It was 1973, and many gay men and lesbians kept their sexuality a secret. What we do is build the relationships and the feeling of the bar - who these people are and what's at stake for each of them.' She now directs three or four shows a season at Uptown. 'We lose friends in this show,' says director Cheryl Denson, a veteran of the Dallas theater scene best known for the dozens of musicals she has helmed at Lyric Stage in Irving. Cheryl Denson, a veteran of the Dallas theater scene, directs the musical The View UpStairs at Uptown Players. The 46th anniversary of the UpStairs Lounge fire on June 24 also arrives during Uptown's production. The run coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots of June 28-29, 1969, when hundreds of members of New York's gay community refused to go quietly and fought off a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, galvanizing the gay rights movement. Dallas actor Cedric Neal stars in a London production this summer. It opens here on June 21 and runs through July 7. Uptown Players, which performs at the Kalita Humphreys Theater in Oak Lawn, is one of several companies that decided to produce The View UpStairs after its Off-Broadway premiere in 2017.
