Weekend Event Planner

These are the 11 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

This weekend around Dallas will feature a bunch of big events, most notably a Broadway musical, two new exhibitions featuring beloved subjects, the unofficial start to baseball season, and a kids movie festival. Other choices include a local theater production, a Lego celebration, a rap concert, a comedy showcase, and the closings of two long-running events.

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

Thursday, January 16

Broadway Dallas presents Come From Away
Come From Away is the true story of the small town that welcomed the world. The musical takes audiences into the heart of the remarkable true story of 7,000 stranded passengers on 9/11, and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them. Cultures clashed and nerves ran high, but uneasiness turned into trust, music soared into the night, and gratitude grew into enduring friendships. The production runs through Sunday at Winspear Opera House.

Friday, January 17

Arlington Museum of Art presents "Princess Diana: Accredited Access Exhibition"
"Princess Diana: Accredited Access Exhibition" tells the story of the world’s most loved princess through an intimate new lens. The exhibition will feature a collection of larger-than-life images taken by Diana’s trusted friend and Official Royal Photographer, the late Anwar Hussein, as well as his sons Samir and Zak. Each image will be accompanied by first-hand accounts of the stories behind the world-famous moments, told through an in-depth audio guide. The exhibition will remain on display through April 6. Read more about it in this story.

Arlington Museum of Art presents "Wicked Threads: The Artistry of Costume in Oz"
"Wicked Threads: The Artistry of Costume in Oz" features a collection of costumes from the movie adaptation of Wicked, celebrating the artistry of the costume design and 20+ years of the beloved Broadway musical. The exhibition will feature original costumes, props, and images from the film including Glinda’s "bubble" dress and Elphaba’s "Defying Gravity" costume. The exhibition will remain on display through April 27. Get a preview here.

Mainstage Irving-Las Colinas presents Deathtrap
Sidney Bruhl, a successful writer of Broadway thrillers, struggles to overcome a dry spell which has resulted in a string of failures and a shortage of funds. A possible break in his fortunes occurs when he receives a script from a student. Sidney’s plan is to offer collaboration to the student for co-credit. Or is it? Deathtrap provides twists and turns of devilish cleverness and offers hilariously sudden shocks in abundance. The production runs through February 1 at Irving Arts Center.

Saturday, January 18

Texas Rangers Fan Fest
The Texas Rangers will present their annual Fan Fest, which will feature autograph sessions with current Rangers players and alumni, Q&A sessions with players and legends, a baseball card show, a chance to run the bases, a Wiffle ball home run derby, and more. The one-day event takes place at Globe Life Field in Arlington.

Brick Fest Live
At Brick Fest Live, families can get hands-on with different brick challenges throughout the event as well as explore community collab builds and master creations from all over the world. The event will feature a Guinness World Record Challenge where visitors can help create a massive floor mosaic. There will also be a Giant Brick Pit, life-size models, brick derby races, a glow zone, hands-on build zones, and a chance to get up close with Lego masters from the hit TV show. The event takes place on Saturday and Sunday at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

KidFilm Family Festival
The 41st Annual KidFilm Family Festival will feature 12 programs with feature films, short films, author appearances, and more. Highlights include a screening of The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, the first fully-animated feature-length film in Looney Tunes history, and an appearance by Aaron Reynolds, author of Creepy Carrots! and more. The festival takes place on Saturday and Sunday at Angelika Film Center in Dallas.

Rod Wave in concert
Rapper Rod Wave may not have the broad name recognition of artists like Kendrick Lamar, Drake, or Jay Z, but that hasn't stopped him from dominating the charts for the past four years. Every one of his last five albums, including Last Lap in 2024, went to No. 1 on the Billboard Rap chart, and most of them also made it to No. 1 on the overall Billboard 200. He'll perform at American Airlines Center.

MLK Comedy Fest featuring Cedric the Entertainer
Those in need of a laugh or two will find way more than that at the MLK Comedy Fest, taking place at Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie. The show, headlined by Cedric the Entertainer, will also feature performances by DC Young Fly, B. Simone, Finesse Mitchell, and more.

Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

Broadway Dallas presents Come From Away at Winspear Opera House through January 19.

Sunday, January 19

Tianyu Lights Festival closing day
Sunday will be the final day to view the Tianyu Lights Festival, located in the festival grounds near Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie. The immersive show tells the story of a 7-year-old boy as he explores the magical rainforest of Caballococha, Peru. It includes 19 immersive scenes featuring larger-than-life lantern sculptures crafted from metal, steel, fabric, and LED lights, plus nightly performances by acrobats and folk performers, as well as food, beverages, and souvenirs for sale.

Monday, January 20

Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue
Monday is a holiday for many people, and it will also be the last chance to experience Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue. The event gives longtime Minecrafters, players and non-players alike, a chance to be heroes in a real-life, in-person Minecraft quest. Visitors can take part in an epic rescue mission and story-based experience where iconic places and creatures from the game are brought to life before their eyes. The event is located in the former Buy Buy Baby location at 2712 N. Central Expressway in Plano, adjacent to DART’s Parker Road station.

theater music galleries movies sports kids families festivals concerts comedy event-planner

Movie Review

The End of Oak Street can't live up to its Spielberg inspirations

Photo by Daniel McFadden

Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway in The End of Oak Street.

Steven Spielberg is the iconic director of the last 50 years, so it’s no surprise that many other filmmakers have borrowed from his classic films. But most of the time those come in the form of references or homages, not straight up theft, which is what it feels like watching The End of Oak Street play out in front of your eyes.

Set in the early 1980s in an idyllic suburban neighborhood of an unnamed city, Denise (Anne Hathaway) and Greg (Ewan McGregor) are parents to two teenagers, Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery). They’re also possibly heading toward divorce, as Audrey is secretly writing a novel with a thinly-veiled plot about their life, and Brian is cagey about having to earn extra money with a pizza delivery job.

That all gets put on the backburner when a mysterious event takes their entire neighborhood back to the time of dinosaurs. Armed with little more than a shotgun and sledgehammer, Audrey and Brian do their best to keep the family safe in their house. But the longer the ordeal goes on, circumstances force them out onto the streets and into the increasing danger that’s all around them.

Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, the film tries immensely hard to be like the Spielberg movies its filmmaker clearly adores, but fails at almost every turn. It never earns the broken family in ‘80s suburbia vibes that were prevalent in E.T., going all in right away in the opening scene with a neighborhood block party that feels forced. Other elements like a bully who has it out for Brian, the family dog that disappears, and an angry neighbor come across as the tropes they are and not as organic parts of the plot.

When it finally gets to its dinosaur sequences, they pale in comparison to those found in Jurassic Park. The strange manner in which the dinosaurs appear is a big part of that, but the action involving them forgoes ominous moments that could build tension for those that play up gore in an unexpected way for a PG-13 movie. Many of the attacks have so little emotional meaning that they come off as comical, which is entertaining but in a hollow way.

As if those weren’t enough, Mitchell - perhaps at the behest of producer J.J. Abrams (who made his own Spielbergian film, Super 8) - tries to honor Spielberg in other ways. Just like in Jaws, he employs the use of a split diopter lens, which keeps characters in both the foreground and background in focus. But instead of using it judiciously, it’s brought out in three separate scenes, including a laughable one with the four family members where it turns into overkill.

Hathaway, coming off of a role in The Odyssey that could earn her an Oscar nomination, is the best part of this film. But even her evident skills are dragged down by the ridiculousness of the story, which requires hysterics that even she can’t sell. McGregor can normally be counted on for a good performance, but he gives several line readings with strange cadences that make his already-underwritten character come off worse. Stella and Convery are okay, but their roles are unmemorable overall.

Mitchell and his team can never settle on exactly what type of film they were trying to make, and so even though The End of Oak Street has a few moments that work, they’re surrounded by many others that don’t. In trying to emulate Spielberg - there’s even a blatant Back to the Future (produced by Spielberg) rip-off towards the end - all Mitchell has done is show how difficult it is to be the master.

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The End of Oak Street opens in theaters on August 14.