War Horse: South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company designed the life-size horse puppets for the stage adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's book War Horse (which was also made into a Steven Spielberg film last year). The stage version won all the awards in London and New York, and is now on tour, stopping here for the Lexus Broadway Series. Wednesday through Sept. 23. AT&T Performing Arts Center's Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora St., Dallas. $30-$150. 214-880-0202; www.attpac.org.
Tony Bennett: The ol' crooner may not sound as sterling as he once did, but he's still a legend who manages to bridge the generation gap with music fans. Watch out for some Bieber fans at this show, too. 7:30 p.m. Monday. Bass Hall, Fort Worth. $28-$221. 817-212-4280; www.basshall.com.
3. Pentatonix: The Arlington group that won the a cappella reality show The Sing-Off returns to town. Expect covers of Somebody That I Used to Know, Video Killed the Radio Star and more. 8 p.m. Thursday. Cambridge Room, House of Blues, 2200 N. Lamar St., Dallas. $18-$20 (sold out, but some standing-room tickets available). 214-978-2583; www.houseofblues.com.
Rent: If you take the number of minutes in a year that are sung about in Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning musical Rent, and multiply it by the number of years Theatre Arlington has been around, you get about 21 million. Translation: TA is the big 4-O. Rent runs Friday through Sept. 30. Theatre Arlington, 305 W. Main St., Arlington. $22. 817-275-7661; www.theatrearlington.org.
Gallery Night: Temperatures might still be in the 90s, but it's time to bust out the fall wardrobe, as this annual event officially heralds the new season. Be sure and check out the Otis Jones show at William Campbell Contemporary Art, and "Preservation Is the Art of the City" at Fort Worth Community Arts Center. But there are many, many more options. 2-8 p.m. Saturday. Galleries all over Fort Worth. Free. For a list of places and shows, go to www.fwada.com.
Untapped Festival: Dogfish Head, Oskar Blues and Deschutes -- those are the names of beers, not bands. (Who can tell anymore?) More than 50 breweries will be represented at this festival, which features concerts by Givers, the Antlers, Akron Family and more. 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Saturday. Trinity Groves, 334 Singleton Blvd., Dallas. $20-$25, $30 with beer package; $60 VIP package. www.untapped-festival.com.
"The 1950s: The Golden Age of Black & White": With this Fort Worth Symphony pops show, expect to hear the I Love Lucy theme song, many references to Jack Benny, some commercial jingles and more. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Bass Hall, Fort Worth. $27-$79. 817-665-6000; www.fwsymphony.org.
Jewish Film Festival: The 16th annual event, presented by the Jewish Community Center of Dallas, opens Thursday with the film David, and screenings of movies (mostly new to Dallas) continue through Sept. 29 at two locations: Studio Movie Grill, 11170 N. Central Expressway, and the Jewish Community Center of Dallas, 7900 Northaven Road, Dallas. $10-$15 per film; $95 festival pass. 214-368-4709; www.jccdallas.org.
9. 50th Annual National Championship Indian Pow Wow: Here's a great way to take in American Indian culture (lots of dance and food), and get in some late-summer flea market shopping. 6 p.m.-midnight Friday, 10 a.m.-midnight Saturday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday. Traders Village, 2602 Mayfield Road, Grand Prairie. Free admission; parking $3. 972-647-2331; www.tradersvillage.com/grand-prairie.
50th Anniversary Gold Medalists Concert: The title says it all. The Van Cliburn Foundation is 50, and to kick off the new Cliburn Concerts season, we get a taste of past gold medalists in the piano competish. Ralph Votapek, Andre-Michel Schub, Alexander Kobrin and Haochen Zhang perform. 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Bass Hall, Fort Worth. $15-$90. 817-212-4280; www.cliburn.org.
Huge theater weekend: Another way to tell fall is here, in concept if not cooler temps, is that there are awesome theater openings all over town. In addition to War Horse and Rent, there is Becky Shaw at Kitchen Dog Theater (www.kitchendogtheater.org), The Fifth Sun by Artes de la Rosa at Rose Marine Theater (www.rosemarinetheater.com), a farce about the first professional female playwright by Echo Theatre at Bath House Cultural Center (www.echotheatre.org), the original work Party Mouth at Ochre House (www.ochrehousetheater.com) and the much-loved but rarely seen musical gem The Most Happy Fella at Lyric Stage (www.lyricstage.org). See individual theaters' websites for showtimes and ticket prices.
Cutting Edge Haunted House: Halloween is starting to be more like Christmas, in that it's marketed earlier each year. Pretty soon, you'll have haunted houses running from Valentine's Day on. But for now, get ready for the deluge with the only one in Fort Worth that's open this early: Cutting Edge, "the world's largest walk-though haunted house." 1701 E. Lancaster Ave., Fort Worth. 8-10 p.m. Saturday and Sept. 15; gradually opens more on weekends until the final week before Halloween, when it's open daily Oct. 24-31. www.cuttingedgehauntedhouse.com.