Weekend Event Planner

These are the 11 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

It's another packed spring weekend in and around Dallas, and the highlighted events appeal to a huge range of tastes. Among them are the return of a blockbuster Broadway musical, another big film festival, a concert from a music legend, and a country music festival.

Below are the best options for your precious free time Thursday through Sunday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, April 21

Dallas Summer Musicals presents Wicked
If it seems like Wicked is here all the time, there's a good reason for that. This is the third time the Tony Award-winning musical has been to Dallas in the past six years, but when you have a production this great, it's never enough. For the uninitiated, Wicked tells us what happened in the land of Oz before Dorothy dropped in and how two school friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. The production will be at the Music Hall at Fair Park through May 22.

2016 USA Film Festival
Usually the Dallas International Film Festival and USA Film Festival are separated by a week or so, but this year the final weekend of DIFF coincides with USAFF. Taking place entirely at Angelika Film Center in Dallas through Sunday, it will feature screenings with appearances from actors and filmmakers, including Alfred Molina, Ira Sachs, Whit Stillman, Charley Pride, and more.

Dallas Theater Center presents Deferred Action
A co-production with Cara Mía Theatre Co., Deferred Action features company members from both DTC and Cara Mía. The new play introduces audiences to Javier Mejía, one of the immigrants known as “Dreamers,” who arrived in the U.S. as an undocumented minor. Now, after years in the States, he finds himself caught in the tangle of existing immigration laws, new presidential policies, and the harsh reality of living in the shadows. The play will run at Wyly Theatre through May 14.

Texas Theatre 85th Anniversary and Live Safe Crack
The historic Texas Theatre, which fell into disrepair in the decades after its run-in with the infamous Lee Harvey Oswald, has slowly been revived in recent years. The new owners will celebrate both its rebirth and its past with this 85th anniversary celebration at which they will drop ticket prices to 35 cents for a special screening of the same program the theater showed on April 21, 1931.

Friday, April 22

Earth Day Texas 2016
Earth Day Texas is the largest event in the world of its kind, a three-day festival at Fair Park that celebrates progress, hope, and innovation. Environmental organizations, businesses, academic institutions, government agencies, speakers, interactive programming, and subject matter experts will all be on hand. Attendees can enjoy numerous outdoor experiences including live music, sustainable beer and food pavilions, electric bike test tracks, and family activities.

Tony Bennett in concert
You don't get more legendary in the music business than Tony Bennett. The 89-year-old (!) singer has been putting out music for more than 60 years, including a 2014 duets album with Lady Gaga and last year's The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern. Bennett will take the audience at McFarlin Auditorium through a retrospective of his storied career.

PrismCo presents Animal vs Machine
Theater lovers appreciate when companies try something new, and that's what you'll get with PrismCo's Animal vs Machine, a wordless dance/fight hybrid show, set over the course of three rounds, that focuses on two female MMA fighters as they duke it out for dominance in the ring. The production will play at the Green Warehouse at Trinity Groves through May 8.

Saturday, April 23

Off the Rails Country Music Fest
Country music lovers will be in heaven at Toyota Stadium in Frisco on Saturday and Sunday as some of the biggest industry stars take the stage. Among the performers will be Blake Shelton, Eric Church, Sam Hunt, Chris Young, Joe Nichols, Eli Young Band, Ashley Monroe, Waterloo Revival, Chase Rice, Chris Janson, Jana Kramer, and more.

David Cross: Making America Great Again! Tour
Comedian David Cross has been on the forefront of the American comedy scene over the past 20 years, from Mr. Show with Bob and David to Arrested Development. He's also been a fixture in a wide variety of other television shows and movies, and as a stand-up comic, which is what he'll showcase in this appearance at the Majestic Theatre as part of his new tour.

Sunday, April 24

One Mission Buzz Off for Kids with Cancer
At the third annual One Mission Buzz Off for Kids with Cancer, hundreds of brave men, women, and children will take a stand against pediatric cancer by shaving their heads. This event, taking place at Globe Life Park at Arlington and featuring an appearance from former Texas Ranger Ivan Rodriguez, will raise awareness and funds to make life more livable for children battling cancer.

Nasher Sculpture Center presents The Great Create 2016
The Nasher Sculpture Center's fourth annual family fundraising event, The Great Create, aims to engage families’ artistic sides while raising essential funds for the Nasher’s educational initiatives. It's a fun-filled afternoon geared toward children 12 and under, with hands-on art activities and workshops in Nasher Garden led by local and world-renowned artists, as well as live entertainment and kid-friendly food.

Dallas Summer Musicals will present Wicked at the Music Hall at Fair Park through May 22.

Broadway at Hobby Center presents Wicked

Photo by Joan Marcus

Dallas Summer Musicals will present Wicked at the Music Hall at Fair Park through May 22.

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Movie Review

New biopic 'Jimmy' salutes Jimmy Stewart's service in World War II

Photo courtesy of Papaian Studios

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Actor Jimmy Stewart, thanks to movies such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Shop Around the Corner, and The Philadelphia Story, had the reputation early in his career as the everyman in Hollywood, someone to whom most audiences could relate. That became even more true when Stewart entered the military during World War II, a period that is explored in the new biopic, Jimmy.

The film was co-produced with Fort Worth-based Papaian Studios and received a red-carpet premiere as part of the Lone Star Film Festival on Wednesday, November 4. Stewart had several ties to Fort Worth, which were celebrated at the event.

Stewart (KJ Apa) was riding high in 1941, coming off his first (and only) Oscar win for The Philadelphia Story. As depicted in the film, his life is upended when he receives a military draft notice as the U.S. prepares for war. He’s determined to serve, but people like studio head Louis B. Mayer (Jason Alexander) try to talk him out of it. Already an experienced pilot, he eventually joins the war in Europe, flying the B-24 bomber.

Despite his celebrity status, Stewart requests to be treated the same as any other soldier, which means flying multiple missions over enemy territory. He moves up the ranks, becoming a leader tasked with, among other things, reporting the deaths of service members to their families. He also starts a friendship that develops into a romance with Lady Julia (Kara Killmer), giving him a distraction from the horrors of war.

Directed by Aaron Burns and written by Justin Strawhand, the film has the clear goal of being a hagiography for Stewart, showing all of his good qualities and few of his bad ones. In fact, the character of Stewart is harder on himself than the actual movie is, chastising himself over the deaths of fellow soldiers that he likely could not have prevented. The filmmakers go to great lengths to show how good and well-respected Stewart was, something that may well be true, but doesn’t make for great drama.

The bulk of the film features Stewart at war, following him and others as they fly multiple missions and commiserate over the price of combat. The sequences are fine, but the film’s budget does not appear to be high, and so the CGI needed to recreate the scenes is noticeably subpar. Because Burns and Strawhand usually keep to surface-level storytelling and don’t go deep on any character besides Stewart, his time at war is engaging but slight.

The film is bookended by Stewart and Frank Capra (Max Casella) making It’s a Wonderful Life, Stewart’s first film after coming back from war. It’s here where the movie becomes most interesting as Stewart, still affected by his war experience, struggles to bring the character of George Bailey to life. The behind-the-scenes look at the film-within-the-film and the recreations of its iconic scenes are catnip for anyone who knows/loves the Christmas classic.

Apa, best known for starring as Archie on the TV show Riverdale, does extremely well as Stewart. He nails Stewart’s quavering voice and the way he ambles about plays right into the actor’s established persona. Casella and Killmer get the most play in supporting roles, and each does solid work as characters trying to understand Stewart. Alexander, Sarah Drew as Hedda Hopper, and Rob Riggle as a colonel each go a little too big in their respective parts.

Jimmy is probably best watched as an approximation of the man Stewart was in the 1940s, not as something that’s completely true to life. The film elides or stretches the truth on multiple occasions, which is par for the course in biopics. It could have used some stronger storytelling to make Stewart feel like a real person, not merely a replica of the famous actor.

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Jimmy is now playing in theaters.

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