It’s World Emoji Day, so be sure to throw in some when you’re extending an invite to some of this week’s best bets. This week, we’ve got a campy classic with a burlesque twist, a satirical operetta, and a deep dive into the life of an influential artist. Keep reading for these and more below.
In 1957, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, starring Julie Andrews, was broadcast live “at the height of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s meteoric success on Broadway” and “watched by more than 107 million people.” It also earned Andrews “an Emmy Award nomination for her performance.” More than 50 years later, a “dramatically revised stage version of the work,” with a book by Douglas Carter Beane, made its premiere on Broadway, and on Thursday, July 17, at 7:30 p.m., you can catch the show when Tapestry Players mounts a production at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church. Additional performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Fridays, and Saturdays, and 2:30 Sundays through July 27. Tickets to any of the performances can be purchased here for $25 to $35.
Not too long ago, Deadline reported that a Barbarella remake was in the works with Sydney Sweeney set to star and Edgar Wright set to direct, and Sweeney confirmed the project is still a go back in May. Though it’s still in the early stages, tonight, July 17, at 8 p.m., you can enjoy an interactive screening of the 1968 original starring Jane Fonda at River Oaks Theatre during Film Strip: A Cult Classic Cabaret with burlesque guests from The Sisterhood of Lili St. Cyr. Be ready to quote along, as Barbarella, “a space adventurer from a idyllic future Earth,” must stop a madman with a Positronic Ray “and bring him back to peace, love and all around grooviness.” Tickets for the screening can be purchased here for $21.
Last year, as The Menil Collection celebrated 30 years of the Cy Twombly Gallery, the museum’s director, Rebecca Rabinow, noted that though “commercial and critical success came late” to the artist, “he became a very influential artist in part because he balanced tradition of abstract expressionism with a passion for history and classical mythology and poetry.” Tonight, July 17, at 8:30 p.m., you can delve deeper into Twombly’s life during a screening of Cy Dear, a 2019 documentary by Andrea Bettinetti. The film, which premiered at Montreal’s Festival International du Film sur l’Art, uses rarely seen footage as well as interviews with Twombly’s son, Alessandro; art dealer Larry Gagosian, fellow artists, curators, architects, and more. As are all Menil programs, the screening is free to attend and open to the public.
The Joan Crawford most oft remembered – with “square-shouldered, she-means-business fur coats, the hair artfully arranged into lush curls, those enormous, voracious eyes fringed with spidery mascara’ed lashes” – is “the Crawford of Mildred Pierce,” a 1945 film noir you can see at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on Friday, July 18, at 7 p.m. in honor of the film’s 80th anniversary. Directed by Michael Curtiz and based on a 1941 novel by James M. Cain, whose work was also adapted into the notable films Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice, the post-World War II era film stars Crawford as an ambitious single mother in a performance that won her an Oscar in 1946. Tickets to the screening can be purchased here for $7 to $9.
Houston Symphony closes out their series of Summer Symphony Nights at Miller Outdoor Theatre this weekend with performances at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, July 18, and Saturday, July 19. On Friday, Conductor Anna Rakitina will lead the orchestra in works by Ellen Reid, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Dmitri Shostakovich, whose Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Opus 47, has been described as “a work of profound emotional depth and musical ingenuity,” with Stephanie Childress at the baton for a program of Mary Kouyoumdjian, Carl Stamitz, and Felix Mendelssohn on Saturday night. Both performances are free, and you can reserve a ticket for Friday’s show here starting at 10 a.m. today, July 17, or you can plan to sit on the Hill – no ticket required.
Summer Jam returns to the Moody Center for the Arts on Saturday, July 19, from 12 to 5 p.m. DJ Charlie Perez will provide music for the event, which includes family-friendly activities, such as a scavenger hunt, face painting, a hands-on printmaking activity led by Red Bird Press, bubble experiences courtesy of the Texas Bubblers, and book reading in The Reading Room. In addition, guests can view the center’s current exhibitions, “Figurative Histories” and “Clément Cogitore: Collective Memories,” shop at an indoor farmers market, and partake in treats from local food and drink vendors like Dumpling Haus, The Fry Guys, Lemond Kitchen, and more. Saint Arnold Brewing Company will also be on hand to provide complimentary beer. Admission is free, and the event, co-presented with Informal Grub, is not ticketed.
The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston will transport audiences to an England populated with fairies and magic on Saturday, July 19 at 7 p.m. when they open a production of W.S Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan’s operetta Iolanthe at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. The production’s music director, Keith Chambers, recently told the Houston Chronicle he thinks “it’s easy for modern audiences to connect with Iolanthe,” because one, “it’s in English. Number two is because a love story, and they’re making fun of politicians. It’s all things that have been going on for thousands of years.” Additional performances are scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Sunday, July 20, 7 p.m. Saturday, July 26, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, July 27. Tickets are available here for $18.45 to $153.50.
