Texas Plays

Texas is not Broadway, but some interesting things are going on stage here. A few weeks ago Lois and I went to a Garland Little Theater production of “Funny Girl.” The lead actress screamed and sang in what she thought was a Bronx accent. Texans can not play New York. It was dreadful.

Lois and I also saw three plays set in Texas. All were interesting.

Two months ago the same company produced “Greater Tuna.” A broad comedy with illiterate, gun-toting, hard-drinking, car-stealing, cussin’ characters, typical of some small Texas towns. Not great theater but great fun.

More recently we went down to Mesquite to see “A Texas Romance.” A romantic comedy about a young man in love with an older woman. Some interesting insights on relationships. What obligations does a woman owe a man, just because he loves her? The woman’s sister has a tubercular husband. The doctor says he will die if they do not move to the New Mexico desert. She does not want to leave home. (Typical Texan!}

Today the Montclair bus took us into Dallas to the Bath House Playhouse. In a small theater (inside what was once the bath house for swimmers at White Rock Lake), we saw a bare stage production with a group of actors playing the part of actors in a Texas summer theater.

There were plenty of laughs to entertain the Texans who did not follow the references to Chekhov and his play in which the characters talk about “going to Moscow” but never go.

The leading role, an actress “Well-Traveled but Not Well-Known”, dreamed of escaping from small-town Texas, worked in theaters all over the country but has not made it to Broadway. In the end she goes with the director of the summer theater to live in Mankato, Minnesota.

When I saw the play’s title, “Well-Traveled but Not Well-Known”, I said, “That’s me.” Once I dreamed of going to New York. Perhaps there I could find a publisher for my novels. Instead, I married and moved to Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Albuquerque, and ended up back in Texas living in a retirement home with a bunch of other old ladies.

Mine is a pleasant life, surrounded by Texans.