Weekend Event Planner

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

Weather permitting, this weekend in and around Dallas will see a nice mixture of local and national events. On the local side will be classical music, several local theater productions, and an art closing and opening. On the national side will be a traveling immersive art exhibition, several well-known comedians, a concert featuring Disney princesses, and the return of professional tennis to the area.

Below are the best ways to spend your precious free time this weekend. As of press time, all are on. But with below-freezing temperatures and icy conditions expected on Thursday and possibly longer, check with event organizers about potential postponements/cancellations.

Thursday, February 3

Immersive Frida Kahlo
Immersive Frida Kahlo is a space where visitors can explore the world through the eyes of Frida Kahlo, a brilliant, uncompromising painter who created some of history’s most awe-inspiring artwork. Visitors will see the Mexico-born artist’s work come to life on a grand scale thanks to large-scale projections accompanied by a musical score. Guests will be able to discover the people, events, and obstacles that made Kahlo the extraordinary woman she was. The immersive exhibition will be on display at Lighthouse Dallas through at least April 17.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Welcome Back Maestro Litton" (UPDATE: The February 3 concert has been canceled.)
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will welcome back conductor Andrew Litton with a concert also featuring pianist Stephen Hough. Selections for the concert, running through Saturday at Meyerson Symphony Center, will include Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2.

Friday, February 4

Art Centre Theatre productions
Art Centre Theatre in Plano will open two new productions this weekend. Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: The Musical (running through February 20) follows Gabe, who, lacking the self-confidence to perform his own music, is secretly the songwriting genius behind the music Del claims as his own. When Gabe meets Marge, he is compelled to take action to win her heart and, ultimately, to reveal himself as the true musician, performing his own songs in front of the whole resort. In The Vagina Monologues (running through February 19), Eve Ensler interviewed more than 200 women and chose some of the greatest stories about vaginas. The stories range from happy, to sad, to angry, to confused, but they are all spoken in an effort to empower women and celebrate the vagina.

Rodney Carrington: "Let Me In!"
A native of Longview, Texas, Rodney Carrington is a multi-talented comedian, actor, and writer who has recorded eight major record label comedy albums, selling over 3 million copies. His stand-up act typically includes a mixture of comedy and original songs, a smattering of which have reached the top 100 on the Billboard Country charts. He'll perform at Majestic Theatre.

Richardson Theatre Centre presents Drop Dead (UPDATE: The February 4 performance has been canceled; the production will now start on February 5.)
A cast of has-been actors plan to revive their careers in Drop Dead!, a potboiler murder mystery directed by "Wonder Child of the Broadway Stage" Victor Le Pewe (a psychotic eye-twitching megalomaniac). But when the murders and mysteries exceed those in the script, these thespians must save the show and their careers, as well as their lives. The production will run through February 20 at Richardson Theatre Centre.

Saturday, February 5

Nate Bargatze: "The Raincheck Tour"
Comedian Nate Bargatze comes to Dallas as part of his "The Raincheck Tour." The 42-year-old Bargatze has only gotten significant notice in the past eight years or so, releasing his first album in 2014. Since then he's released two stand-alone Netflix specials, including 2021's The Greatest Average American, and has his own podcast, Nateland. He'll perform at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie.

Patton Oswalt: "Who's Ready to Laugh?"
Patton Oswalt is a comedian whose size belies his impact on the entertainment world. He's had award-winning comedy specials, many memorable film roles, and guest appearances on TV shows like Parks and Recreation. He recently created M.O.D.O.K., the new Marvel stop-motion animated adult comedy series and released the Emmy and Grammy-nominated Netflix special, I Love Everything, in 2020. He'll perform a night of stand-up comedy at Majestic Theatre. (UPDATE: Patton Oswalt broke his foot on February 3, necessitating the postponement of this event. It will be rescheduled for a TBD date in the future.)

Disney Concerts presents Disney Princess: The Concert (UPDATE: This event has been rescheduled for October 22. All tickets will be honored on the new date.)
Disney Princess: The Concert features four Broadway actors who played Belle, Jasmine, Anastasia, and Nala, celebrating all the Disney Princesses in an evening of story, animation, and song. Tony nominee Susan Egan, two-time Tony nominee Laura Osnes, Grammy nominee Courtney Reed, and rising star Aisha Jackson join forces in this concert where they will sing Disney Princess songs and share their exclusive, hilarious, and heartfelt behind-the-scenes stories. The event will be at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Theatre Three presents Maytag Virgin
Theatre Three will present the regional premiere of Audrey Cefaly’s Maytag Virgin, which follows Alabama school teacher Lizzy Nash and her new neighbor, Jack Key, over the year following the tragic death of Lizzy’s husband. The play explores the ideas of inertia and self-enlightenment, and the bridge between the two. The production will run at Bryant Hall on the Kalita Humphreys Theater complex through February 20.

Sunday, February 6

Dallas Museum of Art opening and closing
The Dallas Museum of Art will close "Van Gogh and the Olive Groves" on Sunday after almost four months. The first exhibition dedicated to Vincent van Gogh’s important olive grove series, it reunites for the first time the series of paintings devoted to the titular motif that the artist produced between June and December 1889. Opening will be "Octavio Medellín: Spirit and Form," the first-ever museum retrospective for Octavio Medellín, an influential Mexican American artist and teacher whose work helped shape the Texas art scene for six decades. Medellín was a noted sculptor who mastered a wide range of media, engaging with modernist trends in both his native Mexico and the United States.

ATP presents Dallas Open
Top-ranked tennis player John Isner didn't have a successful run at the Australian Open this year, but he'll headline the Dallas Open, the first time the ATP Tour has come to Dallas in over 30 years. The tournament, running through February 13 at the Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex at Southern Methodist University, will feature other top players like Grigor Dimitrov, Reilly Opelka, Taylor Fritz, and more.

Patton Oswalt will perform at Majestic Theatre on February 5.

Patton Oswalt/Facebook

Patton Oswalt will perform at Majestic Theatre on February 5.

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Movie Review

Andrew Garfield leads peasant rebellion in medieval film The Uprising

Photo by Betina La Plante/Focus Features

Andrew Garfield in The Uprising.

Writer/director Paul Greengrass made his name with a cinéma vérité style of filmmaking that brought immediacy and depth to three Jason Bourne films, United 93, Captain Phillips, and more. In The Uprising, he uses those skills to tell the story of the so-called Peasants’ Revolt in 14th century England.

Greengrass wastes no time starting the main plot as Ploughman (Andrew Garfield) and his fellow villagers object to onerous taxes put on them by the country’s nobility, led by the young King Richard II (Woody Norman), to fund an ongoing war. Ploughman initiates a violent response over the tone-deaf — and unseemly — way the king’s guard go about their business, and the rebellion soon starts to spread across the countryside, with the citizens looking for a degree of autonomy.

The ever-expanding group makes their way toward London to try to make their case to the king himself. Meanwhile, the king’s top advisors, including Archbishop Sudbury (Stephen Dillane) and Treasurer Hales (Tom Hollander), try to usurp power from the inexperienced monarch even as the king’s mother (Katherine Waterston) tries to get him to be more assertive.

The history of the English monarchy is long and lurid, as Shakespeare detailed in multiple plays, including Richard II. Though the events in the film took place almost 650 years ago, it’s easy to see parallels between what the peasants were fighting for and modern-day politics. Greengrass’ storytelling intent is solid, and the righteous anger the citizens feel is initially relatable and palpable.

But the populism theme of the story soon gets bogged down in drudgery and minutiae that is difficult to understand, especially when the details are lost in the thick regional English accents. The leaders of the rebels — including John Ball (Jamie Bell), Wat Tyler (Cosmo Jarvis), and Alyce (Thomasin McKenzie) — are shown doing a lot of planning, but the strong feelings they have about their quest don’t come across well, leaving the audience as passive observers.

When there is action, Greengrass and his team employ a frenetic style that is not great for comprehension. While the gist of what is happening and what side is winning is legible, individual moments go by so quickly so as to be nearly meaningless. Save for Ploughman, any connection that has been made with various characters proves futile, as Greengrass doesn’t seem to have any time for emotion. Scenes that should feel thrilling or heartbreaking instead come off as empty.

Garfield is a two-time Oscar nominee who has done great work across multiple genres. He’s fine in this role, but whether it’s the story, the filmmaking, or something else, he’s not as captivating as usual. The same goes for other strong actors like Bell, McKenzie, Dillane, Hollander, and Waterston, who each seem to be giving their all to their performances but are somehow muted in the process.

Done right, The Uprising could have been a rip-roaring account of people standing up against their oppressors. What Greengrass has made, though, is a film that can’t translate its medieval story for a modern audience and concentrates too much on unexciting elements and too little on thrilling ones.

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The Uprising is now playing in theaters.

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