Weekend Event Planner

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

This weekend around Dallas is dominated by concerts, seven in total, with four of them featuring acts still riding high on music they released long ago. There will also be two new theater productions, the start of a unique Biblical exhibition, two great comedy events, and the end of a milestone art exhibition.

Below are the 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, August 24

Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper: "Freaks on Parade" 2023 Tour
Shock rockers Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper are joining forces to co-headline the 2023 "Freaks on Parade" Tour. Cooper is as long-lasting as they come, having released albums in seven different decades, including 2023's Road. Zombie truly lives up to his reputation, with seven albums with scary-sounding titles, most recently 2021's The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy. They'll be joined at Dos Equis Pavilion by supporting acts Ministry and Filter.

Lyric Stage presents Cinderella
Lyric Stage opens its 30th season with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. The adaptation of the timeless fairytale brings new spirit to the story of a young woman forced into servitude who dreams of – and achieves – a better life. The musical features some of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most beloved songs, including “In My Own Little Corner,” “Impossible,” and “Ten Minutes Ago.” The production will have five performances through Sunday at Majestic Theatre.

Carin León in concert
Mexican singer/songwriter Carin León has been taking the Latin music world by storm since releasing his debut album, El Malo, in 2019. He's now released three albums in four years, including the new Colmillo de Leche, which marked his first entry onto both the Top Latin Albums and Regional Mexican Albums charts on Billboard. He's developed quite the following, as indicated by this concert taking place at American Airlines Center.

Friday, August 25

50 Cent in concert
Rapper 50 Cent comes to Dallas as part his "The Final Lap" Tour. He will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of his 2003 debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin', performing dozens of fan-favorite and chart-topping hits along with select tracks that have not been performed live in years. He'll be joined at Dos Equis Pavilion by special guests Busta Rhymes and Jeremih.

Theatre Arlington presents Avenue Q
Avenue Q is a puppet-filled comedy (for adults) that follows a group of twenty-somethings seeking their purpose in big-city life. The laugh-out-loud musical tells the timeless story of a recent college grad named Princeton, who moves into a shabby New York apartment all the way out on Avenue Q. He soon discovers that, although the residents seem nice, it’s clear that this is not your ordinary neighborhood. The production runs through September 10 at Theatre Arlington.

Randall King in concert
A throwback to classic country, Randall King formed an Americana group in college called the Randall King Band, which released an album called Old Dirt Road before splitting. He then debuted as a solo artist in 2016 with the EP Another Bullet before releasing his first self-titled album in 2018. He'll play at Longhorn Ballroom in support of his 2022 album, Shot Glass.

Hyena's presents Helen Hong
A fan favorite on the hit NPR podcast Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Helen Hong has been a recurring character on HBO's Silicon Valley, CBS' The Unicorn, and others. She will perform four times through Saturday at Hyena's in Mockingbird Station.

Saturday, August 26

Kidz Bop "Never Stop Live" Tour
The Kidz Bop Never Stop Live Tour introduces four new Kidz Bop Kids - Jackson, Kiya, Shila, and Tyler - who will perform today's biggest hits live on stage. Kidz Bop is touring in support of their album Kidz Bop 2023, which includes pop hits like "Anti-Hero," "About That Time," "Sunroof," and "Late Night Talking." The concert takes place at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo in concert
Fans know and love Pat Benatar for hit songs like "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," "Love Is a Battlefield," "We Belong," and more. The name Neil Giraldo may not be as familiar, but the guitarist has been Benatar's musical partner since 1979, and her husband since 1982. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame together in 2022, they will play at Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie.

Sunday, August 27

Nasher Sculpture Center presents Mark di Suvero: "Steel Like Paper" closing day
After seven months, Mark di Suvero’s “Steel Like Paper” will come to a close at Nasher Sculpture Center. The milestone exhibition of the sculptor’s more than six-decade career surveys di Suvero’s work, showing rarely-seen drawings and paintings along with small and moderately scaled sculptures, as well as some of the artist’s first forays into working at a large scale.

Please Don’t Destroy Live
The comedy trio Please Don’t Destroy - Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy - performed live sketch together all over New York City before they landed their current gig, writing and making videos for Saturday Night Live. Videos like “Three Sad Virgins” featuring Taylor Swift and Pete Davidson, “Good Variant,” “Hard Seltzer," “The Stakeout,” “Hangxiety,” and more have made them an invaluable part of the legendary program. They'll perform live at The Factory in Deep Ellum.

Summer Block Party featuring Jodeci, SWV, and Dru Hill
Fans of '90s R&B will want to be on hand for the Summer Block Party, as it will feature performances by Jodeci, SWV, and Dru Hill. Each of the groups was a mainstay on the Billboard R&B charts in the '90s, with Jodeci having the most success with three No. 1 albums. They'll play all the hits at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory.

Photo by Hannah Bell

Theatre Arlington presents Avenue Q, August 25-September 10.

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Movie Review

Film sequel Avatar: Fire and Ash is a technical and visual feast

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.

The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.

Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.

The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.

Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.

A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.

There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.

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