The Heat Is On In Saigon

Texas' Lou Diamond Phillips to headline Miss Saigon at Fort Worth's Casa Mañana this summer

Fort Worth audiences last saw Lou Diamond Phillips onstage in 2007.

Photo courtesy of Casa Manana

Fifteen years after he graced the Casa Mañana stage in A Few Good Men, Lou Diamond Phillips is returning in June to headline their production of Miss Saigon.

The 1989 Tony Award-winning musical, written by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil, and Richard Maltby Jr., is a 1970s spin on Puccini's 1904 opera Madame Butterfly, telling the doomed tale of an Asian woman abandoned by her American military lover.

Phillips will star as The Engineer, the French-Vietnamese owner of the Dreamland nightclub in Saigon during the Vietnam War. No further casting has been announced.

Casa Mañana’s production of Miss Saigon is directed and choreographed by Greg Zane and music directed by Edward G. Robinson Jr.

Phillips rose to fame appearing in such movies as La Bamba, Young Guns, Courage Under Fire, and Stand and Deliver. He received a Tony Award nomination for his starring role in the 1996 Broadway revival of The King and I.

His TV credits include the Fox series Prodigal Son and Netflix series Longmire, along with Amazon’s Goliath, FX’s You’re the Worst, CBS’ Blue Bloods, and recurring roles on Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Netflix’s The Ranch.

He received an Emmy nomination for “Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Drama or Comedy” for his roles in both Amazon’s Conversations in LA and History Channel’s Crossroads of History.

Recent film credits include the upcoming Amblin feature Easter Sunday, Warner Brothers’ The 33, Created Equal directed by Bill Duke, and Sundance Festival favorite Filly Brown, for which he was named Best Actor at the Imagen Awards.

Phillips is also a director, having recently helmed episodes of Fox’s The Cleaning Lady and Prodigal Son, AMC’s hit series Fear the Walking Dead, Longmire, and ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

And here's a fun fact: Phillips also writes. His novel The Tinderbox: Soldier of Indira, with illustrations by his wife Yvonne, was published in October 2020. He has co-written the screenplays for Trespasses and HBO’s Dangerous Touch.

He wrote the Miramax feature Ambition. He produced his play Burning Desire, a romantic comedy in two acts, which received its world premiere at The Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury, Connecticut.

Originally born in the Philippines, Phillips was raised in Texas and is a graduate of University of Texas at Arlington with a BFA in drama.

Miss Saigon runs June 3-11 and tickets are on sale now. Prices start at $59 and may be purchased by visiting www.casamanana.org or at the Casa Mañana Theatre box office at 3101 West Lancaster Ave. in Fort Worth.

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Ancient Sculpture News

Fort Worth museum one of only 3 in U.S. to get rare sculpture exhibit

Lorenzo di Masi/Torlonia Collection

The Torlonia Nile

A major exhibition of ancient Roman masterworks is coming to the U.S. for the first time to be viewed at only three museums — including the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

Called Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection, it's an assemblage of works stewarded by the Torlonia Family beginning in the early-19th century, and will be installed at the Kimbell from September 14, 2025 – January 25, 2026.

As part of the Foundation’s mission to showcase these historical works to the public, the exhibition will premiere at the Art Institute of Chicago on March 15 through June 29, before traveling to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Its third stop will be at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, from March 14 - July 19, 2026.

The Torlonia Collection was established during the course of the 19th century by the Franco-Italian banker Prince Giovanni Torlonia and his son Alessandro, then handed down over generations, eventually growing into the largest private collection of ancient Roman sculptures.

Today, the Torlonia Foundation represents the culmination of the Family’s continued passion for art. Created at the behest of Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1925–2017), the Foundation’s mission is to preserve and promote the Torlonia Collection and Villa Albani Torlonia.

In 1876, Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1800-1886) created a museum to house and exhibit the Family’s holdings, which was open to small groups until its closure at the onset of World War II. The sculptures remained unseen by the public from that time until the Foundation’s first exhibition at the Musei Capitolini in Rome in 2020. That was followed by a stint at the Louvre, the first presentation of the collection outside of Rome, where it has drawn more than 600,000 visitors to date, an unprecedented feat.

The exhibit
The curators of Myth & Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection are Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff of the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition is co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, in collaboration with the Kimbell Art Museum, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and The Museum Box. All of the sculptures in the exhibition have been restored by the Foundation with the support of Bvlgari.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, edited by Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff, with essays by Silvia Beltrametti and Salvatore Settis.

The North American presentation will feature 58 highlights from the Torlonia Collection, including 24 newly restored works that have not been on view in nearly a century. The sculptures date from approximately the 5th century BCE to the early 4th century CE, with the majority of the works dating to the High Imperial period (1st–2nd centuries CE). Highlights include examples of the most emblematic genres of ancient marble sculpture, acquired by the Torlonia Family from the most prominent collections of Rome’s patrician families, as well as from excavations made on the Family’s own estates throughout Italy.

“The Foundation is excited to be sharing the Torlonia Collection with audiences in North America for the first time. This exceptional group of ancient sculptures is a testament to the enduring cultural legacy of ancient Rome, as well as the vision and passion of multiple generations of the Torlonia Family,” said Alessandro Poma Murialdo, President of the Torlonia Foundation.

The presentation is organized thematically in six sections, featuring sculptures found on the Torlonia Family’s properties in Rome and the surrounding suburbs and their estate in Porto, Portugal, as well as a number of exceptional sarcophagi (stone coffins), among the largest sculpted works in marble to survive from ancient Rome.

The tour reinforces the work of the Foundation to advance the appreciation and understanding of this unparalleled collection and the rich cultural heritage it represents. The Foundation’s mission is carried out through a continuous joint effort between the public and private sectors, including with the cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Culture. The Foundation is supported by a longstanding collaboration with Bvlgari as the principal sponsor of the restoration project since its inception in Rome and throughout the global tour, and Chiomenti, who has lent invaluable support to the Foundation’s core activities.

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