Weekend Event Planner

These are the 9 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

The Fourth of July weekend has arrived, and with it comes a slew of fun holiday-related events in Dallas and the surrounding area. But there are also a variety of non-patriotic happenings, including a national tour of a classic musical, a new production seemingly ripped from the headlines, and more.

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, June 30

Dallas Arboretum Cool Thursdays Concert: The Dallas Wind Symphony
With temperatures hovering near 100 degrees, attending a Cool Thursdays concert at the Dallas Arboretum isn't so cool anymore. The Dallas Wind Symphony brings the spring/summer portion of the series to a close with a Fourth of July-themed concert, featuring patriotic favorites and more.

Dallas Summer Musicals presents 42nd Street
The 2015-2016 Dallas Summer Musicals season comes to an end with the classic Broadway musical 42nd Street. The production about a young girl looking to make it big on Broadway may seem like it has been around forever, but that's only because the musical, which debuted in 1980, is based on the 1933 movie. The national tour will stay at Music Hall at Fair Park through July 10.

Second Thought Theatre presents A Kid Like Jake
Second Thought Theatre brings its 2016 season to a close with the area premiere of A Kid Like Jake, a play about a young couple struggling to do what is best for their 4-year-old gender-fluid son, who happens to prefer Cinderella to G.I. Joe. The play follows the parents as they try to get a good education for him. The production will run at Bryant Hall through July 23.

Friday, July 1

Feeding Texas presents the 2nd Annual Lone Star Beer Texas Heritage Festival
The Lone Star Beer Texas Heritage Festival is a unique experience with an array of music, food, and fun curated by Lone Star Beer, the National Beer of Texas. The second annual event at the Bomb Factory features performances by Shovels & Rope, Okkervil River, Matthew Logan Vasquez, and Girl in a Coma. This event also includes an assortment of delicious food options, along with activities, arcade games, a photo booth, and more.

Dashboard Confessional in concert with Taking Back Sunday and the Early November
Emo band Dashboard Confessional, like most emo bands, hit their peak in the mid-aughts, thanks to a couple of hit albums. They haven't released new music of any kind since 2009, but true fans are sure to enjoy this concert at South Side Ballroom, which is part of the Rockstar Energy Drink Taste of Chaos tour. Taking Back Sunday and the Early November are also playing.

Saturday, July 2

Dallas Wings vs. Connecticut Sun
The WNBA's newest team, the Dallas Wings, has gotten off to a somewhat slow start at 7-9 through 16 games. But that's good enough for third place in the Western Conference, and with 18 games left to go, there's still plenty of time to get better. Catch Odyssey Sims, Skylar Diggins, and the rest of the Wings in action at College Park Center in Arlington as they take on the Connecticut Sun.

Sunday, July 3

Lone Star Park presents Lone Stars & Stripes Fireworks Celebration
The annual Lone Stars & Stripes Fireworks Celebration features two nights of spectacular fireworks at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie. Kids can enjoy the Family Fun Park featuring pony rides, a petting zoo, an obstacle course, a zip line, bounce houses, face painters, tattoo artists, and more. Music lovers can enjoy live music by Vegas Stars between the races. Following the last race each night on July 3 and 4 is a spectacular, 20-minute firework display choreographed to music.

Addison Kaboom Town!
Addison’s most explosive party of the year, Kaboom Town!, features fireworks choreographed to music, plus food, bands, spectacular historic warbird flyovers by Cavanaugh Flight Museum, and more. The celebration is city-wide, with a party in the 12-acre Addison Circle Park; watch parties at many of Addison’s 180-plus restaurants and 22 hotels; and the Addison Airport Air Show.

Levitt Pavilion presents Light Up Arlington
For a more low-key Fourth of July celebration on the day before the day, you can head to Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts in Arlington. Light Up Arlington is an evening of food, fun, fireworks, and free music. The event features Hannah Kirby and Brad Thompson in a back-to-back concert.

Dallas Summer Musicals presents 42nd Street at the Music Hall at Fair Park through July 10.

Photo by Chris Bennion

Dallas Summer Musicals presents 42nd Street at the Music Hall at Fair Park through July 10.

concerts holidays event-planner sports symphony music craft-beer theater

Movie Review

Spanish film La Bola Negra showcases unique slice of gay history

Photo by Carla Oset/Netflix

Miguel Bernardeau and Guitarricadelafuente in La Bola Negra.

For a long time — too long — gay characters in movies tended to appear as either side characters with no real stories or as tragic figures who were usually unable to express their true selves for fear of what the world at large would think. That has changed in recent years, but the remnants of the past can still haunt, as the new film La Bola Negra demonstrates.

The film takes shape in storylines involving three different men: Carlos (Milo Quifes), a young man in Granada, Spain in 1932 who wants to join an exclusive casino (aka social club); Sebastián (Guitarricadelafuente), who unwillingly joins the military during the Spanish Civil War in 1937, only to have desires aroused in him when he’s asked to guard an enemy detainee; and Alberto (Carlos González), an out gay man in 2017 whose inheritance from his recently-deceased grandfather opens up a world he knew nothing about.

The film goes back and forth between each man, detailing how they handle their individual situations and the complications that arise in their individual lives. Along the way their stories are deepened through people they meet who either welcome them with open arms or shun them for various reasons. While tragedy bonds their stories, so too does hope, resistance, and love.

Co-director/co-writers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, along with co-writer Alberto Conejero, have expanded Conejero’s play, La Piedra Oscura, which was inspired by Federico Garcia Lorca’s unfinished play, La Bola Negra. Lorca, who was killed during the Spanish Civil War, had only finished four pages of the work, his first to feature an openly gay protagonist. It’s clear there’s a desire by the filmmakers to honor the legacy of Lorca as both a playwright and a gay man, and the seriousness of their pursuit is evident throughout the film’s 160 minutes.

Calvo and Ambrossi do little handholding to guide viewers through the three distinct stories, an approach that mostly works but occasionally leads to confusion, especially as more characters are added to the equation. None of the stories are overly complicated, but they take their time with each, making the long film feel even longer. Only Alberto’s story contains any kind of development that might be considered surprising, making it tough to fully engage with the other two.

Where the film does come alive is when it brings in two well-known actors for brief-but-fascinating stints. Penélope Cruz plays Nené Romero, a singer who entertains the troops and further expands Sebastián’s mind. Glenn Close pops up as Isabelle Durand, a scholar of Lorca who helps Alberto with a unique discovery he makes in his inheritance. Both actors bring up the level of the film significantly through their performances.

Quifes, Guitarricadelafuente (the stage name of Spanish singer Álvaro Lafuente Calvo, no relation to Javier), and González all put in good work in their roles, even if none are overly engaging. They are often overshadowed by supporting actors like Cruz and Close, as well as Miguel Bernardeau as Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, the captured soldier; Julio Torres as Alberto’s partner, and Alberto Cortés as Lorca, who brings a symmetry to the film as a whole.

La Bola Negra — which means “the black ball,” represented both literally and figuratively in the film — is an ambitious film that becomes a slight victim of its filmmakers’ aspirations. Although each of the three stories contain interesting elements, a strong emotional connection is lacking overall despite good-to-great performances.

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La Bola Negra is now playing in select theaters; it debuts on Netflix on December 2.

movies film

Weekend Event Planner

These are the 9 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

Dallas Summer Musicals presents 42nd Street at the Music Hall at Fair Park through July 10.

Movie Review

Spanish film La Bola Negra showcases unique slice of gay history

Beloved Dallas taco chain Tin Star makes comeback in McKinney

Halal BBQ smokehouse warms the coals for winter opening in Richardson

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