Weekend Event Planner

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

The list of new events in and around Dallas this weekend may be shorter than usual, but they pack a collective punch. Choices include a powerhouse classical music concert, four theater productions (including a Tony Award winner), the continuation of the stay of a great dance troupe, the final days of a notable art exhibit, and a Japanese new year tradition.

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 9

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Fabio Luisi Conducts Scheherazade
At this concert, audiences can travel to the world of the 1001 Arabian Nights in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. The concert will also feature the Dallas premiere of Fountain of Youth, a commissioned work by Julia Wolfe. Plus, Lise Lindstrom sings Barber’s rarely performed Andromache’s Farewell. The concert, conducted by Fabio Luisi, will have four performances through Sunday at the Meyerson Symphony Center.

AT&T Performing Arts Center Broadway Series presents The Color Purple
Two years after its first visit to Dallas, the Tony Award-winning The Color Purple returns for a brief stay at Winspear Opera House. The musical features a soul-raising, Grammy-winning score of jazz, gospel, ragtime, and blues, giving an exhilarating new spirit to this Pulitzer Prize-winning story. It is a reimagining of an epic story about a young woman’s journey to love and triumph in the American South. There will be six more performances through Sunday.

Imprint Theatreworks presents Puffs (The Play)
Puffs is a clever and inventive play that gives audience a new look at a familiar adventure from the perspective of three potential heroes just trying to make it through a magic school that proves to be very dangerous for children. Alongside them are the Puffs, a group of well-meaning, loyal outsiders with a thing for badgers. The play will run at Stomping Ground Comedy Theater through January 25.

Friday, January 10

Theatre Arlington presents Ripcord
A sunny room on an upper floor is prime real estate in the Bristol Place Senior Living Facility, so when the cantankerous Abby is forced to share her quarters with new arrival Marilyn, she has no choice but to get rid of the infuriatingly chipper woman by any means necessary. A seemingly harmless bet between the old women quickly escalates into a dangerous game of one-upmanship. The play will run at Theatre Arlington through January 26.

Shakespeare Dallas presents Pride and Prejudice
Shakespeare Dallas will present Pride and Prejudice for its second annual Winter Season performance. The play is a tale about Elizabeth Bennet, whose four sisters and overzealous match-making mother keep the topic of marriage alive and lively. When the independent-minded Elizabeth meets the handsome but enigmatic Mr. Darcy, she is determined not to let her feelings triumph over her own good sense. The production will run through January 19 at Moody Performance Hall.

Saturday, January 11

Shen Yun
After two weeks at Winspear Opera House, Shen Yun travels up Central Expressway to Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson for three performances. The dance troupe lets audiences travel back to the magical world of ancient China, experience a lost culture through the breathtaking art of classical Chinese dance, and see legends come to life. There will be two performances on Saturday and one on Sunday.

Sunday, January 12

Dallas Museum of Art Presents Sheila Hicks: "Secret Structures, Looming Presence" closing day
The Dallas Museum of Art's first exhibition of works by pioneering fiber artist, designer, and weaver Sheila Hicks comes to an end on Sunday. The special display illuminates how the 84-year-old contemporary artist’s practice is inspired by the weaving traditions of indigenous artisans from Latin America. "Secret Structures, Looming Presence" pairs works from the museum’s collection of ancient Andean art with a selection of loom-woven, wrapped, twisted, and knotted fiberworks by the artist to offer a fresh examination of textile traditions through time.

Japan-America Society of DFW presents Mochitsuki New Year’s Celebration
Japan-America Society of DFW will celebrate the Year of the Rat with mochi (rice cakes), music and dance performances, and authentic cultural activities. At the event, taking place at Fujitsu Network Communications in Richardson, guests can learn about Japan’s rich New Year’s traditions, connect with the local Japanese community, and see a live demonstration on how mochi is made. It will include a special appearance by Consul General Hideo Fukushima.

The Color Purple will be at Winspear Opera House through January 12.

Photo by Jeremy Daniel

The Color Purple will be at Winspear Opera House through January 12.

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Movie Review

Comedy all-stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd can't save Anaconda sequel

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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