Closing weekend for the following 19 theater productions (Feb. 22-24)

by Shawn Parikh

A lot of good stuff is closing this weekend, so try and see a few before time runs out:

• Love, Janis, presented by Dallas Summer Musicals' Broadway Contemporary Series. The life and music of rock-n-roll icon Janis Joplin explodes onto the stage in this new musical. Love, Janis goes behind the music and offers a glimpse at the soul of a legend both through the letters she wrote home and the songs she made famous. Classics like "Me and Bobby McGee", "Piece of my Heart", and “Mercedes Benz” come to life in this hauntingly intimate portrayal inspired by the best-selling book by Laura Joplin. Call 214-631-ARTS for tickets ($16-62) or purchase online.
• 1984, presented by Frisco Community Theatre. The times and the fact that we're producing the stage adaptation of Orwell's classic demand some comment, and we quote Orwell himself. "I do not believe that the kind of society I describe necessarily will arrive, but I believe that something resembling it could arrive. The moral to be drawn from the dangerous nightmare situation is a simple one: Don't let it happen. It depends on you." Orwell depicts with great power the horrors of man's fate in a society where Big Brother is always watching—where everything that is not prohibited is compulsory. Purchase tickets ($10-15) online.
• Ella, presented by Dallas Theater Center. Take a trip back in time to Ella Fitzgerald’s landmark 1967 concert in Nice, an evening of unforgettable songs and shared memories from her extraordinary life. This exhilarating new musical features fourteen of her greatest hits, like “That Old Black Magic,” “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.” Buy tickets ($23-60) online or by calling 214-522-8499.
• Nipples to the Wind, presented by ICI Productions. The sassy comedy in which two actors play fourteen characters from a Little League mom who ends up in jail to a narcissistic suicide hotline operator to 3 sisters at confession, each telling their own version of the same event. The show has been on national tour and garnered rave reviews. Come see what is being called "must-see theatre." Call 877-238-5596 for tickets ($30-35).
• La Cage Aux Folles, presented by ONSTAGE in Bedford. Book by Harvey Fierstein, Lyrics and music by Jerry Herman. Based on the 1973 French play by Jean Poiret and subsequent 1978 French-Italian screen version, the musical focuses on a gay couple: Georges, the manager of a Saint-Tropez nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and Albin, his star attraction - and the adventures that ensue when Georges’ son brings home his fiancée’s ultra-conservative parents to meet them. Purchase tickets ($10-15) online or by calling 817-354-6444.
• Barefoot in the Park, presented by Flower Mound Performing Arts Theatre. After a six day honeymoon a spanking new lawyer, who has just won his first case 6 cents in damages, and his young bride, who is as pretty and addled as they come, move into the new, high rent apartment that she has chosen for them. But the difficulty is, in order to enjoy the charming character of this apartment, one has to climb six wheezing flights. And the apartment is absolutely bare of furniture, the paint job came out all wrong, the skylight leaks snow, there isn't room for a double bed, and an outlandish gourmet who lives in a loft on the roof uses it and the window ledge as the only access to his padlocked premises. Purchase tickets ($21-35) by calling 972-724-2147.
• I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, presented by Theatre Three. It had a huge run in 2000 on the main stage, it moved into Theatre Too that fall and played there for an amazing three years! Since then this amazingly successful musical revue has returned annually for an encore run and manages to find new enthusiasts who pack the place to laugh and cheer. Purchase tickets ($27-50) online or by calling 214-871-3300.
• In Defense of Better Days, presented by Irving Community Theater on the Edge. Don't miss the world premiere of this new show written and directed by Bill Fountain. The play is about a giant asteroid a few days from slamming into the Earth and ending all life as we know it. In Defense of Better Days is the story of a family reunited in the midst of great hardship and challenge. An engaging and original story about survival, hope and most of all, the power of love. For reservations ($8), call 972-594-6104.
• Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, presented by Dallas Children's Theater. Caldecott Award winning Cinderella tale! When a great African king desires a wife, only the most worthy and beautiful maidens in the land are invited to meet him. Mufaro’s pride and joy, his two daughters of very different dispositions, travel across a river and half a day’s journey to go before the king. With traditional chanting and African song, come celebrate goodness, generosity and love. Purchase tickets ($12-21) online or by calling 214-740-0051.
• The Shadow Box, presented by Theatre Coppell. Three terminally ill patients and their families deal with their relationships, anxieties and impending mortality in three cottages on the grounds of a large hospital. Surrounded by loved ones, all are trying to face and make sense of death. The play dramatizes their anxieties and their coming to grips with the finality of their condition, a preordained future whose only imponderable trait is its exact length. An overwhelmingly poetic, emotional experience that is as funny as it is moving. Purchase tickets ($10-14) online or by calling the Box Office at 972-745-7719.
• The Clean House, presented by Stage West. Busy doctors Lane and Charles really want a clean house. So they have hired a maid named Matilde. The only problem is, she hates to clean. Cleaning makes her sad. However, Lane's sister Virginia loves to clean. Problem solved? Not quite, in this surprising, romantic, and funny Pulitzer Prize finalist from a remarkable new playwright, Sarah Ruhl. Purchase tickets ($18-28) online or by calling 817-784-9378.
• A Lesson Before Dying, presented by Jubilee Theatre. This powerful adaptation of Ernest Gaines 1993 National Book Critics Award winning novel centers on a young African-American man wrongly sentenced to death in a deeply prejudiced 1940’s. Through a reluctant school teacher, he is taught how to live and die with grace and dignity. A Lesson Before Dying is about the ways in which people insist on declaring the value of their lives and addresses the basic predicament of what it is to be a human being. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and an Oprah’s Book Club choice. Purchase tickets ($12-20) online or by calling 817-338-4411.
• How the Other Half Loves, presented by Theatre Wesleyan. Bob Phillip's liaison with his boss's wife is in danger of being discovered by their respective spouses. Each attempt to wriggle out of suspicion by projecting their own infidelity on to a third, totally innocent, uninteresting and unsuspecting couple in the Featherstones. Call the Box Office at 817-531-4211 for tickets ($2-6).
• I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, presented by Music Theatre of Denton. This celebration of the mating game takes on the truths and myths behind that contemporary conundrum known as "the relationship". Act I explores the journey from dating and waiting to love and marriage, while Act II reveals the agonies and triumphs of in-laws and newborns, trips in the family car and pick-up techniques of the geriatric set. This hilarious revue pays tribute to those who have loved and lost, to those who have fallen on their face at the portal of romance, to those who have dared to ask, "Say, what are you doing Saturday night?" Call 940-382-1915 for reservations ($11-18).
• Proposals, presented by Greater Lewisville Community Theatre. This delightful memory play recalls the last gathering of the Hines family at their retreat in the Poconos. It's the summer of 1953, and a time of animated romantic entanglements that overlap all on one afternoon. With the arrival of each character, audiences experience both comic hilarity and heartbreaking honesty. Call 972-221-SHOW for reservations ($10-13).
• The 2008 Condensed Shakespeare Festival, presented by Stolen Shakespeare Guild. Short versions of three Elizabethan comedies presented in one evening: The Merry Wives by William Shakespeare, adapted by Edward Huntingdon and Nathan Autrey, Volpone by Ben Johnson, and Short Attention Span Much Ado About Nothing, adapted by Edward Huntingdon and words by The Bard. Tickets ($10-15) can be purchased online or by calling Theater Mania at 1-866-811-4111.
• Sabrina Fair, presented by Duncanville Community Theatre. Sabrina, daughter of the Larrabee family chauffeur, has returned from Paris, all grown up and well-educated. While hoping to finally pursue her infatuation for the younger Larrabee, she surprisingly discovers true love where she least expects it. For reservations ($9-12), call 972-780-5707.
• Proposals, presented by Ennis Public Theatre. A nostalgic memory play, Proposals recalls one idyllic afternoon in the summer of 1953, the last time the Hines clan gathers at its retreat in the Poconos. Clemma, the family's housekeeper (and the story's narrator), dreads a visit from the husband who deserted her years before. Burt Hines, a recovering workaholic convalescing from a second heart attack, looks forward to the arrival of the ex-wife he still loves. Burt's daughter Josie has just broken her engagement to an intense Harvard law student, and she yearns for his buddy Ray, an aspiring writer with whom she had a brief affair. Call 972-878-PLAY for reservations ($6-14).
• The Civil Rights Journey of a Negro Woman: Lena Calhoun Horne, presented by The Black Academy of Arts & Letters, for this weekend only. Set in Atlanta, Georgia at an NAACP Youth Conference, this dramatic play with music depicts the journey of a woman’s inner struggle for self-identify and racial equality. This piece follows Ms. Horne from her childhood in the 1920’s Jim Crow South, through her early career in Hollywood, to her triumphant civil rights stand at the 1963 March on Washington. This powerful one woman show, performed by Wendi Joy Franklin, is a must see! Hosted by Board Member Charlie Mae Smith. Tickets are $15.