Weekend Event Planner

These are the 15 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

It's another busy weekend in and around Dallas. There will be two different film festivals, an NFL draft celebration, four new theater productions, two dance events, a quartet of concerts featuring well-known names, a special movie event with famous actor, and more.

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, April 27

Thin Line Fest
Thin Line Fest combines the best of modern media to create an engaging, multi-layered experience. Thin Line Film is the longest running documentary film festival in Texas, while Thin Line Music has a mix of styles from national and regional acts on small and intimate stages. The festival will take place at multiple venues around Denton, including Campus Theatre, Dan's Silverleaf, Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios, and more through Sunday.

Dallas Cowboys Draft Weekend
The Dallas Cowboys Draft Weekend at The Star in Frisco will feature a Draft Day Party on Thursday to watch live coverage of the 2023 NFL Draft, including the Dallas Cowboys’ first round selection. Visitors can see current players and alumni, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, and Rowdy the mascot. On Friday, Draft Night Out will feature live draft coverage, live and local music by Ray Johnston Band, food trucks, lawn games, and more on Tostitos Championship Plaza. The weekend ends with the Dallas Cowboys Draft Day 5K on Saturday and live draft coverage.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Shostakovich Symphony No. 8"
Known for his interpretations of Shostakovich, conductor Jukka Pekka Saraste leads the Dallas Symphony Orchestra through the composer's Eighth Symphony. The concert will also include Sibelius' Pohjola’s Daughter. There will be three performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Prism Movement Theater presents Circe: The Song of Benedito
Circe: The Song of Benedito combines dance, song, and martial arts to tell the story of enslaved Africans from Angola who developed Capoeira. The martial art utilized song and dance to secretly develop techniques that allowed them to escape their captors. There will be six performances of this outdoor production through May 13 at Kidd Springs Park.

Brian Culbertson in concert
Over the course of crafting 25 albums and releasing nearly 40 Billboard No. 1 singles as a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer, jazz/R&B pianist Brian Culbertson has charted his own unique course in music. The Trilogy Tour will feature a mix of songs from The Trilogy Albums, as well as the greatest hits from his catalog. He'll perform at Majestic Theatre.

Friday, April 28

Dallas International Film Festival
The 17th Dallas International Film Festival will feature screenings of more than 100 films submitted from more than 60 countries, as well as Q&A sessions with filmmakers and actors, nightly DIFF Red Carpets, a Festival Lounge, and special events. Notable films in the festival include BlackBerry, A Disturbance in the Force: How the Star Wars Holiday Special Happened, Gibson Icons: Rex Brown of Pantera, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, and more. The festival takes place daily through May 5 at Violet Crown Cinema.

HITS! The Musical
HITS! The Musical is a high energy musical production featuring a cast of 30 members who will take audiences on a musical journey through the decades; highlighting the biggest hits of all time in pop, rock, and Broadway, and the most iconic songs from the 1960s to present day. The production will have a one-night-only performance at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Avant Chamber Ballet presents Women's Choreography Project
To finish their season, Avant Chamber Ballet presents an evening of world premieres and commissions with live music. The program features new works by female-identifying choreographers who are under-represented voices in the creation process in the world of dance. There will be performances on both Friday and Saturday at Sammons Center for the Arts.

Art Centre Theatre presents The Bad Seed
The Bad Seed takes place in a small Southern town where Rhoda is, on the surface, sweet and charming girl, full of old-fashioned graces, loved by her parents, admired by all her elders. But Rhoda’s mother has an uneasy feeling about her. When one of Rhoda’s schoolmates is mysteriously drowned at a picnic, Rhoda's mother is alarmed. The production runs through May 13 at Art Centre Theatre in Plano.

Dinosaur Jr. in concert
Alt-rock band Dinosaur Jr. has been around for nearly 40 years, gaining cult status thanks to '90s songs like "Start Choppin'" and "Feel the Pain." Led by lead singer J Mascis since the beginning, the band took a break in the late '90s/early 2000s before reuniting in 2005, releasing five more albums, most recently 2021's Sweep It Into Space. They'll play at Longhorn Ballroom.

Bruce Wood Dance presents 13th Anniversary Performance & Gala
Bruce Wood Dance's 13th Anniversary Performance & Gala will feature the work of choreographic legend Lar Lubovitch. The performance also features the world premiere of Conversing with Brahms, the Dallas premiere of his masterwork, Concerto Six Twenty–Two, and the return of his jubilant Elemental Brubeck. A gala dinner and entertainment will follow the show at Moody Performance Hall.

Saturday, April 29

Hardy in concert
Going only by his last name, country singer Hardy has quickly made a name for himself in the genre. He released his debut album, A Rock, in 2020, which featured the No. 1 song "One Beer." He's already had one hit song, "Wait in the Truck," off of his 2023 sophomore album, The Mockingbird and the Crow, with more sure to come. He'll play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

Ochre House Theater presents Darken: Less A Light On
Ochre House Theater presents Darken: Less A Light On, which takes place in truly absurd times. A woman, having done something brave, now fears for her safety, and falls into a cloud of fear and paranoia. An oddball group of friends, family and strangers try to push her forward, or pull her back. The Absurdist piece points out the fears (both outside and within) people live with, in these precarious times. The production runs through May 20.

Sunday, April 30

Bruce Campbell presents Bruce-O-Rama: Evil Dead II
Cult favorite genre film star Bruce Campbell comes to Dallas as a part of his tour, Bruce-O-Rama. A two-part evening of indulgent fun, it begins with Last Fan Standing, an interactive game show exclusively for fans of pop culture. In the second half, Campbell will introduce Evil Dead II and take questions before the screening in a lively half-hour of anecdotes, insults, and random cash giveaways. The event takes place at Texas Theatre.

Seal in concert
Seal comes to Dallas as part of his 30th Anniversary Tour, commemorating three decades of his landmark self-titled 1991 debut album and eponymous follow-up Seal II (1994). He will perform the records in their entirety for the first time, delivering a set highlighted by hits like “Crazy,” “Future Love Paradise,” “Killer,” and “Kiss From A Rose.” Soul staples and standards will be peppered throughout the concert, taking place at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Photo courtesy of Seal

Seal will play at the Music Hall at Fair Park on April 30.

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Movie Review

The Magic Faraway Tree is a whimsical family lark that fails to take root

Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

Andrew Garfield, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Claire Foy, Phoenix Laroche, and Billie Gadson in The Magic Faraway Tree.

With kids and families always on the hunt for entertainment, it’s typically a safe bet for a movie studio to offer up something new, even if it is a film based on an old property. The Magic Faraway Tree, based on a series of books that started in the 1930s, is a very old property, one that its filmmakers have tried to liven up with a few stars, a lot of whimsy, and a boatload of CGI.

The Thompson family, led by stay-at-home dad Tim (Andrew Garfield) and breadwinner mom Polly (Claire Foy), are forced to move to a rundown country home when Polly gets laid off. The kids - Joe (Phoenix Laroche), Fran (Billie Gadson), and Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy) - are used to the perks of city life like wifi and electricity, and each of them rebels in their own way to their new lot in life.

Fran, enticed by a fairy named Silky (Nicola Coughlan), is the first to venture out of the house, making her way to a magic tree that transports her to a world full of strange characters like Moonface (Nonso Anozie), Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns), Dame Washalot (Jessica Gunning), and more. Her adventures there not only broaden the world she thought she knew, but may be the key to helping her ailing family.

Directed by Ben Gregor and written by Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2, Wonka), the film is a pleasant enough lark, but it fails to fully capture the imagination. The five-member family has a lot going on, from an initially-mute Fran to a domestic situation that raises more questions than it answers. The film tries to incorporate an anti-technology message through Tim’s hatred of a smart refrigerator (voiced by Judi Dench!) and the kids' addictions to devices, but it’s quickly shed in favor of other options.

Once Fran makes it to the Magic Faraway Tree, there’s a nice shift in the storytelling, but it’s unclear what the ultimate goal is. It’s a good idea to have Fran, the youngest of the children, convince her older, more cynical siblings about the virtues of the magic world, but the conflict in the real world doesn’t seem to rise to the level needed for the escape the tree provides.

There also seems to be a missing link in the storytelling for viewers to understand the importance of the fantastical characters. The visuals of seeing Moonface and his crescent moon-shaped hair, a man with a suit full of banging pots, and more are fun for a while, but not enough to carry the whole film. A last-minute revelation feels like it was something that should have been disclosed much earlier to help strengthen the emotions of the story.

A two-time Oscar nominee, Garfield is making his first foray into family movies (if you don’t count playing Spider-Man), and while he does a good job, he doesn’t make the best fit for the semi-goofy role. The same goes for the Emmy-winning Foy, who isn’t given much of anything to do. The movie puts the story on the shoulders of the three child actors, and while each of them acquit themselves well, none of them are so outstanding as to be noteworthy.

With nearly 90-year-old source material, The Magic Faraway Tree needed to be something truly special to stand out in the 21st century movie world. Unfortunately, it features a mostly forgettable story that features some fun visuals, a couple of cute kids, and not much else.

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The Magic Faraway Tree is now playing in theaters.

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