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At Theater Jones we'll try our best to list every theatrical production in North Texas. Send your press releases, production photos, listings and events to listings@theaterjones.com.

Another of the Pocket’s infamous audience-participation, popcorn-tossing, comedy spoofs. This time, hard-boiled private eye Dirk Spatula faces opponents deadlier than muggers, murderers or Bourbon Street strippers as he is caught up in a feud between two New Orleans families of vampires. Special New Year's Eve performance, regular run begins Jan. 2.

SATER's first show of 2010 is five short plays by Alan Ball, known for TV's True Blood and Six Feet Under, and the movie American Beauty. The plays presented are:

• Made for a Woman Featuring Heather McCormick and Joey Dassinger.
• Bachelor Holiday Featuring Brian Goates, Joey Dassinger and Loren Chandler.
• Power Lunch Featuring Heather McCormick, Tim Shane, Joey Dassinger and Sam Weeks.
• The M Word Featuring Sam Weeks and Tim Shane
• Your Mother's Butt Featuring Brian Goates and Heather McCormick

The Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about a suburban couple grieving the death of their child.

Clad in exotic dress and sequined makeup, Taylor Mac brings a showcase of his recent works to the stage with a multitude of costumes and props from a giant suitcase while accompanying himself on ukelele and mandolin. The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac has played over 40 theatres world wide including: The Sydney Opera House, The Public Theatre (Under the Radar Festival), London’s Soho Theatre, Stockholm’s Sodra Teatern, Dublin’s Project Arts Center, Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival and The Spoleto Festival. A flamboyant chameleon of words, music, and sociopolitical tirades, visual and vocal phenomenon, Mac employs gender-bending surrealism to explore the human condition and challenge the contemporary culture of fear.

Agatha Christie's best-known of all her classic mysteries.

Part one of Neil Simon's autobiographical trilogy, a portrait of the writer as a young teen in 1937 living with his family in a crowded, lower middle-class Brooklyn walk-up. Eugene Jerome, standing in for the author, is the narrator and central character. Dreaming of baseball and girls, Eugene must cope with the mundane existence of his family life in Brooklyn: formidable mother, overworked father, and his worldly older brother Stanley. Throw into the mix his widowed aunt Blanche and her two young (but rapidly aging) daughters and Grandpa the Socialist and you have a recipe for hilarity, served up Simon-style. This bittersweet memoir evocatively captures the life of a struggling Jewish household where, as his father states "if you didn't have a problem, you wouldn't be living here."

Edmond Rostand's classic, translated by Brian Hooker. Brad Speck directs.

The world premiere of a new musical about high school cheerleaders who "just say no" to the male basketball team. Loosely taken from Aristophanes' anti-war classic Lysistrata. The book is by Douglas Carter Beane, playwright of As Bees in Honey Drown and The Little Dog Laughed. It's directed and choreographed by Dan Knechtges, who choreographed Xanadu and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on Broadway. Previews Jan. 15-21, opens Jan. 22.

In this side-splittingly funny satire, a creative team meets at a potential backer’s wealthy estate to pitch a new Broadway show. During their visit, members of the group begin to drop dead one by one at the hands of a mysterious “slasher.” Trapped by a snow storm, panic, chaos and hilarity ensue as accusations are made and eventually the mystery is solved. There is a special "Death by Chocolate Reception" at the performance on Feb. 13, for $35.

Yale School of Drama dropout Jonathan Marc Sherman was 18 when he wrote this play and it was produced off-Broadway. It concerns a teenage boy and the relationships with the women in his life, all of which are affected by his mother's death when he was six years old.

Two comedies explore the parallel loves of four people. A new translation of Joaquin and Serafin Quintero's A Rainy Afternoon explores the trials and tribulations of two young people that first meet at a park bench and develop a crush. The world premiere Alejandro de la Costa's A Sunny Morning is about a chance meeting of two elderly people at the same bench in which they discover that they had a torrid affair with each other fifty years earlier. Both plays, though written a century apart, intertwine to tell the greater story of love and its consequences.

The setting is a rundown bar in the Bronx, where two of society's rejects, Danny and Roberta, strike up a halting conversation over their beer. He is a brooding, self-loathing young man who resorts more to violence than reason; she is a divorced, guilt-ridden young woman whose troubled teenage son is now being cared for by her parents. Danny, whose fellow truck drivers call him "the animal," seems incapable of tender emotion, while Roberta, who is still haunted by the memory of an ugly sexual incident involving her father, is distrustful of men in general. And yet, as their initial reserve begins to melt, and they decide to spend the night together, the possibility of a genuine and meaningful relationship begins to emerge—the first for both of them. In the end there are no facile, easy answers, but thanks to the playwright's skill and compassion, both characters are able to probe within themselves to find an exorcism and forgiveness that, while painfully achieved, offers the hope of a future touched, at last, with more than the bitterness and loneliness that had been their lot before their fateful meeting.

A festival of short plays by local writers. This year's selections and authors are:

• Date Three, Date Four: '83-'84 by Rodney Dobbs.
• Love, Snakes and Thriller by Rodman Goode
• 84 by Jonathon Norton
• Waltzing Matilda's by Carol M. Rice
• Back in the Day by Philip Morales
• To the Max by Camika Spencer
• The Cosby's: The Lost Episode by Buster Spiller

The Southwest Premiere of this swashbuckling musical based on the hilarious and award-winning book. Young Jeremy Jacobs joins Captain Braid Beard’s scurvy crew for some high seas adventure, but soon learns that the truly important things in life are worth much more than buried treasure. A joyful family musical that is sure to leave you and your young mateys singing and dancing in the aisles!

Neil Simon's romantic comedy classic.

Long ago, Prince Philip was turned into a frog by an evil enchantress, and has ever since been living in a swamp with Artie the Monkey.  When a royal family discovers him and breaks the spell, two beautiful princesses vie for his attention, leaving Artie to miss his friend. Can Prince Philip choose the princess who loves his true self and bring happiness to all?

Teatro Dallas presents its 14th International Theater Festival. All shows come with an English librettos. Performances are:

• Mexico's Fenix Producciones performs by "Benito antes de juarez" by Edgar Chías. Feb. 6 & 7.
• Belgium's Theatre Universitaire Royal de Liege presents "Communication a une academia" by Franz Kafka. Feb 13 & 14.
• Spain's Teatro Abrego presents "El Corazon de Antigona" by Pati Domenech. Feb. 20 & 21.
• The United States' Teo Castellanos in "NE 2nd Avenue. Feb. 27 & 28. (Presented in association with South Dallas Cultural Center.)

The journey begins in Greenwood, Mississippi—the Delta. Born in a rundown, drafty shotgun house to a poor but resourceful black woman, no one could have predicted the odyssey that would become Ida Mae Holland’s life. Curious, smart and precocious, young Ida learned from her mother how to dream big dreams, for herself and others, in their impoverished Delta community. Previews Jan. 29-Feb. 4, opens Feb. 5.

The annual revival of the popular revuesical about romantic relationships. Previews Jan. 29-31, opens Feb. 1.

Puppet performance of the beloved story.

A variety show that features magicians, marionettes and circus feats. Weekly performances through September 11, 2010.

Amphibian Stage Productions opens its season with a staged reading of Lanie Robertson's play that looks at the life of Peggy Guggenheim, the woman whose vision shaped the art world during the 20th century. Starring Broadway actress Glynis Bell.

Singer and actress Amy Stevenson hosts this cabaret every Monday night at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, with Buddy Shanahan on piano.

Upcoming guests:

• Feb. 1: Marjorie Hayes, Jay Gardner, Bobby Selah and Megan Woodall, with James McQuillen on piano.

Joe and Jaston are back as the characters from Tuna, Texas have a wild time in Sin City.

 

Comedy troupe performs on the second Tuesday of the month at Pocket Sandwich Theatre, beginning Feb. 9, 2010. Members include Mark Walters, Vince Davis, Mark Fickert and Gary Walters.

This farce centers on the zany schemes of a middle-aged divorcee who decides that the time is ripe to get back together with her ex-husband.

After teaching countless students about the saints, venial sins, limbo and more, Sister is now offering up hilarious lessons on the Sacraments of Marriage and the Last Rites, including her own wacky version of the Newlywed Game. Classroom participation is a must, so bring along your sweetie and your sense of humor for a session with the country’s feistiest couples counselor!

Anna Deavere Smith transformed herself into scores of individuals—using only their words and duplicating their speech patterns, mannerisms, dress and attitudes—in a mosaic set in the violent aftermath of the 1992 Rodney King trial and verdict. These verbatim portrayals bring together adversaries, victims, eyewitnesses and observers who have never stood within the same four walls, let alone spoken to each other—black, white, Asian and Latino. Twilight, performed as an ensemble multimedia piece at UT Dallas, speaks the words and conveys the deeply held sentiments of so many different people, enabling the audience members to hear what they might otherwise discount.

 

Friendship blooms into romance and a mother learns to let go in this sentimental and heart-warming comedy.

The program includes Wil McKnight's Gershwin Dances and New World, Chung-Lin Tseng's Moldau and Emily Hunter's Dreamers.

Ben Stevenson's version of the Prokofiev ballet, inspired by Shakespeare's most beloved tragedy.

Evening Star Rising avoids the hackneyed arguments pro and con of this politically sensitive issue. Instead, this story puts a human face on the condemned. The viewers are invited to draw their own conclusions about Kevin, whose proof of guilt, as Laura discovers, falls short of the legal standard for conviction: guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

If you like Shakespeare, you'll like this show. If you hate Shakespeare, you'll love this show! Done at a whirlwind pace and with great delight, this irreverent, fast-paced romp features all 37 of The Bard's plays in under two hours! The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) was London's longest-running comedy. Praised by the Los Angeles Times as "wildly funny" and by the Montreal Gazette as "the funniest show you are likely to see in your entire lifetime," there is no doubt that William Shakespeare himself would approve!

 

John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a controlling nun and the new priest at a parochial school.

Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

The Dallas Opera's spring repertory season kicks off with Mozart's romantic classic, conducted by Graeme Jenkins and directed by John Cox.

 

Irma P. Hall stars in this play about 103-year-old Sadie Delany and 101-year-old Bessie Delany, who take the audience on a remarkable journey through the last hundred years of our nation's history, recounting a fascinating series of events and anecdotes drawn from their rich family history and careers as pioneering African-American professionals.

This Tony Award-nominated comedy from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wendy Wasserstein tells the story of three Jewish-American sisters from Brooklyn who gather in London to celebrate the birthday of the oldest sister, Sara. During the lively weekend, the sisters along with Sara's daughter Tess and several male friends throw a party which Sara isn’t exactly too excited about. Unexpected romance, suspected partings, recriminations, reconciliations and, above all, newfound love and acceptance result in a wonderful comedy by one of America’s best playwrights. Marianne Galloway directs.

Christina Vela directs the Southwest premiere of Nachtrieb's play about a marine biologist who hosts a journalism student in his subterranean biology lab for an erotic "casual encounter." As disaster looms upon the planet, the fate of their "date" takes on monumental importance. boom is an epic and intimate comedy of evolution, loneliness, and how to survive.

Balanced Almond presents Jean Genet's absurdist classic that's based on the true story of the murderous Papin sisters in 1930s France.

Circle Theatre opens its season with the area premiere of Michael Hollinger's play about a renowned string quartet that unravels when one of its members goes missing and is replaced by a young woman. Previews Feb. 11 & 12, opens Feb. 13.

This performance features the world premiere of Christopher Huggins' Beams From Heaven.

The longest-running musical in Broadway history returns to Dallas for three weeks.