Weekend Event Planner

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

While many events in and around Dallas have either been postponed or canceled during the coronavirus pandemic, some organizations have pivoted to virtual or socially-distanced events to continue offering the masses some entertainment while we need it the most.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. While not every event is out of the house, they all promise to provide a nice distraction from the everyday life.

Thursday, December 17

Palace Theatre presents The Texas Tenors: Deep in the Heart of Christmas
From seasonal favorites, like "O Holy Night" and "Joy to the World," to The Righteous Brothers' crowd pleaser "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" and original hit "Bootdaddy," The Texas Tenors bring a unique blend of music to the stage with thrilling harmonies and award-winning arrangements. They'll perform at Grapevine's Palace Theatre two times on Thursday and two times on Friday.

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents Reliant Lights Your Holidays
The AT&T Performing Arts Center will wrap up their annual holiday tradition this weekend, which has been going on for the past two weeks instead of taking place on one night in years past. Visitors can see 50,000 LED lights illuminating the campus, festive projections, family photo-ops, and Friday and Saturday evening pop-up performances from local artists and organizations. The event will go on nightly through Sunday.

Texas Ballet Theater presents The Nutcracker & The Nutty Nutcracker
Texas Ballet Theater will present a filmed production of both The Nutcracker and The Nutty Nutcracker in lieu of in-person productions this year. Like many others, the ballet company made the decision to cancel its annual run of the production due to pandemic-related safety restrictions. A full-length film of The Nutcracker and a new, 30-minute version of The Nutty Nutcracker, the company’s popular annual spoof, will be available to stream at any time through December 26.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Pinchas Zukerman & Emanuel Ax
Longtime friends and legendary artists Pinchas Zukerman and Emanuel Ax will join the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday. The concert, which will have three performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center, will feature Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major and Symphony No. 2 in D Major.

The Firehouse Theatre presents Estella Scrooge: A Christmas Carol with a Twist
The Firehouse Theatre presents the world premiere of Estella Scrooge: A Christmas Carol with a Twist. The modern-day take on Charles Dickens’ novella follows Estella Scrooge, a Wall Street tycoon with a penchant for foreclosing. The production also incorporates characters and plot lines from Dickens’ other great novels, Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, and Bleak House, among others. The production is available to stream at any time through January 3.

Friday, December 18

Lightwire Theater presents A Very Electric Christmas
Lightwire Theater, recognized internationally for their electroluminescent artistry, poignant storytelling, and performance in complete darkness, presents A Very Electric Christmas, which follows the story of a young bird named Max, and his family, as they begin their journey south for the winter. When Max gets blown off course and ends up at the North Pole, his adventure begins. The tale of family, friendship and hope set to timeless holiday hits, including Nat King Cole, Mariah Carey, and Tchaikovsky, will play for one night only at Winspear Opera House.

The Hip Hop Nutcracker
The Hip Hop Nutcracker, recorded at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, is a contemporary dance spectacle set to Tchaikovsky’s timeless music. The evening-length production is performed by a cast of a dozen all-star dancers, a DJ, a violinist, and MC Kurtis Blow, one of hip hop’s founding fathers, who opens the show with a short set. Presented by the Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson, the livestream will take place on Friday and be available to stream on-demand for 48 hours for VIP ticketholders.

Saturday, December 19

Jack Ingram in concert
Over the past 25 years, country singer Jack Ingram has become such a big part of the Texas music landscape that he's even teamed up with two other Texas celebrities — former UT football coach Mack Brown and actor Matthew McConaughey — for an annual fundraiser event in Austin. He's also released 10 albums in his career, including 2019's Ridin' High ... Again. He'll play twice on Saturday at The Kessler.

kNOwBOX Dance Film Festival
The kNOwBOX dance Film Festival will feature a drive-in art reception and screening of 20 national and international dance-related films at Tin Star Theater. The festival is interested in curating dance films that explore an innovative approach to collaboration, mixed media, and interdisciplinary filmmaking. It seeks dance-related films that challenge the possibilities of what dance can look like in video form.

The Women's Chorus of Dallas presents Love & Joy! A Virtual Holiday Concert
The Women's Chorus of Dallas is going virtual this holiday season. Love & Joy will feature virtual choir recordings and unique visuals. There will be a live premiere watch party on Saturday, and the concert will be available to stream at any time through Monday.

The Statler presents A Night of Comedy with Mo Amer & Michelle Wolf
The Statler will launch its new comedy series, A Night of Comedy, with performances by Mo Amer & Michelle Wolf, hosted by DJ Cipha Sounds. Amer is a Palestinian-American stand-up comedian who's has a supporting role in Hulu's Ramy, while Wolf worked as a contributor and writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers before hosting the Netflix comedy talk show series The Break with Michelle Wolf.

Sunday, December 20

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Moth to Cloth: Silk in Africa" opening day
Throughout the world, silk is used to make cloth and is associated with wealth and status. This rare natural fiber is also indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa. In this installation, cloths drawn from the DMA’s collection explore the production of silk and silk textiles in Ghana, Nigeria, and Madagascar. The exhibition will remain on display through October 24, 2021.

Texas Ballet Theater will present virtual versions of both The Nutcracker and The Nutty Nutcracker, available to stream at any time through December 26.

Photo courtesy of Texas Ballet Theater

Texas Ballet Theater will present virtual versions of both The Nutcracker and The Nutty Nutcracker, available to stream at any time through December 26.

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Movie Review

Comedy all-stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd can't save Anaconda sequel

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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