Weekend Event Planner

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

Local arts organizations will take center stage this weekend across Dallas, as they comprise nine of the 13 events on this list. They include five theater productions, three dance productions, and an opera. Other choices include a Cirque du Soleil production, the world's most entertaining basketball game, and the final days of a big art exhibition and Harry Potter experience.

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 8

Photo by Olivier Brajon

Cirque du Soleil presents Crystal at Comerica Center in Frisco through February 11.

The Firehouse Theatre presents Something Rotten!
Set in the 1590s, brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom are desperate to write a hit play but are stuck in the shadow of that Renaissance rock star known as "The Bard." When a local soothsayer foretells that the future of theatre involves singing, dancing and acting at the same time, Nick and Nigel set out to write the world’s very first musical. But amid the scandalous excitement of opening night, the Bottom Brothers realize that reaching the top means being true to thine own self, and all that jazz. The production runs through February 25 at the Firehouse Theatre in Farmers Branch.

Echo Theatre presents Feeding the Cat, Incorrectly, Several Times Over
Jo and Jen live parallel lives: They study medicine. They pay the rent. They fight with their partners. And they keep big secrets. When Jo's decision to keep a patient's secret backfires, she is forced to reckon with her responsibility to partners, strangers, and enemies alike. The production runs through February 23 at Bath House Cultural Center.

Cirque du Soleil presents Crystal
At the heart of Crystal lies a captivating tale that transports audiences into a vivid world of playful imagination. Centered around the journey of a young woman named Crystal, this Cirque du Soleil show follows the woman as she embarks on an exhilarating journey of self-discovery full of whimsy and wonder. The production highlights traditional circus acts, including swinging trapeze, aerial straps, hand-balancing, banquine, and pendular poles, that have been adapted to be performed on ice. Crystal will be at Comerica Center in Frisco through Sunday before moving to Fort Worth next weekend.

Kitchen Dog Theater presents Shape
Shape is an action-packed feminist comedy that offers a forthright look into fitness, body image, and how we define strength. For this production, the audience will be "getting back in the gym," both literally and figuratively, as the production takes place at D-Town CrossFit instead of a traditional theater venue. Kitchen Dog Theater is presenting the second-ever professional production and regional premiere of Shape, which will run through February 25.

Friday, February 9

Bruce Wood Dance presents Wood/Shop
The 2024 Wood/Shop features new creations by Bruce Wood Dance company members, including Jaime Borkan, Alex Brown, Kevyn Butler, Sofia Downing-Ortega, Domingo Estrada, Weaver Rhodes, Mia Rosin, Megan Storey, Elliott Trahan, Cole Vernon, and Seth York. There will be three performances through Sunday at Bruce Wood Dance Gallery.

Theatre Arlington presents Cabaret
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome. Audiences will experience the decadence and allure of 1929 Berlin in Cabaret, the Tony Award-winning musical that is a mesmerizing journey through a world of love, desire, and danger. The production runs through March 3 at Theatre Arlington.

Dallas Black Dance Theatre presents Cultural Awareness
In Cultural Awareness, Dallas Black Dance Theatre will celebrate the richness of cultural diversity as they explore the interplay of movement, rhythm, and expression from around the world woven together by the unifying language of dance. There will be performances on both Friday and Saturday at Wyly Theatre.

Dallas Opera presents Elektra
Tormented by the death of her father at the hands of her mother, Elektra has only one thing in mind - revenge. When her brother Orest returns seething with vengeance, the siblings stage their bloody coup. The 90-minute edge-of-your-seat retelling of the classic Greek myth is Richard Strauss at his most riveting and famed duo Sir David McVicar and John Macfarlane at their most thrilling. Dallas Opera will present the production through February 17 at Winspear Opera House.

Ballet North Texas presents Sleeping Beauty
Accompanied by the timeless melodies of Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, the fairy tale classic Sleeping Beauty encapsulates the very essence of traditional ballet technique and the art of storytelling through mime. The tale explores the eternal struggle between forces of good and evil, as the curse inflicted upon Princess Aurora by the malevolent fairy Carabosse is transformed by the selfless gift of the Lilac Fairy and the promise of true love's kiss from a noble Prince. There will be four performances through Sunday at Moody Performance Hall.

Saturday, February 10

The Harlem Globetrotters 2024 World Tour
The world-famous Harlem Globetrotters come to Dallas as part of their 2024 World Tour. The Globetrotters feature an unforgettable blend of dribbling, spinning, and dunking, taking on their fierce rivals, the Washington Generals. The game takes place at American Airlines Center.

Teatro Dallas presents International Theater Festival
Teatro Dallas will present the XXI edition of its International Theater Festival, where groups from Mexico, Argentina and Venezuela will present highly visual works in Spanish with English subtitles, representing current trends in Latin American performance. There will be a different production every Saturday for the next three weeks, starting with Persona, a multidisciplinary show based on the work of Ingmar Bergman. All productions will be at Latino Cultural Center.

Sunday, February 11

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Afro-Atlantic Histories" closing day
Sunday will be the final day to view "Afro-Atlantic Histories" at the Dallas Museum of Art, an ambitious exhibition that charts the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies in the African Diaspora. Composed of around 100 works of art and documents produced in Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe from the 17th century to today, this exhibition engages visitors in a series of dialogues that reexamine histories and stories of enslavement, resilience, and the struggle for liberation from a global perspective.

Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience closing day
After 3 1/2 months, Sunday will be the final chance for Harry Potter fans to take the journey through Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience at Little Elm Park. Inspired by the iconic Forbidden Forest and featuring creatures from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts series, the event features lights morphing the landscape into a magical outdoor trail. Visitors will be able to discover some of their favorite moments from the Forbidden Forest, encounter mystical creatures such as Hippogriffs, unicorns, and Nifﬂers, and practice casting their very own spells.

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Movie Review

Survival takes on new meaning in intense but hokey Whalefall

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Austin Abrams in Whalefall.

Austin Abrams has been a professional actor for 15 years, but the 30-year-old seems to just now be getting his due. After years of mostly supporting roles in films like Paper Towns, Brad’s Status, and Weapons, he has been charged with leading two films in 2026 where he’s largely acting by himself: First Resident Evil and now Whalefall.

Abrams plays Jay Gardiner, who has returned home to California a year after the death of his hard-ass father, Mitt (Josh Brolin). The two had a tempestuous relationship, and while his mom (Elisabeth Shue) and sisters (Jane Levy and Emily Rudd) reminisce fondly about him, Jay finds it difficult to come up with good memories. The two did share a connection with the ocean, and Jay decides to honor him by going scuba diving.

Ignoring warnings of whale activity in the area, Jay makes his way out into a notoriously dangerous part of the ocean near their home. Soon after he starts swimming, he encounters a sperm whale chasing after a giant squid. Jay inadvertently gets sucked into the enormous creature’s mouth and, ultimately, inside its body. Faced with a seemingly inescapable situation, Jay’s only hope lies in the lessons his father taught him.

Directed by Brian Duffield and adapted by Duffield and Daniel Kraus from Kraus’ book of the same name, the film is at its best when it depicts Jay struggling to survive within the whale. The claustrophobic nature of the setting and the various obstacles (multiple contracting chambers, the squid, and more) he faces make every scene inside the whale feel as intense and cover-your-eyes scary as any great horror movie.

Naturally, the entire movie can’t be about his survival efforts, and so the filmmakers toggle back and forth between Jay’s ordeal in the whale to memories of times with his father. Not so coincidentally, these remembrances come with subtle or overt wisdom from Mitt that would serve Jay well in his current situation. More often than not, these flashback scenes are so on-the-nose that they come off as cheesy instead of inspirational.

It’s also difficult to derive any big emotions from the story other than revulsion at the way Jay’s body is brutalized while he’s inside the whale. None of the characters in the film receive a notable introduction to the audience before big events start happening. It’s next-to-impossible to be invested in their stories when their personalities are being revealed in bits and pieces throughout the movie.

Abrams does well enough in bringing out the terror Jay feels in the whale and the sullenness/anger he has toward his father in other scenes. But whether it’s because his lines in the whale are hard to understand (he’s often talking around a scuba mouthpiece) or the disconnect the character has with father, there’s just something missing in his performance. Brolin’s performance is one-note, and Shue, Levy, Rudd, and John Ortiz don’t appear enough to make a big impact.

With Kraus onboard as the co-writer of the film, it may be the case that Duffield was not given leeway to change the story of Whalefall too much. What might have worked in the book doesn’t seem to translate equally to the film, and while Jay’s nightmare in the whale is effective, the rest of his story doesn’t come across as successfully.

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Whalefall is now playing in theaters.

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