Weekend Event Planner

These are the 14 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

Broadway Dallas presents Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations at the Music Hall at Fair Park through September 18.

Photo by Matthew Murphy

Despite two huge rappers and one big-time comedian coming to the area this weekend, the slate of events is dominated by theater. There will be no fewer than eight productions starting their runs, including a national tour of a Broadway show. You can also see a unique anniversary celebration of a local performing arts venue, a concert by the Queen of Mariachi, and an eye-catching and educational sculpture exhibition.

Below are the best ways to spend your precious free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, September 8

The Firehouse Theatre presents Violet
Facially disfigured in a childhood accident, Violet dreams of a miraculous transformation through the power of faith. Convinced that a televangelist in Oklahoma can heal her, she hops aboard a Greyhound bus and starts the journey of a lifetime. Along the way, she meets a young black soldier who teaches her about beauty, love, courage and what it means to be an outsider. The production runs through September 25 at The Firehouse Theatre in Farmers Branch.

Broadway Dallas presents Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations
Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations is a Broadway musical that follows The Temptations’ extraordinary journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The musical tells the thrilling story of brotherhood, family, loyalty, and betrayal, as the group’s personal and political conflicts threatened to tear them apart during a decade of civil unrest in America. Featuring hits like “My Girl,” “Just My Imagination,” “Get Ready,” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” the production runs through September 18 at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

WaterTower Theatre presents The Bridges of Madison County in concert
Based on the best-selling novel, The Bridges of Madison County captures the lyrical expanse of America's heartland along with the yearning entangled in the eternal question, "What if...?" Francesca Johnson looks forward to a rare four days alone on her Iowa farm when her family heads to the 1965 State Fair. When photographer Robert Kincaid pulls into her driveway seeking directions, what happens in those four days may very well alter the course of Francesca's life. WaterTower Theatre in Addison presents a concert version of the production through Sunday.

Dallas Theater Center presents Clue
Based on the iconic 1985 Paramount movie, Clue is a hilarious farce-meets-murder mystery. The tale begins at a remote mansion, where six mysterious guests assemble for an unusual dinner party where murder and blackmail are on the menu. When their host turns up dead, they all become suspects. Led by Wadsworth the butler, Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock, and Colonel Mustard race to find the killer as the body count stacks up. The production runs through September 25 at Wyly Theatre.

Jack Harlow in concert
Rapper Jack Harlow has had a big impact on the music industry in his short career. His debut single, "Whats Poppin," went to No. 2 on the Billboard charts, and a collaboration with Lil Nas X led to a No. 1 song, "Industry Baby," and two Grammy nominations. Harlow will play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving in support of his new album, Come Home The Kids Miss You.

Shakespeare Dallas presents Hamlet
In Shakespeare's classic play, young Hamlet returns home to discover the world-shattering news that his father is dead, and his mother has married his father's brother. A ghostly encounter leads to madness, revenge, death, and the downfall of the kingdom. Presented by Shakespeare Dallas, the production runs through October 15 at Samuell-Grand Amphitheatre.

Ochre House Theater presents St. Ella
St. Ella takes a satirical look at the iconic women found in 20th century plays and explores their roles as oppressed women and the brutish men who ruled over them. The dark comedy is filled with song, dance, new vaudevillian techniques, and exposes the woman’s "world that is dying within her." The production runs through September 24 at Ochre House Theater.

Friday, September 9

The Eisemann Center for Performing Arts presents 20 Years in 20 Minutes
An immersive projection experience, 20 Years in 20 Minutes seeks to highlight the 20 years of the Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson during its 20th Anniversary Celebration. The experience will explore the Eisemann Center’s immense impact on the art landscape of Richardson and the greater North Texas area as a whole. There will be performances on various dates through September 30.

Bad Bunny in concert
Puerto Rican rapper/singer Bad Bunny can now be considered one of the biggest artists in the world since he's headlining this concert at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. One of the rare Latin artists to crossover to the mainstream in the United States, Bad Bunny has been at or near the top of the Billboard 200 charts with each of his albums, including his latest, the No. 1 Un Verano Sin Ti.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Aida Cuevas: “The Queen of Mariachi”
The Grammy Award-winning legend Aida Cuevas takes the stage at Meyerson Symphony Center to showcase her remarkable imprint on the history of Mexican music. Cuevas is a master of the mariachi art song, setting her country-tinged rancheras to uplifting mariachi accompaniment. With a 42-year career and 39 album releases to her credit, Cuevas has created one of the most important careers in traditional Mexican music. There will be three concerts through Sunday.

Garland Civic Theatre presents Carnival!
Acclaimed for its magic, simplicity, and compassion, Carnival! is a bittersweet fairy tale about a naïve French girl infatuated with a troubled puppeteer in a traveling show. Based on the 1953 film Lili, the musical boasts a charming score by Bob Merrill, including the hit song "Love Makes the World Go Round." The production runs through September 25 at Granville Arts Center in Garland.

NTPA Repertory presents Rent
Based loosely on Puccini's La Boheme, Jonathan Larson's Rent follows a year in the life of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. Winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Rent has become a pop cultural phenomenon. with songs that rock and a story that resonates with audiences of all ages. The production runs through September 18 at Willow Bend Center of the Arts in Plano.

Saturday, September 10

Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden presents "#IfThenSheCan" Pop-Up Exhibit opening day
The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden will present 50 of the statues from "#IfThenSheCan" — The Exhibit, installed throughout the Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden. An array of in-person and virtual programs, an exhibit scavenger hunt activity, and sponsored school group visits throughout the fall will bring to life inspirational stories of women in STEM who are shaping a better world. The exhibit will be on view through December 31.

Bill Burr (Slight Return)
A Grammy-nominated comedian, Bill Burr is one of the top comedic voices of his generation achieving success in TV and film as well as on stage. His Monday Morning Podcast is one of the most downloaded comedy podcasts, his animated Netflix series, F Is For Family, premiered its fifth and final season in 2021, and he also premiered the Roku series, Bill Burr Presents: Immoral Compass. He'll perform at American Airlines Center.

Broadway Dallas presents Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations at the Music Hall at Fair Park through September 18.

Photo by Matthew Murphy

Broadway Dallas presents Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations at the Music Hall at Fair Park through September 18.

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Movie Review

Faces of Death returns with modern twist on cult horror film

Photo courtesy of of IFC Films

Dacre Montgomery in Faces of Death.

True horror fans will likely be familiar with the 1978 cult film Faces of Death, which purported to be a documentary showing real-life killings in gory detail. It didn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop rumors from continuing to spread for decades. Now, almost 50 years and multiple sequels later, comes a new version of Faces of Death, an actual movie that pays homage to the original in interesting ways.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at a YouTube-like company called Kino as a content moderator, flagging videos that violate the company’s policies. This means her job often involves seeing some truly despicable things from all manner of depraved people. One day, though, she comes across a video that seems a little too real, and after seeing more similar videos, she starts to believe they’re genuine murders.

Going against her company NDA, she starts to investigate the videos on her own, which puts her on the radar of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is actually kidnapping people and killing them on camera through methods seen in the original Faces of Death film. It’s not long before Arthur tracks her down, with a plan to make her one of his next victims.

Written and directed by Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and co-written by Isa Mazzei, the film is not so much scary as it is creepy, with the occasional gross-out sequence. The idea of having someone emulate the killings in the cult film is a good idea, and pairing it with the modern-day attention economy - in which content creators go to increasing lengths for clicks - is a clever twist on a concept that other films have done.

The film as a whole is a commentary on how social media and video sharing sites have often decided to prioritize profits over the well-being of their users. Margot is shown allowing videos involving violence and sexual assault to stay on the site while nixing ones depicting how to use Narcan or demonstrating putting on a condom on a banana. Josh (Jermaine Fowler), Margot’s boss, is even explicit in the company mandate that outrageous videos drive views.

While Arthur has the makings of a good villain, there are few attempts to make him seem truly diabolical. His kidnappings often seem more spur-of-the-moment than calculated, and even though he has a well thought-out dungeon at home, the house’s location in the suburbs seems to make him vulnerable to easy discovery. Goldhaber and Mazzei leave more than a few unanswered questions along the way that take away from the intensity of the story.

Ferreira is yet another actor from Euphoria who’s capitalizing on her exposure from that show. She plays Margot’s increasing anxiety well, and when the action ratchets up in the final act, she meets the moment in a satisfying way. Montgomery returns to the vibe he had while playing the evil Billy on Stranger Things, and even though his character doesn’t fully live up to his potential, Montgomery sells his evil for all it’s worth.

The new Faces of Death may not be what some are expecting given the reputation of the previous films, but it’s a solid horror/thriller that uses the brand as a launching pad into something different. It doesn’t make much of a dent in the scare department, but it does give its violence and gore a degree of relevance in today’s often desensitized world.

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Faces of Death is now playing in theaters.

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