Weekend Event Planner

These are the 12 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

Music and comedy will be the order of the day around Dallas this weekend. Event choices will include a visit from a living legend comedian, a return visit from a pop superstar, a local production of a hit comedy musical, a concert full of songs from a range of musicals, a celebration of a music icon gone too soon, and more.

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, March 21

The Statler presents WaterFest
The three-day WaterFest will feature a variety of entertainment next to The Statler's rooftop pool, including two special headlining acts: Spinderella, of Salt-n-Pepa fame, and Miami-based DJ Joe Maz, who has produced remixes for artists including Adele, Coldplay, Kanye West, Katy Perry, and Beyoncé. Each day will also feature drink specials by Mixologist Kyle Hilla and Dallas’ largest margarita, with 245 gallons, enough to serve 5,000 margaritas a day throughout the festival.

DMA Arts & Letters Live: The World of Musicals
The World of Musicals is an emotional journey through the great world of musicals, with beautiful ballads from Evita, Les Misérables, and Phantom of the Opera, along with upbeat favorites from Dirty Dancing, We Will Rock You, and Mamma Mia. Taking place at Moody Performance Hall, it will also feature classics from the Golden Age of American Musical Theater by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gilbert and Sullivan, George Gershwin, and Stephen Sondheim.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Boléro
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will present pianist Hélène Grimaud as she performs the deeply sonorous Piano Concerto No. 1 by Brahms, followed by a trio of Ravel’s works Valses Nobles at Sentimentales, La valse, and Boléro. The concert, conducted by Lionel Bringuier, will have four performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Carol Burnett: An Evening of Laughter and Reflection
Carol Burnett is widely recognized by the public and her peers for her work on stage and screen, most notably The Carol Burnett Show. In this event, taking place on both Thursday and Friday at Winspear Opera House, Burnett will take questions from the audience and show video clips from her shows in a format that harkens back to the legendary openings of The Carol Burnett Show, where her studio audience had an unfiltered opportunity to engage Carol with questions and receive spontaneous answers.

Puddles Pity Party
Puddles, the "Sad Clown with the Golden Voice" who made the quarterfinals on season 12 of America's Got Talent, comes to Dallas with his heartfelt anthems and a suitcase full of Kleenex. This Pity Party is not all sadness and longing. The show, taking place at Majestic Theatre, is peppered with a brilliant sense of the absurd, mixing lots of humor with awkward, tender moments.

Friday, March 22

Eisemann Center presents STOMP
A unique combination of percussion, movement, and visual comedy, STOMP has created its own inimitable, contemporary form of rhythmic expression. Both household and industrial objects find new life as musical instruments in the hands of an idiosyncratic band of body percussionists. The troupe, performing three times through Saturday at Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson, uses everything but conventional percussion instruments, including matchboxes, wooden poles, brooms, garbage cans, Zippo lighters, and hubcaps to fill the stage with magnificent rhythms.

A Bowie Celebration: The David Bowie Alumni Tour
It's now been just over three years since David Bowie passed away, but his influence is still being felt. A Bowie Celebration: The David Bowie Alumni Tour features musicians associated with Bowie like Mike Garson, Earl Slick, and Charlie Sexton presenting an unforgettable evening of Bowie songs, including an ever-rotating mix of hits and deep cuts. The concert will take place at Majestic Theatre.

Uptown Players presents Disaster! The Catastrophic '70s Musical
Uptown Players presents the hilarious 2016 Broadway hit, Disaster!, a musical comedy that features New York’s hottest A-listers lining up for the 1979 opening of a floating casino and discotheque. What begins as a night of boogie fever quickly changes to panic as the ship succumbs to multiple disasters including earthquakes, tidal waves, and infernos. The musical will run at Kalita Humphreys Theater through April 7.

Saturday, March 23

Black Violin in concert
Black Violin is composed of classically trained violist and violinist Wil B. and Kev Marcus, who combine their classical training and hip-hop influences to create a distinctive multi-genre sound that is often described as “classical boom.” The band has released three albums in their career, including their major label debut, Stereotypes (featuring Black Thought of The Roots and MC Pharoahe Monch), in 2015. The concert will take place at Annette Strauss Square.

Sunday, March 24

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Jonas Wood" opening day
The Dallas Museum of Art will present the first major solo museum exhibition of work by American painter Jonas Wood. Bringing together approximately 35 works across 13 years of Wood’s career, the exhibition "Jonas Wood" traces the artist’s fascination with psychology, memory, and the self to shed light on a practice that is both deeply personal and universal. The exhibition will remain on display through July 14.

Pink in concert with Julia Michaels
If you're thinking that Pink was just here, that's not that far off from the truth. The pop star played two dates at American Airlines Center less than a year ago toward the beginning of her Beautiful Trauma tour in support of the 2017 album of the same name. The singer has got to be dragging by this point, with over 100 shows around the world under her belt since the tour started, but something tells us she'll have enough energy to bring the goods once again. She'll play at American Airlines Center one more time.

Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets in concert
Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets comes to The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving as part of their first-ever North American tour. The tour marks Pink Floyd co-founder and drummer Nick Mason’s first performances in North America since 1994. The concert will feature Pink Floyd’s celebrated and significant early body of work played live, including songs from albums like The Piper At The Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets.

Pink will play at American Airlines Center on March 24.

Photo by Kurt Iswarienko

Pink will play at American Airlines Center on March 24.

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Movie Review

Eye-popping I Love Boosters takes aim at fashion and social issues

Photo courtesy of Neon

Naomi Ackie, Keke Palmer, Poppy Liu, and Taylour Paige in I Love Boosters.

Boots Riley’s first feature film, 2018’s Sorry to Bother You, was an auspicious and audacious debut that challenged viewers both with its subject matter and the visuals it contained. Even though it took eight years for him to put out his second film, Riley hasn’t lost his knack for outrageousness in the almost inexplicable I Love Boosters.

At its core, the movie is about three women - Corvette (Keke Palmer), Mariah (Taylour Paige), and Sade (Naomi Ackie) - who survive in the world by boosting (aka stealing) high-end fashion and reselling it for more affordable prices. In the surreal world in which the film takes place, their primary target is Metro Designers, a shop that deals in monochromatic clothes and is led by the eccentric CEO Christie Smith (Demi Moore).

The women’s felonious-but-low-stakes mission is up-ended by the appearance of Jianhu (Poppy Liu), who possesses a machine that shoplifts much better than they ever could. The only difference is that Jianhu is looking to expose the shoddy working conditions in the Chinese factories where Metro Designers’ clothes are made. Inspired, the women join forces on a quest that is as bizarre as it is righteous.

Riley, who both wrote and directed the film, loves his over-the-top visuals. There are eye-popping elements in almost every scene of the film, from the clothes in the Metro Designers stores to the oddly-slanted floors of Smith’s office to the bold masks worn by the group during one heist. Every weird thing on screen serves a purpose, though, even the transformation of Pinky Ring Guy (LaKeith Stanfield) from an object of Corvette’s desire into a soul-sucker with an unusual method.

While not quite as pointed as Sorry to Bother You, which had Black characters affecting “white” voices to be more appealing to the general public, the film does take aim at a variety of different social issues. The idea of wealth inequality is front-and-center, with Corvette and her friends forced to squat in an abandoned restaurant. The treatment of Chinese factory workers, fashion industry practices and excesses, and more crop up over the course of the film.

The latter half of the film gets crazier, if that’s even possible. Jianhu’s machine introduces sci-fi elements into the story, with the same circular contraption able to transport, disintegrate, and transform objects or people. Combined with the visuals and storyline, the film becomes something that is both wildly entertaining and also somewhat incomprehensible.

While the movie has a large cast, Palmer is inarguably the star. With her effervescent acting style and an overall inviting demeanor, she sells every bonkers turn the film takes. Each of the supporting actors gets a moment to shine, but Paige, Ackie, and Moore have the most impact. Stanfield is memorable in a creepy kind of way, but he’s been better in other films.

I Love Boosters is one of the more outlandish and interesting films to come out in 2026, a long-awaited return from Riley that demonstrates his strong storytelling and filmmaking voice. Even if it’s not clear exactly what’s happening at every turn, the acting and the audacity of the visuals keeps the film extremely watchable.

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I Love Boosters is now playing in theaters.

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