Weekend Event Planner

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

It's a top-heavy weekend in and around Dallas, with big events happening everywhere you look. They include a showcase for art, two music festivals, a visit from a big country singer, stand-up from a well-known comedian, a film festival, new opera, a world premiere play, a huge block party, and a celebrity performing in an unexpected way.

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, April 12

Dallas Art Fair
The Dallas Art Fair at Fashion Industry Gallery offers collectors, arts professionals, and the public the opportunity to engage with a rich selection of modern and contemporary artworks presented by leading national and international galleries. The Preview Benefit on Thursday offers the opportunity to preview and purchase exhibited works prior to the public opening of the fair. The main fair will run Friday through Sunday.

Friday, April 13

Toyota Music Factory Grand Opening Celebration
Toyota Music Factory, located in the Las Colinas Urban Center in Irving, is hosting a three-day grand opening celebration featuring lots of entertainment and activities. Guests can experience a range of live performances from local bands and well-known musicians, as well as strolling entertainment attractions. There will also be appearances and autograph sessions with the Dallas Cowboys Rhythm & Blue and the Mavs ManiAACs.

CFW Festival
The inaugural CFW (Craft Beer, Food, and Wine) Festival will bring North Texas’ premier craft beer brands, wine brands, and world-class restaurants together for two days at Globe Life Park in Arlington, with live entertainment, chef-inspired cooking demonstrations, and music. The festival will feature performances by Young the Giant and R.LUM.R on Friday, and Josh Abbott Band and Lonestar on Saturday.

Brad Paisley in concert with Dustin Lynch, Chase Bryant, and Lindsay Ell
There have been few country artists as reliable as Brad Paisley over the past 20 years. He delivers a new album every couple of years, and his quality has remained so high that each of his past nine albums has gone to No. 1 on the Billboard Country charts, including 2017's Love and War. He'll play at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory, where he will be joined by Dustin Lynch, Chase Bryant, and Lindsay Ell.

Mike Birbiglia in concert
Comedian Mike Birbiglia is one of those celebrities you recognize even if you don't know you recognize him. He's had supporting roles in movies like Trainwreck and TV shows like Orange is the New Black and Girls. He's also written and directed two movies — Sleepwalk with Me and Don't Think Twice. He will bring his "The New One" stand-up comedy tour to the Majestic Theatre.

EARTHxFilm
In conjunction with the EARTHx festival taking place at Fair Park next weekend, EARTHxFilm will highlight over 100 features, shorts, VR, AR and MR content, in addition to workshops, panels, music, and art, over the course of the next 10 days. It will take place at venues throughout the city, starting with an opening night screening of Louie Psihoyos’s The Game Changers at Angelika Film Center. Other screenings and events will take place at Texas Theatre, Wyly Theatre, Dallas Contemporary, and Fair Park.

The Dallas Opera presents Don Giovanni
After more than two centuries, the argument rages on as to whether Don Giovanni is the greatest of Mozart’s many masterpieces. Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecień stars as the insatiable womanizer who became a living legend. Dallas Opera Music Director Emmanuel Villaume conducts an all-star cast in this boldly provocative, R-rated production from Lyric Opera of Chicago, playing six times at Winspear Opera House through April 29.

WaterTower Theatre presents Bread
This world premiere by award-winning Dallas-born actress and playwright Regina Taylor weaves a compelling family drama of hopes, fears, thwarted dreams, and dark secrets against a turbulent backdrop of racial tension and social upheaval. When a relative returns home, buried family tensions resurface and the past casts a troubling shadow across an uncertain future. The play will run at WaterTower Theatre in Addison through May 6.

Saturday, April 14

Old 97's County Fair
It's always a good time when Dallas' own Old 97's put on a show, and that goes double when they host an event like Old 97's County Fair at Main Street Garden. The one-day festival will feature performances by Old 97's, Lord Huron, The Mavericks, Valerie June, Paul Cauthen, The Bottle Rockets, Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards, Jaime Wyatt, and Bastards of Soul.

Dallas Arts District presents Changing Perspectives Block Party
In celebration of Dallas Arts Month, the Dallas Arts District is hosting Changing Perspectives, a block party featuring two performances by Australia's Strange Fruit, a performing arts company that fuses theater, dance, and circus atop 15-foot sway poles. Other performers will include Dallas' Skyline High School Band, the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts' Gospel Choir, Jessie Frye, Bandan Koro African Drum and Dance Ensemble, Alebrije, and The Bralettes. There will also be local Makers and Artisans Faire, food truck fare and libations, a gif photo booth, live speed painting, dancing in the street, and more.

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents #hearhere: Bill Murray, Jan Vogler, and Friends
Bill Murray and Jan Vogler met during their travels and became friends in New York. Curious about each other’s artistic world and interests, the actor and the cellist soon had the idea to work together on a project. This program, which features music and poetry, showcases the core of the American values in literature and music and communicates the bridges artists have built between America and Europe. It will take place at Winspear Opera House.

Sunday, April 15

TAO: Drum Heart in concert
TAO: Drum Heart is the latest production from TAO, internationally-acclaimed percussion artists. Their modern, high-energy performances showcase the ancient art of Japanese drumming by combining highly physical, large-scale drumming with contemporary costumes, precise choreography, and innovative visuals. The performance will be at Annette Strauss Square.

Old 97's County Fair will be at Main Street Garden on April 14.

Photo courtesy of Old 97's

Old 97's County Fair will be at Main Street Garden on April 14.

event-planner

Movie Review

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney go off in trashy film The Housemaid

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in The Housemaid.

Both Amanda Seyfried (the upcoming The Testament of Ann Lee) and Sydney Sweeney (Christy) are starring in movies with Oscar ambitions this year. By sheer coincidence, the two actors are also co-starring in The Housemaid, a thriller coming out within weeks of their more ambitious works, one that is likely to be seen by many more people than those prestige plays.

Sweeney is given top billing as Millie, a down-on-her-luck ex-convict looking to land any type of job so as not to break her parole. She finds a too-good-to-be-true lifeboat with Nina (Seyfried), who hires her to be a housemaid for her large house on Long Island, where she lives with her husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), and daughter, Cecilia (Indiana Elle).

After a warm interview, Nina almost immediately becomes highly erratic, whipping back-and-forth between happy-go-lucky and rageful. It seems clear that Nina is suffering from mental health issues, as she’ll often accuse Millie of misplacing or stealing items that she didn’t take. Andrew, apparently used to Nina’s tirades, tries to protect Millie from the worst, something that grows increasingly difficult as Nina ups the ante.

Directed by Paul Feig (A Simple Favor) and adapted by Rebecca Sonnenshine from the bestselling book by Freida McFadden, the film is likely the trashiest mainstream movie to come out in 2025. The first half of the movie relies not on story but on moments as Nina embodies the word “hysterical” to an unbelievable extent. The resigned acceptance of the abuse by Millie, as well as the saintly patience of Andrew, make almost every scene laughable, as nobody seems to be acting anywhere close to how a person would normally react to such extreme situations.

The scenes and the performance of Seyfried are so over-the-top, in fact, that it’s clear that the filmmakers are in on the joke. It’s next to impossible not to have a little bit of fun while watching the actors react to outrageous incidents as if nothing is out of the ordinary. The worse Nina acts, the more Millie and Andrew retreat into their chosen roles, and the funnier the film becomes.

Fans of the book will know that the story changes course, eventually turning into a more stereotypical thriller that also has some relatively gnarly visuals to offer. But the trashiness continues, with Sweeney’s, um, assets repeatedly on display in both clothed and unclothed ways. The sex appeal of the R-rated movie makes it an outlier, as recent studio films have shied away from asking their big stars to disrobe completely.

Both Seyfried and Sweeney are far from their Oscar hopeful roles here. Seyfried is given free rein to act as brazenly as she pleases, and she takes full advantage of that ability. Sweeney seems to have been told to be much more reserved, and unfortunately that results in too many wooden line readings. Sklenar continues his breakout streak (It Ends with Us, Drop) with a role that allows him to show more range than either Seyfried or Sweeney.

The Housemaid is an unusual type of movie to be released at a time of year when most films are either those aiming for awards or more family-friendly fare. Despite its many flaws, it’s still an enjoyable watch that features a variety of crazy scenarios not typically seen in movies nowadays.

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The Housemaid is now playing in theaters.

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