Monday is Memorial Day, and who doesn’t love a three-day weekend? If you’re in the midst of making plans, look no further. We’ve got you covered. This week, we’ve got Motown hits, an award-winning French film, and a classic British play reimagined. Keep reading for these, and more, in this week’s best bets.
Though we’re approaching the last week of the month, it’s not too late to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. One way you can celebrate is by grabbing a lawn blanket and snacks and heading over to Trebly Park tonight, Thursday, May 22, at 8 p.m. for Movies Under the Stars: Moana 2, presented by Downtown Houston. Deadline deemed the animated sequel, which catches up with Moana and Maui (voiced again by Auli‘i Cravalho and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) three years after the events of the first film, the second most valuable blockbuster of 2024 following the “$460.4M at the domestic box office and $1.05 billion globally” that it earned. The screening is free, but you need to reserve a ticket here.
Take a soulful, funky trip down memory lane tonight, Thursday, May 22, at 8:15 p.m. when Miller Outdoor Theatre presents Dancin’ in the Street…Motown & More Revue produced by Bacement Foundation for the Arts. The free concert will feature local vocalists and a live band playing hits by artists like Marvin Gaye, Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan, and more. Tonight’s performance will be livestreamed on the Miller Outdoor Theatre website, YouTube channel, and Facebook page, or you can take advantage of a second (and third) chance to catch it in-person at 8:15 p.m. on Friday, May 23, or Saturday, May 24. And don’t forget: You can reserve a ticket here at 10 a.m. the day prior to a performance or you can plan to sit on the Hill (no ticket required).
It all comes down to a cheesemaking competition in Louise Courvoisier’s Holy Cow, which you can see at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston on Friday, May 23, at 7 p.m. A “breakout success domestically,” Courvoisier’s first feature film, about a teenager trying to save his family’s dairy farm after the unexpected death of his father, won over French audiences and “won a prize at Cannes and a couple of Césars.” Though the story “sounds like any number of generic feelgood underdog tales,” The Guardian notes that the film captures “the grit and spit and personality of the place rather than some sun-dappled romantic projection of a simpler life.” The film will be screened a second time on Saturday, May 24, at 7 p.m. Tickets to either screening can be purchased here for $7 to $9.
At his debut recital at Carnegie Hall, pianist Bruce Liu returned to the stage seven times for encores, and that’s just one example of why he’s often called a “rock star” in the world of classical music. On Friday, May 23, at 7:30 p.m., Liu will make his debut with the Houston Symphony at Jones Hall during Bruce Liu Plays Chopin, a program that will include Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, George Walker’s Icarus in Orbit, and Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2. The concert will be performed again on Saturday, May 24, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 25, at 2 p.m. Tickets to the in-hall performances can be purchased here for $42 to $157. Saturday night’s show will also be livestreamed, with access to the stream available for purchase here for $20.
And if you just can’t get enough Frédéric Chopin, you may also want to check out The Mind and Music of Chopin on Saturday, May 24, at 4:30 p.m. for a free deep dive into the composer with psychiatrist and concert pianist Dr. Richard Kogan. Tickets here.
It’s been a decade since Kinetic Ensemble’s humble beginnings as a 16-piece string orchestra playing without a conductor, and on Friday, May 23, at 7:30 p.m., you can celebrate the occasion as the ensemble closes its season with Deep Rooted: Celebrating Ten Years of Music-Making in Houston at the MATCH. The program promises two world premieres, one from Sugar Land’s own Mason Bynes and a second from violinist and Kinetic founding member Giancarlo Latta, as well as the Texas premiere of Evan Ziporyn’s In Light of Sound. To close the evening, the ensemble will play Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, a tribute to the British composer’s mentor and a work performed in one of Kinetic’s early shows. Tickets to the concert are available here for $15 to $30.
Exes find themselves honeymooning – with their new spouses – next door to each other in Noël Coward’s Private Lives, a British play that the Alley Theatre will relocate from France to South America when it officially opens on Friday, May 23, at 7:30 p.m. Hugo E. Carbajal, who plays the role of Elyot Chase, told the Houston Press that though audiences will see the “toxicity” of the characters “explode on stage,” it is “treated with a lens of absurdity, with a lens of let’s laugh at ourselves as human beings,” and “it will not disappoint.” Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. through June 15. Tickets can be purchased here for $29 to $89.
Marianna Martines grew up in a Vienna “teeming with towering figures in classical music,” including Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who “often invited her to perform four-hand piano sonatas alongside him.” On Friday, May 23, at 7:30 p.m., Ars Lyrica Houston will close its season at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts with Classical Collaborations, a multi-genre program that will feature female composers like Martines and Josepha Auernhammer next to their contemporaries, Haydn and Mozart. Fortepianist Patricia Garcia Gil and violinist Cynthia Roberts will join the Ars Lyrica ensemble to tackle a concerto, variations, sonata, and symphony. Tickets are available here for $15 to $80. Or, if you prefer the comforts of your sofa, you can purchase a digital livestream ticket here for $20.
