Weekend Event Planner

These are the 6 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

It's no surprise that the first weekend of the new year is relatively slow, as many people are still on holiday break. However, you'll still be able to choose from things like the final days of holiday events, a pyramid-shaped entertainment venue, a new local theater production, a melding of acrobatics and classical music, one final holiday concert, and the closing of an art exhibition.

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, January 2

Holiday event closings
Now that we're into the new year, it's time for the remaining holiday events to come to a close. Finishing up their runs will be Gaylord Texan's Lone Star Christmas, featuring millions of twinkling lights, lavish large-scale décor, 2 million pounds of hand-carved ice, and more; and The Trains at NorthPark, featuring more than 750 railcars on a 1,600-foot elaborate configuration of tracks and scenes. Both events will end on Sunday.

PY1
Imagined by Guy Laliberté, co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, PY1 is a pyramid-shaped entertainment venue that features Through the Echoes, a custom multimedia production for the pyramid, as well as Stella – The time machine journey, a show for the entire family. The experience, taking place in a parking lot just outside of Globe Life Park in Arlington, also features PY1 Nights, a nightlife experience. The special event will take place through March 1.

Junior Players presents The Wild Party
Based on Joseph Moncure March's 1928 narrative poem, The Wild Party is a darkly brilliant show featuring one of the most pulse-racing scores ever written. Lovers Queenie and Burrs, who are in a relationship marked by reckless behavior, decide to throw the party-to-end-all parties in their Manhattan apartment. After the colorful arrival of a slew of guests living life on the edge, Queenie's wandering eyes land on a striking man named Black. But as the decadence is reaching a climax, so is Burrs' jealousy. The production will run through Sunday at Moody Performance Hall.

Friday, January 3

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Cirque de la Symphonie
Cirque de la Symphonie returns to Meyerson Symphony Center with a program that includes aerial silks, juggling, cyr wheel, quick change, contortion, dance, and strongmen. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will accompany the high-flying action with works by Bizet, Piazzolla, and more. There will be performances on both Friday and Saturday night.

Saturday, January 4

Orchestra of New Spain presents Baroque Christmas Concert
This unique Christmas program incorporates the Orchestra of New Spain’s vast research into the undiscovered music of Spain and the New World, yielding discoveries of the joyful Villancicos — Christmas Carols — that filled cathedrals and village churches throughout Hispanic America. The work of Chilean composer Alfonso Letelier Llona will be featured, along with Christmas cantatas of Francisco Courcelle and the Villancicos of Padre Antonio Soler. The performance will be at St. Philip The Apostle Catholic Church.

Sunday, January 5

Crow Museum of Asian Art presents "Hands and Earth: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics" closing day
Sunday will be the final day to view the Crow Museum of Asian Art's "Hands and Earth: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics," which features works by the country’s greatest ceramicists, including seven artists deemed “Living National Treasures” by the Japanese government. The exhibition showcases significant examples of avant-garde approaches to clay in a range of shapes and glazes.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Cirque de la Symphonie at Meyerson Symphony Center on January 3 and 4.

Photo courtesy of Cirque de la Symphonie

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Cirque de la Symphonie at Meyerson Symphony Center on January 3 and 4.

concerts holidays museums event-planner theater

Movie Review

The Invite delivers smart, sexy laughs with an all-star cast

Photo courtesy of A24

Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton in The Invite.

Once upon a time, well before scandal embroiled him, Woody Allen made great comedies aimed at adults. That type of film - which is different from the raunchy, R-rated comedies of the 21st century - has fallen out of favor in Hollywood, but as the new film The Invite proves, when done well it can be as funny as anything else out there.

Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde) are an unhappily married couple living in San Francisco. As we meet them, Joe has arrived home to Angela preparing for a visit from their upstairs neighbors, Hawk (Edward Norton) and Piña (Penélope Cruz), who have moved in relatively recently. Their impending arrival starts a new round of arguing between Joe and Angela, something they can barely contain once the other couple comes to their door.

What proceeds is a getting-to-know-you process that is mostly awkward as Joe and Angela continue sniping at each other while Hawk and Piña put in their two cents in a much calmer manner. A sticking point between the two couples - the loud sex Hawk and Piña have on an almost nightly basis - turns the film on its head with an unexpected invitation.

Directed by Wilde and written by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, the film is a fast-paced chamber piece that takes place almost entirely in Joe and Angela’s apartment. Wilde, the writers, and the actors speed the story along not with action but through almost non-stop dialogue that often has the characters overlapping each other’s lines. The rapidity of the speech fuels the humor of the situation and establishes the differing personalities of each person.

Sex is very much top of mind for each of the characters for most of the film, but the filmmakers approach the topic in such a way that it never feels salacious. Each of the characters is a rational adult who can talk about sex in a mature manner while also acknowledging their unique feelings on the matter. And it’s the discoveries each of them makes along the way that brings about the most comedy.

But, like any comedy for adults, the film also has a dramatic tilt to it, and Wilde edges the story back-and-forth between the two tones extremely well. Joe and Angela fighting is played for laughs at times, but the sadness of their relationship comes through loud and clear. Hawk and Piña are much more intimate with each other, but the funniness of their openness is juxtaposed with a depth that arises through their conversations.

In the 2020s, Rogen has managed to make the transition from goofy stoner to stoner with real acting chops. In a stacked cast, he is the one who sells every moment the best. That’s not to say that Wilde, Norton, and Cruz don’t measure up, though; each of them inhabits their respective roles magnificently. The four actors play off each other as if they had been working together for years.

While The Invite will likely play better to those who have experience with long term relationships, its insights - and occasional bawdiness - make it a comedy that can be appreciated universally. With four actors at the top of their games and a razor-sharp script made even better by some well-done improv, it proves that you don’t need to go low to get great laughs.

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The Invite is now playing in theaters.

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