Weekend Event Planner

The best events in Dallas this weekend are music to your ears

Music is once again the order of the weekend around Dallas, but the type of music on display is about as varied as you can get. You'll find cover bands, guitar heroes, country stars, classical music, classic video game music, and a modern-day crooner, among others.

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, October 22

2015 Cool Thursdays Series: The Molly Ringwalds
Nipping at the heels of Back to the Future Day on October 21 is another appearance by The Molly Ringwalds as part of the Dallas Arboretum's Cool Thursdays series. The English quintet pays tribute to pretty much everything from the 1980s, covering '80s songs, wearing a Devo hat, and incorporating the BTTF typeface into their band logo.

Al Di Meola in concert
It's pretty difficult to get wide acclaim as a jazz musician, but Al Di Meola has accomplished just that. With no fewer than 24 albums in almost 40 years in the business, his style of jazz guitar has been as prolific as it has been influential. Di Meola will play at the Majestic Theatre as part of his Elegant Gypsy & More Electric Tour, in support of his new album, Elysium.

Friday, October 23

Luke Bryan in concert with Randy Houser and Dustin Lynch
You can't get much bigger than Luke Bryan in country music these days. Not only did he co-host the ACM Awards, as he has for the past three years, at AT&T Stadium earlier in the year, but he also took home the Entertainer of the Year award for the second time in three years. He'll show exactly why he's so respected in two separate concerts at Gexa Energy Pavilion on Friday and Saturday.

3rd Annual Night of the Living Dead Composers
If you're looking for a different kind of Halloween season party, Open Classical's costumed classical variety show is for you. Taking place at Klyde Warren Park, the event will feature quirky costumes, chamber music, and opera tunes with an eerie vibe. If you can't make it on Friday, the show will repeat next week at Live Oak Music Hall in Fort Worth.

Saturday, October 24

Trinity River Wind Festival
Back in the wet and wild days of May, the Trinity River Wind Festival was postponed since its location — the Trinity River basin next to the Commerce Street Viaduct — was covered with millions of gallons of water. Naturally, the forecast calls for rain once again on Saturday, but they'll still give this free celebration of all things wind another try.

Hanson in concert
The trio of Hanson brothers — no, not those Hanson brothers — have grown a lot since their "MMMBop" days, and not just because it's nearly 20 years later. The pop rockers' songs have matured over the years, and they've recently collaborated with the likes of Blues Traveler and Owl City. They'll play two shows in two nights at House of Blues Dallas in support of their new EP, Roots & Rock 'N' Roll.

The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses – Master Quest
Thanks to things like Apple, the Marvel movies, and the Nerdist podcast, nerds have gone from the underground to the forefront of pop culture. Another nerd touchstone, The Legend of Zelda, is celebrated in this concert at the Music Hall at Fair Park, which plays over 29 years worth of Zelda music while videos are shown in the background.

Sunday, October 25

Josh Groban in concert
(UPDATE: Due to illness, Groban has postponed this concert until Tuesday, December 22. All tickets will be honored on the new date)
When you have a voice like Josh Groban, you can sing pretty much anything you want and your fans will still love it. But when you take on theatrical classics like "Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz and "All I Ask of You" from The Phantom of the Opera, as Groban does on his new album, Stages, you've virtually guaranteed yourself another hit. He'll sing those songs and more at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Luke Bryan will play at Gexa Energy Pavilion on October 23 and 24.

Photo by © Chinh Phan/Fotowerk Group

Luke Bryan will play at Gexa Energy Pavilion on October 23 and 24.

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Movie Review

Zendaya and Robert Pattinson face pre-marriage jitters in The Drama

Photo courtesy of A24

Robert Pattinson and Zendaya in The Drama.

Robert Pattinson and Zendaya will be seen together a lot at the movies in 2026, with mega-films like The Odyssey and Dune: Part Three coming out later in the year. But fans can get a much more intimate look at the two stars in a film that offers a unique take on relationship struggles, The Drama.

Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Pattinson) are a New York couple who are engaged to be married. After a quick-but-effective montage of their courtship, the story joins them as they are just days away from their wedding. As they get all the details like music, flowers, and food finalized, a visit to the caterer with married friends Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie) proves fateful.

A few too many drinks leads to each member of the group deciding to divulge the worst thing they’ve ever done. While each story is slightly shocking, Emma’s takes the cake, so much so that Charlie starts to question their relationship. As they get closer to the wedding date, Charlie finds it increasingly difficult to get beyond Emma’s revelation, with each real or imagined conversation threatening to derail their previously tight bond.

Written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli, the film is provocative, funny, and cringey as it tries to get to the center of human dynamics. Charlie, Rachel, and Mike have starkly different reactions to Emma’s story, and the way those play out over the course of the film provides, well, the drama. The harder Charlie tries to justify Emma’s past, the more his underlying feelings start to eat at him, causing friction not just between him and Emma, but in other parts of his life, as well.

Strangely, especially for a character played by Zendaya, Emma recedes more than expected. Her explanations for her previous actions are timid at best, and she mostly seems to be waiting for Charlie to forgive her instead of questioning why she needs forgiveness. Borgli favors the male side of the equation, and in so doing he doesn’t dig as deep into the root of the issue as he could have.

Still, the downward spiral at the center of the story has a propulsive nature to it, and each successive step proves to be both hard to watch and impossible to turn away from. It also helps that Borgli manages the tone well, keeping interactions between characters relatively light so that the film doesn’t turn into one like Marriage Story.

Pattinson, who gets to use his own British accent for once, put on an interesting performance that is much better than his last two roles in Mickey 17 and Die My Love. He has good chemistry with Zendaya, who manages to shine despite being laden with a role that doesn’t play entirely to her strengths. Haim and Athie do good work in small roles, while Hailey Grace and Hannah Gross make an impact in brief appearances.

The situation in which Emma and Charlie find themselves in The Drama is not one to be wished on anyone, but it’s presented well by Borgli, keeping tensions high for the bulk of the film. Despite the two main characters not given completely equal footing, the story finds a way to get to a satisfactory ending.

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The Drama opens in theaters on April 3.

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