Steve Martin & Martin Short
Apr. 8, 7 pm
Verizon Theatre
Abbott and Costello with a banjo. Crosby and Hope with a Twitter account. Feel free to draw comparisons to duos of yore, but these two amigos are comedy legends in their own right. Martin and Short’s “An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life” is a variety show, a good-natured mutual roast, and a master class in the art of banter.
Fortress Festival
Apr. 29 & 30
Fort Worth Cultural District
This inaugural music festival’s decision to put stages at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Will Rogers Center is as inspired as its booking of the electropop duo Purity Ring and hip-hop firebrands Run the Jewels.
Stephen Tobolowsky
Apr. 18, 7:30 pm
Dallas Museum of Art
We imagine he gets Groundhog Day’s Ned Ryerson the most, but the character actor is a familiar face from more than 100 films. Less familiar, but presumably just as remarkable, is his new book of short stories, My Adventures With God.
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David Sedaris
Apr. 28
Winspear Opera House
Since visiting last year, the celebrity essayist has a new book to tout—Theft By Finding, taken from his diaries— and a brave new world in which to deploy his satirical voice.
Old 97’s County Fair
Apr. 8, noon
Main Street Garden
Dallas’ favorite alt country band returns to play the second edition of its namesake music festival, along with the Ferris wheel and carnival atmosphere. New additions include the legendary Lucinda Williams and soul hero Mavis Staples.
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Apr. 22, 6 pm
American Airlines Center
Petty has hinted that this anniversary tour may be the “last big one,” but you shouldn’t need a temporal excuse to see one of classic rock’s greats, still firing on all cylinders after four decades.
FOCUS: Katherine Bernhardt
Apr. 8–Jul. 9
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
Doritos, cigarettes, basketballs, and Windex are among the figures replicated in Bernhardt’s “pattern paintings,” dizzying and cartoonish arrays of consumerist excess.
Edgefest
Apr. 1, noon
Toyota Stadium
Its namesake radio station is gone, but the 25th anniversary of this festival is nevertheless a fitting tribute to the last two decades of big tent alternative rock, with blast from the past heavyweights like Blink 182, The Offspring, and 311 on the lineup.
Trevor
Apr. 14–May 6
Trinity River Arts Center
In this unnervingly dark comedy, a chimpanzee ruing his bygone fame as a former commercial actor and struggling with interspecies communication becomes a threat to his doting human owner.
PJ Harvey
Apr. 27, 7:30 pm
The Bomb Factory
Harvey, long one of England’s best songwriters, rarely visits the U.S., although it’s already a special occasion anytime the chameleonic performer takes the stage.
Norma
Apr. 21–May 7
Winspear Opera House
The story of two Druid priestesses and a Roman consul locked into a tragic love triangle in ancient Gaul comes second to the beautiful arias in Bellini’s opera.
Dallas Book Festival
Apr. 29, 10 am
Dallas Public Library Central Branch
An author festival as much as anything, with acclaimed writers both far-flung and local delivering talks, this expanded celebration is an outward sign of Dallas’ much-ballyhooed literary renaissance.
Pixies
Apr. 29, 7:30 pm
The Bomb Factory
Maybe fans will mourn the absence of bassist-vocalist Kim Deal, who left the band several years ago, but the Pixies are still the Pixies—a maelstrom of violent rock dynamics and achingly sweet pop melodies.
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Electra
Apr. 4–May 21
Annette Strauss Square
The play, an ancient Greek tragedy, is less compelling here than the production: the Dallas Theater Center will stage Electra outside, allowing audience members to stroll between scenes and listen to commentary on headphones.
American Football
Apr. 1, 8 pm
Granada Theater
The influential emo band is enjoying a second wind and a newfound surge in popularity after reuniting several years ago, returning to the vanguard of a genre it pioneered.
TITAS: Che Malambo
Apr. 14 & 15
City Performance Hall
Playfully embracing the mythology of the gaucho, this Argentine dance troupe has its 14 cowboys, sometimes armed with lassos, perform furious choreography set to intense drums.
Drive-By Truckers
Apr. 7, 8 pm
Granada Theater
The definitive contemporary Southern band’s been writing hillbilly elegies for years, but the group’s recently adopted more politicized lyrics in an effort to understand Trump’s America.
Really
Apr. 12–May 6
Undermain Theatre
A brainy play about the limitations of memory and photography, among other things, Really focuses its lens on a mother, a girlfriend, and the man they are each trying to remember.
Vince Staples
Apr. 7, 8 pm
South Side Music Hall
The Long Beach rapper is not without a sense of humor, but his music is deadly serious, a ruthless deconstruction of the gangster rap mystique.
The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord
Apr. 14–May 7
WaterTower Theatre
Three great minds are locked into debating their hot takes in a very hot place in a play that puts the idea of “hell is other people” to test.
Bill Maher
Apr. 30, 7 pm
Music Hall at Fair Park
Making up a cancelled date from last year (his flight was grounded), the Real Time host is back to get real with an audience that’s been waiting for it.
Morrissey
Apr. 15, 7 pm
Majestic Theatre
The Smiths singer is back to make good on a show he called off late last year. (Assuming the melancholic crooner, who has a reputation for this sort of thing, doesn’t push this date back again.)
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Dallas Symphony: Vivaldi Four Seasons & Beethoven 6
Apr. 27–30
Meyerson Symphony Center
Spring is in full swing, making these pastoral works particularly seasonal, as if Vivaldi and Beethoven weren’t already sure-fire crowd-pleasers.
Sebastian Maniscalco
Apr. 13, 7 pm
Majestic Theatre
A great opportunity to catch one of comedy’s next big things, whose fame has been built largely on-stage, discounting a few trifling on-screen appearances.
Soundings: Jorg Widmann
Apr. 7, 7 pm
Nasher Sculpture Center
Widmann, acting as the Nasher’s artist-in-residence for several shows, performs a solo clarinet recital for this edition of the best, most challenging music series in town.
Straight White Men
Apr. 12–May 6
Bryant Hall at Kalita Humphreys Theater
Check your privilege at the door and take a seat for Second Thought Theatre’s radical deconstruction of class, race, and gender in America.
