Weekend Event Planner

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

If culture has been missing from your life, this will be a very good weekend to remedy that. Among the offerings around Dallas are a national tour of a Tony Award-winning play, two separate but equally impressive dance ensembles, a conversation with a renowned author, and student tributes to a civil rights icon.

Below are the best options for your precious free time Thursday through Sunday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, January 12

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Beethoven Symphony No. 8
It's always interesting when the Dallas Symphony Orchestra takes on Beethoven, so this concert series — taking place through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center — should be a memorable one. Led by conductor Karina Canellakis and featuring David Cooper on horn, selections include Beethoven's Symphony No. 8, Strauss' Horn Concerto No. 1, and Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

Second Thought Theatre presents Grounded
Questions of empathy and moral responsibility in the face of impossibly difficult choices live at the heart of Grounded, a moving portrait of a young woman confronted with the harsh realities of modern warfare. The production, playing through February 4 at Bryant Hall, explores the clash between a career in the typically masculine world of war and the more traditional role of wife and mother.

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Winner of five 2015 Tony Awards, including Best Play, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time features 15-year-old Christopher, an autistic boy who is exceptionally intelligent but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. When he falls under suspicion for killing his neighbor’s dog, he sets out to identify the true culprit, which leads to an earth-shattering discovery and a journey that will change his life forever. The production plays through January 22 at Winspear Opera House.

Friday, January 13

25th Annual Gardere MLK Jr. Oratory Competition
The annual MLK Jr. Oratory Competition challenges students to deliver original three-to-five-minute speeches in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year, students answer the question, "If Dr. King were alive today, what would he say about Muhammad Ali’s contribution to society?" The event takes place at Majestic Theatre.

TITAS presents Shadowland by Pilobolus
A mix of shadow theater, dance, circus, and concert, Shadowland incorporates moving screens to create a performance experience that is full of magic and wonderment. Pilobolus’ Shadowland was the first show of its kind to combine shadow theater with dance and has since inspired many similar productions around the world. It plays at Dallas City Performance Hall on Friday and Saturday.

Avant, Dru Hill, and Jagged Edge in concert
R&B lovers will be in heaven at the Music Hall at Fair Park on Friday night, as Avant, Dru Hill, and Jagged Edge team up for this special concert. Avant is appearing in support of his 2015 album, The VIII, while Dru Hill and Jagged Edge are performing a variety of their biggest hits.

Saturday, January 14

Arts & Letters Live: Zadie Smith
In her first-ever event in Dallas, Zadie Smith is in conversation with KERA’s Krys Boyd to discuss her new novel, Swing Time. The book is a story about friendship, music, and stubborn roots, and how we are shaped by these things and how we can survive them. The event takes place at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Red Bull Flying Bach
Urban culture fuses with high society as the Red Bull Flying Bach tour comes to Dallas. The award-winning and globally recognized dance crew the Flying Steps perform to a genre-bending mix of classical, hip hop, and electronic music. There are four performances through Monday at Majestic Theatre.

Red Bull Flying Bach is at Majestic Theatre January 14-16.

Photo by Carlo Cruz/Red Bull Content Pool

Red Bull Flying Bach is at Majestic Theatre January 14-16.

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Movie Review

Shaun the Sheep gets PG-spooky in new movie for the Halloween season

Photo courtesy of Aardman / Sky UK LTD / StudioCanal 2026

Shaun the Sheep in Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom.

Since his introduction over 30 years ago, the Aardman Animations character Shaun the Sheep has been almost as popular as the studio’s flagship characters, Wallace and Gromit. There is never a shortage of trouble Shaun can get into as he leads his flock and proves to be a thorn in the side of his farmer and Bitzer, the farmer’s loyal sheepdog.

His antics lead everyone down some slightly spooky roads in the new film, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. At first, things are only slightly awry as Shaun and the flock are growing a secret pumpkin patch to have their own jack-o-lanterns. But when the farmer accidentally destroys the pumpkin patch, Shaun tries to regrow it quickly with a Frankenstein-esque experiment.

However, disaster looms when Shaun uses an old bottle of Hair-Gro as the container for the serum he creates. Naturally, the balding farmer uses it on his head, and everyone soon discovers how truly successful it is, with pumpkins growing out of control and the farmer sprouting hair all over his body. Through a series of mishaps, the farmer becomes the titular beast, creating mayhem while Shaun and others try to stop him.

Directed by Steve Cox and Matthew Walker, and written by Mark Burton and Giles Pilbrow, the film goes down just as easy as every other Aardman project has. They get the Halloween vibes started from the opening credits, with things like the sheep doing the “Thriller” dance, and continue the fun throughout, referencing everything from Psycho to Friday the 13th in a nice, PG way.

With no script — every character is mute save for reaction noises — the movie relies on sight gags for its humor, and the Aardman team is endlessly inventive in that respect. Sometimes it’s small things like a sheep using toilet paper rolls as binoculars, and sometimes it’s something like forcing the Bigfoot-like farmer to be shaped into a rectangle as he escapes through a window. But there’s a never-ending stream of such moments, so even if one doesn’t tickle your funny bone, chances are the next one will.

The biggest benefit of the characters not talking is that there’s no need for deep character development. The filmmakers do a great job of giving the basic traits of each character, and then use those attributes to color everyone’s actions for the rest of the film. Shaun is the troublemaker, the farmer is a bumbling fool, Bitzer is preternaturally smart, and the town’s vet is empathetic, and the combination of those characters and others makes for a highly entertaining blend.

Like all Aardman creations, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is a fun lark that doesn’t make its audience think too hard. With just enough references to keep viewers engaged but not so many as to be overbearing, the film puts its well-worn characters to good use once again, delivering a Halloween season story that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

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Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is now playing in theaters.

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