Tuesday, September 19
That man in the gray suit may not be exactly who you think he is — he may be a Yes Man. Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, guests of honor at UH’s Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts’ annual Artist Lecture, will speak about employing humor as a form of activism. Using the tools of identity thieves as a means to mock the corrupt and powerful, the Yes Men have produced three documentaries about their long cons; they also run a nonprofit, Yes Lab. The Yes Men enjoy bragging on targets, including former President George W. Bush, who called them both “garbagemen” in 2000, and the World Trade Organization, which once dubbed them “deplorable.” The duo seems content to be on the side of the little guy and not The Man. 7 p.m. Tuesday. 3351 Cullen Boulevard. For information, call 713-743-2255 or visit mitchellcenterforarts.org. Free. — Vic Shuttee
The University of Houston Moores Opera Center makes its fall return to the Duck for What's Opera, Duck?, a night of fundraising, arias and a few musical theater selections thrown in for good measure. Program director (and the evening’s emcee) Buck Ross will gather up a group of his grad students for the cabaret, which is sure to feature numbers from their upcoming 2017-18 opera season, including Sergei Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, based on a play by Carlo Gozzi that involves a witch and a man cursed to search the world looking for princesses inside oranges; Pietro Mascagni's L’amico Fritz, about a man whose bet that he'll never marry gets a little complicated when he meets his tenant's daughter; and Gioacchino Rossini’s ever-popular The Italian Girl in Algiers. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk. For information, call 713-528-5999 or visit mcgonigels.com. $20 to $22. — Natalie de la Garza
Wednesday, September 20
E.T. come home? Yes. For two nights only, the 1982 Steven Spielberg classic E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is back on the big screen for its 35th anniversary and, of course, to inspire an entire new generation of youngsters to look at Reese’s Pieces in a whole new light. Thanks to Fathom Events’ partnership with TCM Big Screen Classics, the highest-grossing movie of the 1980s is returning to theaters digitally projected in its original aspect ratio with specially produced, behind-the-scenes insights by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz. With a delectable score by John Williams, the film debut of young Drew Barrymore and that iconic shot of the bike flying past the moon, E.T. is good family fun that hasn’t aged a wink. 2 and 7 p.m. Wednesday. Edwards Marq*E, 7600 Katy Freeway. 844-462-7342. Price varies by location; visit fathomevents.com for participating venues. $13.53. — Vic Shuttee
Pulitzer finalist Rajiv Joseph (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Gruesome Playground Injuries) has returned to the Alley Theatre with a play unlike any he’s ever done before, he says. Describe the Night starts with Russian author and journalist Isaac Babel (Red Cavalry) in 1920, travels with a KGB agent to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and rounds out the three-plays-in-one with the 2010 airplane crash in Russia of a plane carrying several members of the Polish government. And somehow, the seven men and women in the play are connected through time. “In spite of it being this kind of lengthy play about Russia and Poland and Communism, it’s not a history lesson. I’m certainly playing with the facts and mythology and rumor and conspiracy theories. And it’s also entertainment,” says Joseph. “There’s comedy in it. There’s love and sex in it.” 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Continuing 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and 2:30 p.m.; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. September 15 through October 15. Because of damage done to the Alley Theatre during Hurricane Harvey, performances have been moved to the University of Houston’s Quintero Theatre. 3351 Cullen. For information, visit alleytheatre.org. $35 to $75. — Margaret Downing
Thursday, September 21
What would you do if you won $337 million? Cassie and Kurt, the middle-aged couple who hit the jackpot in David L. Williams’s The Winners, hire an escort, but their night of fantasy fulfillment quickly takes a dark turn. Director Lindsay Boyd says though the play is a warning against letting money go to your head, it’s also commentary on people’s tendency to be blinded by insignificant things, which allows them to treat others poorly. “I want people to leave feeling like this is something that exists, this is a problem that exists that people aren’t paying attention to, that people just let slide because they’re Southern, or they’re white, or that’s just how they were raised.” 8 p.m. Thursday. Continuing Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and September 25; 3 p.m. October 1. September 21 through October 7. Beacon Theatre, 5102 Navigation. For information, call 281-972-5897 or visit conemanrunning.com. $15 to $20. — Natalie de la Garza
Friday, September 22
Let’s see. There’s sex, violence, drugs, obsession and insanity — all set to the powerful choreography of Sir Kenneth MacMillan with music by Liszt. Mayerling tells the story of Crown Prince Rudolf, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his 17-year-old mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera. The couple’s deaths in 1889, an apparent murder-suicide pact whose causes were first covered up, later scandalized the world and have been the subject of speculation for years. Houston Ballet will perform the three-act ballet’s North American debut, with Principal Connor Walsh dancing the physically demanding lead role on opening night. “Not only is it sort of a nonstop role — in the first act he’s onstage nearly the whole time — and he also has a lot of different relationships: a pas de deux with his mother, a pas de deux with his wife, with his mistress, his wife’s sister; he actually has two mistresses, so he has five pas de deux during the whole ballet, on top of some some solos and ensemble work,” says Walsh, adding that he feels incredibly honored to perform the work. Because of hurricane-related damage to the ballet’s home stage at the Wortham Theater Center, there were fears Mayerling would be canceled, but the Hobby Center opened its doors and the dancers will be onstage at Sarofim Hall. 7:30 p.m. Friday. Also 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. September 23; 2 p.m. September 24. Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. For information, call 713-227-2787 or visit houstonballet.org. $30 to $135. — Margaret Downing
Even though the Theater District took on serious water during Hurricane Harvey, Ars Lyrica’s season opener, Sweet Philomela, will still fill the Hobby Center’s Zilkha Hall with compositions by Handel, Mozart, Bach, Hasse and Telemann. “We’re still thrilled it is going to happen,” says Executive Director Kinga Skretkowicz-Ferguson. “The Hobby Center took some floodwater damage, but they’ve been working tirelessly, drying everything off. It’s really a miracle the damages weren’t that extensive.” Taking the theme of “Artful Women,” this one-night-only affair stars soprano Sherezade Panthaki and glass-harmonica virtuoso Dennis James. Invoking the music lover of Greek myth who lends the evening its name, Skretkowicz-Ferguson adds, “The Philomela and the nightingale are an inspiration to many composers, as the sorrowful transformation into a bird speaks more than words.” 7:30 p.m. Friday. 800 Bagby. For information, call 713-315-2525 or visit arslyricahouston.com. $33 to $55. — Vic Shuttee
It will be a show honoring the best in the great state of Texas, and Trenton Doyle Hancock had it coming. He’s an artist who reached his midcareer point with all the honors due someone who draws, paints and sculpts the way he does. Not only does his work speak to the experience of the black diaspora, but it’s deeply woven into the fabric of pop culture and avant-garde cartoons. “I’ve always owned my position as political figure; the black body is politicized, even though I’m speaking a universal language. The work helps me get through the day,” Hancock says. The 2017 Texas Artist of the Year Exhibition: TEXAS: 1997-2017 Trenton Doyle Hancock opens with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, with an introduction by Glassell School of Art director Joseph Havel at 6:30 p.m. Continuing 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays. September 22 through November 11. Art League Houston. 1953 Montrose. For information, call 713-523-9530 or visit artleaguehouston.org. Free. — Camilo Hannibal Smith
Note: the Houston Symphony has pulled the previously scheduled Andrés Conducts Schumann and replaced it with the new program Beethoven and Piazolla, featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 7; Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnole; and Piazolla's The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, featuring guest violinist Leticia Moreno.
