Weekend Event Planner

These are the 11 best things to do in Fort Worth this weekend

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra's Concerts in the Garden series at Fort Worth Botanic Garden plays the music of Pink Floyd, Journey, and Broadway, June 10-12.

Photo by Julien Lambert

It's a big weekend in and around Fort Worth, with the final events in the Cliburn Competition and the start of a popular outdoor concert series. You can also enjoy a tribute to a Broadway legend, a new local theater production, an acclaimed documentary, a renowned psychic, a well-known comedian, two country concerts, a beer-themed Father's Day event, and a Juneteenth Festival.

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, June 16

Casa Mañana presents A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim
One of the most important figures in 20th century musical theatre, Stephen Sondheim was credited for having “reinvented the American musical.” Casa Mañana's Apprentice Program Alumni will celebrate the legendary composer though a musical journey of his catalog. Audiences will enjoy songs from Into the Woods, West Side Story, Merrily We Roll Along, Saturday Night, and more in the Reid Cabaret Theatre.

Circle Theatre presents Young Frankenstein the Musical
In Young Frankenstein the Musical, Frederick Frankenstein reluctantly inherits his infamous family’s estate in Transylvania. Urged on by a hunchbacked sidekick, Igor, and a leggy lab assistant, Inga, Frederick finds himself fulfilling his grandfather’s corpse-raising legacy. The electrifying musical stage adaptation of Mel Brooks’ brilliantly funny film runs at Circle Theatre through July 23.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents Concerts in the Garden
After two years without Fort Worth’s summer staple, the 30th Anniversary Celebration of Concerts in the Garden festival will feature three weekends of outdoor concerts by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra at Fort Worth Botanic Garden. Kicking things off will be concerts featuring Asleep at the Wheel (Thursday), Jackopierce (Friday), The Music of the Eagles (Saturday), and Sarah Jaffe (Sunday).

Friday, June 17

Sixteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
This is it — the quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is down to its final six competitors: Dmytro Choni from Ukraine, Anna Geniushene and Ilya Shmukler from Russia, Uladzislau Khandohi from Belarus, Yunchan Lim from South Korea, and Clayton Stephenson from the United States. After two days of finals performances earlier in the week, each competitor will have one last chance to perform during programs taking place on Friday and Saturday at Bass Performance Hall, culminating with awards ceremony on Saturday night and a big, free public party in Sundance Square.

Magnolia at the Modern: Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story
The documentary Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story weaves together live performances and interviews from the 50th anniversary of The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the annual music and cultural event of the city with hundreds of thousands of attendees each year. The film will screen seven times through Sunday at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Matt Fraser: America’s Top Psychic Medium
From heartfelt emotional readings to stunning revelations, Matt Fraser has audiences on the edge of their seats with his outrageous personality and unique approach to mediumship. His readings lead guests through a rollercoaster of emotions from laughing to crying, turning skeptics into believers with stunning details. He'll perform at Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium.

Hyena's presents Bobcat Goldthwait
Bobcat Goldthwait is no stranger to entertainment and is one of the most recognizable comedians in show business today. His stand up features hilarious riffs on politics, divorce, going broke, and his career as a writer and director of film. His show is a wild ride of fun finding the funny no matter what the situation. He'll perform twice on Saturday at Hyena's Comedy Club in Fort Worth.

Roger Creager in concert
Country singer Roger Creager has been plugging away at his singing career for over 20 years, but it's only in the last 10 that he's started to get some national acclaim. Creager has released seven albums in his career, including 2014's Road Show, which made it to No. 20 on Billboard's Country Albums chart. He'll play at Billy Bob's Texas.

Saturday, June 18

Shannon Brewing Company presents DadFest
Father's Day doesn't seem to be as big of a celebratory occasion for event organizers, but Shannon Brewing Company in Keller will buck that trend with their seventh annual DadFest. There will be special beer tappings all day long, live music, barbecue, a crawfish boil, and more. The come-and-go event will take place from 12-7 pm.

TRWD presents I Am Juneteenth Festival
The I Am Juneteenth Festival is a music & food festival to celebrate the accomplishments and historical significance of June 19, 1865, when slaves in Texas finally found out they were free. This year’s festival, taking place at Panther Island Pavilion, will feature entertainment for the whole family from with international and local artists, a kids zone, live acts, and more.

Stoney LaRue in concert
Singer-songwriter Stoney LaRue is part of the recent wave of Texas Country/Red Dirt artists, having put out six albums since 2002, including 2019's Onward. LaRue is as close to a regular at Billy Bob's as you can get, having played there multiple times and even recording a live album there in 2007. He'll play there yet again on Saturday night.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra's Concerts in the Garden series starts with four concerts through June 19.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Concerts in the Garden

Photo by Julien Lambert

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra's Concerts in the Garden series starts with four concerts through June 19.

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Movie Review

Video game film sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 3 seems sure to please fans

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Sonic the Hedgehog (Ben Schwartz) in Sonic the Hedgehog 3

The first Sonic the Hedgehog movie in 2020 was one of the few video game adaptations that managed to appeal to both fans of the Sega game and those who just want to watch a fun movie. As the series moved into a second and now third film, though, it’s become increasingly reliant on giving the video game fans what they want, with not as much attention paid toward simply telling a good story.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) continues to live with human friends Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter), as well as Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba), who stuck around after the events of the second film. Dispensing with any kind of narrative coherence, the trio is called away by an undefined military force to help with the escape of Shadow (Keanu Reeves), another alien hedgehog who has been locked away off the coast of Japan for many years.

Suffice it to say that the trio does not initially fare well against the powerful Shadow, forcing Sonic to do the unthinkable: Ask his nemesis, Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey), for help. What Sonic doesn’t anticipate is that Shadow has a history that left him with a grudge against most of human society, and he’s intent on using his powers - with a little help from his former mentor, Gerald Robotnik (also Carrey) - to exact his plans for revenge.

Made by the same team of director Jeff Fowler and writers Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the film is a combination of manic action, jokey sequences, and a dash of heart. The addition of Shadow ups the mayhem considerably, and the filmmakers rarely slow things down (although, oddly, the super-speed of Sonic and company feels lessened this time around).

The initial casting of Carrey gave the comic actor permission to indulge in whatever wackiness he could imagine, and giving him two roles in this film means double the nonsense. Ivo and Gerald (who’s Ivo’s grandfather, for the record) face off in a number of silly scenes, none more absurd than a dance sequence aboard a space station threatening to explode Earth (yeah, this movie is a lot).

Does the plot make a lick of sense? Absolutely not, but the filmmakers seem to acknowledge that fact, throwing anything and everything at the screen to try to entertain kids and/or fans of the video game series. It should come as no surprise that the end credits tease yet more characters from the video games joining the franchise, making it abundantly clear who is expected to get the most enjoyment out of the series going forward.

In addition to Carrey, the voice actors continue to make the characters fun. Schwartz and O’Shaughnessey provide the cartoon-style acting, while Elba and now Reeves give a nice counterbalance with their deep and serious voices. Marsden and Sumpter aren’t given much to do this time around, and Krysten Ritter shows up as Director Rockwell, a character who’s mostly there to move what little plot there is further along.

A four-quadrant movie is one that appeals to all ages and genders; Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a one or maybe two-quadrant movie at most. But it’s more fun than the other family-friendly offering this Christmas season, and fans of the video game will likely love the depiction of their favorite characters on screen, so it’s doing something right.

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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is now playing in theaters.

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