Weekend Event Planner

These are the 10 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

There's a decent amount of stuff happening in and around Dallas this weekend, but a jam-packed festival at JerryWorld overshadows them all. If that's not your speed, you can take in some professional golf, participate in a hedonistic festival, attend a fundraising theatrical production, witness two up-and-coming singers, or enjoy the final visit of a legend.

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, May 9

PGA Tour presents AT&T Byron Nelson
With the annual AT&T Byron Nelson golf tournament now falling just one week before the PGA Championship, it takes on extra importance as golfers get ready to compete for another major championship. The 2019 event, taking place through Sunday at Trinity Forest Golf Club, will feature Dallas' own Jordan Spieth, defending champion Aaron Wise, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, former Dallas Cowboy quarterback Tony Romo, and many more.

GiANT Entertainment presents City Dionysia
City Dionysia is a fancy-dress outdoor arts and music festival featuring dance, music, performance art, vendors, performers, and arts and crafts in honor of the birth of Theatre and its patron god, Dionysus. Taking place at Annette Strauss Square through Saturday, it promises guests can have a decadent, Bacchanalian experience through various activities, including mask making, choral chanting, movement, and more.

Toyota Music Factory presents Texas Lottery Live Concert Series: Shooter Jennings and Dale Watson
Every Thursday, the Toyota Music Factory in Irving presents the Texas Lottery Live Concert Series, featuring a variety of local and national bands performing outdoors in the Texas Lottery Plaza. This week's concert will feature the powerhouse duo of Shooter Jennings, son of Waylon, and Dale Watson, an Austin-based alt-country artist. The series will continue weekly through May 30.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Beethoven Symphony No. 4
As the Dallas Symphony Orchestra winds down its 2018-2019 season, they'll present this concert featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4, Schumann's Cello Concerto, and Elgar's Sursum Corda and In the South. The concert, which includes cellist Daniel Muller-Schott under the direction of Karina Canellakis, will play through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

The Killers in concert
After a 14-year career that had included hit songs like "Mr. Brightside" and "When You Were Young," The Killers finally scored their first No. 1 album with their latest release, 2017's Wonderful Wonderful. Prior to their performance at the inaugural KAABOO Texas at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Friday, The Killers will play at The Bomb Factory in Dallas on Thursday.

Friday, May 10

KAABOO Texas
Who knows why this festival, coming to Dallas-Fort Worth for the first time, is called KAABOO, but it doesn't really matter since it's packed so full of entertainment of all sorts. It has top notch music from The Killers, Sting, Lionel Richie, Lauryn Hill, Little Big Town, Kid Rock, Alanis Morissette, and many more; comedy from Brad Garrett, Demetri Martin, Dennis Miller, Whitney Cummings, Nate Bargatze, and more; and food from some top culinary talent, like Kent Rathbun. KAABOO will go on through Sunday.

Uptown Players presents Broadway Our Way
The Uptown Players divas return for another entertaining weekend of Broadway music with plenty of twists, laughs, and surprises. The fundraising production, taking place through Sunday at Moody Performance Hall, features many favorite actors from past Uptown Players seasons performing selections from Broadway shows, both past and present, all done with an Uptown Players twist.

Saturday, May 11

Nasher Sculpture Center presents "Sheila Hicks" Opening Day
Nasher Sculpture Center presents "Sheila Hicks," an eponymous exhibition of new and recent work by the American-born, Paris-based artist, Sheila Hicks. Along with a display of recent fiber sculptures, Hicks, who has been working almost exclusively with fiber and textiles throughout her seven decades-long career, will create a new, site-specific installation in the garden, a sweeping gesture spanning portions of the outdoor space. The exhibition will be on display through August 18.

Kali Uchis and Jorja Smith in concert
Kali Uchis and Jorja Smith are two of the most interesting young female singers, with both having auspicious debuts in 2018. The Colombian-American Uchis teamed up with Tyler, the Creator for a couple of hit songs, including "After the Storm" on Uchis' album, Isolation. Rising English star Smith turned heads with her first album, Lost & Found. The two will co-headline this concert at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory.

Sunday, May 12

Anita Baker in concert (UPDATE: Due to expected severe weather in Houston, Baker has postponed her concert there and this concert in Grand Prairie. The new date is Friday, June 28.)
In the 1980s and '90s, R&B/soul singer Anita Baker was as big as almost anyone else out there, with a series of top 10 albums, including 1988's No. 1 Giving You the Best That I Got, and a slew of hit songs like "Sweet Love," "Giving You the Best That I Got," and "Just Because." The 61-year-old singer has decided to put her touring days behind her, playing at The Theatre at Grand Prairie as part of her Farewell Concert Series.

The Killers will not only headline KAABOO Texas, taking place May 10-12 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, but they'll also play at The Bomb Factory on May 9.

Photo courtesy of The Killers

The Killers will not only headline KAABOO Texas, taking place May 10-12 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, but they'll also play at The Bomb Factory on May 9.

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Movie Review

Zootopia 2 Disney is an OK sequel that keeps the fun of the original

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Animation Studios

Nick (Jason Bateman) and Judy (Ginnifer Goodwin) in Zootopia 2.

When Zootopia came out in 2016, Walt Disney Animation Studios was in the midst of a great run of original films, including Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, and finally Moana. Their output since then has not been as good, including three mediocre sequels, three so-so originals, and only one truly great film, Encanto.

All of which is to say that the odds for Zootopia 2 breaking that trend were low even before they started working on it. The odd couple pair of rabbit Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) are now officially detectives in the Zootopia Police Department, but they still have a penchant for not following the orders of Chief Bogo (Idris Elba). Such mischievous behavior doesn’t sit well with the other detective teams, which include pairs of zebras, hippos, hogs, and goats.

Still, their slightly insubordinate ways put them on the path toward discovering the infiltration of Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan), the first reptile to be seen in Zootopia in a long time. He’s trying to steal a book that would prove that his relative was the rightful inventor of a weather technology that gives all animals in Zootopia an ideal climate. But the high-powered Lynxley family, including father Milton (David Straithairn) and son Pawbert (Andy Samberg), lay claim to the idea and won’t give it up easily.

Written and directed by Jared Bush, and co-directed by Byron Howard, the film retains the fun of the first film if not the consistently interesting story. Though Judy and Nick get along much better than they did previously, they still don’t see eye-to-eye on everything. It’s Judy who takes more risks this time around, with Nick’s rule-breaking ways seeming to have rubbed off on her, a nice twist that leads to some ironic situations.

The filmmakers struggle to make the story as easily coherent this time around, with the new characters a decidedly mixed bunch. The Lynxleys are supposed to be the bad guys of the film, but they’re not featured enough to drum up any enmity for them. The detective duos are fun comic relief, especially the two who refer to themselves as the Ze-bros, but none of them factor very much in the actual story.

Instead, the filmmakers fall back on things like cameos from small characters from the first film and a flurry of groan-worthy animal puns. While it’s fun to see the sloth Flash (Raymond S. Persi), sheep Bellwether (Jenny Slate), and Gazelle (Shakira), their appearances are too brief to carry the movie overall. The visuals are as fantastic as expected of Disney films, especially the myriad fur/hides/scales of the different creatures, but the film is not designed to necessarily wow in that respect.

Both Goodwin and Bateman prove again that they were cast perfectly for their respective roles, as Goodwin fully embodies Judy’s relentless enthusiasm and Bateman brings the wry tone to his street smart character. If you know them, it’s fun to have people like Samberg, Straithairn, Quinta Brunson, and Patrick Warburton in supporting roles, but no one but Warburton and his distinctive voice elevates the film.

Like most of Disney’s recent sequels, Zootopia 2 is a pleasant enough movie that lets fans revisit some favorite characters. But when a bar is set high with the first film as it was with Zootopia, it takes more outside-of-the-box thinking to have the second one measure up in any significant way.

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Zootopia 2 opens in theaters on November 26.

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