Weekend event planner

These are the 12 best things to do in Fort Worth this weekend

While this first weekend of December around Fort Worth features a good number of holiday events, they aren't the dominant force. Leading the way will be a national tour of Broadway musical, followed by a holiday cabaret show, another Nutcracker, two new local theater productions, three concerts, a college basketball double-header, and more.

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, December 1

Broadway at the Bass: My Fair Lady
Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower seller, and Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a “proper lady.” But who is really being transformed? The musical boasts such classic songs as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “The Rain in Spain,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” and “On the Street Where You Live.” The production runs through Sunday at Bass Performance Hall.

Casa Mañana presents Christmas with Nat and Natalie
Casa Mañana will present an “unforgettable” evening with holiday favorites from Nat King and Natalie Cole. The father-daughter duo separately recorded over 100 songs that became hits on the pop charts. The show, featuring stars Curtis Wiley and Jenny Mollet, will be in the newly renovated Reid Cabaret Theatre and feature favorites like “Unforgettable,” “When I Fall in Love,” “Mona Lisa” and, of course, “The Christmas Song.” The production runs through December 18.

Friday, December 2

Magnolia at the Modern: Decision to Leave
In this latest thriller from South Korean master filmmaker Park Chan-wook, a man plummets to his death from a mountain peak. Did he jump, or was he pushed? When detective Hae-joon arrives on the scene, he begins to suspect the dead man's wife Seo-rae. But as he digs deeper into the investigation, he finds himself trapped in a web of deception and desire. The film, which is in Korean with English subtitles, will have five screenings through Sunday at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Ballet Frontier presents The Nutcracker
Ballet Frontier's annual production of The Nutcracker has a cast comprised of professional dancers, talented young students, dazzling costumes, and world-class choreography. There will be four performances through Sunday at Will Rogers Auditorium.

Theatre Arlington presents Hooray for Holidays
Theatre Arlington is bringing back Hooray for Holidays, a hilarious Christmas musical that features special guests at each performance. The production centers on The Callahan Kids TV Christmas Reunion special, and everyone is excited about the former child stars’ return to television until they realize that as grown-ups, they are no longer cute and their talent is lacking. The only thing that can save the show is a Christmas miracle. The production runs through December 18.

Hyena's presents Greg Fitzsimmons
Mixing an incisive wit with scathing sarcasm, Greg Fitzsimmons has achieved success as a stand-up, writer, and host on both radio and TV. He is host of The Greg Fitzsimmons Show on SiriusXM’s “Howard 101” and twice a week puts out the FitzDog Radio podcast. A regular on @Midnight, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, and The Tonight Show, Fitzsimmons has made more than 50 visits to The Howard Stern Show. He'll perform four times through Saturday at Hyena's in downtown Fort Worth.

Holidays with the One O'Clock Lab Band
At the annual "Holidays with the One O'Clock Lab Band" concert, the University of North Texas group will celebrate the yuletide season as they take on favorite holiday anthems. The performance takes place at McDavid Studio.

Stolen Shakespeare Guild presents The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley
The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley takes audiences to the downstairs servants’ quarters. Mrs. Reynolds, a no-nonsense housekeeper; Cassie, an eager new maid; and Brian, a lovesick footman, are bustling with preparations for holiday guests. But their work is interrupted by the midnight arrival of the definitely not invited Mr. Wickham - Lydia’s rogue of a husband and Mr. Darcy’s sworn enemy. The Wickhams is a charming holiday tale that explores the confines of class and the generosity of forgiveness. The production runs through December 18 at Arts Fort Worth.

'90s Rewind with Tone Loc, Tag Team, and more
Anyone who grew up on 1990s hip hop will be in heaven with '90s Rewind at Tannahill's Tavern & Music Hall. The concert will feature performances by one- or two-hit wonders like Tone Loc (best known for "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina"), Tag Team ("Whoomp! There It Is!"), C+C Music Factory ("Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)"), and Digital Underground ("The Humpty Dance").

Saturday, December 3

U-Sports Group presents The Battleground 2k22
The college basketball season is just getting going, and The Battleground 2k22, a double-header from U-Sports Group, will feature two big matchups, including one with the No. 1 team in the nation. The Texas A&M Aggies of the SEC will take on the Boise State Broncos of the Mountain West Conference, followed by the Houston Cougars of the American Athletic Conference - who just rose to No. 1 for the first time since 1983 - versus the Saint Mary’s Gaels of the West Coast Conference.

Cory Morrow in concert
Country singer Cory Morrow has been a steady presence on the Red Dirt scene for almost 20 years. He had his breakout with a covers album alongside Pat Green, Songs We Wish We'd Written, and has continued that success with eight more studio albums, including 2018's Whiskey and Pride. He'll play at Tannahill's Tavern & Music Hall, alongside opening act Scotty Alexander.

Mark Chesnutt in concert
Mark Chesnutt was among the wave of male country vocalists who rose to fame in the early 1990s, scoring eight No. 1 hits in as many years, including "Brother Jukebox," "I'll Think of Something," and "It's a Little Too Late." He's no longer at the top of the charts, but he's still prolific, releasing four albums since 2016, most recently 2018's Gone But Not Forgotten... A Tribute Album by Mark Chesnutt. He'll play at Billy Bob's Texas.

Photo by Joan Marcus

My Fair Lady will play at Bass Performance Hall through December 4.

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Movie Review

Oscar-winning director visits WWII era in melodramatic film Blitz

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+

Elliott Heffernan and Saoirse Ronan in Blitz.

The horrors of World War II are 80+ years in the past, yet they remain a fascination for many filmmakers. The latest film to tackle the era, Blitz, is centered around the German Blitzkrieg air raids on London in September 1940, but uses a more personal story to illustrate its impact.

Rita (Saoirse Ronan) lives with her 9-year-old son George (Elliott Heffernan) and her father Gerald (Paul Weller) in the lower class neighborhood of Stepney, but no one in the city is immune from the bombs being dropped by the Germans. The government has opened up some of the Underground (aka subway) tunnels for residents to use as bomb shelters, but the haphazard nature of their availability leads Rita to send George to safety in the countryside to protect him.

George, who is biracial, experiences racist abuse on the train, and instead of remaining with the other children to their destination, he jumps off and tries to make his way back to London. Meanwhile, Rita is doing her best to keep her mind off of George’s absence, working at a munition factory and volunteering at a bomb shelter, not knowing that George has put himself back in danger.

Written and directed by Steve McQueen, the film should be one that elicits emotions relatively easily, with ordinary people dealing with the effects of war and a mother separated from her only child. And while all the elements are present, there’s that certain something missing that leaves the story somewhat uninvolving. McQueen makes you want to see George make it back safely and for Rita to be reunited with him, but there is a degree of sentimentality that’s missing from the film as a whole.

Instead of going down that road, McQueen puts a big focus on the racism and bigotry experienced by various people in the film. Flashbacks give a sense of what George and his dad, Marcus (CJ Beckford), went through prior to the war, and Ife (Benjamin Clementine), a warden who tries to help George find his way home, encounters it multiple times while just doing his duty. While McQueen’s point that people of color still had to endure acts of hatred in a time when people should have been coming together, his methods of showing it are often heavy-handed.

Still, the film is well-made and remains visually engaging throughout. The combination of practical sets and CGI put the viewer right in the middle of the bombed-out London, and there are few missteps with how the city is presented. And even though the main mother-son story is only lightly effective, the trials and tribulations that each go through individually are interesting and occasionally suspenseful.

Ronan is a fantastic actor who might get nominated for an Oscar yet again for her other recent film, The Outrun, but this role pales in comparison. Whether it’s because the 30-year-old is a bit young to be fully believable in a mother role or because of the storytelling missteps, she’s merely good instead of great here. Heffernan does a solid job in his film debut, reacting ably to McQueen putting him through his paces.

Blitz joins the seemingly never-ending well of stories from World War II, and while it doesn’t succeed as mightily as other notable war films, it never becomes anything less than watchable. The family story at its center could have been more heartfelt, but McQueen is still a great filmmaker with a flair for visual composition.

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Blitz is now streaming on Apple TV+.

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