Weekend Event Planner

These are the 14 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

Another big weekend across Dallas will feature a wide variety of events. Music lovers will appreciate a piano competition, a three-day festival-style event, and two big concerts. Theater lovers will get three new local productions. Dance lovers have three events from which to choose, including the national tour of an iconic show. Throw in an Oscar winner, a fan event with big celebrities, and a unique visual experience, and this weekend has something for everybody.

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, June 8

Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition
Through four rounds of competition, including a final round with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, elite young artists will showcase their virtuosity and touch hearts with their musicality during the Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition. There will be two rounds of concerts over four days at Caruth Auditorium on the SMU campus this weekend, followed by the semifinal and final rounds next week. There will also be a free public concert at NorthPark Center on Sunday.

Events with Oscar winner Roger Deakins
One of the most acclaimed cinematographers of all time, Roger Deakins will be in town this weekend for a series of events. On Thursday will be a Byways Book Signing with Roger & James Deakins, at which Deakins and his longtime collaborator and wife, James, will talk about their new book and career, followed by a screening of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Other Deakins films to be screened include Sicario on Friday, No Country for Old Men on Saturday, and Blade Runner 2049 on Sunday, the latter of which will include Q&A with Roger and James Deakins. All events will be at Texas Theatre.

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents Hubblo Immersive Cinema Dome Experiences
The Hubblo Immersive Cinema Dome uses cutting-edge 360° film technology to create a fully immersive experience. Audiences recline comfortably as 4k films surround them during an hour-long journey of light and sound. There are three different experiences to enjoy, including the Family 360° Film Experience, Music Lovers 360° Film Experience, and Explorer’s 360° Film Experience. The event will take place daily through July 9 at Wyly Theatre.

Broadway Dallas presents Riverdance 25th Anniversary Show
Riverdance's 25th anniversary show is a powerful and stirring reinvention of the beloved favorite, celebrated the world over for its Grammy award‐winning score and the thrilling energy and passion of its Irish and international dance. The ground-breaking show has been completely reimagined with innovative lighting, projection, stage, and costume designs. After playing on Tuesday and Wednesday, there will be one final show on Thursday at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Rover Dramawerks presents Lobby Hero
Jeff is a young security guard trying to get his life together after being thrown out of the navy. But he is drawn into a local murder investigation involving his supervisor, a tightly wound young man called upon to bear witness against his troubled brother, and an overzealous rookie cop who finds she must stand up to her unscrupulous, seasoned partner. Truth becomes elusive and justice proves costly. The production runs through June 24 at Cox Playhouse in Plano.

Kitchen Dog Theater presents 25th Annual New Works Festival
The 25th annual New Works Festival from Kitchen Dog Theater will be headlined by the mainstage production, The Last Truck Stop. The world premiere production centers on a tenacious trucker-turned-truck-stop-owner and her poetic, gun-toting postal carrier, who debate staying or going when their desert town becomes a no-go zone. The production runs through June 25 at Trinity River Arts Center The festival also includes PUP Fest on June 10 at Booker T. Washington High School, and a Staged Reading Series at Trinity River Arts Center (June 17 and 24).

Shakespeare Dallas presents Shakespeare in the Park: Much Ado About Nothing
For some in Much Ado About Nothing, love begins at first sight. For others, love has been forsworn. The war is over. Pedro Prince of Aragon, with his followers Benedick and Claudio, visits Leonato, Duke of Messina, father of Hero and uncle of Beatrice. Claudio who fights for his love for Hero, and Benedick, who has forsworn women until his friends make him believe that he has caught the eye of Lady Beatrice. Much Ado About Nothing will play in repertory with Two Gentlemen of Verona (opening June 14) through July 16 at Samuell-Grand Amphitheater.

Friday, June 9

Fan Expo Dallas
Fan Expo Dallas is the largest sci-fi, horror, anime, and gaming event in Texas, featuring family-friendly attractions, events, and celebrities. Celebrity guests will includehttps://dallas.culturemap.com/news/entertainment/fan-expo-lampoons-stranger-things/ Zachary Levi from Shazam!; Hayden Christensen from Star Wars; Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Christie Brinkley, and Randy Quaid from National Lampoon's Vacation; Carrie-Anne Moss from The Matrix; Rosario Dawson from Ahsoka; Jon Bernthal from The Punisher; Christina Ricci from Wednesday and Yellowjackets; Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, and other actors from Clerks; and more. The event goes through Sunday at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

AEG presents Re:SET
Re:SET, a fresh take on the multi-artist outdoor concert, is coming to the grounds of Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie, featuring headliners boygenius, Steve Lacy and LCD Soundsystem. The concert series creates a unique, localized experience for fans, with each headliner curating the lineup for their respective day. On Thursday, boygenius will be bringing along indie standouts Clairo, Dijon, and Bartees Strange. On Friday, Steve Lacy will feature James Blake, Toro y Moi, and Fousheé. Travelling with LCD Soundsystem on Sunday are Jamie xx, IDLES, Big Freedia, and more.

TITAS / Dance Unbound presents Ballet BC
Bold, innovative, and uniquely great, Ballet British Columbia is an internationally acclaimed Canadian contemporary dance company. The program includes Crystal Pite’s The Statement, as well as Garden by Medhi Walerski and Bedroom Folk by Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar. The performance takes place at Winspear Opera House.

Saturday, June 10

Duran Duran in concert
English new wave band Duran Duran - which was named after a character from the movie Barbarella, of all things - has endured for over 40 years, much longer than most '80s bands. Though their biggest hits - "Hungry Like the Wolf," "A View to a Kill," "Ordinary World" - all come from the '80s and '90s, they have continued to evolve their sound so that they remain relevant amid much younger bands. They'll play at American Airlines Center in support of their 2021 album, Future Past, joined by Bastille and Nile Rodgers & Chic.

Parker McCollum in concert
Country singer and Texas native Parker McCollum has been a fixture on the local festival scene since releasing his debut album in 2015, but in 2021 he skipped over all the smaller venues in the area and went straight to Dos Equis Pavilion. Now playing there for his third year in a row. McCollum is touring in support of his just-released fourth album, Never Enough.

Bruce Wood Dance presents Grace
Bruce Wood Dance will close its 22-23 season with Grace, featuring the world premiere of Ghost by Emmy Award-winning choreographer Ben Needham-Wood. Artistic director Joy Bollinger premieres And Heaven and Nature, a look at the seemingly divine design of planet Earth. The reprise of Bruce Wood’s jazzy blockbuster, Rhapsody in Blue, closes the innovative mixed bill. There will be performances on both Saturday and Sunday at Moody Performance Hall.

Photo by Stephanie Pistel

Duran Duran will play at American Airlines Center on June 10.

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Movie Review

Lazy 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' remake hooks nothing but nostalgia

Photo by Brook Rushton

Sarah Pidgeon, Madelyn Cline and Chase Sui Wonders in I Know What You Did Last Summer.

When the original I Know What You Did Last Summer came out in 1997, it was riding the coattails of Scream, which came out in 1996. Like that film, it featured hot young actors of the time, albeit with a story that was much more standard than the inventive Scream. Still, it made enough of an impact for some studio executive to think it was worth reviving nearly 30 years later with its own legacy-quel.

In the new I Know What You Did Last Summer, a group of five high school friends - Danica (Madelyn Cline), Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), Teddy (Tyriq Withers), and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon) - have reunited at the engagement party for Danica and Teddy on the 4th of July. While on an impromptu trip to watch fireworks on a twisty road in the nearby hills, Teddy goofs off in the middle of the road, causing a truck to swerve and drive off the cliff.

A year later, having sworn to each other to not speak of the accident to anybody, they start getting stalked by a mysterious person in a fisherman’s slicker carrying a hook. With Teddy’s rich father, Grant (Billy Campbell), actively trying to cover up what his son did (as well as the fallout), it’s up to the group to figure out who is coming after them and how to stop that person.

Written and directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, and co-written by Sam Lansky, the film doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel; in fact, it barely builds something that can roll. It might just be the laziest and most incompetent attempt to capitalize on an existing piece of intellectual property. There is almost zero effort put into establishing a connection between the members of the friend group, making them feel like strangers for the entire film.

It doesn’t help that the young male actors in the film - which grows to include Wyatt (Joshua Orpin), a new fiance for Danica - serve no purpose other than to be generically good-looking. The most impactful of the men in the film is the returning Freddie Prinze, Jr., who - along with Jennifer Love Hewitt - has his old character from the first two films shoehorned into the new story. The filmmakers undercut any good feelings from their return by giving them hardly anything to do and then having Hewitt deliver the line, “Nostalgia is overrated.”

The film as a whole never has a sense of momentum. The inciting incident is so tame - they even attempt to save the driver before the truck goes off the cliff - that the guilt they feel and the anger of the person going after them doesn’t feel warranted. Once the attacks start, it is shocking at how low-energy the sequences are, providing no sense of suspense or thrills. The filmmakers resort to the lamest of horror movie tropes, turning the film into a paint-by-numbers affair.

Cline (one of the stars of Netflix’s Outer Banks) and Wonders (The Studio on Apple TV+, Bodies Bodies Bodies) are the clear stars of the film, but their characters are made into inert scream queens, negating any acting talent they possess. Hauer-King, Withers, and Pidgeon don’t bring anything interesting to their characters, existing merely to have someone else for the killer to go after.

Even the worst films can have some kind of redeeming value if you look hard enough, but the only thing I Know What You Did Last Summer has to offer is that it becomes so comically bad by the end that you can’t help but laugh at its ineptitude. Both fans of the original and fans of horror movies in general will feel cheated by the experience.

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I Know What You Did Last Summer opens in theaters on July 18.

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