Weekend Event Planner

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

As they often do, music and theater will dominate the landscape in and around Dallas this weekend. There will be six different theater productions to choose from, four of them local and one a national tour of a favorite Broadway musical. Five concerts take the stage, including two local boys made good. Add on some great art and a funny comedian, and there are plenty of choices out there.

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, August 3

Photo courtesy of Outcry Theatre

Outcry Theatre presents Let the Right One In at Addison Conference and Theatre Centre, August 4-13.

Fair Assembly presents As You Like It
“All the world’s a stage,” and when at court, Celia and Rosalind know their parts. But when the two young cousins are unexpectedly thrust into exile in the Forest of Arden, the disguises they adopt allow the women to write roles of their own. Far from the death sentence intended by the usurping Duke Frederick, banishment into the Forest of Arden becomes an opportunity for rebirth - a place for the exiled to discover themselves, find (and test) true love, and ultimately seek redemption us adventure for all those daring enough to venture into the forest. The production runs through August 13 at Wyly Theatre.

Broadway Dallas presents The Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon, the nine-time Tony Award-winning Best Musical, is an outrageous comedy that follows the misadventures of a mismatched pair of missionaries, sent halfway across the world to spread the Good Word. With songs that entertain and offend in equal measures, it's been a phenomenon since its debut on Broadway in 2011. The production runs through Sunday at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Thomas Rhett in concert with Cole Swindell and Nate Smith
Country singer Thomas Rhett has been churning out hits almost from the moment his debut album, It Goes Like This, came out in 2013. All but four of his singles have made it to the top 10, and each of his six albums has finished at No. 1 or No. 2 on the Billboard Country charts, something his forthcoming new album, Country Again: Side B, is destined to do as well. He'll play at American Airlines Center, joined by special guests Cole Swindell and Nate Smith.

Junior Players presents Crowns of Power: Henry IV
In collaboration with Shakespeare Dallas, Junior Players presents Crowns of Power: Henry IV. Set in a kingdom plagued with rebellion, treachery, and shifting alliances in the period following the deposition of King Richard II, the two parts of Henry IV focus especially on the development of Prince Hal (later Henry V) from wastrel to ruler rather than on the title character. The production runs through Sunday at Samuell-Grand Amphitheater.

Dominic Fike in concert
If you don't know the name of singer/songwriter Dominic Fike yet, chances are you will soon. He released his debut album, What Could Possibly Go Wrong, in 2020 to modest success, but he has since added acting to his résumé, appearing in the second season of Euphoria and the 2023 film Earth Mama. He also earned a Grammy nomination as a featured artist on Justin Bieber's 2021 album, Justice. He'll play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving in support of his new album, Sunburn.

Rover Dramawerks presents The Fox on the Fairway
The Fox on the Fairway is a non-stop rapid-fire romp reminiscent of the great English farces from the 1930s and '40s. It begins as rival country clubs compete in the Annual Interclub Golf Tournament … with a sizable wager at stake. Complete with mistaken identities, slamming doors, and over-the-top romantic shenanigans, this is a charmingly madcap adventure about love, life, and man’s eternal love affair with golf. The production runs through August 19 at Cox Playhouse in Plano.

Friday, August 4

Dallas Museum of Art openings and closings
It's moving week at the Dallas Museum of Art, with one exhibition opening and another closing. Debuting on Friday is Tiffany Chung: "Rise Into the Atmosphere," the sixth iteration of the Dallas Museum of Art’s Concourse mural series. Her commissioned mural centers narratives of migration and movement, especially those found within Dallas, in recognition and celebration of these lived experiences. Closing on Sunday is "Bamana Mud Cloth: From Mali to the World," which highlights mud cloth, or bogolanfini, a design that originated among the Bamana peoples of Mali, and whose designs can be spotted in products across the world.

Outcry Theatre presents Let the Right One In
Oskar is a bullied, lonely teenage boy living with his mother on a housing estate at the edge of town when a spate of sinister killings rock the neighborhood. Eli is the young girl who has just moved in next door. She doesn’t go to school and never leaves the flat by day. Sensing in each other a kindred spirit, the two become devoted friends. What Oskar doesn’t know is that Eli has been a teenager for a very long time. The production runs through August 13 at Addison Conference and Theatre Centre.

Auriga Productions presents The Homecoming
Family history, lies and betrayal set the stage for Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, a comedy of menace, concerning a family of four men living all together, but who are all alone. When the eldest son returns home after six years with a wife whom no one else has met, the family must come to grips with the hidden truths that have infected their relationships for decades. The production runs through August 26 at Bath House Cultural Center.

Rhett Miller in concert
Music fans in Dallas know the impact Rhett Miller has had on the local scene. After releasing a debut solo album, Mythologies, in 1989 alongside future bandmate Murry Hammond, he formed the alt-country band Old 97's in 1992, going on to release 21 albums (and counting). In 2002, he started releasing solo albums again, putting out a new one every few years, with 2022's The Misfit being his ninth solo release. He'll play at Texas Theatre.

Hyena's presents Marcello Hernandez
Marcello Hernandez is a Cuban/Dominican stand-up comedian, writer, and actor who's currently a featured player on Saturday Night Live. Doing stand-up since he was 18 years old in 2016, he has opened for headliners such as Tim Dillon, Jim Breuer, Mark Viera, Gilbert Gottfried, and more. He'll perform four times through Saturday at Hyena's at Mockingbird Station.

Saturday, August 5

George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic in concert
George Clinton wore colorful braids in his hair for decades, but he ditched the style over a decade ago in favor of an old-fashioned, dapper look. The 82-year-old soul/funk legend is no Samson, though, as he can still bring it musically even after all these years. He and his band will show how it's done at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory.

Post Malone in concert
One of the biggest contemporary artists to come out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, rapper/singer Post Malone has been huge since the release of his debut album, Stoney, in 2016. Since then, he's gone on to work with a string of other big artists like Nicki Minaj, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, and Doja Cat, helping him solidify himself as a trendsetter. He'll play on both Saturday and Sunday at Dos Equis Pavilion in support of his just-released fifth album, Austin.

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Movie Review

Great acting and directing drive The Christophers to artistic heights

Photo by Claudette Barius

Michaela Coel and Ian McKellen in The Christophers.

Director Steven Soderbergh is one of those filmmakers who — aside from the Ocean’s series — never seems to make the same kind of movie twice. He is somehow able to adapt his abilities to all sorts of different stories, making each of them as compelling as any other. His latest masterclass is in the London-set film, The Christophers.

Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), who restores art for a living, is approached by brother and sister Sallie and Barnaby Sklar (Jessica Gunning and James Corden) with a scheme. They want her to become the new assistant for their aging father, Julian (Ian McKellen), a famous artist known for a series called “The Christophers,” in order to gain access to unfinished paintings from the series and complete them herself.

Lori accepts the deal despite having some uneasy feelings about Julian, with whom she had a bad interaction years ago. Julian is just as wary, both because he knows of his children’s interest in the unfinished works, and because he would prefer to be left in peace. Although the trepidation on both sides continues for the bulk of the story, a grudging respect arises between two artists who know skill when they see it.

Directed by Soderbergh and written by Ed Solomon, who last collaborated on No Sudden Move, the film is astonishing in its ability to be compelling with such a small story. Much of the film is spent inside Julian’s multi-story home as Julian and Lori have low-level confrontations about a variety of things, including the meaning of his art, her abilities, the fate of the remaining “Christophers,” and more. Each conversation brings out more detail about their worldviews and their thoughts about their lot in life.

Much of the success of the film lies in the performances of McKellen and Coel. The 86-year-old McKellen has not lost his ability to astonish with the spoken word, and the monologues he delivers are engrossing even when they’re about mundane things. Coel, best known for the 2020 HBO show I May Destroy You, is a great foil for McKellen, never backing down from his challenges and giving her own unique takes on her lines.

While the film can be enjoyable for non-art lovers, those who appreciate the vagaries of the art world will have a lot to chew on. Soderbergh and Solomon debate a lot of aspects of art, including whether it’s possible to separate the art from the person making it, why some art is valued more than others, the ethics of forgery, and more. Because the film is about a fictional artist, it gives the filmmakers a bit more freedom in their criticisms.

Aside from McKellen and Coel, Gunning (Baby Reindeer) and Corden are the only other two people who get significant screen time in the film. Both of them are, let’s say, acquired tastes, and each gives an elevated performance that matches the energy of their respective characters. Tilly Botsford makes a nice impression in a small role as Julian’s masseuse.

Soderbergh’s last three films — Presence, Black Bag, and now The Christophers — have nothing in common other than the expert filmmaker helming all of them. When you can make a ghost story, a spy film, and a small film about artists equally interesting, you know you’re doing something right.

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The Christophers is now playing in theaters.

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