Weekend Event Planner

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

This weekend in and around Dallas brings a fun selection of events designed to appeal to a wide range of ages and tastes. Choices include a symphony concert, a national Broadway tour, a stage version of a favorite kids show, two local theater productions, three concerts from a variety of genres, an early spring display, motorcycle racing, and more.

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

Thursday, February 22

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony"
Showing off the power and majesty of “the king of instruments,” Bradley Hunter Welch is at the Lay Family Concert Organ when the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, led by Fabio Luisi, performs Saint-Saëns’s grand Romantic “Organ Symphony.” Also featured on this program is Year 2020, a piece written by SMU professor and composer Xi Wang, and Mahler's Blumine movement from Symphony No. 1. The concert will have four performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Broadway Dallas presents Beetlejuice
Based on Tim Burton’s dearly beloved film, the hilarious musical Beetlejuice tells the story of Lydia Deetz, a strange and unusual teenager whose whole life changes when she meets a recently deceased couple and a demon with a thing for stripes. Beetlejuice is a remarkably touching show about family, love, and making the most of every Day-O. The production runs through March 3 at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Friday, February 23

Bluey’s Big Play The Stage Show
Fans of all ages will get to see Bluey, Bingo, Bandit, and Chilli as they’ve never seen them before, as the Heelers perform in a live theater show featuring puppetry, live actors, and more. Based on an original story written by Bluey creator Joe Brumm, Bluey’s Big Play The Stage Show also contains new music by Bluey composer Joff Bush. There will be four performances through Sunday at Majestic Theatre.

Verdigris Ensemble presents Dust Bowl
Anthony J. Maglione’s commissioned work Dust Bowl features first-hand accounts of survivors of the Dust Bowl with additional newspaper articles and diary entries. It tells a story of the 1930s, but remains shockingly relevant today. In collaboration with a bluegrass band, video projection, and choreographed movement, Verdigris Ensemble brings Dust Bowl back to Dallas and asks how this happened and whether we have learned from our mistakes. There will be four performances through Sunday at Wyly Theatre.

Hyena's presents Adam Ray
Comedian Adam Ray is known onstage for his stories about bumping into celebrities, life in Los Angeles, talking about his mom, and his single friends. Lately, he’s also been making waves as an actor: playing the role of Vince McMahon in Young Rock, Jay Leno in Pam & Tommy, and starring in The Bellmen. His YouTube videos - which include a recent poignant This American Life story - have over 50 million views and his podcast About Last Night features tons of celebrities. He'll perform four times through Saturday at Hyena's Comedy Club.

Theatre Coppell presents Crimes of the Heart
The three Magrath sisters are back together in their hometown of Hazelhurst, Mississippi for the first time in a decade. Under the scorching heat of the Mississippi sun, past resentments bubble to the surface and each sister must come to terms with the consequences of her own “crimes of the heart." The production runs through March 10 at Coppell Arts Center.

Phillip Phillips in concert
The reality singing competition American Idol has produced its fair share of stars, sometimes from the winner's circle, sometimes not. Phillip Phillips won the 11th season of the show in 2012 on the strength of his song "Home," which went on to become the best-selling song in Idol history. Phillips recently released the fourth album of his career, Drift Back. He'll play at Longhorn Ballroom.

Saturday, February 24

Dallas Arboretum presents Dallas Blooms: A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words
The Dallas Arboretum celebrates spring with one of the Southwest’s biggest annual floral festivals, Dallas Blooms: A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words. It features 500,000 spring blooming flowers from more than 120 varieties. Dallas Blooms also features an abundance of garden markets with select vendors, live music, and more. The festival takes place daily through April 8.

Monster Energy AMA Supercross
The world’s best two-wheel racers converge on Arlington for one night of non-stop action. In addition to the motocross races, the event will feature the final two rounds of the Monster BMX Triple Challenge, comprised of the best BMX Freestyle riders in the world, and a Fanfest, with activities including a video game rig, pump track, toy play tables, and exhibitions. The event takes place at AT&T Stadium.

Eden Sher: I Was On A Sitcom
Eden Sher, who starred on The Middle for nine seasons, presents I Was On A Sitcom, a show about finding out who you are when your TV show ends and your "real life" begins. It’s funny, it’s dark, vulnerable, and disarmingly casual - it’s like having a night out with Sher herself, telling you a story over drinks. The show will be the Studio Theatre at Wyly Theatre.

Erykah Badu: Another Badu Birthday Bash
Best known for her eccentric style and cerebral music, Erykah Badu is a four-time Grammy Award-winning American soul singer and songwriter. Regarded as the "First Lady of Neo-Soul" or the "Queen of Neo-Soul," Badu’s sound - a concoction of soul, hip-hop and jazz - cannot be contained to a single genre. A few months after finishing her biggest tour in years, she'll celebrate another year around the sun at this annual concert at The Factory at Deep Ellum.

Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts presents Brian Stokes Mitchell Trio
Two-time Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell has enjoyed a career that spans Broadway, television, film, and concert appearances with the country’s finest conductors and orchestras. He received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards for his star turn in Kiss Me, Kate. He also gave Tony-nominated performances in Man of La Mancha, August Wilson’s King Hedley II, and Ragtime. In 2016 he was awarded his second Tony Award, the Isabelle Stevenson Tony for his work with The Actors Fund. The performance will be at Eisemann Center for Performing Arts in Richardson.

Sunday, February 25

Dallas Museum of Art presents "From Munch to Kirchner: The Heins Collection of Modern and Expressionist Art" opening day
"From Munch to Kirchner: The Heins Collection of Modern and Expressionist Art" will highlight the legacy of Marie "Elinor" Heins through the recent gift of 30 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from her heirs. The Heins collection is divided evenly between late 19th and early 20th century art movements, featuring works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Signac, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, and Edvard Munch, artists who depicted contemporary subjects in an equally contemporary style. The exhibition will remain on display through January 5, 2025.

Photo by Matthew Murphy

Broadway Dallas presents Beetlejuice at the Music Hall at Fair Park through March 3.

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Movie Review

New biopic 'Jimmy' salutes Jimmy Stewart's service in World War II

Photo courtesy of Papaian Studios

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Actor Jimmy Stewart, thanks to movies such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Shop Around the Corner, and The Philadelphia Story, had the reputation early in his career as the everyman in Hollywood, someone to whom most audiences could relate. That became even more true when Stewart entered the military during World War II, a period that is explored in the new biopic, Jimmy.

The film was co-produced with Fort Worth-based Papaian Studios and received a red-carpet premiere as part of the Lone Star Film Festival on Wednesday, November 4. Stewart had several ties to Fort Worth, which were celebrated at the event.

Stewart (KJ Apa) was riding high in 1941, coming off his first (and only) Oscar win for The Philadelphia Story. As depicted in the film, his life is upended when he receives a military draft notice as the U.S. prepares for war. He’s determined to serve, but people like studio head Louis B. Mayer (Jason Alexander) try to talk him out of it. Already an experienced pilot, he eventually joins the war in Europe, flying the B-24 bomber.

Despite his celebrity status, Stewart requests to be treated the same as any other soldier, which means flying multiple missions over enemy territory. He moves up the ranks, becoming a leader tasked with, among other things, reporting the deaths of service members to their families. He also starts a friendship that develops into a romance with Lady Julia (Kara Killmer), giving him a distraction from the horrors of war.

Directed by Aaron Burns and written by Justin Strawhand, the film has the clear goal of being a hagiography for Stewart, showing all of his good qualities and few of his bad ones. In fact, the character of Stewart is harder on himself than the actual movie is, chastising himself over the deaths of fellow soldiers that he likely could not have prevented. The filmmakers go to great lengths to show how good and well-respected Stewart was, something that may well be true, but doesn’t make for great drama.

The bulk of the film features Stewart at war, following him and others as they fly multiple missions and commiserate over the price of combat. The sequences are fine, but the film’s budget does not appear to be high, and so the CGI needed to recreate the scenes is noticeably subpar. Because Burns and Strawhand usually keep to surface-level storytelling and don’t go deep on any character besides Stewart, his time at war is engaging but slight.

The film is bookended by Stewart and Frank Capra (Max Casella) making It’s a Wonderful Life, Stewart’s first film after coming back from war. It’s here where the movie becomes most interesting as Stewart, still affected by his war experience, struggles to bring the character of George Bailey to life. The behind-the-scenes look at the film-within-the-film and the recreations of its iconic scenes are catnip for anyone who knows/loves the Christmas classic.

Apa, best known for starring as Archie on the TV show Riverdale, does extremely well as Stewart. He nails Stewart’s quavering voice and the way he ambles about plays right into the actor’s established persona. Casella and Killmer get the most play in supporting roles, and each does solid work as characters trying to understand Stewart. Alexander, Sarah Drew as Hedda Hopper, and Rob Riggle as a colonel each go a little too big in their respective parts.

Jimmy is probably best watched as an approximation of the man Stewart was in the 1940s, not as something that’s completely true to life. The film elides or stretches the truth on multiple occasions, which is par for the course in biopics. It could have used some stronger storytelling to make Stewart feel like a real person, not merely a replica of the famous actor.

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Jimmy is now playing in theaters.

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