Theater Critic Picks

Check out 10 must-see shows in Dallas-Fort Worth theater for August

Circle Theatre presents Imposter! Hypocrite! TARTUFFE!

Moliere has never looked this fun ("Imposter! Hypocrite! TARTUFFE!" at Circle Theatre).

Photo by TayStan Photography

A favorite festival is back this month, along with a good mix of classic titles and new approaches. And Donny Osmond — we cannot forget Donny Osmond.

In order of start date, here are 10 local shows to watch this month:

Donny Osmond in Concert
Music Hall at Fair Park, August 2
Donny Osmond brings his award-winning Las Vegas show to Dallas, a 90-minute spectacle in which he performs his hits, shares stories of his greatest show-stopping memories, and introduces brand-new music in a fresh and completely reimagined song and dance celebration.

Long Day's Journey Into Night
Bucket List Productions & Lewisville Playhouse, through August 11
Eugene O’Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning play is a brooding masterpiece about the pain of forgiving and the impossibility of forgetting. The Tyrone family puts the not-so-fun in "dysfunctional," as the family tell their entire life’s progression story over the course of just one long day.

Festival of Independent Theatres (FIT)
Theatre Three, through August 24
For the month of August, FIT is taking over T3 to bring the city of Dallas its biggest and most exciting festival yet. This year's lineup features an immersive Spanish-language play cycle about love, a heart-pounding rock musical starring local leading man Gregory Lush, Tilda Grace’s movement-based re-telling of a classic piece of literature, and the whirlwind, fever dream with a message, Spank Bank Time Machine from self-described trauma clown John Michael. And that's just upstairs! See a complete lineup here.

Imposter! Hypocrite! TARTUFFE!
Circle Theatre, through August 24
Wit, cunning, and hypocrisy are on full display in this punk-rock remake of Moliere’s classic farce. Circle Theatre’s artistic director Ashley H. White pens a new approach to the iconic play, a swift, unapologetic whirlwind that reintroduces the timeless tale of a man who deploys his charm and feigned piety in an attempt to disrupt a household.

Funny Girl
Broadway Dallas, August 6-18
Funny Girl is a love letter to the theater with one of the most celebrated musical scores of all time, including classic songs “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” “I’m the Greatest Star,” and “People.” The bittersweet comedy is the story of the indomitable Fanny Brice, a girl from the Lower East Side who dreamed of a life on the stage. Everyone told her she’d never be a star, but then something funny happened: She became one of the most beloved performers in history, shining brighter than the brightest lights of Broadway.

Alice By Heart
CenterStage Theatre Works, August 8-18
This imaginative and immersive production transforms a former retail space at Fairview Town Center into a vibrant theatrical venue. It marks the second consecutive year of bringing art to this unique location, demonstrating the group's commitment to innovative and non-traditional performance spaces.

Raft Project
Hip Pocket Theatre, August 9-25
Topsy-turvy upon open waters. Seeking solace from troublesome days. For want of balance and burdens unbound. Adrift upon a floating stage. Hip Pocket takes the outside inside with a newly devised work by Lake Simons and John Dyer.

Daddy's Rabbits: A Cotton Tale
Ochre House Theater, August 10-31
Closing their 16th season is the world premiere written and directed by Carla Parker. Mommy (Marti Etheridge) and Daddy (Omar Padillo) run a quaint boarding house, where eccentric boarders reside together in perfect harmony with Daddy’s hutch of Jack Rabbits. Life is “status quo” until a stranger (Meagan Harris) arrives.

Sister Act
Jubilee Theatre in partnership with Performing Arts Fort Worth, August 15-18
In the musical version of Sister Act, the original film’s locations of Reno and San Francisco have been changed to Philadelphia and the action now is set in the 1970s. When disco diva wannabe Deloris Van Cartier sees her gangster boyfriend Curtis Shank commit a murder at the grungy club where she’s performing, she reports the crime to the police and is placed in the witness protection program. Disguised as a nun named Sister Mary Clarence, she is placed in the convent of the Holy Order of the Little Sisters of Our Mother of Perpetual Faith, where she finds herself up against the rigid Mother Superior. Deloris uses her singing talent to inspire the other nuns to create a more contemporary choir, and they become the hit of the community.

The Boys in the Band
Uptown Players, August 16-25
Set in New York City, The Boys in the Band takes place in the apartment of Michael, a witty and sharp-tongued host who throws a birthday party for his friend Harold. As the evening unfolds, a group of diverse gay friends gathers and the celebrations quickly become a rollercoaster of emotions, revealing hidden desires, unresolved conflicts, and the complexities of their individual journeys.

donny osmond in concert festival of independent theatres festivals funny girl imposter hypocrite tartuffe musicals theater

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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