MARKING 40 – The Kathy Burks Theatre of Puppetry Arts (formerly Kathy Burks Marionettes) turns 40 this year — with an audio-digitalized upgrade of a classic, Rumpelstiltskin — running at the Dallas Children’s Theatre, where the Burks have been part of the regular season since 1996. Kathy Burks, 76, tells Nancy Churnin in the DMN (pay wall): “I’m the luckiest person I know because I’m still doing what I love to do with the people I love to do it with. I got into it because of my children, and it was a surprise that it took over our lives. It’s been lots of hard work, but I’ve enjoyed every minute.”

RAPPELEZ VOUS JEAN PAUL? Bien sur, of course you remember the Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture show that was at the DMA in late 2011. Hard to forget the punk kilts and the elaborate boudoir lingerie that seemed to cling to yet drip off the talking mannequins. Well, the s continues its international blockbuster runway walk, currently running in Rotterdam and opening next year at London’s Barbican Centre.

REMEMBERING ANN – Ann, the one-woman play about Ann Richards, that opened last night on Broadway, was researched, written by and stars the talented Holland Taylor (best known, unfortunately, as Charlie Sheen’s mom from Two and a Half Men).  But does it do the former governor justice? (One local note: An offstage secretary is voiced by Austin’s own Julie White.) Charles Isherwood writes in the New York Times: ‘To put it as the plain-talking Richards might, this one-dynamo show — Ms. Taylor is the lone cast member — is neither a shapely work of drama nor a deeply probing character study. But admirers of Richards probably won’t give a darn. She was a brightly shining political star and an inspiring figure during the years of her renown, and Ms. Taylor is essentially just giving this beloved dame one more chance to bask in the spotlight.” On the other hand, here’s USA Today: ‘Richards is treated, in other words, much like a sitcom character. Her notable achievements are alluded to — revitalizing the local economy, reforming the prison system, championing civil and reproductive rights — but in ways that are both simplistic and pedantic.”