to keep you occupied during the 3 ½-hour performance.

2017 Regional Theatre Tony Award® Recipient Dallas Theater Center presents In the Heights, a family-friendly musical from Hamilton's creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. Directed by James Vasquez at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, In the Heights opens on Sept. 21 and runs through Oct. 20. Press Night will be Friday, Sept. 27 at 8 p.m. Tickets to In the Heights are on sale now at www.DallasTheaterCenter.org and by phone at (214) 522-8499.

The coolest ever rock-n-roll romp through a bug's world commands center stage in DIARY OF A WORM, A SPIDER & A FLY, a hip-hoppin' musical that promotes eco-consciousness, earth science, and tolerance of others. In this show full of facts about caring for Earth's inhabitants above and below ground, all who attend will leave the theater with a better understanding of why it's important to respect even the smallest individual's contribution. DIARY OF A WORM, A SPIDER & A FLY returns from a whirlwind national tour to run at Dallas Children's Theater from June 14 - July 7, 2019.

The best laid plans of mice and well, Skog, are upended in a lively musical adventure that navigates land and sea in THE ISLAND OF THE SKOG. In this stage adaptation of the book by the same name, iconic illustrations from beloved children's author Steven Kellogg's come vibrantly to life onstage as Jenny, Bouncer, and the Rowdies journey in search of a calm new home, but instead find bigger obstacles than they ever imagined. THE ISLAND OF THE SKOG runs at Dallas Children's Theater (DCT) from May 3 - 25, 2019.

Dallas Theatre Center's Real Women Have Curves is indeed about female empowerment and the immigrant experience- but more importantly, it's about sisterhood. It's about the way women interact with each other, talk about themselves, tear each other down and build each other up again.

Dallas Theater Center's take on the Bard's beloved comedy pulls audiences into a raucous party that is every bit as moving as it is uproariously funny.

Would you drink from the fountain of youth if you had the chance? In TUCK EVERLASTING at Dallas Children's Theater (DCT), family, friendship and the value of a life well lived is contemplated in the heartwarming stage adaptation of Natalie Babbitt's award-winning novel. TUCK EVERLASTING runs at the Rosewood Center for Family Arts from March 22 - April 7, 2019.

Like a winning goal made in the final seconds of the World Cup, Dallas Theater Center has delivered an explosively exciting production of THE WOLVES, one of the most explosively exciting American plays of the last several years.

Will anyone else but Ambrogio Maestri bring the same dynamism to Robert Carsen's 1950's take on Verdi's masterpiece, FALSTAFF? Time will tell. But the return of the wonderful production, with the great Met orchestra under conductor Richard Farnes and an all-around terrific cast, brought a little sunshine into the gray winter in New York.

Ella of Frell is turning the traditional Cinderella story upside down in the upcoming musical extravaganza ELLA ENCHANTED: THE MUSICAL. In a play that stays true to the Newbery Honor book, the power of words will have children laughing, singing, and dancing out loud.  ELLA ENCHANTED: THE MUSICAL runs at Dallas Children's Theater (DCT) from January 25 through February 24, 2019.