Weekend Event Planner

These are the 13 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

January is typically slow when it comes to events, with everyone still recovering from the holiday onslaught. But the end of January/beginning of February changes all that, with offerings including a college football showcase, four theater productions, a symphony concert, three well-known comedians, the openings of two art exhibitions, a big tennis tournament, and a concert featuring classic bands.

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 30

East-West Shrine Bowl
The college football season is officially over, but fans can get one last look at some of the best players from around the country at the 100th annual East-West Shrine Bowl. The game, taking place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, is a chance for players to showcase their talents as top NFL Draft prospects in front of all 32 NFL teams’ scouts and executives.

Soul Rep Theatre Company presents The African Company Presents Richard III
The African Company Presents Richard III is a historical play inspired by a true story of the first Black theatrical group in the country, the African Grove Company of New York. Forty years before the Civil War, the African Grove Theatre Troupe in New York sets about staging a production of Richard III to which black and white audiences flock. But when a major (and white) New York company scores a big-name star to be featured in their own production of Richard III, they are determined to shut down the African company's show at any cost. The production runs through February 8 at Bryant Hall, next to Kalita Humphreys Theater.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Brahms’ Violin Concerto"
A work of nearly symphonic proportions, Brahms’s Violin Concerto will be performed by master violinist Augustin Hadelich. The concert, conducted by Fabio Luisi, will also feature Bruckner's Symphony No. 7. There will be four performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Broadway Dallas presents & Juliet
& Juliet flips the script on the greatest love story ever told and asks: What would happen next if Juliet didn’t end it all over Romeo? Juliet ditches her famous ending for a fresh beginning and a second chance at life and love - her way. Her new story bursts to life through a playlist of pop anthems as iconic as her name, including “Since U Been Gone‚” “Roar,” “Baby One More Time,” “Larger Than Life‚” “That’s The Way It Is," and “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” The national tour runs through February 9 at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Improv Addison presents Craig Robinson
Craig Robinson is an actor, stand-up comedian, and singer who's arguably best known for his role as acerbic Dunder-Mifflin employee Darryl Philbin on NBC’s Emmy-winning The Office. He has also starred in films such as Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, the Hot Tub Time Machine series, and This Is the End. He'll perform six times through Sunday at Improv Addison.

Friday, January 31

Frontiers of Flight Museum presents "Aerials" opening day
"Aerials" is a curated photo gallery of U.S. military photojournalists’ stories of flight from the Vietnam era to modern day. The exhibition is not just about aerial photography; it celebrates the collective talent and stories of military photographers who have served the country. The exhibition will remain on display at Frontiers of Flight Museum through September 2.

Dallas Theater Center presents Shane
One of the greatest Westerns of all time finds new life on the stage. Shane, a mysterious ex-gunfighter, is a man with a dangerous past. Yet, the Starrett family finds kinship with him, and Shane helps protect their Wyoming farm. Their story sheds new light on the allure, mythos, and values of the Wild West - a chapter in history that still has many tales to tell. The production runs through February 16 at Kalita Humphreys Theater.

Lyric Stage presents Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill
To honor Black History Month, Lyric Stage will present Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. In 1959, in a small, intimate bar in Philadelphia, Billie Holiday puts on a show that - unbeknownst to the audience - will leave them witnesses to one of the last performances of her lifetime. Through her brilliant voice and sometimes haunting songs, one of the greatest jazz singers of all time shares her loves and her losses. The production runs through February 23 at Lyric Stage.

Katt Williams: Heaven on Earth Tour
Stand-up comedian, actor, rapper, and vanguard in an elite category of professionally-touring comics, Katt Williams is known for his insightful, often polarizing material. The once emancipated teenager performs comedy on his own terms, giving an articulate, sharp dialogue that surfaces with names like Trump, Cosby, and NASA, but is rooted in evergreen conversations like politics, race relations, and police brutality - all a mere (and mirror) reflection of the American political landscape. He'll perform at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie.

Saturday, February 1

Nasher Sculpture Center presents Haegue Yang: "Lost Lands and Sunken Fields" opening day
Nasher Sculpture Center will present "Lost Lands and Sunken Fields," a major exhibition by Haegue Yang (b. Seoul, 1971). Across the museum’s spaces, the exhibition features newly conceived airy and sprawling installations and a dense arrangement of her previous sculptures. For this exhibition, Yang explores a series of contrasts in response to the building’s architecture: light and dark, aerial and grounded, buoyant and heavy, sparse and dense. It will remain on display through April 27.

ATP Tour presents Dallas Open
The Dallas Open will move to the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco for the first time. After elevating its status from an ATP 250 to an ATP 500 event, the field for the tournament will be the strongest since its move to North Texas in 2022. That includes four of the top-ranked American tennis players, Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe, and Ben Shelton. Qualifying will take place on Saturday and Sunday, with main draw play starting on Monday and going through February 9.

Sunday, February 2

The Temptations & The Four Tops in concert
Classic Motown bands The Temptations & The Four Tops come to Dallas to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their first concert together. While the lineups of both bands have changed drastically since their heyday - only one original member of The Temptations, 83-year-old Otis Williams, remains, while a new foursome comprises The Four Tops - their songs remain timeless. Fans will hear hits like "My Girl," "I Can't Help Myself," "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," "Reach Out I'll Be There," and more at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie.

Kumail Nanjiani: Doing This Again
Comedian Kumail Nanjiani has a rich history in comedy, as he's best known for his role on the HBO series Silicon Valley. In recent years, he's appeared in the lead role on Hulu's Welcome to Chippendales and was nominated for an Oscar alongside his wife, Emily V. Gordon, for co-writing The Big Sick. Despite his success on screen, stand-up has always been a true passion. Now, he's ready to bring his sharp observations and unique comedic voice back to live audiences. He'll perform at Majestic Theatre.

Photo by by Matthew Murphy

The national tour of & Juliet will be at the Music Hall at Fair Park through February 9.

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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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