Weekend Event Planner

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

It's another big weekend in and around Dallas, with all sorts of significant events taking place. There will be four new theater productions, including a national Broadway tour, a genre movie celebration, a visit from the premier acrobatics troupe, three big festivals, two dance productions, an orchestra playing live to a classic movie, and the annual return of a great rock band.

Richard Thomas in the national tour of To Kill a Mockingbird

Photo by Julieta Cervantes

Broadway Dallas presents To Kill a Mockingbird, playing at the Music Hall at Fair Park through May 28.

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, May 18

Lyric Stage presents Tarzan
Adapted from the 1999 Walt Disney Animation Studios film of the same name, Tarzan follows the journey from "boy to man" of an infant who is raised by gorillas in the jungles of West Africa. As Tarzan develops feelings for a young woman who suddenly appears in his jungle, he discovers that his animal upbringing clashes with his human instincts, causing him to struggle with not only his love for Jane but how to protect his family. The musical, with music & lyrics by Phil Collins, will have five performances through Sunday at Majestic Theatre.

Echo Theatre presents I and You
Caroline doesn’t do school. And she hates poetry. Home-bound due to a life-threatening illness, Caroline has isolated herself in her room as she awaits an organ transplant, which seems fated to never arrive. But then classmate Anthony, a devoted Walt Whitman enthusiast, bursts into her life armed with an urgent homework assignment, waffle fries, and his own vivacious love of life. The production runs through June 3 at Bath House Cultural Center.

Dallas Noir Fest
The 2nd annual Dallas Noir Fest includes three days of films, books, and events, all tied together by a mutual love of great Noir stories. Taking place at Violet Crown Cinema in Dallas, the festival will include screenings of Hell or High Water, Dial M for Murder, Point Blank, Strangers on a Train, Cape Fear (1962), The Getaway (1972), and The Maltese Falcon.

Broadway Dallas presents To Kill a Mockingbird
Set in Alabama in 1934, Harper Lee’s enduring story of racial injustice and childhood innocence centers on one of the most venerated characters in American literature, small-town lawyer Atticus Finch (played by Richard Thomas). The cast of characters includes Atticus’s daughter Scout, her brother Jem, their housekeeper and caretaker, Calpurnia, their visiting friend Dill, and a mysterious neighbor, the reclusive Arthur “Boo” Radley. The touring production, adapted by Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin, will run through May 28 at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Cirque du Soleil presents Corteo
Corteo, which means "cortege" in Italian, is a joyous procession, a festive parade imagined by a clown. The clown pictures his own funeral taking place in a carnival atmosphere, watched over by quietly caring angels. Juxtaposing the large with the small, the ridiculous with the tragic and the magic of perfection with the charm of imperfection, the show highlights the strength and fragility of the clown, as well as his wisdom and kindness, to illustrate the portion of humanity that is within each of us. The Cirque du Soleil production runs through Sunday at Comerica Center in Frisco.

Friday, May 19

39th Annual Main Street Fest: A Craft Brew Experience
Main Street Fest: A Craft Brew Experience in Historic Downtown Grapevine is a fun event for all ages, with a carnival, artisans, shopping, A Taste of Texas, the Craft Brew Experience, and more. Live music will be featured along Main Street from headliners Vertical Horizon and Little Texas, as well as tribute bands like Blaze of Glory, Dunn & Brooks, and King George. The festival takes place through Sunday.

Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival
The annual Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival will be headlined by bands like X Ambassadors, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, and Jimmie Vaughan & The Tilt-a-Whirl Band. Taking place through Sunday at Galatyn Park in Richardson, the festival also features the Singer Songwriter contest, the family friendly WF! Kids, the WF! Eats, the WF! Marketplace and Performers Row featuring strolling entertainers, buskers and acrobats, a Battle of the Bands contest, the Budding Talent Competition, and the Art Guitar Auction.

Dallas Black Dance Theatre presents Spring Celebration
Spring Celebration from Dallas Black Dance Theatre will feature the world premiere of T A B E R N A C L E by Chanel DaSilva, which takes the audience on a journey through layered emotions and concepts, paying homage to the many facets and complexities of Black Culture. In Furtherance, Kirven Douthit-Boyd created a work that portrays overcoming a personal struggle from anguish to bliss. DBDT veteran dancer McKinley Willis choreographs her first mainstage work for the company. SMILE is a ballet filled with whim and wonder, suspense, and unpredictability. There will be performances on Friday and Saturday at Wyly Theatre.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in Concert
Filled with unparalleled magic and imagination, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial follows the moving story of a lost little alien who befriends a 10-year-old boy named Elliott. Audiences can experience all the mystery and fun of their unforgettable adventure in the beloved movie, complete with John Williams’ Academy Award-winning score performed live by a full symphony orchestra in sync to the film projected on a huge HD screen. There will be three performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Texas Ballet Theater presents Alice in Wonderland
Audience can go down the rabbit hole with Texas Ballet Theater this weekend, as the dance company presents their final production of the season, Alice in Wonderland, a family-friendly ballet that showcases charming characters and a fantastical journey narrated by Alice herself. There will be four performances through Sunday at Winspear Opera House before the production moves to Fort Worth next weekend.

The Core Theatre presents Portal to the Keep
Portal to the Keep is a mind-bending melodrama of epic proportions. When John and Lacey find an old watch in an antique store, they have no idea that it is about to send them on a life-changing adventure, one that will pit them against the ghastliest villain of the universe bent on controlling time itself. The production runs through June 11 at The Core Theatre in Richardson.

Saturday, May 20

Exodus Music and Arts Festival
Iconic gospel artist Kirk Franklin and Live Nation Urban will present the return of the Exodus Music & Arts Festival. The event, taking place on Saturday and Sunday at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, is the preeminent festival for gospel music and culture, spotlighting the genre’s superstars and elevating the vanguard of its next era. Franklin will host and headline the show, leading a lineup that includes Yolanda Adams, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Tamela Mann, Natalie Grant, Naomi Raine, Taya, and more.

Dave Matthews Band in concert
If it's the third weekend in May, that means it's time for the annual visit from Dave Matthews Band. The group has consistently played the same venue, Dos Equis Pavilion, on virtually the same weekend in May every year since at least 2013. Though their days of delivering hits like "What Would You Say," "Crash Into Me," and "The Space Between" are behind them, they always score No. 1 albums, including (most likely) their new album, Walk Around The Moon, which is being released on May 19, just in time for this concert.

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Movie Review

Korean film No Other Choice uses dark comedy to tell deeper story

Photo courtesy of Neon

Lee Byung-hun in No Other Choice.

When Parasite won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2020, it signaled a shift in how international feature films were viewed not only by Academy voters, but also American filmgoers, who made it the fifth-highest grossing non-English language film of all time. Extra attention has been paid to other international films in the intervening years, including the new South Korean film, No Other Choice.

Starring Lee Byung-hun of Squid Game fame, the dark comedy chronicles the increasingly desperate actions of Man-su, a middle manager at a paper factory who is laid off due to automation. After months of trying to find a job at another paper company, he finally finds a good prospect only to learn that several other men may be better candidates. Man-su decides that the only solution is to eliminate the competition.

The only problem is Man-su is a bit of a coward; an early plan at standing up to his company in the face of the lay-offs meets an anticlimactic end. His wishy-washy ways seem to permeate his life, from putting off treatment on a painful tooth to not communicating with his more willful wife to actually going through with his vengeful ideas. He bumbles his way through every aspect of his life, virtually daring anyone to call him out on his poor decision-making.

Written and directed by Park Chan-wook, and co-written by Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, and Jahye Lee, the film initially seems to be another approach toward telling the class division story that’s at the center of Parasite and Squid Game. And it is that to a degree, as those in charge of the paper companies and the hiring committees are either indifferent or unsympathetic to the plight of those who have been forced out of work.

But the more we see of Man-su, the more it becomes clear that his is a story all its own, one where a man claims there is “no other choice” when in fact there are plenty of other options. The men in the film in general don’t come across well, with many of them reacting to stress by turning into whiners who believe the world is out to get them. Some situations turn violent as the film goes along, events that most of the time could have been avoided if the people involved actually took the time to think things through.

The film features a somewhat confusing story made even more puzzling if you don’t speak Korean. On first viewing, it’s initially unclear why Man-su is doing what he’s doing, or why he’s going after certain people in particular. The plot becomes more understandable as the film progresses, but Chan-wook includes several side plots that muddle things further even as they broaden certain characters. There are also a couple of visual text jokes that can easily be missed if you don’t know where to look.

Byung-hun is great as a man who can’t seem to get out of his own way. The role is almost in direct contrast to the one he played on Squid Game, making it easy to see how well he can adapt to different stories. Son Ye-jin as Man-su’s wife Miri and Lee Sung-min as Bummo, one of Man-su’s intended victims, are also highly engaging.

Like any film not in English, No Other Choice requires viewers to pay strict attention to the screen to get full enjoyment of the actors and their dialogue. While it doesn’t hit as hard as a comedy because of this factor, it’s still a greatly entertaining film whose underlying message makes it become a little deeper.

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No Other Choice is now playing in theaters.

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