Weekend Event Planner

These are the 10 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

Theater and music make up the majority of events across Dallas this weekend, but the biggest one is the opening of an art experience unlike anything in the area. There will also be a film festival, four new local theater productions, a trio of concerts, and a chance to win fun playhouses.

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, July 13

Asian Film Festival of Dallas
The 2023 Asian Film Festival of Dallas will feature 18 feature films and five short films over four days, including opening night selection The Night Owl from Tae-Jim Ahn, closing night selection Drive from Park Dong-hee, and special screenings with filmmaker Q&As like Linh Tran’s Waiting for the Light to Change and Sing J Lee’s The Accidental Getaway Driver. Screenings take place through Sunday at Angelika Film Center Dallas.

The Watering Hole Collective presents Spring Awakening
The Watering Hole Collective will present its inaugural production, the Tony Award-winning musical, Spring Awakening. Based on the groundbreaking and controversial 1891 German play by Frank Wedekind, the musical tells the story of teenagers discovering the inner and outer tumult of adolescent sexuality set to a contemporary pop-rock score. Reimagining the 2006 hit for 2023, the Watering Hole Collective invites audiences to dive into the deeper messages of sexual awakening, youthful rebellion, and self discovery. The production runs through July 22 at Arts Mission Oak Cliff.

Friday, July 14

Meow Wolf: The Real Unreal
Friday is the long-anticipated grand opening of Meow Wolf: The Real Unreal, where visitors embark on a journey through a technicolor wonderland that blends storytelling, technology, and immersive art. The experience encourages visitors to explore different dimensions of perspective and creativity through more than 30 rooms of multidimensional art. Visitors can choose to engage with a story about a family who has unknowingly unlocked portals to a different existence, or they can just enjoy the fun and weird art all on its own. Meow Wolf will be a permanent entertainment experience at Grapevine Mills.

Dallas CASA presents Parade of Playhouses
Dallas CASA's annual Parade of Playhouses features custom-designed and built children's playhouses on display and available to win by raffle. Playhouses run the gamut of style and design, from pop culture-inspired castles to modern, abstract designs and from tiny versions of North Dallas new construction to play-based climbing structures. All funds raised from the event, running at NorthPark Center through July 30, benefit the child victims of abuse or neglect served by Dallas CASA's volunteer advocates.

MainStage Irving-Las Colinas presents The Underpants
In the riotously funny farce, The Underpants, Louise and Theo Maske are a couple whose conservative existence is shattered when Louise's bloomers fall down in public. While her momentary display does not result in all-out scandal, it does attract two infatuated men, each of whom wants to rent the spare room in the Markes' home. Written by Steve Martin, the production runs through July 29 at Mainstage Irving-Las Colinas.

Samantha Fish in concert with Jesse Dayton
Singer/guitarist Samantha Fish has been playing her style of blues rock for almost 15 years, releasing her debut album, 2009's Live Bait, at the tender age of 20. She's gone on to release 10 more solo and collaborative albums, including the new Death Wish Blues with Jesse Dayton, with whom she will be co-headlining this special concert. They will play at Longhorn Ballroom, with Carolyn Wonderland as the opening act.

Theatre Coppell presents Young Frankenstein
Young Frankenstein is a musical stage adaptation of Mel Brooks’ brilliantly funny film. Frederick Frankenstein, grandson of the infamous inventor Doctor Frankenstein, reluctantly inherits the family estate in Transylvania. With the help of a hunchbacked sidekick named Igor and lab assistant Inga, Frederick finds himself following in the mad-scientist tradition of his ancestor, creating a monster for this century. When the monster escapes, hilarity abounds. The production runs through July 30 at Coppell Arts Center.

Richardson Theatre Centre presents Boeing, Boeing
A hit comedy similar in vein to Shakespeare’s comedies of merry misadventures and mistaken identities, Boeing Boeing tells the exploits of French bachelor Bernard and his lovely female flight attendants. In the past, Bernard has been able to juggle these women, but when the situation changes and all of the women end up at his apartment on the same day, Bernard struggles to keep them from learning the truth. The production runs through July 30 at Richardson Theatre Centre.

Saturday, July 15

The Polyphonic Spree 23rd Birthday Celebration
The Polyphonic Spree, which was started by lead singer Tim Delaughter in 2000, will celebrate its 23rd year in existence by releasing its latest album, Salvage Enterprise. This performance at Longhorn Ballroom will feature the live debut of new material as well as past favorites to celebrate the band’s birthday.

Ace Frehley in concert
For people of a certain age, Ace Frehley will always be Spaceman from the rock band Kiss. But he left that band in 1982, so the majority of his career has been as a solo artist, even though he's never truly been able to leave his early days behind. Almost all of his seven solo albums, including 2020's Origins Vol. 2, have involved members of Kiss or been influenced by their music. He'll play at The Echo Lounge & Music Hall.

Photo courtesy of Jesse Dayton and Samantha Fish

Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton will play at Longhorn Ballroom on July 14.

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Movie Review

Long-awaited Wicked movie adaptation lives up to the hype

Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-Butera in Wicked.

The musical Wicked is indisputably the biggest Broadway smash of the 21st century, having grossed more $1.6 billion in New York alone and achieving the rare feat of running for over 20 years. All of which is to say that the long-awaited movie adaptation of The Wizard of Oz prequel will most likely be a massive success whether it lives up to what longtime fans envisioned or not.

Part one — yes, this 2 hour and 40 minute film is merely the first act of the musical; part two arrives a year from now — introduces Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the green-skinned witch who goes on to become Dorothy’s nemesis, and G(a)linda (Ariana Grande-Butera), the pink-garbed “good” witch, as they meet at Shiz University in Oz. Glinda is the ultra-popular one with sycophantic hangers-on, while Elphaba is shunned by almost everyone, sometimes including her disabled sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode), who’s desperate to make her own space away from Elphaba.

Her mistreatment by others leads Elphaba to get angry, which manifests itself in uncontrollable magic. Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) notices this and takes a personal interest in her, giving her one-on-one instruction in hopes of harnessing her power. In the meantime, Elphaba and Glinda attempt to go from forced roommates to actual friends, although Glinda’s entitled personality is more of an obstacle than anything else they encounter.

Directed by Jon M. Chu and written by original book writer Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, the film does a great job of distinguishing itself from the stage version while still remaining true to what made it so beloved. As Chu showed in his last film, In the Heights, he has an innate feel for how to tap into the essence of the source material while expanding it into something befitting the scope of a blockbuster movie.

In this case, he finds a way to give even greater emphasis to the bigotry that Elphaba faces simply because of her green skin; the fact that she is being played by a Black woman drives home the point even more. The story remains light and fluffy for the most part, but the ostracization/otherness that Elphaba feels is delivered in a powerful way, as is her empathy for talking animals like Dr. Dillamond (voiced by Peter Dinklage), who are facing their own persecution.

Of course, the highlight of the film is Stephen Schwartz’s music, and while not all of the songs are equal in impact, they still make for a cohesive whole. The number of songs and order they appear in the first act is identical to the stage musical, with the standouts remaining “The Wizard and I,” “Popular,” and “Defying Gravity.” While there is some superfluous action and cutaways added to certain numbers, it’s not enough to distract from what makes the songs effective.

Oddly, the progression of the friendship between Elphaba and Glinda works better on stage when the timeline is accelerated, but Erivo and Grande-Butera make up for this slight lack with their fantastic performances. The emotion each brings to their characters fits them almost perfectly, and there’s simply no denying the strength of each of their voices. Bode, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Ethan Slater as Boq, and more make for a solid supporting cast.

The well-known ending of the first act of Wicked is a huge high point that is so good that it almost makes up for the fact that audiences won’t see the second film for a long time. But if part one is any indication, part two should turn out to be another great musical theater adaptation in a decade that has already seen its fair share.

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Wicked opens in theaters on November 22.

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