Weekend Event Planner

These are the 9 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

The circus is back in town — actually, two circuses — to headline another week of events in and around Dallas. Other choices include two big concerts in Arlington, a couple of comedy events, two new local theater productions, and a performance by one of the world's top mediums.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, July 25

Morgan Wallen in concert
Few entertainers have had a better start to their careers than country singer Morgan Wallen. His 2018 debut If I Know Me went double platinum and yielded a No. 1 hit, "Whiskey Glasses." His next two albums, most recently One Thing at a Time, each went to No. 1 on both the Billboard Country and overall Billboard 200 charts, resulting in a slew of awards at the Billboard Music Awards. His big-time status will be on display with concerts on back-to-back nights at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, where he'll be joined by other big names like Jelly Roll and Koe Wetzel.

UniverSoul Circus
One of two circuses in Dallas this weekend, UniverSoul Circus will celebrate 30 years with its interactive “Family Reunion Tour,” bringing together big names from five continents all backed by the beat of world music, including sounds and dance styles spanning the African diaspora. The circus, taking place at The Shops At RedBird through August 11, stopped using animals in 2023, and features circus arts, theater, and music that spans genres, including pop, classic R&B, Latin, hip hop, jazz, and gospel.

Improv Addison presents Dan Soder
Dan Soder is a New York City-based comedian who’s best known as ‘Mafee’ on the Showtime series, Billions, and as co-host of Sirius XM’s The Bonfire with Big Jay Oakerson from 2015-2023. He is also known for his frequent appearances on MTV2's Guy Code. He'll perform six times through Saturday at Improv Addison.

Friday, July 26

Bucket List Productions and Lewisville Playhouse present Long Day's Journey into Night
Bucket List Productions will present the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill. The play is a brooding masterpiece about the pain of forgiving, and the impossibility of forgetting. The Tyrone family puts the not-so-fun in "dysfunctional," as the family tell their entire life’s progression story over the course of just one long day. The production runs through August 11 at Lewisville Playhouse.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey The Greatest Show On Earth
The second circus of the weekend is the long-awaited return of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey The Greatest Show On Earth, an immersive experience filled with acts that push the limits of human potential. The reimagined circus, which no longer features animals, is an action-packed production with modernized acts. Audiences will see never-before-seen stunts, acrobatic displays, and comedic acts from a globally diverse cast that includes 75 performers hailing from 18 countries. There will be six performances through Sunday at American Airlines Center.

Comedy Bang! Bang!: The Bang! Bang! Into Your Mouth Tour
Comedy Bang! Bang! has had a few different lives, first as radio show that started in 2009, then as an early podcast that has been put out weekly since 2010. It also had a five-season run as a TV show on IFC from 2012-2016. At this live show, host Scott Aukerman, along with Paul F. Tompkins and The Comedy Bang! Bang! All-Stars, will perform a totally improvised version of the award-winning podcast at Majestic Theatre.

Theatre Coppell presents Greater Tuna
Greater Tuna is a comedy about a small town named Tuna, Texas' third smallest town. The wacky inhabitants of this town - men, women, children and animals - are all played by two skillful, transformative actors who must change parts at a rather breakneck speed and use inventive voicework. The play features two actors, 20 characters, and a barrel of laughs. The production runs through August 11 at Coppell Arts Center.

Saturday, July 27

Matt Fraser: America’s Top Psychic Medium
The readings of medium Matt Fraser lead guests through a rollercoaster of emotions from laughing to crying, turning skeptics into believers with stunning details. His dynamic readings frequently include names, dates, and locations he couldn’t possibly know, only adding to his long-established reputation. He'll perform at Majestic Theatre.

Sunday, July 28

Photo by Tim Pethel

UniverSoul Circus will be at The Shops at Redbird through August 11.

Ateez in concert
South Korean boy band Ateez joined the K-Pop movement back in 2018, quickly gaining fans in both their native country and Japan by releasing a series of EPs and albums in both languages. They've been extremely popular in both countries, and now they're spreading their love to the United States with their world tour, Towards the Light: Will to Power in support of their 2023 album, The World EP.Fin: Will. They'll perform at Globe Life Field in Arlington.

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Movie Review

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma gives horror a surreal twist

Photo courtesy of MUBI

Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

The horror genre really ramped up in the 1970s and ‘80s, bringing with it a new subgenre - the slasher - that gave audiences new visuals of gore, but also a reliance on sexism and homophobia that would come to define the era. The new film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma wrestles with that legacy in ways that are funny, thought-provoking, and downright strange.

Kris (Hannah Einbinder) is a queer filmmaker who has been hired to reboot the moldy IP that is the Camp Miasma franchise, one that was fresh in the 1970s but which numerous shlocky sequels have rendered irrelevant. In an attempt to get to know the property better, Kris has scored a meeting with the reclusive Billy (Gillian Anderson), the star of the original film who has shunned the public eye for decades.

Turns out that Billy lives deep in the woods at Camp Rivoli, which served as the location for the first film. As Kris tries to get to know Billy and convince her to be a part of the new film, she starts to fall under Billy’s spell and the lore of the franchise as a whole. That includes believing that the movie’s villain, Little Death - a transgender person who has an air conditioning vent as a head/mask - may not just be a character created for the movies.

Written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow), the film at first feels like it’s going to go the straight-up comedy route, with comic explosions of blood, a strange fascination with candy brands, and a production design that does nothing to hide that the two main actors are on a movie set with painted backdrops. This is backed up by Kris’ phone conversations with her girlfriend, Mari (Jasmine Savoy Brown) and her agent (Sarah Sherman), as well as numerous other details.

But the film starts to go down the surreal route the longer Kris stays at the camp with Billy, especially when they sit down to watch the original Camp Miasma. An extended sequence shows a good amount of that film-within-the-film, demonstrating why Kris and Billy have a love/hate relationship with the property. For Kris, though, the lines between the film and the real world start to blur, and Schoenbrun uses a variety of out-there elements to drive the point home.

The final act of the film can barely be described as Kris goes deeper down the rabbit hole, with Schoenbrun using her film to comment on the horror genre as a whole, its treatment of women and LGBT people, the movie industry, and more. All the while the “camp” of Camp Miasma maintains a presence, with candy wrappers showing up everywhere and the tongue-in-cheek references to Little Death (the French term La petite mort, which means “the little death,” is a euphemism for orgasm).

Einbinder, an Emmy winner for Hacks, is the perfect person to inhabit her role. Her established real-life and fictional personas color everything she does in the film, with her enthusiasm and curiosity shining through. Anderson leans heavily into another reference - Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard - to create a character that is as mysterious as she is alluring. Supporting actors like Brown, Sherman, Patrick Fischler, Dylan Baker, and Eva Victor keep the movie at the right pitch all the way through.

While other films have made fun of horror movie tropes before, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma finds a wholly unique way of doing so. It’s a funny and daring trip into the psyches of two women who may be victims of their own obsessions, and of the movies that made them that way.

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Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is now playing in select theaters

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