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

The Mandalorian and Grogu is not the Star Wars movie fans are looking for

Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm

The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu in The Mandalorian and Grogu.

At one point in the 2010s, there were plans to release a different Star Wars movie every year, with an “Episode” film (like The Rise of Skywalker) alternating with anthology movies like Rogue One. But when 2018’s Solo underperformed, those plans changed, and the pandemic made any Star Wars movie less appealing, with Lucasfilm shifting heavily toward TV shows like The Mandalorian.

The popularity of that show in particular has led to the return of Star Wars to the theaters in the form of Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu. The film follows the bounty hunter (Pedro Pascal) and his Force-sensitive adopted child as they travel around the universe, hunting down the remaining members of the Galactic Empire (the film, like the series, is set in the years following The Return of the Jedi).

The main thrust of the film has the duo, at the behest of Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) of the New Republic, trying to track down Rotta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White), the son of the late Jabba the Hutt, who’s supposedly been kidnapped. The discovery of the ultra-buff Rotta sets them down a different path than they thought, one that puts Mando and Grogu in the crosshairs of Rotta’s twin cousins.

Directed by Jon Favreau and written by Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Noah Kloor, the film is perfectly fine if you consider it to be an extended Mandalorian episode, but at no point does it rise to the level of a great movie experience.

The film, like the show, is defined by the Mandalorian’s unflappable nature and strict code, as well as Grogu’s mischievousness and unquenchable appetite. Right from the start, the Mandalorian has a “take no prisoners” approach, laying waste to all comers in a PG-13 sort of way. Grogu is mostly along for the ride, occasionally breaking out the Force to help out, but mostly serving as the comic sidekick. Their relationship keeps the film watchable, but only just barely.

The biggest issue, one which was starting to affect the Disney+ show as well, is that the story never seems to go anywhere despite the fact that its two main characters are constantly on the move. No matter how big or ferocious the opponent they face, the overall stakes are so low as to almost be nonexistent. If Favreau and Filoni (who has a small part in the film) are trying to build toward some larger story, it doesn’t come through on screen.

The film’s action fits in well with sequences that have been put forth in previous Star Wars films, but to call them “cinematic” would be stretching things. There are all manner of monstrous creatures that the duo comes across in their adventures, but only a few of them are memorable. The most interesting sequence features a snake/dragon hybrid that Mando fights in a watery pit that is reminiscent of the trash compactor scene in the original Star Wars. Much of the rest of the film blends together in a mish-mash of uninteresting opponents.

For a live action film, there are precious few actors who actually show their faces. The Mandalorian removes his helmet exactly once, making it clear that Pascal is merely providing the voice for the character. White affects a tough voice for Rotta that may be canon, but frankly sounds ridiculous coming from the character’s body and in no way resembles White’s actual voice, which negates his casting altogether. Weaver is close to a non-factor in her small role, but Martin Scorsese is kind of fun voicing a four-armed fry cook/informant.

The cachet of Star Wars and the fun of The Mandalorian series may be enough for many to enjoy the inoffensive lark that is The Mandalorian and Grogu. But the film does not come close to reaching the heights of the best Star Wars movies, and does nothing to indicate what to expect from the valuable intellectual property going forward.

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Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu opens in theaters on May 22.

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