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.

Bruce Wood Dance presents Spring at Moody Performance Hall, June 10-12.

Photo by Brian Guilliaux

Bruce Wood Dance presents Spring at Moody Performance Hall, June 10-12.

sports comedy music dance theater concerts event-planner

Movie Review

Alexander Skarsgård commands the bold, offbeat drama Pillion

Photo courtesy of A24

Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling in Pillion.

Describing the new movie Pillion is almost an act of futility. It contains a variety of seemingly disparate parts that coalesce into a whole to make it utterly fascinating. Few other recent films have been able to walk the line between filthy and wholesome in quite the way this one does, and that’s only because few other filmmakers would actually dare to try.

It centers on Colin (Harry Melling), a meek man in his mid-thirties who still lives at home with his parents, Pete (Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (Lesley Sharp), while working a dead-end job giving out parking tickets. While performing in a barbershop quartet at his local pub, Colin catches the eye of biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), who summons him for a clandestine hook-up the following day (which just so happens to be Christmas Day).

With barely a word exchanged between them, Ray establishes a dominance over Colin that quickly leads to them starting a relationship in which Colin does anything Ray asks. And that means more than just sex: Colin, whether desperate for any kind of affection or unlocking a side of himself he hadn’t known, readily agrees to cook, clean, shop, and basically do whatever else Ray wants him to do.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Harry Lighton, the film is astonishing in the way it’s able to mine humor from Colin and Ray’s atypical bond. To call Ray “unfeeling” might not be totally accurate, but the way he treats Colin borders on cruel. However, the way Lighton structures the film, it’s easy to understand why someone like Colin would be willing to go along with the situation. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking to see Colin debase himself in a variety of ways.

On the flip side is Colin’s heartfelt arc with his parents. It’s established right away that Peggy, who is sick with cancer, is a bit too involved with Colin’s love life, with the opening scene featuring her setting him up on a blind date. But their easy acceptance of his queerness and desire to see him find love is as heartwarming as it gets. The juxtaposition between the wholesomeness of their family and Colin’s new life is also the source of a good amount of comedy.

Lighton does not shy away from the sexual side of Colin and Ray’s relationship, and the scenes he depicts are as graphic as you are likely to see in an R-rated film. Some go up to and a little past what might be expected in a mainstream movie (including the use of a certain fake appendage). Other times they play out in a comical way to illustrate just how far Colin has progressed from the person he was when the film started.

Skarsgård, who stole the show in the Charli XCX movie The Moment, is the attraction in more ways than one in this film. The part calls for someone who’s not only impossibly handsome, but also a person who can stop dissent with just a glance, and he lives up to both qualities equally well. Melling, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies, also embodies his role perfectly. He plays Colin as weak enough to be run roughshod over by Ray, but not so hopeless as to not be worth rooting for.

Pillion (which is the name of the secondary seat on a motorcycle on which Colin rides multiple times in the film) operates at a storytelling level that is difficult to achieve. Many people will not fully understand the film’s central relationship, but the way it is showcased by Lighton makes it compelling, gut-wrenching, and sexy.

---

Pillion is now playing in theaters.

movies film