Weekend Event Planner

Erykah Badu’s Dallas birthday party tops this weekend’s best events

This weekend in Dallas, there are events of all flavors to enjoy. Among the happenings are local celebs competing for charity, a theater festival showcasing multiple local companies and artists, a birthday party for one of Dallas' best singers, and an early glimpse of spring.

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, February 25

Reading Partners presents 4th annual Celebrity Spelling Bee
Many people fancy themselves as good spellers, but some local celebrities put their money where their mouths are at this event, all in the name of charity. People like former Texas Ranger Michael Young, former Dallas Star Marty Turco, Cafe Momentum's Chad Houser, and others square off at Dallas City Performance Hall. Proceeds support Reading Partners’ proven literacy intervention program.

2016 Out of the Loop Fringe Festival
The annual Out of the Loop Fringe Festival is an 11-day celebration of theater, dance, music, and art. Running through March 6 at Addison Conference Centre, the festival features performances by Rite of Passage Theatre Company, Dallas Neo-Classical Ballet, Diana Sheehan, Ebony Stewart, and many more.

Friday, February 26

Rachel Platten in concert with Eric Hutchinson and Christina Grimmie
Like many singers, Rachel Platten took the long road to success, grinding away for years in the music business before finally hitting it big in 2015 thanks to her hit, "Fight Song." She comes to the Granada Theater as part of her first headlining tour in support of her album, Wildfire, with Eric Hutchinson and Christina Grimmie as opening acts.

Improv Addison presents Deon Cole
Like Platten, comedian Deon Cole is finally getting his moment in the sun after many years on the stand-up circuit. He gained a bit of notoriety as a staff writer for Conan O'Brien, where he was regularly featured on-air, and he now co-stars on the TBS sitcom Angie Tribeca. He keeps his stand-up skills sharp with five performances over three days at Improv Addison.

Erykah Badu presents Still Booming: The Annual Birthday Bash
Every time Erykah Badu performs, it's an event, but you can double or triple your expectations when it's her birthday. Badu takes over the Bomb Factory to celebrate her 45th birthday, bringing in a few friends as special guests, including comedian Dave Chappelle as host. We have no idea what to expect, but we know it'll be memorable.

Saturday, February 27

Dallas Arboretum presents Dallas Blooms: The Artistry in Nature
The largest floral festival in the Southwest, Dallas Blooms, returns with the theme Artistry in Nature, showcasing an explosion of color with more than 100 kinds of spring bulbs totaling 500,000 blooms and dazzling layers of landscape at every turn. The festival, running through April 10 at the Dallas Arboretum, also features renowned sculptor Gary Lee Price's Great Contributors Bronze Statues exhibit.

PDNB Gallery presents the Next Chapter: 154 Glass Street
After 20 years in business, Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery is starting a new chapter by moving to a new location at 154 Glass St. in the Design District. To celebrate that move, a new exhibit with an appropriate title features a variety of the gallery's artists. The exhibit is on display through April 23.

Arts & Letters Live: Selected Shorts - Art & Artists
The annual Selected Shorts is a star-studded affair, as it features three Tony Award winners reading stories reflecting on the powerful role of art and artists. Denis O’Hare, Blythe Danner, and John Benjamin Hickey present an evening of artful storytelling, reflection, and laughter at the Dallas Museum of Art, featuring stories by Aimee Bender, Lorrie Moore, and J. Robert Lennon.

Dallas Summer Musicals presents Million Dollar Quartet
Million Dollar Quartet is set on December 4, 1956, when an auspicious twist of fate brought Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley together. The resulting evening became known as one of the greatest rock-and-roll jam sessions in history. The production, playing at Music Hall at Fair Park three times on Saturday and Sunday, brings that piece of history back to vivid life.

Sunday, February 28

Ace Frehley in concert
For people of a certain age, Ace Frehley will always and forever be Spaceman from the rock band Kiss. But the majority of his career has been as a solo artist, even though he released many more albums as a member of Kiss. Frehley plays at the Bomb Factory in support of his forthcoming sixth solo album, Origins, Vol. 1, a covers album that includes several songs Frehley wrote for Kiss but did not originally perform.

Erykah Badu celebrates her 45th birthday with a bash at the Bomb Factory on February 26.

Erykah Badu at Bomb Factory in Deep Ellum

Photo by Enrico Casino

Erykah Badu celebrates her 45th birthday with a bash at the Bomb Factory on February 26.

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Movie Review

Supergirl loses the sense of fun that Superman brought to DC Comics films

Photo courtesy of DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures

Milly Alcock in Supergirl.

The new Superman in 2025 brought with a renewed sense of optimism for, if not the concept of the comic book movie, then at least the DC Comics universe. After more than a decade of DC films that felt mostly creatively bankrupt, the leadership of James Gunn gave the story a sense of fun. That included the brief introduction of Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, who’s now getting her own showcase in, naturally, Supergirl.

When we first met her in Superman, Supergirl was in rough shape, arriving at the Fortress of Solitude visibly inebriated. Nothing has changed at the beginning of this film, save for her aimlessly traveling around the universe with her rambunctious dog, Krypto. One of her random stops puts her in the same bar as Ruthye (Eve Ridley), who is looking for help tracking down Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts) and a group known as the Brigands after they brutally murdered her family.

Kara is initially loath to offer aid, but when Krem shoots a poison dart into Krypto while escaping, her motivation goes way up, especially since Krem holds the antidote. Kara, with Ruthye doggedly following her, uses every means available to her to find Krem, a journey that is hampered by galaxies having different colored suns than the one that gives her powers, the yellow sun.

Directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Ana Nogueira, the film is a big step back in the fun category, not least because Supergirl is deep in her feelings for much of the film. Her personal trauma, which is detailed in occasional flashbacks, gives a reason for her depression, but fails to land fully. The story seems to want everyone to be sad, as it includes a child trafficking ring and multiple instances of families being murdered.

Milly Alcock and Krypto in Supergirl.Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

To try to counteract that downer material, the filmmakers give Supergirl many opportunities to show off her fighting skills. While still CGI-heavy, the action scenes contain enough of a semblance of reality that they feel exciting. Unfortunately, this is undercut by the inclusion of several slow-motion sequences, giving the impression that the filmmakers didn’t trust the actors to deliver the goods on a consistent basis.

Superman (David Corenswet) makes a handful of appearances in the film, and while his presence is welcome given how well the character came across in the previous movie, it also doesn’t allow Supergirl to become her own person. Almost everything she does is colored by either her cousin or her parents, and since her powers are identical to those of Superman, there is very little that makes her story unique aside from how she’s dealing with the fallout.

Alcock (House of the Dragon, Sirens) gives an appealing performance despite her character being drunk and/or moody most of the time. She definitely sells what Supergirl is going through, so if given a better story in a future film, she’s proven her capability. Schoenaerts makes for a pretty good villain, although he’s aided by a look that includes a face full of studs. Jason Momoa has a memorable supporting role as the bounty hunter Lobo, even if his character doesn’t add much to the story.

While not a full-on disaster, Supergirl does not continue the momentum that Superman started. With a story that’s more concerned with showing audiences death scenes than a hero saving people, the film doesn’t seem to understand the appeal of a character like Supergirl or how to make her someone audiences will return to over and over again.

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Supergirl is now playing in theaters.

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