Weekend Event Planner

JFK memorials and holiday shows top best weekend events in Dallas

Whether you've been anticipating it or dreading it, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy is finally here. As it coincides with the weekend before Thanksgiving, you'll find an odd juxtaposition of memorials for the slain president and events designed to get you in the mood for the holidays.

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, November 21

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas has been a holiday classic since the moment it was published in 1957. Its various adaptations, via TV cartoon in 1966 and film in 2000, have only burnished its legend, as has this musical, which has been performed since 1994. The national tour comes to Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth through Sunday.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents President John F. Kennedy Memorial Concert
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra has been planning for this weekend for a long time, commissioning a special piece from composer Conrad Tao, entitled "The World is Very Different Now," to honor JFK's memory. The concert, with four performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center, will also feature works by Sibelius, Beethoven and Milhaud and put a spotlight on violinist Joshua Bell.

Friday, November 22

Texas Theatre presents JFK 50th Anniversary Memorial Program
The Texas Theatre will forever be known as the place where Lee Harvey Oswald was captured following JFK's assassination, and its current owners won't shy away from that fact with this event. Among other things, they'll show a partial screening of War is Hell, the movie Oswald snuck into, put on theatrical re-creations of interviews done with theater employees by the Warren Commission and end the day with a 35mm screening of Oliver Stone's JFK.

2013 Gift of Lights & Snow at Texas Motor Speedway
One of the best things about the holiday season is the light displays that pop up all over the place. But one of the most fun options available is the Gift of Lights & Snow at Texas Motor Speedway, where visitors can drive through and around more than 600 displays featuring over two million LED lights. And this year they'll also feature a Snow Town with an outdoor tubing hill, snowball gallery and play area created from more than 100 tons of real snow. Experience the fun through January 5.

Dallas Theater Center presents A Christmas Carol
Dallas Theater Center has been putting on most of their productions at Wyly Theatre since the venue opened in 2009, but they had kept their annual production of A Christmas Carol at their old home, Kalita Humphreys Theater, until this year. They promise a unique experience, putting the audience right in the middle of the action thanks to the flexible seating in the Wyly. The musical will play through December 24.

Saturday, November 23

The Trains at NorthPark 2013
Speaking of holiday traditions, The Trains at NorthPark has delighted children and adults alike for 15 years at NorthPark Center with its intricate display of buildings, monuments and landscapes from Dallas and around the country for model trains to travel through. They'll have the usual scenes of Downtown Dallas, the White House, Golden Gate Bridge and others, and possibly a few surprises. You can catch the trains through January 5.

Rain: A Tribute to The Beatles
The 2013-2014 season for Dallas Summer Musicals doesn't actually begin until next month's White Christmas, so you can consider this four-performance production of Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles as a bonus. The show, playing Saturday and Sunday at Music Hall at Fair Park, is a jukebox musical that takes the audience through many of the Fab Four's hits.

Nasher Sculpture Center presents Soundings: JFK Memorial Concert
The Dallas Arts District will be full of music honoring the memory of JFK, as Nasher Sculpture Center will put on a special concert by the Brentano String Quartet at Dallas City Performance Hall. The quartet will be playing a specially-commissioned piece entitled "One Red Rose" by composer Steven Mackey, along with other works by Olivier Messiaen and John Cage.

Rhett Miller in concert with Salim Nourallah and The O's
Rhett Miller, lead singer of the Old 97's, has been headlining the annual Cystic Fibrosis Concert Series at the Granada Theater for seven years. The concert, which raises money and awareness for the fight against the debilitating disease, will also feature performances by locals Salim Nourallah and The O's.

Sunday, November 24

Heffron Drive in concert with Eric Dash and Ariana & The Rose
Sunday is already packed, with all but two of the previous nine events taking place that day as well. But fans of the Nickelodeon show Big Time Rush and its namesake band will want to make their way down to The Kessler, as BTR member Kendall Schmidt brings his side project duo, Heffron Drive with guitarist Dustin Belt, to town. They'll be joined by opening acts Eric Dash and Ariana & The Rose.

The 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK will be remembered by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Nasher Sculpture Center and Texas Theatre, among others.

The History Blog

The 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK will be remembered by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Nasher Sculpture Center and Texas Theatre, among others.

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Movie Review

Horror comedy film Y2K goes for nostalgia but maybe too soon

Photo courtesy of A24

Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, and Julian Dennison in Y2K.

Movies that rely on nostalgia can be successful if they’re timed right. Generally, 25-30 years seems about the right amount of time to try to take advantage of people’s fond feelings for a certain era, which is why movies/TV shows about the ‘80s have been prevalent for much of the 21st century, and ‘90s-set films started to pop up in the last 10 years.

Y2K, a horror comedy that plays on the fears of technological mayhem many people thought would happen at the turn of the century, is right on the cusp of that rule, taking place 24 years after its timeline. It centers on two teenage boys, Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison), who are opposite in demeanor but have an unshakeable bond. Eli likes a popular girl, Laura (Rachel Zegler), and Danny convinces him to crash a New Year’s Eve party where she’ll be.

As the clock strikes midnight and the year moves from 1999 to 2000, everything that uses an electrical current goes haywire, with many of them combining forces to attack the humans around them. Eli and Danny find themselves on the run with Laura, as well as two stoners, Ash (Lachlan Watson) and CJ (Daniel Zolghadri), with each of them trying to use their unique skillset to help defeat a growing robot army.

Directed by Kyle Mooney and written by Mooney and Evan Winter, the film lands some solid jokes about the era in its opening 20 minutes or so, whether it’s the extreme slowness of dial-up internet, the goofy user names from AOL Messenger, or the various high school cliques of the time. However, many of them seem to echo ones told in 1999’s American Pie, a weird kind of art-imitating-art moment instead of commenting on real life.

The jolt of the machines attacking partygoers seems to promise a fun-if-bloody romp, but Mooney and Winter don’t seem to know where to take the story. They establish the computer bona fides of Eli and Laura early on, but when it comes time for them to put their talents in action, it feels like two actors going through the motions instead of real people who know what they’re doing. Almost none of the characters are believable or entertaining, and the few that rise above are dispatched way too early.

And because the filmmakers don’t make you care about the main group, nothing they face is that interesting, either. The villainous robots are made up of a bunch of disparate parts, which would seem to offer the opportunity for funny sight gags. Mooney and his team fumble most of their chances, though, leaving that side of the story stuck in limbo where it’s not absurd enough to be hilarious or scary enough to really count as horror.

Martell, Dennison, and Zegler are each rising stars who have their individual charms, but only Dennison is able to make much of an impact. Zegler, who starred in West Side Story and will soon be Snow White, is especially misused. They try to shoehorn in a cameo by Limp Biskit lead singer Fred Durst, but his appearance makes little sense and adds almost nothing to the story.

Filmmakers who want to mine nostalgia, especially in a comedy, need to really commit to the bit instead of throwing in a few references and needle drops. Mooney, who’s making his directorial debut, demonstrates little feel for timing, and so most of the film is like a car spinning its wheels, going nowhere.

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Y2K opens in theaters on December 6.

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