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.

Photo courtesy of Sanjay Suchak

Dave Matthews Band will play at Dos Equis Pavilion on May 20.

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

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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