Food and family will certainly highlight Thanksgiving weekend
for many, but we got some suggestions of things to get you busy between napping
off the tryptophan and watching football. Keep reading for this week’s list of
best bets over the next seven days.
Back in 2015, a study
from Microsoft claimed that people officially had
an attention span shorter than a goldfish, and it’s allegedly (and anecdotally)
only gotten shorter since. If you find your own attention span is a little
short these days, you may want to check out the 2023 British Arrows at 7 p.m. on Friday, November
24, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
The British Arrows Awards (gold,
silver and bronze) are given to the best of advertisements, with this year’s recipients
including ads featuring Daniel Craig, Miley Cyrus and John Boyega. Two
additional screenings are scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday, November 25, and Friday,
December 8. Tickets to any of the screenings can be purchased here for $7 to $9.
(Note that this one is recommended for mature audiences.)
Get ready to return to the Kingdom of Sweets at 7:30 p.m. on Friday,
November 24, when Stanton Welch’s The
Nutcracker returns to Houston
Ballet. Set to a beautiful score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the classic
tale follows young Clara as she journeys from her home into a magical world with
the Nutcracker Prince and the Sugar Plum Fairy. Performances will continue through
December 17 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and December 20-22 and 26; 1 and 6:30
p.m. Sundays; 7:30 p.m. December 8, 14-15 and 19; 1 p.m. December 24; and 2
p.m. December 27. Tickets are available here for $30 to $230. VIP experiences – including access to a private reception,
treats, a photo booth and more – are also available on select dates. More
information can be found here.
Diana Ross once said, “It takes a long time to get to be a diva” – and if anyone should know,
it’s Ross. Miss Ross is but one diva you’ll hear on Friday, November 24, at 8
p.m. when the Houston Symphony presents “I Will Survive” – Diva Legends. Conductor Lucas Waldin will
lead the Symphony and diva vocalists LaKisha
Jones and Nova Y. Payton in a genre-spanning program (including everything from pop
and R&B to Broadway and disco) that includes songs from Beyoncé, Tina
Turner, Lady Gaga, and many more. Performances are also scheduled for 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 25, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, November 26, at Jones Hall. Saturday night’s concert will also be livestreamed with tickets available for $20.
In-hall tickets to any of the three concerts can be purchased here for $34 to $127.
Last year, Buffalo Bayou
Park debuted “Cistern
Illuminated,” a site-specific light installation placed in the cistern, an underground
water retention area dating back to 1920. On Saturday, November 25, the multidisciplinary
work by artist and engineer Kelly O’Brien will return to Buffalo Bayou Park
with new additions, both audio and visual, for visitors to experience. Tours of
the Cistern will be available Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
and tickets for these tours can be purchased here for $10 to $12. Performances from the Schola Cantorum of the
Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart will also come to the space on select
dates from November 30 to January 6, 2024. A list of performance dates and tickets
to these performances (which are $25) are available here.
“Cistern Illuminated” will remain on view through January 7, 2024.
On Sunday, November 26, at 5 p.m. Creative
Minds Collaborative will present their latest program, Retracing Paths, at The MATCH. The program will feature two new
works, from CMC Executive and Artistic Director Nao Kusuzaki and Ad Deum Dance Company member Dylan
Allen, and the other by Maria McCain, the director of dance at the University
of St. Thomas. The third piece featured on the program is a reimagining of a
work originally presented during an online show in 2020, reimagined by former
Houston Ballet First Soloist (and current resident choreographer for the New
Orleans Ballet Theatre) Oliver Halkowich called Frame of Mind. Tickets
to the program can be purchased here for $10 to
$25.
Fun fact: According to screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein, because
Canadian border patrol thought the dailies they saw titled Dirty Dancing were for a film of, well, let’s say an adult variety, the name of 1987 romantic
drama was almost changed to I Was a
Teenage Mambo Queen. Luckily, that didn’t happen. You can experience the
film like never before on Sunday, November 26, at 7 p.m. when Dirty Dancing in Concert comes to the Wortham Theater Center, courtesy of Performing
Arts Houston. With
the film, digitally remastered, playing on a big screen, and a live band and vocalists
performing the film’s iconic soundtrack, including of course “(I’ve Had) The
Time of My Life,” which won the Oscar for Best Original Song. A few tickets remain and can
be purchased here for $69 to $109.
Paul Hope Cabarets will present their first holiday cabaret, We Need a Little Christmas,
at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, November 27, at Ovations Night Club. Known for regularly
bringing tunes from the Great American Songbook to Houston audiences, the group
of local performers have mined the Great White Way for holiday songs – like “Lovers
on Christmas Eve” from the 1977 musical I
Love My Wife and the song the program was named for, “We Need a Little
Christmas,” from Jerry Herman’s Mame –
and paired them with a selection of less heard carols. Hope will also serve as
emcee for the event, sharing stories from his 40 years doing holiday shows in
Houston. Two additional
performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday, December 4, and Monday,
December 11. Tickets can be purchased here for $15 to $125.
You could argue that the ugly Christmas sweater, a staple of the
holiday season, really established itself in the early 2000s, right around the time Colin Firth turned up to a party in a reindeer
sweater in Bridget Jones’s Diary. Regardless, on Tuesday,
November 28, at 7 p.m. office employees will decorate for their livelihoods when
they find out their jobs depend on who makes the best ugly Christmas sweater in
the world premiere of The Ugly Xmas
Sweater Musical,
by Dan Knechtges and Megan Larche Dominick, at Theatre Under the
Stars. Performances
will continue at 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 7:30 p.m. Fridays;
1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; and 1:30 and 7 p.m. Sundays through December 24
at The
Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets can be purchased here for $40 to $85.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
