KIDS CAN BE ‘MISERABLES, TOO: Understanding your character is goal No. 1 for an actor. So if that actor happens to be a teenager, shows like West Side Story and Grease aren’t that tough to get your head around. Something along the lines of Les Miserables is more of a challenge. But it’s a challenge a pair of local groups – Garland Civic Theatre’s Children on Stage and Imagination Players at KD Studios – are tackling. The young actors discuss their trip back to the days of Napoleon on dallasnews.com.

REVIEW MINI-ROUNDUP: Elaine Liner enjoys another trip to small-town Texas for Tuna Does Vegas. “If you’ve seen one, none or all of the Tuna plays, see this one to appreciate the level of artistry these actors brings to the stage.” she writes in her review (theaterjones.com) … If you’ve enjoyed Second Thought’s fun video promoting Some Girl(s), then you’ll be happy to know that the actual play is just as good. Lawson Taitte was bowled over by the title characters: “Collectively, they’re one of the most impressive ensembles the Dallas theater season now drawing to a close has had to offer.” (dallasnews.com) … Cathy O’Neal says Runway Theatre‘s Lucky Stiff is appropriately light for summer, but there are plenty of kinks that need to be worked out. “Maybe it was the end of a long tech week or the air-conditioning vent on the house left wall, but words got lost, especially when the actors moved upstage. A long, hot tech week could also have sapped some of the energy.” (theaterjones.com).

QUOTABLE: “It has to be something I know — some of these people [request]: ‘something from Led Zeppelin!’ ”

— Betty Buckley, on some of the suggestions she gets at her Broadway By Request show, which returns Saturday to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. She discusses the Workshop for Young Singers and Storytellers that Saturday’s show benefits in an interview with dfw.com.