Weekend Event Planner

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

Machine Gun Kelly will play at at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving on October 24.

Photo by Daniel Cavazos

If you love local theater, this first full weekend in June will be your jam, as it features no fewer than five different theater companies staging new productions. The weekend will also feature a dance production, a festival-style EDM event, a notorious rapper/rocker, everyone's favorite Netflix cheerleaders, a small-scale concert, and a well-known comedian.

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

Thursday, June 9

Lyric Stage presents Cabaret
Set in Berlin as the 1920s draw to a close, Cabaret focuses on the hedonistic nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub, while exploring the dark and tumultuous life in Germany as the Third Reich ascends to power. The fully-staged concert production, which features a 13-piece, all-female orchestra led by Vonda K. Bowling, will play five times through Sunday at Majestic Theatre.

Pegasus Theatre presents Death is a Bad Habit!
Pegasus Theatre continues their 2022 season with the RadioVizion presentation of Death is a Bad Habit! by Kurt Kleinmann. Bishop Perkins suspects that something is amiss at Our Lady of Perpetual Weepiness and has asked Harry Hunsacker, a world-famous detective and aspiring actor, to check into things at the convent. Harry, Nigel Grouse, and Lt. Foster find themselves in more trouble than they could possibly imagine. The production will run through June 25 at Bath House Cultural Center.

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 evening features many favorite actors from past Uptown Players seasons performing selections from Broadway shows, both past and present, all done with an Uptown Players spin. There will be four performances through Sunday at Kalita Humphreys Theater.

Kitchen Dog Theater presents New Works Festival
The annual New Works Festival from Kitchen Dog Theater was supposed to feature the world premiere of High Five this weekend, but due to a positive COVID test for a member of their production team, the production will now run June 16-26. Still taking place will be PUP Fest, an afternoon of six world premiere staged readings written by local high school students mentored and developed through playwriting workshops. There will be two performances on Saturday at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

Friday, June 10

Art Centre Theatre presents Bride of Frankenstein Goes Malibu
Dr. Frankenstein has come to California to recreate his famous monster and monster bride. Why California? Because he plans to use the brains of ... surfers. To this end, he is always looking for good material. One stormy night, Lum, a master at riding the waves, stumbles into the gloomy house, and the fun begins. The production will run through June 19 at Art Centre Theatre in Plano.

Bruce Wood Dance presents Spring
Bruce Wood Dance presents Spring, featuring a world premiere from guest choreographer Stephanie Martinez; the mainstage production of Joy Bollinger’s Slip Zone Suite commissioned by Dallas Museum of Art and inspired by its exhibition, "Slip Zone;" and the Dallas premiere of Bruce Wood’s riveting interpretation of Rite of Spring, the classic work by Igor Stravinsky. There will be three performances through Sunday at Moody Performance Hall.

Saturday, June 11

Camp Nowhere featuring Porter Robinson, Lane 8, Nora En Pure, Fletcher, and more
Camp Nowhere is a festival-style event that will feature performances by some of the top electronic music producers working today. Headlining the event will be Porter Robinson, who has released three albums — one of all-new material and two live ones — in the last year alone. Also performing will be Lane 8, Nora En Pure, Fletcher, and LP Giobbi. The concert will be at Dos Equis Pavilion.

Machine Gun Kelly in concert
Rapper, rocker, and Houston native Machine Gun Kelly is equally well known for his personal life as he is for his music. When he's not engaging in excessive PDA with or drinking the blood of his fiancée Megan Fox, he's putting out some very popular music, as both of his last two albums, including the new Mainstream Sellout, went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200. He'll play at American Airlines Center.

Cheer Live
Fans of the Netflix docuseries Cheer will have lots to cheer about when the Cheer Live tour comes The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving. The event will feature coach Navarro College Monica Aldama alongside cheer stars such as Gabi Butler, Morgan Simianer, and many others. The athletes will present an exhibition of never-before-seen stunts and stage performances, an athletic event staged with the production value of a live concert.

Sunday, June 12

Turtle Creek Chorale presents Freedom Fighters: A TCC Small Ensemble Showcase
Turtle Creek Chorale will present its small ensembles for an intimate evening of music dedicated to the idea of “freedom” and the costs surrounding the lofty goals of it. Framed by the words and ideals of Nelson Mandela, the concert at Northhaven United Methodist Church will showcase the TCC Chamber Chorus, Coloratura, and TerraVox.

Anjelah Johnson-Reyes: Who Do I Think I Am? Tour
Anjelah Johnson-Reyes became an internet sensation with her viral video, Nail Salon, which led to many stand up, television, and film opportunities. That same year she joined the cast of MADtv as a series regular, which spawned another internet sensation, Bon Qui Qui, a disgruntled fast food employee with no filter. Johnson has also appeared in multiple commercials, including as the spokesperson for Taco Cabana. She'll perform at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory.

Comedian Anjelah Johnson-Reyes will perform at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory on June 12.

Photo courtesy of Live Nation

Comedian Anjelah Johnson-Reyes will perform at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory on June 12.

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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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