Stage Notes is a weekly aggregate post about theater, classical music and stage news, events, reviews and other pertinent information.
Cliburn Concerts: Sir Steven Hough, piano, 7:30 p.m. today at Kimbell Art Museuml.
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra: Musical Storytelling: Spano Conducts Scheherazade and The Rite of Spring, Friday-Sunday. 31.
Broadway Dallas and African American Museum announce new exhibition
The two neighboring organizations will present the new exhibition From Africa to the Broadway Stage: Disney's The Lion King, coinciding with Black History Month in February. The exhibition will explore how African artwork and designs are reflected in the popular production.
On Friday, Jan. 31 at 11 a.m., Broadway Dallas and the African American Museum will host the unveiling of the new exhibit marking a groundbreaking collaboration between the two.
Disney Theatrical Group has provided five original pieces from The Lion King production including four masks and one puppet. The pieces will be on display alongside actual African pieces from the museum's permanent collection. The concept is to show the influence that actual African artistic works had on the creation of the Broadway musical.
The exhibit will be on display daily from Friday through the entire engagement of The Lion King this summer at the Music Hall fromJune 4 - July 3. During the run of the show, the museum will stay open late so that ticket holders can walk over to the museum before the show to explore the exhibit.
Review: Romance is low-key alive in 'Almost, Maine' at ACT
With Valentine's in the air, Allen Contemporary Theatre kicked off its new season with John Cariani's Almost, Maine. The play is composed of vignettes as the small town's residents navigate their romantic situations which are good and bad. Heavy on sentimentality, the production was an understated season opener that was also a crowd pleaser.
The bigger picture of Almost is that it's about relationships. There are moments of tender love and growing heartbreak and each story was handled with delicate touches by directors Nancy Cecco and Martin Mussey. Cariani's play doesn't pretend to be anything but a delighting and romantic piece of theater, even when the characters are breaking up. There isn't a deeper message here and you could say Almost isn't the coolest play on the block -- which is also its biggest strength. Cariani's play simply allows audiences to gush and feel the feels and Cecco and Mussey crafted the production to hit those notes.
Not only was love in the air but also magic in that one snowy night in Almost. Glory carries her broken heart in a brown paper bag; Marci and Phil play out another frustrating argument as she searches for her shoe after they went ice skating; Rhonda can't see the obvious in Dave's present of art until the two ignite their boiling passion for each other.
Of particular note, the vignette "They Fell" finds Randy and Chad discussing their worst dates with women only to quite literally fall in love with each other.
These and other scenes were tinted by an underlying surrealism that answers or solves each couple's struggle. Chris Berthelot's set was versatile for all the scenes to play out without onstage changes. John Pinchot's lighting added the mysticism of the Northern Lights that appeared in the story's more magical moments.
The ensemble cast of 10 played multiple characters falling in and out of love with a lovely sincerity. Johnny Jordan's performances was delivered with tender warmth. Sydney Dyer was effective and lovely in her dual roles. Noelle Saul came on strong as the tomboyish Rhonda that gave the show a nice and needed punch of energy in the second act opposite an endearing Ian Grygotis.
But Tim Demsky and Brett Femrite as Chad and Randy were delightful as the two guys having quite the epiphany. Their physical humor was top notch while their realization was sweet to unfold.
The show runs through Feb. 9.
The Dallas Opera explores dementia through a reimagined Orpheus and Eurydice
The new production of Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice will premiere at TDO next week with four performances at the Winspear Opera House. The show will run Feb. 7-15. The final performance will be livestreamed for free on The Dallas Opera's YouTube channel and digital website.
In this reimagining by director Joachim Schamberger, the famous myth becomes a metaphor for caring for someone with dementia.
Orpheus and Eurydice first premiered in 1762 in Vienna with music written by German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck.
In this new production, Orpheus becomes the grieving elderly caretaker. After years of marriage, his wife, Eurydice, has not died, but instead has been diagnosed with dementia, thus being as "unreachable" to Orpheus as she would have been in the Underworld. Orpheus uses love and music to bridge with Eurydice's lost memories and lead her out of the shadows of dementia, her personal Hades.
Making his U.S. and TDO debut, Hugh Cutting brings his countertenor to Dallas as Orpheus, and soprano Madison Leonard is in the role of Eurydice. American-Venezuelan soprano Amber Norelai makes her TDO debut as Amore, the god of love.
In addition to directing, Schamberger, who makes his TDO debut with this production, has also designed the sets and projections. TDO's Mrs. Eugene McDermott Music Director conducts the original score from the 1762 production, which will be sung in Italian with English titles.