‘Pompeii!!’ @ Kitchen Dog Theater (And a Grand Re-opening!)
Photos by Jordan Fraker
—Martha Heimberg
Stray dogs no more, the dedicated pack at Kitchen Dog Theater have at last moved into their new home, just blocks from the Trinity River in the Design District. This posh dog house includes a stunning 100-seat black box theater, a workshop for building sets, and a handsome, high-ceilinged lobby large enough to host a wedding or a jazz concert, throw a party or a wrestling match — or whatever event is seeking a sparkling modern venue.
The spacious bathrooms are swanky, too.
KDT is celebrating the new digs (and opening season 35!) with an encore production of Pompeii!!, an original musical by company members Cameron Cobb, Michael Federico and Max Hartman that premiered in 2018. What a team of winners, and how ironic that they’re producing this hilarious satire about the doomed folks of Pompeii singing and dancing and totally ignoring the coming disaster—a volcano that rumbles between the numbers, ever louder and more menacing. One thing they do prove: these dawgs sure throw one helluva revival.
Apocalypse is certainly not a new idea, but it’s getting a good airing in town right now at two of our outstanding theater companies. Opening on the same weekend: Undermain Theatre’s all-out production of Thornton Wilder’s cautionary The Skin of Our Teeth—and now Pompeii!!, directed by Co-Artistic Directors Christopher Carlos and Tina Parker. Makes me look around and reflect on the state of our own dear nation as I write on this President’s Day. Yikes! is a major understatement.
One way to meet the end of the world is to sing, dance, joke and party hearty, and that’s what this show imagines is happening to the heedless citizens of this rich and infamous Italian party town, buried under 20 feet of volcanic ash after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Here, we’re filling the couple of hours left before the “end times” in fine vaudeville style, with plenty of catchy tunes and a lot of that ole razzle-dazzle.
Hartman, a solid drummer and show unto himself, returns as the bandleader and emcee, trying to keep this party going “on the very last day in Pompeii.” No easy task, considering his argumentative family trio and assorted other marginally reliable performers. Pianist Thiago X. Nascimento (co-music director with Hartman) and Ian Ferguson on electric guitar form the Mulligan trio, with multi-everything Parker Gray joining in on acoustic guitar. Gray also sells insurance in his spare time, and brings down the house with his painfully funny standup act. This poor bastard cannot even get a decent drumroll for his pitiful zingers. Talk about dying in public.
Tommy Stuart keeps everybody on their toes as the Mayor, and sings a yearning love song or two with playful, upbeat Rowan Gilvie. Ivan Jones is an amazing dancer, with long thin legs just made for ragtime, and weird acrobatics. He also delivers the show’s powerful bluesy ballad about hard labor in hard times with baritone ease.
Aubrey Ferguson and Savannah Yasmine Elayyach are not just sexy clowns, but cleaning ladies who dance with plungers. They’re also part of a female trio with Gilvie, of musing telephone operators unwilling or unable to put desperate calls through to Jupiter. Yes, Publius, the answer up there is sometimes a busy signal.
Jeff Swearingen is the long-awaited magician who finally shows up late in the show — and drunk as a skunk. We laugh as he stumbles with agonizing slowness through his funny, limp-wristed card tricks; thank the gods for willing folks in the front row.
Everybody in this ten-member cast knows how to put on a show, and they have a lot of help. Set designer Clare Floyd DeVries puts the bandstand front and center. Hung on the wall, a giant wheel of chance measures the rumbles of Vesuvius by degrees: danger, annihilation, extinction, etcetera are all possibilities—but, there’s plenty of open stage left for dancing and other shenanigans. Aaron Johansen and Lisa Miller designed the lighting, which includes flashing lights. Korey Kent designed the clever ragtime-era costumes with a few togas thrown in, and Brian McDonald did the spooky volcano rumbles and jazzy sound design.
Get on down to Pompeii!! for volcanic fun and pointed satire — while there’s still time!
WHEN: February 12-March 8, 2026
WHERE: 4774 Algiers Street (Design District), Dallas
WEB: kitchendogtheater.org
