Weekend Event Planner

These are the 14 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

Broadway Dallas presents Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations at the Music Hall at Fair Park through September 18.

Photo by Matthew Murphy

Despite two huge rappers and one big-time comedian coming to the area this weekend, the slate of events is dominated by theater. There will be no fewer than eight productions starting their runs, including a national tour of a Broadway show. You can also see a unique anniversary celebration of a local performing arts venue, a concert by the Queen of Mariachi, and an eye-catching and educational sculpture exhibition.

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, September 8

The Firehouse Theatre presents Violet
Facially disfigured in a childhood accident, Violet dreams of a miraculous transformation through the power of faith. Convinced that a televangelist in Oklahoma can heal her, she hops aboard a Greyhound bus and starts the journey of a lifetime. Along the way, she meets a young black soldier who teaches her about beauty, love, courage and what it means to be an outsider. The production runs through September 25 at The Firehouse Theatre in Farmers Branch.

Broadway Dallas presents Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations
Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations is a Broadway musical that follows The Temptations’ extraordinary journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The musical tells the thrilling story of brotherhood, family, loyalty, and betrayal, as the group’s personal and political conflicts threatened to tear them apart during a decade of civil unrest in America. Featuring hits like “My Girl,” “Just My Imagination,” “Get Ready,” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” the production runs through September 18 at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

WaterTower Theatre presents The Bridges of Madison County in concert
Based on the best-selling novel, The Bridges of Madison County captures the lyrical expanse of America's heartland along with the yearning entangled in the eternal question, "What if...?" Francesca Johnson looks forward to a rare four days alone on her Iowa farm when her family heads to the 1965 State Fair. When photographer Robert Kincaid pulls into her driveway seeking directions, what happens in those four days may very well alter the course of Francesca's life. WaterTower Theatre in Addison presents a concert version of the production through Sunday.

Dallas Theater Center presents Clue
Based on the iconic 1985 Paramount movie, Clue is a hilarious farce-meets-murder mystery. The tale begins at a remote mansion, where six mysterious guests assemble for an unusual dinner party where murder and blackmail are on the menu. When their host turns up dead, they all become suspects. Led by Wadsworth the butler, Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock, and Colonel Mustard race to find the killer as the body count stacks up. The production runs through September 25 at Wyly Theatre.

Jack Harlow in concert
Rapper Jack Harlow has had a big impact on the music industry in his short career. His debut single, "Whats Poppin," went to No. 2 on the Billboard charts, and a collaboration with Lil Nas X led to a No. 1 song, "Industry Baby," and two Grammy nominations. Harlow will play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving in support of his new album, Come Home The Kids Miss You.

Shakespeare Dallas presents Hamlet
In Shakespeare's classic play, young Hamlet returns home to discover the world-shattering news that his father is dead, and his mother has married his father's brother. A ghostly encounter leads to madness, revenge, death, and the downfall of the kingdom. Presented by Shakespeare Dallas, the production runs through October 15 at Samuell-Grand Amphitheatre.

Ochre House Theater presents St. Ella
St. Ella takes a satirical look at the iconic women found in 20th century plays and explores their roles as oppressed women and the brutish men who ruled over them. The dark comedy is filled with song, dance, new vaudevillian techniques, and exposes the woman’s "world that is dying within her." The production runs through September 24 at Ochre House Theater.

Friday, September 9

The Eisemann Center for Performing Arts presents 20 Years in 20 Minutes
An immersive projection experience, 20 Years in 20 Minutes seeks to highlight the 20 years of the Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson during its 20th Anniversary Celebration. The experience will explore the Eisemann Center’s immense impact on the art landscape of Richardson and the greater North Texas area as a whole. There will be performances on various dates through September 30.

Bad Bunny in concert
Puerto Rican rapper/singer Bad Bunny can now be considered one of the biggest artists in the world since he's headlining this concert at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. One of the rare Latin artists to crossover to the mainstream in the United States, Bad Bunny has been at or near the top of the Billboard 200 charts with each of his albums, including his latest, the No. 1 Un Verano Sin Ti.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Aida Cuevas: “The Queen of Mariachi”
The Grammy Award-winning legend Aida Cuevas takes the stage at Meyerson Symphony Center to showcase her remarkable imprint on the history of Mexican music. Cuevas is a master of the mariachi art song, setting her country-tinged rancheras to uplifting mariachi accompaniment. With a 42-year career and 39 album releases to her credit, Cuevas has created one of the most important careers in traditional Mexican music. There will be three concerts through Sunday.

Garland Civic Theatre presents Carnival!
Acclaimed for its magic, simplicity, and compassion, Carnival! is a bittersweet fairy tale about a naïve French girl infatuated with a troubled puppeteer in a traveling show. Based on the 1953 film Lili, the musical boasts a charming score by Bob Merrill, including the hit song "Love Makes the World Go Round." The production runs through September 25 at Granville Arts Center in Garland.

NTPA Repertory presents Rent
Based loosely on Puccini's La Boheme, Jonathan Larson's Rent follows a year in the life of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. Winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Rent has become a pop cultural phenomenon. with songs that rock and a story that resonates with audiences of all ages. The production runs through September 18 at Willow Bend Center of the Arts in Plano.

Saturday, September 10

Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden presents "#IfThenSheCan" Pop-Up Exhibit opening day
The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden will present 50 of the statues from "#IfThenSheCan" — The Exhibit, installed throughout the Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden. An array of in-person and virtual programs, an exhibit scavenger hunt activity, and sponsored school group visits throughout the fall will bring to life inspirational stories of women in STEM who are shaping a better world. The exhibit will be on view through December 31.

Bill Burr (Slight Return)
A Grammy-nominated comedian, Bill Burr is one of the top comedic voices of his generation achieving success in TV and film as well as on stage. His Monday Morning Podcast is one of the most downloaded comedy podcasts, his animated Netflix series, F Is For Family, premiered its fifth and final season in 2021, and he also premiered the Roku series, Bill Burr Presents: Immoral Compass. He'll perform at American Airlines Center.

Bill Burr will perform at American Airlines Center on September 10.

Photo by Koury Angelo

Bill Burr will perform at American Airlines Center on September 10.

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R.I.P.

Texas actor James Van Der Beek, beloved for Dawson's Creek, dies at 48

James Van Der Beek/Instagram

James Van Der Beek announced he was being treated for colorectal cancer in 2024.

Actor James David Van Der Beek has died, according to an announcement on his social media. He was 48 years old.

"Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning," the post reads. "He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity, and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.

Van Der Beek shared in 2020 that he and his family were moving to the Austin area, and they settled in Spicewood. He announced his colorectal cancer diagnosis in 2024.

In late 2025, Van Der Beek auctioned some of his TV memorabilia from his time on Dawson's Creek to pay for his treatment.

The actor originally starred in coming-of-age dramas at the dawn of the new millennium, shooting to fame playing the titular character in Dawson’s Creek and in later years parodied his own hunky persona.

Forever tied to ‘Dawson’s Creek'
A one-time theater kid, Van Der Beek would star in the movie Varsity Blues and on TV in CSI: Cyber as FBI Special Agent Elijah Mundo, but was forever connected to Dawson’s Creek, which ran from 1998 to 2003 on The WB.

The series followed a group of high school friends as they learned about falling in love, creating real friendships and finding their footing in life. Van Der Beek, then 20, played 15-year-old Dawson Leery, who aspired to be a director of Steven Spielberg quality.

With Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want To Wait,” as its moody theme song, Dawson's Creek helped define The WB as a haven for teens and young adults who related to its hyper-articulate dialogue and frank talk about sexuality. And it made household names of Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, and Joshua Jackson.

“While James' legacy will always live on, this is a huge loss to not just your family but the world,” Sarah Michelle Gellar wrote to his widow on Instagram. Katharine McPhee Foster added: “This is just beyond devastating news.” Others posting messages of mourning were Jenna Dewan and Olivia Munn.

The show caused a stir when one of the teens embarked on a racy affair with a teacher 20 years his senior and when Holmes' character climbed through Dawson's bedroom window and they curled up together. Racier shows like Euphoria and Sex Education owe a debt to Dawson's Creek.

Van Der Beek sometimes struggled to get out from under the shadow of the show but eventually leaned into lampooning himself, like on Funny Or Die videos and on Kesha's “Blow” music video, which included his laser gun battle with the pop star in a nightclub and dead unicorns.

“It’s tough to compete with something that was the cultural phenomenon that Dawson’s Creek was,” he told Vulture in 2013. “It ran for so long. That’s a lot of hours playing one character in front of people. So it’s natural that they associate you with that.”

A popular GIF and Varsity Blues
More than a decade after the show went off the air, a scene at the end of the show’s third season became a GIF. Dawson was watching as his soul mate embarks on a love affair with his best friend and burst into tears.

“It wasn’t scripted that I was supposed to cry; it was just one of those things where it’s a magical moment and it just happens in the scene,” Van Der Beek told Vanity Fair. He seemed exasperated when he told the Los Angeles Times: “All of a sudden, six years of work was boiled down to one seven-second clip on loop.” (Van Der Beek himself recreated the GIF in 2011 for Funny or Die and gave it a second life.)

While still on Dawson’s Creek, Van Der Beek hosted Saturday Night Live — the musical guest was Everlast — and landed a plumb role in Varsity Blues, playing a second-string high school quarterback who leaps into the breach when the star suffers an injury.

Van Der Beek’s character, Mox, turns out to not be a football fanatic, preferring to read Kurt Vonnegut and yearning for the college education that will allow him to escape the jock mentality of his Texas town.

“I don’t want your life,” he screams at one point. Critic Roger Ebert called him “convincing and likable.

After Dawson’s Creek
Some of his projects after Dawson’s Creek included co-creating and playing Wesley “Diplo” Pentz, a dull but likable music producer in the mockumentary satire on Viceland, What Would Diplo Do? In 2019, he made it to the semifinals of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and played a balding, out-of-shape ex-boyfriend on How I Met Your Mother.

“The more you make fun of yourself and don’t try to go for any kind of respect, the more people seem to respect you,” he told Vanity Fair in 2011. “I’ve always been a clown trapped in a leading man’s body.”

Between 2003 and 2013, he made appearances in shows like Criminal Minds, One Tree Hill, and How I Met Your Mother. He played himself with a crackpot intensity in the Krysten Ritter-led ABC drama Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23, and the short-lived CSI spinoff CSI: Cyber and CBS’ Friends With Better Lives.

He’s also appeared in movies such as Kevin Smith’s 2001 comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and its 2019 sequel, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. He was in the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation of The Rules of Attraction in 2002 opposite Jessica Biel and Kate Bosworth.

In 2025, he was unmasked as Griffin on The Masked Singer, after singing a cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone and Morgan Wallen.

Early life as a theater kid
Van Der Beek, who was raised in Cheshire, Connecticut, started acting at 13 after suffering a concussion playing football that prevented him from playing for a year. He landed the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of Grease.

He stuck with theater, landing at 16 in 1994 an off-Broadway role in Finding the Sun by Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee and one of the sons in a revival of Shenandoah at the prestigious Goodspeed Opera House in his home state.

He earned a scholarship to New Jersey’s Drew University but left school early when he was cast in Dawson’s Creek. In 2024, he returned to campus to accept an honorary degree for his “selfless service and exemplary commitment to the mission of Drew,” the university said.

Drew University President Hilary Link welcomed Van Der Beek with a popular quote from his Dawson’s Creek character: “Edge is fleeting,” she said, “but heart lasts forever. So on this morning, we pay tribute to that heart.”

He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and six children, Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been established for the family.

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AP Music Writer Maria Sherman and CultureMap Austin editor Brianna Caleri contributed to this report.

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