Weekend Event Planner

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

While many events in and around Dallas have either been postponed or canceled during the coronavirus pandemic, some organizations have pivoted to virtual or socially-distanced events to continue offering the masses some entertainment while we need it the most.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. While not every event is out of the house, they all promise to provide a nice distraction from the everyday life.

Thursday, December 10

The Dallas Opera presents The Magic Flute
The Dallas Opera will make the company’s 2019 production of Mozart’s family-friendly The Magic Flute available free for home viewing for a limited time. The fanciful, wildly colorful production was originally simulcast live in high definition to a Dallas audience at Klyde Warren Park. The video will be available to view at any time through January 5.

Theatre Three presents The Immigrant
After a virtual run over the summer, Theatre Three will once again stream Mark Harelik’s inspiring play The Immigrant. Set in Hamilton, Texas in the early half of the 20th century, this technologically-forward telling of the play won’t put audiences in the room where it happened, but it will make history. The play, performed and designed to work within the necessary current restrictions, will play through Sunday.

East Dallas Arts presents The Christmas Line: A Chorus Line Parody
East Dallas Arts presents its third socially-distanced, on-demand production, The Christmas Line: A Chorus Line Parody. Santa and his lead elf, Rosie Jingles, help a wide variety of toys discover their path to being underneath the Christmas tree. Barbie, Ken, Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin — all of your favorite toys are here to put their own unique spin on this parody of the Broadway musical A Chorus Line. The production will be available to stream on demand through Sunday, January 3.

MainStage Irving-Las Colinas presents "Broadway Christmas Cabaret"
Irving’s own Amy Stevenson and Craig Boleman are back (virtually) to perform classic holiday songs with a couple of hilarious and touching surprises along the way in "A Broadway Christmas Cabaret." The dynamic duo will set out to save the end of 2020 with songs from Elf, Meet Me in St. Louis, White Christmas, and more. Coinciding with the live concert is an online auction featuring various gift baskets filled with luxurious holiday necessities and must-have gifts.

Second Thought Theatre presents Second Thought Emerging Playwrights
Second Thought Theatre will present their inaugural new playwriting series, Second Thought Emerging Playwrights (STEP). With three unique online events, STT invites audiences to experience a behind-the-scenes look in creating a play from the ground up. This first event consists of a public reading of the first draft of the script. Online audiences will learn about what is working in the new play and hear what questions are still unanswered. The other events will be in January and February.

Friday, December 11

Kevin Russell of Shinyribs in concert
Kevin Russell is the frontman and multi-instrumentalist of the award-winning Austin-based eight-piece Swamp-Pop-Soul supergroup Shinyribs, and former member of the cult-favorite The Gourds. A Beaumont native, Russell is a natural observer and wordsmith — drawing from the Gulf Coast hotbeds of roots music to craft his clever songwriting and on-stage antics to create an ethereal entertainment experience. He'll play twice at The Kessler.

Saturday, December 12

Dallas Black Dance Academy presents Espresso Nutcracker
Dallas Black Dance Academy will present the third annual Espresso Nutcracker, allowing viewers to celebrate the holiday in the comfort of their own home. The performance spins a new twist on a holiday tradition, as it is jazz-influenced by the music of Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite. The production will be available to stream for one night only through the DBDA's website.

Avant Chamber Ballet presents Nutcracker Sweets
Avant Chamber Ballet brings Paul Mejia’s The Nutcracker from the stage to living rooms with a new virtual performance of the iconic masterpiece with live music, Nutcracker Sweets. This year the production features Act 2 and the "Dance of the Snowflakes" with new costumes. Dallas’ own Cezanne Quartet will accompany the dancers with Tchaikovsky’s famous score. The performance will be available to rent at any time through December 31.

Sunday, December 13

Dallas Children's Theater presents Heroes for the Pages
With Heroes for the Pages, Dallas Children’s Theater will provide families with a chance to learn more about three December holidays and the children’s book authors who have written about them. In the first of three free Zoom shows, DCT will spotlight local Dallas author Nancy Churnin’s children’s book Irving Berlin: The Immigrant Boy Who Made America Sing, followed by Churnin's The Queen and the First Christmas Tree on December 20, and Donna L. Washington’s book L’il Rabbit’s Kwanzaa on December 27. Each show will include singalongs, author Q&As, and a feature on the hero’s culture.

Luminova Holidays
After taking a break due to the rodeo being in town, Luminova will start up again. Visitors will be able to view millions of twinkling lights, take to the ice on an outdoor rink, and snap selfie-worthy pics. The sprawling indoor and outdoor wonderland, located at Globe Life Field in Arlington through January 3, marks the first event to be open to the general public at the new stadium. It also includes appearances by Santa Claus, a 65-foot Christmas tree, interactive activities like light up hopscotch, train rides for the kids, strolling holiday entertainers, and booths with food and special mementos.

MainStage Irving-Las Colinas presents "Broadway Christmas Cabaret," a live fundraising concert, on December 10.

Photo by Mike Morgan Photography, Inc.

MainStage Irving-Las Colinas presents "Broadway Christmas Cabaret," a live fundraising concert, on December 10.

dance concerts families theater event-planner holidays opera

Movie Review

Wicked: For Good loses cinematic magic in rushed second-act sequel

Photo by Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in Wicked: For Good.

Splitting the film adaptation of the musical Wicked into two parts makes a certain kind of sense beyond the financial incentive of making fans pay for two films. Like most stage musicals, there’s a definitive break between the two acts, and it’s hard to resist going out on the high note of “Defying Gravity” for the first film. And expanding the story for the films puts the entire story at around 5 hours, much too long for one sitting.

However, separating them puts a spotlight on the strengths and weaknesses of each act of the musical, and it's a popular opinion that the second act is inferior to the first act. In the awkwardly-named Wicked: For Good, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is firmly ensconced as the Wicked Witch of the West, striking fear in people across Oz. Meanwhile, Glinda (Ariana Grande) has ascended as the protector of the land’s citizens, even as she hides the fact that she doesn’t possess the powers that Elphaba does.

The story speeds through a number of different arcs, including Elphaba’s sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), becoming governor of Munchkinland; Glinda essentially forcing Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) to commit to marrying her; even more bad revelations involving the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh); and more. Hanging over all of it is the tenuous bond between Elphaba and Glinda, which is tested on multiple occasions.

Director John M. Chu, working from a script by original musical writer Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, leads the way on the faithful adaptation that is perhaps a bit too faithful. Chu helmed the memorable adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights that brought more life to an already lively production. He accomplished similar results in Wicked part one, but For Good often feels less than cinematic, with many scenes coming off as static and too much like a stage production.

The second film contains a lot of story movement, including the vague or explicit introduction of the four main characters from The Wizard of Oz, providing plenty of opportunity for creative staging or deeper storytelling. Instead, things just sort of happen, with Holzman and Fox failing to see the necessity of connecting story dots in a movie setting. With lots of extra time to work with (the run time is 2 hours and 17 minutes), giving more information about significant events shouldn’t have been an issue, and yet the filmmakers rarely give the audience that luxury.

The songs, as they should be, are the showcase of the film, and yet none of the sequences measure up to the ones in the first film. The rushed storylines make it difficult to connect with emotionally-resonant songs like “As Long As You’re Mine” and “No Good Deed.” “No Place Like Home” and “The Girl in the Bubble,” new songs created for the film for Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, are decent but lack power. “For Good” is the one everyone is waiting for, but it too fails to land properly.

Erivo and Grande certainly give it their all, and when they’re allowed to dig deep into their characters, they make as much of an impact as they did in the first film. Unfortunately, it’s nowhere near as often, and their characters’ bond suffers. Most of the other actors are done no favors by the whirlwind storytelling, but Goldblum still stands out in his various scenes.

Creating a whole film for the second act of Wicked gave Chu and his team a perfect chance to slow things down and give the events it contains extra meaning. Unfortunately, they turned For Good into something that feels less like an expansive movie and more like a slightly more interesting version of the stage production.

---

Wicked: For Good opens in theaters on November 21.

movies film