Weekend Event Planner

These are the 8 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

We've come to that point in December when most of the big holiday events have already started, so there are relatively few new things going on. But this weekend is an exception. It holds three huge happenings: A classic holiday movie come to life on stage, the final tour visit of a music legend, and another music legend celebrating the holidays in his unique style.

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

Thursday, December 13

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents Broadway Series: A Christmas Story, The Musical
From the songwriting team behind the Tony Award-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen and the Academy Award-winning film La La Land, A Christmas Story, The Musical, brings the classic 1983 movie to hilarious life on stage. It features all the classic scenes, including the infamous leg lamp, outrageous pink bunny pajamas, a maniacal department-store Santa, and a triple-dog-dare to lick a freezing flagpole. The production will run at Winspear Opera House through Sunday.

Mainstage Irving Las Colinas presents Have Yourself A Broadway Little Christmas
Have Yourself A Broadway Little Christmas brings together favorite holiday songs made famous through Broadway shows and movie musicals. Cabaret luminary Amy Stevenson and Sherry Etzel will sing hits from Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, Mame, How the Grinch Stole Christmas The Musical, Songs for A New World, Holiday Inn, Broadway’s Elf, and more. There will be two more performances through Friday at Irving Arts Center.

Friday, December 14

Elton John in concert
After more than half a century on the road and an unparalleled career that has redefined the cultural landscape, Elton John comes to Dallas as part of of his final tour called "Farewell Yellow Brick Road." The new stage production will take John's fans on a musical and highly visual journey spanning a 50-year career of hits like no one has ever seen before. He'll play at American Airlines Center on both Friday and Saturday.

Brian Wilson presents The Christmas Album Live
Brian Wilson and his crack band of musicians and vocalists, along with longtime bandmates Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin, will be performing The Beach Boys' Christmas Album in its entirety, along with cuts from his solo Christmas album, What I Really Want for Christmas. The concert will take place at Majestic Theatre.

George Lopez: The Wall World Tour
Few comedians have enjoyed the type of success that George Lopez has over the past 20 years or so. He has had not one, but three eponymous sitcoms — George Lopez, Saint George, and Lopez. He was also the host of the short-lived talk show, Lopez Tonight. Obviously, the man knows funny, which he'll show at this special event at The Theatre at Grand Prairie.

Bishop Arts Theatre Center presents Black Nativity
This holiday Gospel celebration returns for its 15th Anniversary. Spoken word, song, music, dance, and theater combine to create this one-of-a-kind Christmas pageant that has become a Bishop Arts Theatre Center holiday tradition. Hughes’ retelling of the Nativity Story encourages audiences to find joy and asks us all to look inward and find the wonder in life itself. The production will run through December 23.

Saturday, December 15

Tuzer Ballet presents The Nutcracker
Tuzer Ballet presents its 34th annual production of the holiday ballet, Peter Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. Audiences will be transported to the wondrous world of swirling snowflakes, magical gifts, and the land of the Sugar Plum Fairy at this production, which features two soloists from the Boston Ballet. There will be three performances through Sunday at Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson.

The Polyphonic Spree Christmas Show
At The Polyphonic Spree's annual Christmas Show, guests are encouraged to bring a new toy for Toys for Tots and a canned food item for the North Texas Food Bank. The all-ages show at Majestic Theatre, which features performances by The Polyphonic Spree and others, also gives ticketholders a chance to win some great gifts from the sponsors and some white elephant treasures from members of the band. Guests are encouraged to dress up in their favorite holiday garb.

Elton John will play at American Airlines Center on December 14 and 15.

Photo by Lynn Lane

Elton John will play at American Airlines Center on December 14 and 15.

event-planner

Movie Review

Daniel Craig searches for elusive new bond in audacious film Queer

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

---

Queer is now playing in theaters.

movies film