Weekend Event Planner

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

There will be a lot to celebrate around Dallas this weekend, with events focused on Pride and Juneteenth at the forefront. Also on the slate: a bunch of notable concerts, six new local theater productions, teachers-turned-comedians venting their frustrations, 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, June 15

Bored Teachers: We Can't Make This Stuff Up Comedy Tour
Now that school is out for the summer, teachers can let loose. The biggest entertainment platform for teachers in the world, Bored Teachers, presents teacher-comedians all on one stage. Their skits have amassed hundreds of millions of views on the internet, and they're all joining comic forces on the stage for a night of laughter. The show will be at Majestic Theatre.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Together We Sing"
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Project Unity will present a cast of music legends for "Together We Sing," their annual musical and special event fundraiser. The evening will feature Erica Campbell and Spinderella, Zebulon Ellis, Leon Lacey, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and a 200-voice multi-faith choir comprised of choruses from more than 20 religious and faith organizations. The night of inspiring gospel and classical music will lead into the week of Juneteenth, a national holiday that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. The program will also celebrate National Black Music Month with a special tribute to 50 years of Hip Hop. The event will be at the Meyerson Symphony Center.

Love and Rockets in concert
Love and Rockets comes to Dallas to perform live for the first time in 14 years. The band, made up of former Bauhaus members David J, Daniel Ash, and Kevin Haskins, was formed in 1984, following Bauhaus’ initial split in 1983. They released seven studio albums, with their 1989 single "So Alive" reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. They broke up in 1999 and reformed briefly in 2007 for a few live shows, before splitting again in 2009. The concert will be at The Factory in Deep Ellum.

Shakespeare Dallas presents Shakespeare in the Park: Two Gentlemen of Verona
Two Gentlemen of Verona is one of Shakespeare's earliest plays and also one of the most rarely performed. It's about betrayal, love and disguise. When two best friends fall in love with the same woman, chaos ensues. Proteus is determined to destroy the betrothal of his friend, Valentine, and the lovely Silvia, but he also forgets his own beloved Julia in the midst. Resolved to win back his love, Julia travels to Milan to find Proteus. Two Gentlemen of Verona will run in repertory with Much Ado About Nothing through July 14 at Samuell-Grand Amphitheater.

Friday, June 16

Dallas Arts District presents Pride Block Party
The Dallas Arts District will present the Pride Block Party, their annual Pride celebration at the Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center, Crow Museum of Asian Art, and throughout the Arts District. Events will include gallery tours, drag performers, comedy, dancing, fashion show, and more.

Garland Summer Musicals presents The Music Man
The Music Man follows fast-talking traveling salesman, Harold Hill, as he cons the people of River City, Iowa, into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys' band that he vows to organize – this, despite the fact that he doesn't know a trombone from a treble clef. His plans to skip town with the cash are foiled when he falls for Marian, the librarian, who transforms him into a respectable citizen by curtain's fall. The production runs through June 25 at Granville Arts Center.

Repertory Company Theatre presents Footloose
Footloose is the explosive Broadway musical set to the rockin’ rhythm of the film’s Oscar- and Grammy-nominated Top 40 score and augmented with dynamic new Tony-nominated songs for the stage musical. The production runs through June 25 at Repertory Company Theatre in Richardson.

North Texas Performing Arts Repertory Theatre presents Grease
Head greaser Danny Zuko and new (good) girl Sandy Dumbrowski try to relive the high romance of their "Summer Nights" as the rest of the gang sings and dances its way through such songs as "Greased Lightnin’," "It’s Raining on Prom Night," and "Alone at the Drive-In Movie," recalling the music of Buddy Holly, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley that became the soundtrack of a generation. The production runs through June 25 at Willow Bend Center of the Arts in Plano.

Theatre Arlington presents Fly By Night
A star-crossed prophecy. Two charming sisters and a luckless sandwich maker. A lot of music. Just not a lot of light. In this darkly comic rock-fable, a melancholy sandwich maker’s humdrum life is intersected by two entrancing sisters. A sweeping ode to young love set against the backdrop of the Northeast blackout of 1965, Fly By Night is a tale about making your way and discovering hope in a world beset by darkness. The production, which had its premiere in Dallas in 2013, runs through July 2 at Theatre Arlington.

The Core Theatre presents City of Richardson History Play
City of Richardson History Play explores the people and relationships that helped to grow the city - that perhaps should have been known as Wheeler, Texas - from a railway line and post office to one of the fastest growing and thriving cities in Texas. The production runs through July 16 at The Core Theatre in Richardson.

Saturday, June 17

Walker Hayes in concert
Sometimes all it takes is one song to change a musician's life. Walker Hayes has been trying to be a country music star since 2005, with limited success. But his six-song 2021 EP Country Stuff featured the runaway hit "Fancy Like," putting him into the "gotta see" category. He'll play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving in support of his 2022 album, Country Stuff the Album.

Garbage and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds in concert
Rock bands Garbage and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds come to Dallas as part of their co-headlining tour. Garbage is touring in support of their 2021 album, No Gods No Masters, while Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds are touring in support of their new album, Council Skies. They'll play at Dos Equis Pavilion.

Jill Scott in concert
R&B/soul singer Jill Scott has released five albums in her career, most recently 2015's Woman. She got her start in 2000 with her highly-acclaimed debut album, Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds Vol. 1., which remains the best-selling album of her career. She'll celebrate the 23rd anniversary of that album with this special concert at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Lea Salonga in concert
Multiple award-winning actress and singer Lea Salonga is best known for her Tony Award-winning role in Miss Saigon. In addition to the Tony, she has won the Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Awards in the field of musical theatre. She was also the singing voice of Princess Jasmine from Aladdin and Fa Mulan for Mulan and Mulan II. She'll perform a variety of songs in this concert at Winspear Opera House.

Sunday, June 18

Deep Ellum Foundation presents Juneteenth on Main Block Party
The Deep Ellum Foundation will host a Juneteenth Block Party, offering its own spin on the special occasion by specifically featuring African Americans' musical contributions to local, regional, and national culture. There will be performances by local, regional, and national artists, headlined by Dru Hill. The event, taking place along Main Street in Deep Ellum, will also feature over 25 Black-owned business vendors and a special Black History exhibit.

Patti LaBelle and Gladys Knight in concert
R&B/soul legends Patti LaBelle and Gladys Knight earned their status thanks to their individual long and storied careers. LaBelle released her first album in 1977, gaining a huge following thanks to hits like "If Only You Knew," "New Attitude," and "On My Own." Knight is Motown royalty, scoring multiple hits with The Pips before setting off on her own, where she became an even bigger star. The two will team up for this special concert featuring a slew of their biggest hits at Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie.

TheabaAgency.com

Patti LaBelle and Gladys Knight will take the stage together at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie on June 18.

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Movie Review

Comedy all-stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd can't save Anaconda sequel

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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