Former Destiny's Child group member Michelle Williams is returning to Houston to star with Morris Chestnut (ABC's V and The Best Man) in a story about a woman who feels her businessman husband doesn't pay enough attention to her and steps out.
Williams said she'd been wanting to work with playwright David E. Talbert for a while and was finally able to fit it into her schedule for What My Husband Doesn't Know.
As she described the story: "Time and time again us women, we just have that fantasy we want that man who has a great job. We forget the sacrifices that that man will have to make." Her character, she said, is a woman who is "a great wife and mother who just wants that love consistently."
The cast started out in February in Charleston, S.C. and then toured the country through May before taking a break, said Williams, who now makes her home in Chicago.
Williams sings two songs in the play, but it's not a musical. Growing up, she said, she always wanted to sing, and it was only later that she discovered she liked acting as well. She's looking forward to seeing Houston again -- "I love the hot weather. I want to eat at Frenchy's and Pappadeaux." -- and still misses the friendship she had with the other members of Destiny's Child.
People should come to the show because besides Chestnut, there's Clifton Davis, the well-respected veteran actor, she said. "Clifton Davis -- we love him from his legendary work."
"I really like David Talbert a lot. He's been trying to work with me for the past five to six years," Williams said. "I was doing 'The Color Purple' and had just returned from London, when he contacted her with the script. I loved the script, it has so much laughter; it's drama and comedy together. David, he always has a message in the midst of the laughter."
Performances of What My Husband Doesn't Know are at 8 p.m. October 13 and 14, 3 and 8 p.m. on October 15, and 3 and 7:30 p.m. on October 16 at the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. Tickets are available at ticketmaster.com, or call 1-800-745-3000 or the Hobby Center box office at 713-315-2525.