Stevie Wonder will perform his 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life on March 22 at American Airlines Center.
Courtesy photo
Legendary singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder will bring his critically acclaimed "Songs in the Key of Life Performance" tour through the South this spring, with dates in three Texas cities.
The show is a live adaptation of Wonder's iconic 1976 Songs in the Key of Life album. Lone Star stops include a March 20 date at the Toyota Center in Houston, March 22 at American Airlines Center in Dallas and an Austin show on April 4 at the Frank Erwin Center.
The tour's initial run took place in fall 2014, debuting at Madison Square Garden before hitting Washington D.C., Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Seattle. Rolling Stone called it "possibly 2014's greatest testament to the limitless potential of American music itself," and Billboard observed that Wonder had the audience "roaring and standing on its feet."
Wonder's achievements are massive: 49 Top 40 singles, 32 No. 1 singles and worldwide album sales of more than 100 million units. He's received 25 Grammy Awards, an Oscar and a Golden Globe. He's an inductee into the Rock and Roll, Songwriters' and NAACP halls of fame, and he is the youngest recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.
Wonder is also a designated U.N. Messenger of Peace with special focus on persons with disabilities. He continues to be pivotal in U.S. and world events, demonstrating the activism that has made him such a vital voice for social progress and world harmony.
Citi cardmembers get access to pre-sale tickets beginning January 20 local time through Citi's Private Pass Program. Tickets go on sale January 24 at 10 am.
The opening scenes of the new drama Dreams are bracing, fictional sequences that call to mind real-life scenarios. In them, a young Mexican man named Fernando (Isaac Hernández) goes through a somewhat harrowing journey from the back of a semi truck in South Texas all the way to San Francisco. It’s a familiar immigrant story that seems to set the stage for a film with something interesting to say.
It turns out, however, that Fernando has not made the long and arduous trek for a job. Instead, it’s to be with Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), a rich woman who helps lead a foundation dedicated to multiple things, including funding dance academies. Fernando, a talented dancer, and Jennifer have been in an off-and-on affair for years, with Jennifer wanting to keep their relationship a secret.
Although both are drawn to each other in an inexplicable, lustful way, their bond is tenuous, with each of them dissatisfied for different reasons. Fernando clearly sacrifices much more of himself than Jennifer, who wants for nothing except maybe more affection from her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), and brother, Jake (Rupert Friend).
Writer/director Michel Franco seems to try to inject tension into Fernando and Jennifer’s relationship from the start, an attempt that is only halfway successful. It’s clear from the way they greet each other - not to mention a steamy sex scene shortly thereafter - that they have known each other for a good length of time. Franco is able to get across this familiarity with an economy of scenes, and the intensity of their bond holds for a while.
But as the film progresses and both of them grow disenchanted with their arrangement, Franco starts taking the story in some odd directions. The biggest issue is that it’s never clear at what point in time the story is taking place. Fernando ends up making multiple trips back and forth across the border, with Jennifer doing the same at one point, and Franco’s use of flashbacks muddies the waters, wrong-footing the audience when he should be trying to draw them further into Fernando and Jennifer’s complications.
Revelations in the final act make the story even more confusing, as both main characters start saying and doing harsh things that seem to come out of nowhere. That would be all well and good if Franco actually committed to their changes of heart, but he keeps things wishy-washy for most of the final 15 minutes, resulting in an ending that makes little sense for either character.
Despite the story issues, both Chastain and Hernández give compelling performances. Chastain has been a little under the radar since winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but she keeps this character interesting longer than it should have been. Hernández has limited credits and appears to have been cast for his dancing ability, but he goes toe-to-toe with Chastain on more than one occasion and acquits himself well.
Dreams had all of the ideas to explore a more in-depth story about the complicated immigration policies between Mexico and the U.S., or how wealthy people take advantage of those less fortunate. But Franco never finds the right footing, settling instead for a titillating and somewhat mystifying relationship story that feels half-baked.
