This weekend around Dallas, bold-faced national names will compete with local happenings for the attention of eventgoers. On the national side are a traveling art exhibition, the pre-eminent acrobatic troupe in the world, a Latin music superstar, a very physical comedian, and a world-famous musical. Locally will be classical music, three new theater productions, an opera, and the wonders of spring.
Below are the best ways to spend your precious free time this weekend.
Thursday, February 17
"Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel - The Exhibition"
This unique immersive event re-creates one of the world’s greatest artistic achievements, Michelangelo’s renowned ceiling frescoes from the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, reproduced photographically and artfully displayed in their original size. Visitors are given a chance to engage with the artwork in ways that were never before possible: seeing every detail, every brushstroke, and every color of the artist’s 34 frescoes. The exhibition will be on display through at least March 27 at Irving Mall.
Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Tchaikovsky Pathétique"
Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Tchaikovsky Pathétique," featuring conductor Fabio Luisi and violinist Daishin Kashimoto. Selections will include W.G. Still's Poem, Bruch's Violin Concerto in G minor, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique.” The concert will be performed three times through Saturday at Meyerson Symphony Center.
Cirque du Soleil: OVO
Cirque du Soleil's show OVO, which was supposed to make its Dallas-Fort Worth debut in Fort Worth in 2020, will finally come to town at Comerica Center in Frisco. When a mysterious egg appears in their midst, the insects are awestruck and intensely curious about this iconic object that represents the enigma and cycles of their lives. It is love at first sight when a gawky, quirky insect arrives in this bustling community and a fabulous ladybug catches his eye — and the feeling is mutual. Comprised of 50 performing artists from 12 countries specializing in many acrobatic acts, the event takes place through Sunday.
Bishop Arts Theatre Center presents The How To Be Project: Ten Plays for Racial Justice
Bishop Arts Theatre Center has commissioned 10 Black playwrights to write a short one-act play inspired by and in conversation with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's book How To Be An Antiracist. At a time where Black authors, including Ta-Nahasi Coates, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and other prominent Black writers, are engaged in a dialogue about America's racial reckoning, The How To Be Project seeks to present works that continue the dialogue in the enduring struggle for racial justice. The production will run through March 5.
Ochre House Theater presents In The Garden: Marigold
Ochre House Theater will present their newest series of original one-act plays, In The Garden. The first in the series, Marigold, is about a moment of mourning, which is the last thing old friends Zena Zoe and Crape Myrtle have in common. At the crossroads of moving forward, they meet to remember their dearly departed Marigold Morris. The production runs through February 26.
Friday, February 18
Bad Bunny in concert
Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny will be all over Dallas-Fort Worth in 2022. In addition to these concerts at American Airlines Center on Friday and Saturday, he will level up later in the year by bringing a stadium tour to AT&T Stadium in Arlington on September 9. Bad Bunny has been on top of the Latin charts for years, but his latest album, 2020's El Último Tour del Mundo, was his first album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Steve-O: "The Bucket List Tour"
If you know the name Steve-O at all, it's from his time as part of the Jackass crew, an MTV reality comedy series that spawned four feature films, including the recent Jackass Forever. At this event at The Factory in Deep Ellum, Steve-O will blend his longtime dream of stand-up comedy with a bunch of outlandish stunts he filmed just for his "Bucket List Tour."
Dallas Summer Musicals presents Rent
In 1996, an original rock musical by a little-known composer opened on Broadway … and forever changed the landscape of American theatre. A re-imagining of Puccini's La Bohème, Jonathan Larson's Rent follows an unforgettable year in the lives of seven artists struggling to follow their dreams without selling out. The production will run through Sunday at the Music Hall at Fair Park.
Dallas Opera presents Madame Butterfly
Boasting some of the most famous operatic music of all time, the beloved romantic tragedy Madame Butterfly reveals the story of the gentle geisha Cio Cio San, who gives up everything to marry American naval officer B.F. Pinkerton, a heartless cad who ultimately abandons her and their little son with devastating results. The opera, sung in Italian with English supertitles, will have four performances through February 26 at Winspear Opera House.
Saturday, February 19
Dallas Arboretum presents Dallas Blooms: "Birds in Paradise"
Dallas Blooms is the largest annual floral festival in the Southwest. This year's festival, dubbed "Birds in Paradise," will feature larger-than-life peacock topiaries along with more than 500,000 spring blooming bulbs to create the largest and most colorful floral display in the Southwest. An explosion of spring flowers comes from 100 varieties of spring bulbs, thousands of azaleas, and hundreds of Japanese cherry trees. The festival goes on through April 10.
Teatro Dallas presents 20th International Performance Festival
The second weekend of Teatro Dallas' 20th International Performance Festival will feature a Spanish version of Eugène Ionesco’s The Chairs, presented by Teatro Gotico from Mexico City. In this innovative iteration of Ionesco's absurd masterpiece, an aging couple comes to represent a depleted contemporary society. Through their nightly games, this couple manifest the struggles of migration to a promised land, a reality that plagues the developing world. There will be two performances — one Saturday and one Sunday — at Latino Cultural Center.
Dallas Blooms: "Birds in Paradise" starts on February 19 at Dallas Arboretum, running through April 10.
Figure skater Mariah Bell. Getty Images