Weekend Event Planner

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

Wiz Khalifa will co-headline a concert with Logic at Dos Equis Pavilion on August 7.

Photo by Shelley Neuman

This weekend around Dallas will feature a bunch of notable names, mostly on the musician side with a number of big concerts. Other choices include a local theater production, a couple of hilarious comedians, a concert honoring a music legend, the end of an art exhibition, and the final local games of a pro basketball league.

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, August 4

Leon Bridges in concert
There's nothing better than seeing a hometown singer make it big, and Fort Worth native Leon Bridges has been getting bigger every year since his debut album, Coming Home, in 2015. Both Coming Home and his follow-up, Good Thing, were nominated for Best R&B Album at the Grammys, and he won a Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance in 2019. He'll play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving in support of his third album, 2021's Gold-Diggers Sound.

Rover Dramawerks presents The Underpants
Louise and Theo Markes are a couple whose conservative existence is shattered when Louise's bloomers fall down in public. Though she pulls them up quickly, Theo thinks the incident will cost him his job as a government clerk. Louise's momentary display does not result in the feared scandal, but it does attract two infatuated men, each of whom wants to rent the spare room in the Markes' home to be close to Louise and woo her, as Theo remains oblivious. The Underpants, a wild satire adapted from the classic German play, plays at Cox Building Playhouse in Plano through August 20.

Friday, August 5

Dierks Bentley in concert
There are few country singers with a higher profile than Dierks Bentley. He has released nine albums since his debut in 2003, including 2018's The Mountain, with all but two of them reaching the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Country charts. Those albums have yielded 11 No. 1 songs, including "Come A Little Closer," "Free and Easy," and "Somewhere on a Beach." He'll play at Dos Equis Pavilion.

Hyena's presents Helen Hong
A fan favorite on the hit NPR podcast Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Helen Hong has been a recurring character on HBO's Silicon Valley, CBS' The Unicorn, NBC's Parks and Recreation, and others. She also hosts the trivia podcast Go Fact Yourself. She'll perform four times through Saturday at Hyena's in Dallas.

AEG Comedy presents Tim Heidecker Live!
Tim Heidecker, known for Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, and beyond, comes to Dallas with his “No More Bullshit” stand-up character, as well as his Very Good Band. The first half of the show will feature Heidecker's patented stand-up comedy, while the second half of the show features another side of Heidecker, the songwriter, musician, and performer who has released a number of albums. The performance will be at The Factory in Deep Ellum.

Crash Test Dummies in concert
With their clever lyrics and folk-tinged melodies, Crash Test Dummies were a perfect rock band for affluent ’90s college students and yuppies. Their first album was a multi-platinum hit in their native Canada. Their follow-up album, God Shuffled His Feet, broke big in the United States thanks to the first single, “MMM MMM MMM MMM,” which became a worldwide top 10 hit. They have released nine albums in their career, the most recent being 2010's Oooh La La!. They'll play at Granada Theater.

Saturday, August 6

Big3 3-on-3 Basketball League
Saturday is the final day to see the Big3 Basketball League in action at Comerica Center in Frisco before they head east for the playoffs. Created in part by rapper/actor Ice Cube, the Big3 is a league that features fast-paced and interactive games, bringing fans an up-close and personal look at NBA Hall of Fame players; former Dallas Mavericks; Nancy Lieberman coaching her own son, T.J. Cline, and more.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Stevie Wonder Sing-Along
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will highlight favorite Stevie Wonder hits like "You Are the Sunshine of My Life," "Isn’t She Lovely," and "My Cherie Amour" in this joyous sing-along concert. Composer and producer Ray Chew, Music Director of Dancing with the Stars, I Can See Your Voice, and other hit programs, leads this jubilant celebration of an iconic music superstar. The concert will be at Meyerson Symphony Center.

David Gray in concert
Singer-songwriter David Gray has been releasing music for almost 30 years, but it was a three-album stretch from 1998 to 2005 that cemented his popularity. 1998's White Ladder was his first No. 1 album, featuring the hit song "Babylon." Gray will celebrate the 20th anniversary of that seminal album with this concert at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, and also give fans a taste of his newer music, including 2021's Skellig.

Sunday, August 7

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Spirit Lodge: Mississippian Art from Spiro" closing day
Sunday is the final day to view "Spirit Lodge: Mississippian Art from Spiro" at the Dallas Museum of Art, the first major exhibition dedicated to the art and culture of Mississippian peoples. The exhibition of nearly 200 ancient and contemporary works explores Mississippian ceremonial centers, the discovery of the Spiro site, cultural continuity, and the active power of Mississippian art.

Wiz Khalifa and Logic in concert
Rapper Wiz Khalifa has been at the top of the hip-hop genre since the release of his 2011 album, Rolling Papers, which contained the inescapable hit "Black and Yellow." Logic can claim the same, as he's had two No. 1 albums and four others reach the top 5 on the Billboard 200. They'll co-headline this concert at Dos Equis Pavilion, Wiz Khalifa in support of his new album, Multiverse, and Logic in support of his new album, Vinyl Days.

David Gray will play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving on August 6.

David Gray/Facebook

David Gray will play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving on August 6.

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Movie review

Over-the-top The Bride! makes other Frankenstein movies seem subtle

Photo by Niko Tavernise

Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley in The Bride!.

The story of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster is now over 200 years old, with Mary Shelley’s book having been adapted or referenced in close to 500 films. Less common is the character of The Bride of Frankenstein, which existed in the original text but has more often than not been excised in adaptations. Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal has tried to rectify that by giving the character a big showcase in her new film, The Bride!.

Gyllenhaal has reimagined the story as one in which a woman named Ida (Jessie Buckley) becomes possessed by the spirit of Shelley (also Buckley). At the same time, the already-existing Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale) approaches Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening), who specializes in reanimation, with the request to make him a wife. When Ida falls to her death in an “accident” involving her boyfriend (John Magaro), the ideal corpse becomes available.

After Ida’s resurrection, she and the monster become restless being studied by Dr. Euphronius and decide to break out to experience the world. The world, naturally, is not exactly welcoming to them, and soon the couple are on the run for causing mayhem, including a few murders. In hot pursuit are detective Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and his assistant, Myrna Mallow (Penélope Cruz), as well as other authorities.

It’s clear that Gyllenhaal wanted to merge the Frankenstein story with Bonnie & Clyde, especially since she sets the film in the mid-1930s. And that wouldn’t have been a bad idea if having the monster and The Bride going on a crime spree was truly the focus of the movie. But most of the time there’s less intentionality in their misdeeds and more confusion, leading to a muddled plot with no clear direction or end goal in mind.

One of the biggest problems is that Gyllenhaal starts the energy of the film at an 11, giving her and everyone else nowhere to go but down. She dabbles in multiple different tones, at times going the straight drama route and other times making what seems like full-on camp. At one point, she even has the monster and the Bride in a dance sequence set to “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” which would be hilarious as an homage to Young Frankenstein if the film weren’t so disjointed.

Most baffling of all is what Gyllenhaal wants from The Bride character. She morphs multiple times over the course of the film, from close to unintelligible at the beginning to rough-and-tumble at the end. There are hints at the lack of control she has over her autonomy, including Shelley’s possession of her and the monster lying to her about her past, but any commentary that Gyllenhaal might be trying to make gets lost amid the oddity of the film as a whole.

Both Buckley and Bale are all-in for their performances, which definitely fall in the “love it or hate it” dichotomy. Each scene is pitched so high that there’s little nuance to either of them, and neither is on par with their previous Oscar-caliber roles. The high-powered supporting cast of Bening, Sarsgaard, Cruz, and Jake Gyllenhaal is watchable based on previous roles, but none of them elevate this particular movie.

Whatever intentions Maggie Gyllenhaal had in making The Bride! are only halfway legible in a film that can never find its tonal footing. There has rarely been subtlety in movies featuring Frankenstein’s monster and related characters, but this one makes all the others seem like stuffy dramas in comparison.

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The Bride! is now playing in theaters.

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