The pool isn’t the only cool place to spend a hot Texas summer day. From toe-tapping musicals to immersive art exhibitions and beautiful music, the North Texas area is filled with air-conditioned artsy adventures for the whole family.
AMON CARTER MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
Moving Pictures: Karl Struss and the Rise of Hollywood celebrates photographer and cinematographer Karl Struss’ storied career and influence on American filmmaking during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Featuring archival materials, films, and over 100 photographs from the Carter’s extensive Struss Artist Archive, the multimedia exhibition highlights Struss’s innovations in image-making and unique contributions to the film industry in the early 20th century. The exhibition is on view at the Fort Worth museum through Aug. 25.
Learn more: Moving Pictures: Karl Struss and the Rise of Hollywood
BROADWAY AT THE BASS SERIES
Sister Act is the feel-good musical comedy smash based on the hit 1992 film that has audiences jumping to their feet. Filled with powerful gospel music, outrageous dancing and a truly moving story, Sister Act will leave audiences breathless. The musical runs at Bass Hall in Fort Worth Aug. 15-18.
Learn more: Sister Act
BROADWAY DALLAS
Funny Girl, the beloved musical with score by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, and book by Isobel Lennart, runs at the Music Hall at Fair Park Aug. 6-18. Featuring one of the greatest musical scores of all time, including classic songs “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” “I’m the Greatest Star,” and “People,” this bittersweet comedy is the story of the indomitable Fanny Brice, a girl from the Lower East Side who dreamed of a life on the stage. Everyone told her she’d never be a star, but then something funny happened—she became one of the most beloved performers in history, shining brighter than the brightest lights of Broadway.
Learn more: Funny Girl
CIRCLE THEATRE
Circle Theatre is reinventing a French classic comedy with Imposter! Hypocrite! TARTUFFE! Wit, cunning, and hypocrisy are on full display in this punk-rock remake of Moliere’s classic farce. Circle Theatre’s Artistic Director Ashley H. White pens a new approach to the iconic play, reintroducing the timeless tale of a man who deploys his charm and feigned piety in an attempt to disrupt a household. However, his clever scheme is no match for the astute women of the family who decide to beat him at his own game. The show runs at the Fort Worth theater Aug. 1- 24.
Learn more: Imposter! Hypocrite! TARTUFFE!
CROW MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS
As the museum prepares to open its second museum at the University of Texas at Dallas, its Dallas Arts District home is dedicated to the art of Japan. Japan, Form & Function: The Montgomery Collection features more than 240 works, subdivided into themes and categories throughout the galleries. For the first time, the Crow Museum will dedicate the entire museum to one sole presentation over an extended period of time. The landmark exhibition based on the collection of Jeffrey Montgomery is on view through April 13, 2025.
Learn more: Japan, Form & Function: The Montgomery Collection
DALLAS CHAMBER SYMPHONY
You don’t have to leave the comfort of your own home’s air conditioning to enjoy the sounds of one of Dallas’ most acclaimed orchestras. The Dallas Chamber Symphony recently released its first album, Chasing Home. On this recording by Richard McKay and the Dallas Chamber Symphony, two major works by American composers offer representative views of the migrant experience. Chasing Home, a ballet composed in 2017 by Joseph Thalken, is based on the plight of migrants fleeing the Syrian Civil War. Aaron Copland’s original Appalachian Spring Suite explores pioneer life in Pennsylvania in that time when opportunity and open space drew Americans ever farther west.
Listen to Chasing Home
DALLAS CONTEMPORARY
Who’s Afraid of Cartoony Figuration? brings together a multigenerational and multidisciplinary cast of artists to highlight the often overlooked and underestimated artistic approach of cartoony figuration. Through a quotidian and deceivingly unserious visual language, Umar Rashid (aka Frohawk Two Feathers), Sally Saul, Karolina Jabłońska, and Tabboo! powerfully confront socio-political concerns across colonial history, feminist movements, the queer underground and more through styles reminiscent of or directly inspired by cartoons, comics, and commercial illustration across painting, illustration, ceramic, and sculpture. The exhibition is on view through Sep. 20.
Learn more: Who’s Afraid of Cartoony Figuration?
DALLAS HOLOCAUST AND HUMAN RIGHTS MUSEUM
This weekend is the final chance to see Walk this Way: Footwear from the Stuart Weitzman Collection of Historic Shoes. From silk boudoir shoes created for the 1867 Paris Exposition to leather spectator pumps signed by the 1941 New York Yankees, Walk this Way features more than 100 striking pairs of shoes. This exhibition, organized by The New-York Historical Society, presents footwear spanning nearly 200 years from the collection of iconic shoe designer Stuart Weitzman and businesswoman and philanthropist Jane Gershon Weitzman. Among the many highlights are historic shoes that tell stories of the past, including a pair of pumps worn by Queen Victoria in the 1860s. The exhibition closes July 14.
Learn more: Walk this Way: Footwear from the Stuart Weitzman Collection of Historic Shoes
DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART
With the Paris 2024 Olympics around the corner, now is a great time for North Texans to learn more about Impressionism, one of the most cherished artistic movements in the world. The Impressionist Revolution from Monet to Matisse, on view at the Dallas Museum of Art through Nov. 3, reveals a surprising story about Impressionism’s origins: Claude Monet was an outcast.
Learn more: The Impressionist Revolution from Monet to Matisse
DALLAS THEATER CENTER
Disney’s The Little Mermaid is the theatre’s 2024 Public Works pageant production, featuring over 150 cast members from the Dallas community performing alongside members of the theater’s Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company and other professional actors. This production is based on the Disney classic, featuring unforgettable songs such as “Part of Your World,” “Under the Sea,” and “Kiss the Girl.” Presented in collaboration with AT&T Performing Arts Center, the show runs at the Wyly Theatre in the Dallas Arts District July 12 – Aug. 4.
Learn more: Disney’s The Little Mermaid
DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Spend Labor Day weekend with everyone’s favorite boy wizard with a film-in-concert event, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Get ready to fight a dragon, swim with merpeople, and find out just who put Harry’s name in the Goblet of Fire! For the first time ever, audiences can rediscover the magic of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire while a live symphony orchestra performs Patrick Doyle’s unforgettable score. The concert will be presented at the Meyerson Symphony Center in the Dallas Arts District Aug. 29 – Sept. 1.
Learn more: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
FORT WORTH MUSEUM OF ART AND SCIENCE AND HISTORY
There’s more to see at planetariums in North Texas than stars. Beautifica, a film specifically designed for domed venues, combines art and James Hood’s music to create a fantastical sensory event. The 45-minute film is running throughout the summer at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. The film is also on view at The Sky Theater at the University of North Texas in Denton.
Learn more: Beautifica in Fort Worth
FORT WORTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is filling August with music. On Aug. 23 and 24 at Bass Hall, the orchestra will present FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH Orchestra World Tour, a new concert based entirely on the groundbreaking game from SQUARE ENIX. With stunning, high-definition video scenes created exclusively for this production by SQUARE ENIX, audiences will be immersed in the world of one of the most visionary games of all time with this sensational multimedia concert experience.
On Aug. at Bass Hall, a trio of Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra musicians take the spotlight in Stars of the Symphony, a special performance celebrating the skill of Cowtown’s own musicians. Principal Violist DJ Cheek will perform Bruch’s Romance for viola and orchestra. English horn player Tim Daniels stars as the majestic voice of the swan in Sibelius’ epic tone poem Swan of Tuonela, and Principal Trumpeter Kyle Sherman gives voices to Tartini’s graceful and precise Concerto in D Major, a testament to the splendor of Italian baroque music.
Learn more: Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
FOUR DAY WEEKEND AT STAGE WEST THEATRE
You can laugh or cry about the summer heat. Four Day Weekend, the critically acclaimed improvisational comedy group, hopes North Texans will laugh with them at their new home at Stage West Theatre in Fort Worth. The comedy group is moving following Sundance Square Management’s decision not to renew its lease, which runs through the end of July. Four Day Weekend’s first performance at Stage West is slated for Saturday, Aug. 3.
“When we learned Four Day Weekend was losing its downtown space, the only response was “come over here,” declared Dana Schultes, Stage West Executive Producer. “Simply put: a thriving arts scene makes Fort Worth better. Plus, we have multiple performance spaces! Finally, the Near Southside Arts district is a perfect landing spot. It was a no-brainer on our part to extend a helping hand to a fellow Fort Worth arts institution.”
KIMBELL ART MUSEUM
Art and War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries marks the first time that this entire cycle of seven large-scale tapestries—some of the most awe-inspiring examples of this often-overlooked artform—has been on view in the United States. The tremendous images, each about twenty-seven feet wide and fourteen feet high, commemorate Emperor Charles V’s decisive victory over French King Francis I that ended the sixteenth-century Italian Wars. Designed by court artist Bernard van Orley, the tapestries were woven in Brussels by Willem and Jan Dermoyen in deeply saturated hues and exquisite detail, luxuriously highlighted with gold. This exhibition is on view through Sept. 15.
Learn more: Art and War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries
MEOW WOLF GRAPEVINE
Meow Wolf Grapevine is celebrating one year since opening its North Texas location with its Birthday Palooza, a multi-day birthday bash July 11-14 featuring a trash fashion show, karoke, and a birthday toast. Open every day, the arts and entertainment company’s North Texas venue features The Real Unreal, an immersive art experience featuring the creations by several local artists. Visitors explore an ordinary-looking house and discover portals to a maze of otherworldly dimensions.
Learn more: The Real Unreal
MODERN ART MUSEUM OF FORT WORTH
The Modern Art Museum and the Latin American Film Center NYC present Echoes of Césaire, a film presentation in conjunction with the Modern’s special exhibition Surrealism and Us: Caribbean and African Diasporic Artists since 1940.
Echoes of Césaire, curated by LAFC’s Head Programmer Aerin Chaklai, exhibits the profound influence of Aimé Césaire and Suzanne Roussi Césaire on the Negritude movement, highlighting how their work at the intersection of Caribbean politics and Surrealism has paved the way for modern Afrosurrealism and Afrofuturism. The program features four films: Too Bright to See, an experimental short film by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich; Aimé Césaire: un homme, une terre by Sarah Maldoror and Djibril Diop Mambéty’s Touki Bouki on July 20;andJohn Coney’s Space is The Place on July 27.
Surrealism and Us: Caribbean and African Diasporic Artists since 1940 is organized by Curator María Elena Ortiz and inspired by the history of Surrealism in the Caribbean with connections to notions of the Afrosurreal in the United States. Representing a global perspective, this exhibition is the first intergenerational show dedicated to Caribbean and African diasporic art presented at the Modern. The exhibition is on view through July 28.
Learn more: Surrealism and Us: Caribbean and African Diasporic Artists since 1940
SECOND THOUGHT THEATRE
Closing this weekend is Wink by Jen Silverman. The 2019 dark comedy follows unhappy housewife Sofie and her bread-winning husband Gregor, who both seek weekly counseling from an unorthodox therapist, Doctor Frans. Wink is the cat. And Gregor has just skinned the cat. What chaos does Wink’s disappearance bring to the neatly ordered reality Sofie, Gregor, and Doctor Frans have constructed? The show runs through July 13 at Bryant Hall on the Kalita Humphreys campus in Dallas.
Learn more: Wink
THEATRE THREE
This weekend is the last chance to see Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic musical. Young love-struck Frederic has been mistakenly apprenticed to a raucous band of pirates. A smash hit on Broadway in the 1980’s, this comical operetta is a colorful, playful romp about love, honor, and cleverness. The show closes July 14.
The Uptown Dallas theater will host the 2024 Festival of Independent Theatres Aug. 1-24. Prior to the pandemic, the festival’s home was the Bath House Cultural Center for more than two decades. This year’s festival features a variety of works from independent, self-producing artists small, emerging theater groups, staged in Theatre Three’s mainstage performing space, Norma Young Arena Stage and its basement theater, Theatre Too. Tickets go on sale July 15.
Learn more: Festival of Independent Theatres
UPTOWN PLAYERS
The Prom, a musical based on a book by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin with music by Matthew Skla and lyrics by Chad Beguelin, follows the journey of Emma, a high school student who wants to take her girlfriend to the prom. When the school’s conservative PTA board cancels the prom to avoid controversy, a group of eccentric Broadway actors decides to rally behind Emma and travel to her small town to help her fight for inclusion. The Prom is running at the Kalita Humphreys Theater July 12-28.
Learn more: The Prom
WATERTOWER THEATRE
Mary Poppins, a musical based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney Film, is the final production of WaterTower Theatre’s 28th season. Running on the Terry Martin Main Stage at the Addison Theatre Centre July 17 – 28, The musical is based on the similarly titled Mary Poppins children’s books by P. L. Travers and the 1964 Disney film and is a fusion of various elements from the two, including songs from the film. Featuring the beloved songs from the original movie by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman (the Sherman Brothers), with additional music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, and a book by Julian Fellowes.
Learn more: Mary Poppins