Weekend event planner

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

There will be a lot of funny business going on around Dallas this weekend, with five events featuring well-known comedians, another with a famous sitcom producer, and a parody musical. There will also be four theater productions (including a Broadway tour), the first holiday light show of the season, the return of a big hometown singer, 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, November 3

Crow Museum of Asian Art openings
Two new exhibitions will open at the Crow Museum of Asian Art on Thursday. "Phoenix Rising: Xu Bing and the Art of Resilience" highlights a celebrated work, Bronze Phoenix 2016 (Feng and Huang), complementing it with five works from the Crow Museum’s Chinese jade collection that also celebrate the revered phoenix. "Cast: Molding a New Museum for UT Dallas" looks to the future, providing an exclusive first look at the Crow Museum’s second location on the campus of UT Dallas in Richardson. Both exhibitions will be on display through March 5, 2023.

An Evening with Phil Rosenthal of Somebody Feed Phil
The name Phil Rosenthal may not be that recognizable, but he's the creator of one of the biggest sitcoms of all time, Everybody Loves Raymond. These days, he's better known as the star of the Netflix reality show Somebody Feed Phil, in which he travels to different cities around the world to sample local cuisine. At this event at House of Blues Dallas, Rosenthal will talk about his travels, the food along the way, and the new Somebody Feed Phil The Book.

Second Thought Theatre presents One Flea Spare
The final show of Second Thought Theatre's season (which actually opened last weekend), One Flea Spare takes place in a plague-ravaged London, where the home of a wealthy aristocrat and his invalid wife is broken into by a pair of intruders demanding food and refuge. Resigned to quarantine together, the unlikely group sees the social paradigms that once defined their behavior begin to break down. The production runs through November 12 at Bryant Hall on the Kalita Humphreys Theater campus.

Broadway Dallas presents My Fair Lady
Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower seller, and Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a “proper lady.” But who is really being transformed? The musical, which runs through November 13 at the Music Hall at Fair Park, boasts such classic songs as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “The Rain in Spain,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” and “On the Street Where You Live.”

Chris Rock: Ego Death World Tour
Comedian Chris Rock has been a star for a long time, finding success on stage, on TV, and in movies. But his profile went way up this year thanks to a dumb joke he told at the Oscars garnering the rage of Will Smith, who slapped Rock in front of a worldwide audience. Rock has lightly addressed the incident in the months since, but anything is possible in his stand-up show. He'll perform on both Thursday and Friday at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

Kitchen Dog Theater presents The Sound Inside
In the 17 years since she was last published, novelist Bella Baird has almost completely isolated herself from the world. But things change when she meets Christopher, a brilliant but enigmatic student in her creative writing class at Yale. Intensely intimate and deeply moving, The Sound Inside explores the stories we tell about ourselves, the stories that shape us, and the intersection of fact and fiction. The production runs through November 20 at Trinity River Arts Center.

Marc Maron: This May Be the Last Time
For almost 30 years, Marc Maron has been writing and performing raw, honest, and thought-provoking comedy for print, stage, radio, online, and television. A legend in the stand-up community, Maron has appeared on many television talk shows, including with Conan O’Brien more than any other comedian. He starred in his own sitcom, Maron, on IFC, co-starred in GLOW on Netflix, and continues to put out two episodes a week of his podcast, WTF with Marc Maron. He'll perform at Majestic Theatre.

Friday, November 4

The Light Park
Most holiday light shows wait until around Thanksgiving to open, but the new The Light Park is already raring to go. It features a mile-long, drive-thru spectacular where guests will witness millions of lights synchronized to a mix of music by DJ Polar Ice. Open daily through January 1 at Hurricane Harbor Arlington, the show claims it has the longest light tunnel in the world.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Fabio Luisi & Lise de la Salle
Leading into Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Women in Classical Music Symposium (running Sunday through Wednesday), they will explore the work of three female composers who dared to make a difference in the world of classical music. Julia Perry, Clara Schumann, and Louise Farrenc were highly educated and internationally trained musicians. These talented women helped pave the way for female artists, like featured pianist Lise de la Salle. The concert, which will have three performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center, will include Perry's Study for Orchestra, Schumann's Piano Concerto, and Farrenc's Symphony No. 3.

Mainstage Irving - Las Colinas presents Gypsy
Gypsy is the ultimate tale of an ambitious stage mother fighting for her daughters' success while secretly yearning for her own. Set in 1920s and '30s America, when vaudeville was dying and burlesque was born, the landmark musical explores the world of two-bit show business with brass, humor, heart, and sophistication. The production runs through November 19 at Irving Arts Center.

Coppell Arts Center presents Spamilton: An American Parody
Hamilton gets the comedy treatment with Spamilton: An American Parody, the story of a very famous writer/director/star trying to save Broadway from mediocrity and oblivion. The show not only takes aim at Broadway's mega-hit, but manages to make hysterical mincemeat out of all current and classic Broadway, plus a good deal of pop culture, too. There will be performances on Friday and Saturday at Coppell Arts Center.

Lewis Black: Off The Rails
Lewis Black's live performances provide a cathartic release of anger and disillusionment for his audience. He is a passionate performer who is a more pissed-off optimist than a mean-spirited curmudgeon. Lewis is the rare comic who can cause an audience to laugh themselves into incontinence while making compelling points about the absurdity of our world. He'll perform at Majestic Theatre.

Saturday, November 5

Piff The Magic Dragon & Puddles Pity Party: Misery Love Company
Piff the Magic Dragon and Puddles Pity Party have both become big acts around the world, not bad for two "losers" from America’s Got Talent. These satin-adorned down-and-outers have been pals since they first met ages ago at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Neither is easily amused, but when offered the chance to play a double bill, they both agreed it was a pretty good idea, and thus was born The Piff and Puddles Misery Loves Company Tour. They'll perform at Majestic Theatre.

D.L. Hughley's Funnier than a Mutha
Completing the weekend of comedy in and around Dallas will be D.L. Hughley's Funnier than a Mutha. The event at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie will feature some of the funniest Black comedians working today, including Hughley, Rickey Smiley, Donnell Rawlings, Tony Baker, and Cocoa Brown.

Sunday, November 6

Demi Lovato in concert
Since the last time Demi Lovato played in the Dallas-area, a lot has changed for the hometown singer. She suffered a drug overdose shortly after that concert, took a break from music, released two new albums in back-to-back years, and came out as non-binary, now alternating between using they/them and she/her pronouns. The show will take place at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in support the new album Holy Fvck.

Photo courtesy of Chris Rock

Chris Rock will perform at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving on November 3 and 4.

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Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first but not by much

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films likeM3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

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