Weekend Event Planner

CultureMap Social and Cirque du Soleil top best weekend events in Dallas

The last weekend in July in Dallas-Fort Worth will be heavy on theatrics, whether it's the opening of several actual theater productions or the arrival of a Cirque du Soleil show. And to get you ready for those, we're putting on another one of our patented parties that's sure to get your weekend started right.

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, July 24

Summer 2014 CultureMap Social
By now many of you know that we here at CultureMap Dallas love to offer our readers opportunities to let loose. Our latest social, taking place at Winston's Supperclub in Uptown Dallas, will feature tastings of two new El Jimador tequila flavors, food from Urban Taco, swag from Hari Mari, Blaine Bowen Jewelry, Live Love Pop and others, and music from DJ Adam Cleland.

Friday, July 25

Cirque du Soleil: Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour
It's been just over five years since the premature death of Michael Jackson, but his influence on the world at large has yet to fade. Helping to keep his legacy alive is Cirque du Soleil: Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour, a show that combines music from Jackson's entire career with the awe-inspiring and often death-defying acrobatics of Cirque performers. The show will play once on Friday and once on Saturday at American Airlines Center.

WaterTower Theatre presents Dogfight
It's not likely that many people remember the 1991 film Dogfight starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor, but perhaps that's what makes turning it into a musical such a great idea. Winner of the 2013 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical, WaterTower Theatre tackles the show in which early 1960s Marines compete to find the ugliest date, only to have their expectations upturned. The production will play at Addison Conference Centre through August 17.

Broken the Musical
Most musicals trend toward the upbeat side of things, delivering peppy songs that keep audiences singing as they leave the theater. Broken the Musical, playing at Gilley's Dallas through August 17, seems likely not to have many smiles, as it deals with the subject of rape and how one woman struggles to pull her life together after the horrific encounter. 50 percent of the proceeds from opening night will go to the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center.

Saturday, July 26

The Best Movie Fest Ever! presents My Favorite Musicals
Speaking of musicals, three of the most popular movie musicals of all time - Hello Dolly!, Moulin Rouge! and Oklahoma! - will be presented back-to-back-to-back as part of a triple feature from the new series, The Best Movie Fest Ever! Playing at Cinemark West Plano on both Saturday and Tuesday, July 29, the event will be hosted by Dallas theater experts like Mark Lowry and Nancy Churnin.

speakEASY premiere
If you walk around downtown Dallas, you're sure to run into your fair share of interesting characters. Filmmaker Josh David Jordan and artist Steve Hunter decided to document some of these people, the result of which is speakEASY. The exhibit features a short film by Jordan with 27 different interviews and paintings of each person by Hunter. The exhibit will premiere at City Tavern and then pop up at different places downtown in the coming weeks and months.

Sunday, July 27

Uptown Players presents The Boy from Oz
The life of Australian singer Peter Allen, who went on tour with Judy Garland, married Liza Minelli and wrote scores of hit songs, seems custom-made for the theater. The musical, for which Hugh Jackman won a Tony Award, makes its regional premiere courtesy of Uptown Players, who will present it at Kalita Humphreys Theater through August 10.

Austin Mahone in concert with The Vamps, Fifth Harmony and Shawn Mendes
You may not know who Austin Mahone is yet, but chances are the teenage girls in your life do. The 18-year-old San Antonio native has been slowly but surely making his way up in the music business, opening for Taylor Swift and being named by MTV as an Artist to Watch. He'll headline this concert at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie that will also feature The Vamps, Fifth Harmony and Shawn Mendes.

CultureMap Dallas and El Jimador tequila will make for a great time at the Summer 2014 CultureMap Social at Winston's Supperclub.

CultureMap Social with el Jimador Tequila Girls

Photo by Shelley Neuman

CultureMap Dallas and El Jimador tequila will make for a great time at the Summer 2014 CultureMap Social at Winston's Supperclub.

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Movie Review

Jessica Chastain drama Dreams stumbles through steamy romance

Photo courtesy of Teorema

Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams.

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.

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Dreams is now playing in select theaters.

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