HEY JOE: Dallas Theater Center is wrapping up its 2011-12 season with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. And from reading the reviews, it sounds as if DTC is going out with a bang. “A stadium of confetti cannons and truckloads of caffeinated puppies couldn’t come close to matching the energy of Dallas Theater Center’s season-closing production,” Mark Lowry writes on dfw.com. And some of that punch comes from the Wyly Theatre itself. “The thrust stage puts everyone a few rows from the action, and the performers even venture into the audience,” Lawson Taitte writes on dallasnews.com. “Surprise after theatrical surprise keeps popping up, and by the end the spectators are singing and clapping in a holiday mood.” Not everyone was so thrilled, though. Lindsey Wilson writes on Front Row that DTC’s show is, “as close to perfection as the show could possibly get,” but that the show itself is, “missing the basic elements of engaging theater: real characters and true conflict.” Check it out through Aug. 12.

DBDT ACROSS THE SEA: Dallas Black Dance Theatre is the only Texas arts organization to receive an invitation to perform at the Olympics next month. But time is running out to raise the $200,000 needed to get there – about half of the funds have been raised. For the company’s founder, Ann Williams, the trip is vital in terms of getting in front of an internatinal audience of bookers who may send the group out on profitable tours. “What we’re hoping is that we can reduce our dependence on corporate sponsorship and cyclical funding,” she tells dallasnews.com. “Greater touring opportunities are necessary to ensure viability of the organization.”

ETC.: Since there isn’t a whole lot going on during this holiday week, you’ve got a choice of two wacky stories to finish up: a ballet choreographed for tanks or how a dancer’s scarves power a piano during a performance.