Weekend Event Planner

These are the 13 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

There will be lot of different things to do this weekend around Dallas. Choices include a display of historic planes, a college basketball tournament, a visit by a famous musician/filmmaker, new local theater and opera, a renowned magician, an opera star back from the dead, St. Patrick's Day celebrations, a controversial comedian, an iconic rapper, and more.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, March 14

Frontiers of Flight Museum presents Wings of Freedom Tour
The Collings Foundation’s Wings of Freedom Tour will feature the B-17 Flying Fortress “Nine O Nine,” B-24 Liberator “Witchcraft,” B-25 Mitchell "Tondelayo" Bombers, P-51 Mustang fighter, and Vietnam-era Huey helicopter. This is a rare opportunity to visit, explore, and learn more about these unique and rare treasures of aviation history. The tour will be at Frontiers of Flight Museum through Sunday.

Conference USA Basketball Championships
Conference USA is bringing its premiere basketball event back to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The basketball championships will feature 24 men's and women's basketball teams playing 22 games at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco through Saturday, with C-USA titles and NCAA automatic bids on the line. Men's No. 1 seed Old Dominion and women's No. 1 seed Rice are the favorites, with UNT only qualifying on the men's side.

USA Film Festival presents True Stories with David Byrne
The USA Film Festival presents 33rd anniversary screenings of True Stories, with director David Byrne in attendance to talk with the audience after the 7 pm screening at Angelika Film Center in Dallas. The Texas cult classic and audio voyage was shot in the Dallas area with a mostly Texas cast and crew. There will be a second screening at 7:30 pm with an introduction by Byrne, but no Q&A.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Mahler’s Titan Symphony
If you've been missing former DSO conductor Jaap van Zweden, the now-conductor laureate returns to town for this concert that will include Schumann’s lush Piano Concerto alongside Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, "Titan.” The concert, which will also feature pianist Louis Lortie, will take place three times through Saturday at the Meyerson Symphony Center.

Theatre Three presents Foxfire
Pensioner Annie Nations has peacefully settled on her mountain farm in Southern Appalachia. But at the approach of a reckless real estate developer who has begun uprooting the neighborhood, Annie is faced with an agonizing decision. Is there a price tag for the Nations’ family memories, and can their deep, tangled roots be replanted without wilting? The humorous and heart-wrenching play will run through April 7.

Eisemann Center presents Callas in Concert
The Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson will present the return of the original opera diva, Maria Callas. Accompanied by the Richardson Symphony Orchestra, the concert uses cutting edge technology and extraordinary theatrical stagecraft to bring a hologram version of the famed opera star back on stage 40 years following her passing.

Friday, March 15

Michael Carbonaro Live! Tour
Magician Michael Carbonaro comes to Dallas with his highly-acclaimed national theater tour. On his hit TV series, The Carbonaro Effect, Carbonaro performs inventive tricks on unsuspecting members of the public who are unaware that he is a magician. Jaws drop when he causes a car to disappear from under a security guard’s nose or makes alien crabs transform into kittens in a science lab. He'll do similar illusions for the audience at this event at Majestic Theatre.

Dallas Opera presents La Bohème
Puccini’s timeless La Bohème combines soaring music and heartbreaking drama to show how love affects the lives of a group of friends. As the fragile seamstress Mimi asks the poet Rodolfo to light her candle, they fall head over heels in love with each other. At the same time, Marcello is falling back into the arms of the feisty and flirtatious Musetta. It soon becomes clear that Mimi’s health is failing, and she and Rodolfo must decide if their relationship can survive the inevitable tragedy ahead. The opera will be performed six times through March 31 at Winspear Opera House.

Teatro Dallas presents Fur
Fur is the story of Citrona, a hirsute young woman who is purchased at a sideshow to become the bride of a young man with a fetish for animals in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. This tragi-comic, triangular love story reimagines a beauty and a beast, but with uncompromising results. The production, part of the Latinx Theatre Commons’s El Fuego Production Initiative, will play at Latino Cultural Center through March 30.

Saturday, March 16

Dallas St. Patrick’s Parade & Festival
There are multiple ways you can celebrate St. Patrick's Day on Saturday, starting with the annual parade down Greenville Avenue. The 40th anniversary parade will have all the usual festivities, plus some extra special goings-on. Following the parade, you can continue down Greenville to keep the party going at the Lower Greenville St. Patrick’s Day Block Party or St. Patrick’s Day Celebration at the Truck Yard.

Bill Maher in concert
For more than 20 years, Bill Maher has set the boundaries of where funny, political talk can go on American television. First on Politically Incorrect from 1993-2002, and for the last 15 years on HBO’s Real Time, Maher’s combination of unflinching honesty and big laughs have garnered him 38 Emmy nominations. He'll bring his outrageous style to The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

Ice Cube in concert with Paul Wall
There are few hip hop musicians who have made themselves into more of a mogul than Ice Cube. He has parlayed his early fame with N.W.A. and as a solo act into a multi-hyphenate career, one which has included stints in movies, television shows, and as the co-founder of the BIG3 basketball league. He'll perform at South Side Ballroom in support of his 2018 album, Everythang's Corrupt, joined by opening act Paul Wall.

Sunday, March 17

Klyde Warren Park presents Dallas Symphony Orchestra Day
Klyde Warren Park will present a free day of music and family fun provided by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Musicians of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra will perform on the stage of the Muse Family Performance Pavilion throughout the day in a variety of styles, showing off the range of the city’s orchestra. DSO staff will be on hand with prizes and games for the whole family, as well as an instrument petting zoo.

Ice Cube will perform at South Side Ballroom on March 16.

Austin City Limits Festival ACL Fest 2017 Weekend Two Ice Cube

Photo by Shelley Neuman

Ice Cube will perform at South Side Ballroom on March 16.

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Movie Review

The Devil Wears Prada 2 fashions glam Runway comeback with underdressed story

Photo by Macall Polay

Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada 2.

When The Devil Wears Prada came out 20 years ago, it was a sensation for essentially two reasons: The showcase of the glamour of the fashion industry, and the performance of Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly. Streep’s withering glares, disdain shown toward Priestly’s subordinates, and delivery of several instantly iconic lines rightfully earned her an Oscar nomination.

Two decades later, the gang has come back together for The Devil Wears Prada 2, trying to recapture some of that magic. Andi Sachs (Anne Hathaway), freshly fired from her job at the fictional New York Mirror, is brought back into the fold at Runway magazine to be their features editor. Miranda is still in charge and as standoffish as ever, but Nigel (Stanley Tucci) welcomes her back with open arms.

Like everything else, Runway has had to change with the times, going mostly digital and having to kowtow to advertisers to keep the money flowing. That includes sucking up to Miranda’s former assistant, Emily (Emily Blunt), who’s now the head of the New York branch of Christian Dior. However, even Andi’s incisive writing and Miranda’s keen eye for the next fashion trend may not be enough to keep the magazine afloat.

The filmmaking team of director David Frankel and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna have also returned, and they have done a good job of keeping the tone of the original film without relying too much on nostalgia. Most of the main characters have aged/changed in reasonable and appropriate ways, and it’s initially fun to see them all interacting again. The fashion side of things keeps the film feeling high-class, even if most regular people can’t afford most of what’s on display.

The filmmakers have lots of ideas on how to update the characters for the modern world, but the follow-through on those ideas is not as great. Because there is no longer the same power dynamic between Andi and Miranda, Frankel and McKenna go in search of other conflicts, none of which work as well. The two-hour film ends up feeling like a bunch of individual scenes that are tenuously held together by the barest thread of a story.

Strangest of all, though, is the film’s treatment of Miranda. She remains somewhat imperious, but her influence has diminished in multiple ways. In trying to make her change with the times, including bowing to politically correct terminology, the film has neutered what made her such a great character. There is rarely a point where she feels in charge, and the story choices made because of that weaken the film overall.

In 2006, Hathaway was just barely out of her Princess Diaries phase, and she has gone on to become a major, Oscar-winning star with no fewer than five different films coming out in 2026. She remains the heart and soul of this film, and she elevates every scene she’s in. Streep is hamstrung by the changes in her character, but she still brings her unique presence to the role. Tucci remains a delight and has great chemistry with Hathaway, but Blunt is underserved by a role that keeps her apart from the others for large stretches and tethered to an annoying character played by Justin Theroux.

As with many sequels, The Devil Wears Prada 2 is enjoyable just because it allows fans to spend time with some favorite characters again. Even though the filmmakers don’t utilize those characters in ways that are as memorable as the first time around, the film is still a fun time at the theater that gives moviegoers a glimpse at a world many can only dream to be in.

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The Devil Wears Prada 2 opens in theaters on May 1.

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