Weekend Event Planner

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

In this, the weekend before Thanksgiving, the holidays are in full effect in and around Dallas, with multiple seasonal events taking place. Other choices include showcases for violinists of different ilks, a popular food writer, a famous comedian, a local dance production, two national concert tours, and a symphonic celebration of Broadway.

Photo by Vladimir Kevorkov

Immersive Nutcracker: A Winter Miracle opens at Lighthouse Dallas on November 19.

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, November 17

The Trains at NorthPark
The Trains at NorthPark is the largest miniature train exhibit in Texas, featuring more than 750 railcars. Visitors to the exhibit will experience watching the trains circle 1,600 feet of tracks rolling from coast to coast on a whimsical journey across the United States. The trains travel from the fall foliage of New England to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge with stops along the way in New York, Arizona, Colorado, and more. The exhibit will be on display at NorthPark Center through January 6.

The DIFFA Wreath Collection
At the DIFFA Dallas Wreath Collection, top designers from across the world create one-of-a-kind holiday wreaths in a one-night-only silent auction benefiting the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. The fundraiser takes place at The Empire Room.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Nicola Benedetti
The innate musicianship and spirited presence of Nicola Benedetti makes her one of the most sought-after violinists today. At this concert, she will perform the U.S. premiere of James MacMillan's Violin Concerto No. 2. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra, led by Fabio Luisi, will also perform Bruckner's Symphony No. 4. There will be three performances through Saturday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

DMA Arts & Letters Live: An Evening with Nigella Lawson
Food writer, journalist, and TV cook Nigella Lawson is the bestselling author of 12 books, influencing a generation with her expressive and evocative writing and sumptuous recipes. In support of her latest book, Cook, Eat, Repeat: Ingredients, Recipes, and Stories, DMA Arts & Letters Live will present an evening with Lawson as she shares the rhythms and rituals of life spent in the kitchen and reflects on how the process of cooking, eating, and repeating embodies the story of her life. The event takes place at Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson.

Lindsey Stirling in concert
It's not often that a violinist becomes a huge star, but Lindsey Stirling has broken through because of the variety of music styles she plays, from classical to pop and rock to electronic dance music, and because of her energetic performances and videos. Each of her six albums, including the new Snow Waltz, has charted at No. 1 on the Billboard classical charts. She'll perform at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie.

Friday, November 18

Improv Arlington presents Shawn Wayans
Shawn Wayans was born into one of Hollywood's largest and most successful comedic families, so he was naturally gifted with the ability to make people laugh. He carved his own acting career with a starring role in the sitcom The Wayans Bros., along with movies like the Scary Movie franchise. He'll perform four times through Saturday at Improv Arlington.

Family Music Theatre presents White Christmas
In Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, veterans Bob Wallace and Phil Davis have a successful song-and-dance act after World War II. With romance in mind, the two follow a duo of beautiful singing sisters en route to their Christmas show at a Vermont lodge, which just happens to be owned by Bob and Phil's former army commander. The production, running through December 10 at New Vida Church of God, features standards like “Blue Skies,” “I Love A Piano,” “How Deep Is the Ocean” and the perennial title song.

Bruce Wood Dance presents Awake
Bruce Wood Dance presents Awake, showcasing work by Bruce Wood, legendary American choreographer Lar Lubovitch, Garrett Smith, and Adam W. McKinney with The Digibees. The production shares stories of injustice and loss in the works by Wood, McKinney, and Smith. Paired with the sweeping choreography of Lar Lubovitch’s Dvořák Serenade, dancers glide through the notes echoing grace and beauty along the way. The production will have three performances through Saturday at Moody Performance Hall.

The Fab Four in concert
The Fab Four is elevated far above every other Beatles tribute due to their precise attention to detail. With uncanny, note-for-note live renditions of Beatles' classics such as "Can't Buy Me Love," "Yesterday," "A Day In The Life," "Twist And Shout," "Here Comes The Sun," and "Hey Jude," the Fab Four makes audiences think they are watching the real thing. The concert takes place at Majestic Theatre.

Saturday, November 19

Immersive Nutcracker: A Winter Miracle
Lighthouse Immersive presents Immersive Nutcracker: A Winter Miracle, featuring whimsical animated characters alongside footage of professional ballet dancers. The 30-minute immersive experience is set to the sweeping music of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, encompassing visitors in a grand immersive display that relays the tale of The Nutcracker from opening to finale. The exhibition will be on display at Lighthouse Dallas through December 31.

Joe Satriani in concert
Joe Satriani is considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time, mentoring other guitar greats like Steve Vai, Andy Timmons, and more. He's also been part of the supergroup Chickenfoot, which included ex-Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. He'll play at Majestic Theatre in support of his new album, The Elephant of Mars.

A Magical Cirque Christmas
A Magical Cirque Christmas is a comedic, musical, and magic-filled holiday experience. World-acclaimed performers and cirque artists take audiences back in time, immersing them in the spirit of the season and performing Christmas classics through the decades. The one-night-only performance will be at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Plano Symphony Orchestra presents "Bravo Broadway!"
For the third show of its season, the Plano Symphony Orchestra will be joined by some of the best voices from the stages of New York performing familiar songs from Tony Award-winning Broadway shows like Les Misérables, West Side Story, The Phantom of The Opera, and more. The concert will be at Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson.

holidays exhibitions-visual-arts fundraisers concerts music symphony books comedy theater event-planner

Movie Review

Film sequel Avatar: Fire and Ash is a technical and visual feast

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.

The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.

Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.

The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.

Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.

A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.

There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.

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