Weekend Event Planner

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

It's a big theater weekend across Dallas, with no fewer than six productions starting their runs, including the national tour of a Broadway musical. There will also be four concerts in a four different genres and three comedy events, most notably from a comedian who's so popular he can fill up large arenas.

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, August 8

The Firehouse Theatre presents Jimmy Buffett's Escape to Margaritaville
Jimmy Buffett’s Escape to Margaritaville is an upbeat and energetic musical that tells the story of a part-time bartender, part-time singer, and full-time charmer named Tully who thinks he’s got life all figured out until a beautiful career-minded tourist steals his heart and makes him question everything. The musical comedy, running through August 25 at The Firehouse Theatre in Farmers Branch, features classic Jimmy Buffett songs like “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “Margaritaville,” “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” “Fins,” “Volcano,” and more.

Fair Assembly presents King Lear
An aging king abdicates the throne, but clings to his authority. Betrayal, sedition, and revenge plague the kingdom, and the storm surges on, inside and out. Starring Dennis Raveneau with music by Ian Ferguson, Shakespeare’s King Lear presents the battle of a lifetime: the rage against mortality. The production runs through August 17 at Latino Cultural Center.

Broadway Dallas presents Funny Girl
Funny Girl is a love letter to the theater with one of the most celebrated musical scores of all time, including classic songs “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” “I’m the Greatest Star,” and “People.” The bittersweet comedy is the story of the indomitable Fanny Brice, a girl from the Lower East Side who dreamed of a life on the stage. Everyone told her she’d never be a star, but then something funny happened - she became one of the most beloved performers in history, shining brighter than the brightest lights of Broadway. The national tour runs through August 18 at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Friday, August 9

Jordan Davis in concert
Country/pop singer Jordan Davis got a later start in the music industry than some of his peers, releasing his first album, Home State, at the age of 30 in 2018. He went from zero to 60 pretty quickly, though, with each of his first six singles making the top 10 on the Country charts, including the No. 1 "Buy Dirt" with Luke Bryan. Davis will play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving in support of his 2023 album, Bluebird Days.

Photo by Peggy Sirota

Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco will perform at American Airlines Center on August 10.

CenterStage Theatre Works presents Alice By Heart
Alice by Heart is a moving musical inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Young Alice Spencer escapes her London bunker during World War II into her favorite book. As Alice's adventure unfolds, the line between reality and fantasy blurs, forcing her to confront the world around her. What begins as an escape turns into a journey of self-discovery, as she comes to terms with love, loss, dreams, and death in a time of war. The production runs through August 18 at CenterStage Theatre Works in Fairview.

10CC in concert
British band 10CC may not be top of mind for the general population when it comes to groups that came from the other side of the pond. But the band, which released its debut album in 1972, has a couple of indelible mid-'70s hits - "I'm Not in Love" and "The Things We Do for Love" - that secured their place in music history. They'll play at Majestic Theatre as part of their The Ultimate Greatest Hits Tour.

Improv Addison presents Trae Crowder
Trae Crowder first gained attention (or notoriety, depending on your politics) in 2016 for his viral series of “Liberal Redneck” comedic rant videos. Since then, Crowder has written a book, toured the country thrice over, appeared on HBO, ABC, MTV, WTF with Marc Maron, and in the Veronica Mars reboot, among others. He'll perform five times through Sunday at Improv Addison.

Theatre Arlington presents Big Fish
Big Fish tells the story of Edward Bloom, whose incredible, larger-than-life stories thrill everyone around him. Overflowing with heart and humor, itis an extraordinary musical that makes for an experience that’s richer, funnier, and bigger than life itself. The production runs through August 25 at Theatre Arlington.

Grupo Frontera in concert
Regional Mexican band Grupo Frontera, out of Edinburg, Texas, is relatively new to the music business, releasing two EPs in 2022 and then albums in back-to-back years in 2023 and 2024. In that short amount of time, they've become one of the biggest acts in their genre, with seven No. 1 hits, including collaborations with other stars like Junior H, Carín León, Christian Nodal, and Shakira. They'll play at American Airlines Center in support of their new album, Jugando a Que No Pasa Nada.

Saturday, August 10

The LadyGang Podcast: You Never Forget Your First
Hosts Keltie Knight, Becca Tobin, and Jac Vanek of the podcast LadyGang will present a live performance of their unfiltered and high-energy show, complete with good week bad week, freebies, giveaways, audience participation and some wild and crazy LadyGames. They'll perform at The Echo Lounge & Music Hall in Dallas.

Sebastian Maniscalco: It Ain't Right Tour
Comedian, actor, and podcast host Sebastian Maniscalco has been performing for over two decades, starring in six comedy specials for networks such as Netflix, Showtime, and Comedy Central. He can also be seen in the new MAX series, Bookie, and in recent films like The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Spinning Gold, Somewhere in Queens, and About My Father. He'll perform at American Airlines Center.

Ochre House Theater presents Daddy's Rabbits: A Cotton Tale
Mommy and Daddy run a quaint boarding house, where eccentric boarders reside together in perfect harmony with Daddy’s hutch of jackrabbits. Life is "status quo" until a stranger arrives. Daddy’s Rabbits is an enchanting, immersive world of magic, music, spectacle, and long forgotten fables. The production runs through August 31 at Ochre House Theater.

Sunday, August 11

I Prevail and Halestorm in concert
Rock can be a tough genre in which to find success in the 21st century, but I Prevail and Halestorm have both find their niche. I Prevail first got notice for their cover of Taylor Swift's "Blank Space," and have gone on have decent showings on the Billboard 200 with their three albums, most recently True Power in 2022. Co-headliner Halestorm has done a bit better, even notching two top 10 albums among their five releases. They'll play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

broadway musical tour comedy concerts event-planner music podcasts sebastian maniscalco tour theater

Movie Review

Animated Disney film Elio is fun but falls short of Pixar top tier

Photo courtesy of Pixar

Elio (Yonas Kibreab) and Glordon (Remy Edgerly) in Elio.

Pixar has done a ton of different things in the 28 feature films they’ve released over the past 30 years, but the one they’d never done is deal with aliens (and, no, the alien toys in Toy Story don’t count). Now they’re going where many storytellers have gone before, but in their own unique way, in the new film Elio.

Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) is a space fanatic who has recently lost both of his parents in an unnamed event. His Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) is now his guardian, and because she happens to be a member of the U.S. Space Force, Elio finds himself tantalizingly close to communications from space. With a desire to be abducted by aliens for both curiosity and sentimental reasons, Elio sends a message into space, hoping for some kind of response.

He gets that and more when a ship full of multiple types of beings takes him into space, believing him to be a leader instead of a child. An encounter with a hostile force led by Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett) gives Elio both a new friend, Grigon’s son Glordon (Remy Edgerly), and responsibility for maintaining peace during an unexpected galactic crisis.

Pixar has not typically followed the route of many Disney movies of giving their child protagonist the trauma of dead parents, and doing so here is the first of a few minor missteps. Having Olga be his mom instead of his aunt would have altered their dynamic, but only slightly. While Elio is shown to miss his parents, his major focus is on making contact with aliens. Since the film only briefly deals with his grief, it would have been better served by excising it altogether.

For the most part, the film is goofy, with Elio’s enthusiasm for aliens matched by the oddness of the creatures he meets in space. The filmmakers - there are three credited directors and three credited writers - seem to have taken inspiration from sea creatures and Pixar’s own history, as the main bad guy emulates Mike and Sully’s boss from Monsters, Inc. Almost every character in the film is heightened to a degree that makes for funny situations, but not as much sentimentality as other Pixar offerings.

Surprisingly, especially since the film ends with a voiceover from notable astronomer Carl Sagan, the filmmakers play fast and loose with real-life science. Elio’s journeys to and from the alien spaceship are treated as close-to-instantaneous trips, even involving portals directly to Earth. The idea of the story doesn’t allow them to delve into things like relativistic time dilation, but there still could have been other scientific references to keep the story aboveboard.

There are very few stars to be found among the film’s voice cast other than Saldaña and Garrett, who are each fine if unmemorable. Kibreab and Edgerly are given many more scenes than anyone else, and they each do a great job of bringing out both the joy and naivete of their characters. Some lesser-known actors like Jameela Jamil, Atsuko Okatsuka, and Brendan Hunt show up in minor roles, but they don’t stand out in any way.

The story and characters in Elio are sweet and fun, but the film as a whole falls well short of the top tier Pixar movies. The filmmakers could have gone many different directions with a story about a boy who wants to be abducted by aliens, and the way they chose ended up being innocuous and less than compelling.

---

Elio opens in theaters on June 20.

movies film