ALL ABOARD: Pegasus Theatre’s Death Express! runs for one more week at the Eisemann Center in Richardson. The show is the next installment of Kurt Kleinmann’s black and white mystery plays, in which he plays bumbling detective Harry Hunsacker. So should you see it? That depends on who you ask. “Harry Hunsacker’s back, dumber and funnier than ever,” writes Lawson Taitte in his dallasnews.com review. Mark Lowry was a little less enthused in his theaterjones.com review, calling the show, “an alternately enjoyable and lackluster production.” We’ll let Elaine Liner cast the tie-breaker. Wearing her Dallas Observer hat, she writes, “The latest Pegasus effort, Death Express!, is a bust on all counts …  committing too many crimes, script- and production-wise, to warrant any critical stays of execution.”

WHAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM YOUR FELLOW AMERICANS: Wall Street Journal Drama Critic Terry Teachout has written a pretty fascinating analysis of the 10 most-produced plays of the last 10 years. Among his findings:

• 7 of the 10 require four or fewer actors. Small cast = small costs.
• Only one show on the list, The Glass Menagerie, is a classic (Shakespeare wasn’t included). So it seems producers and audiences are embracing more contemporary works.
• No musicals made the list.

Just a little food for thought for those of you who may already be contemplating how you’ll program 2010-11 seasons.

QUOTABLE: “Guitar is the only cardio I do.”

– Crowley musician Joey Green, in a Fort Worth Weekly interview, explaining why he plays in so many bands around town. Green’s latest album is titled Whatever Lady?!