Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: Oct. 3

On October 3, he asked me what day it was. “It’s October 3.” Happy Mean Girls/Last Really Good Thing Lindsay Lohan Did Day.

Reports from the State Fair’s opening weekend are coming in, and by reports I mean tales of epic overeating. Which is wonderful, but in case you wanted to do something else, you can check out our handy week-long guide.

Monday night is usually a dark day for theater, but WaterTower Theatre makes an exception for their opening night performances for reasons that make plenty of sense sense. Namely, reviews and the like. This evening, they’re putting up Spring Awakening, a coming-of-age tale you may have seen at the Winspear last year. To be honest, I haven’t been entirely enthusiastic about this production. It’s been done, obviously, very recently— and this isn’t the sort of musical that should become comfortable or comforting, though of course its mainstream appeal makes that unavoidable.

But this morning I was thinking about the first time I saw Spring Awakening, and how sometimes I’m probably too cynical about this sort of thing for my own good. It does the musical a disservice to forget how excited I was a few years ago when friends and I student rushed an evening performance and lucked out with second row orchestra tickets. It was Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele pre-Ryan Murphy, and I’d never seen actors get so naked on stage (a novel thing, way back in 2007.) The songs were infectious; even non-theater geeks had the soundtrack on their iPod. And the message was and still is important: not talking about sex doesn’t make its complications and consequences go away. We’ve learned that lesson especially well, or maybe not at all.

I guess what I’m saying is, if you’ve seen this show before, you could give it a skip. But if you haven’t, or it’s been a few years, you should go, preferably tonight when the energy will be high. You have to call the box office for tickets, but I’ve been assured there are still a few available. I like the nearby Dream Cafe for a pre-theater meal, and as always, I recommend telling your server that you have theater tickets so he or she knows to pace you accordingly.

For more to do this evening, go here.