It’s National Hug Your Dog Day, so take a little more time today cuddle your dog (or whatever type of pet you parent) before or after checking out our picks for this week’s best bets. This week, we’ve got blasts from the past, the return of a popular parade, a celebration of The Queen of Tejano Music, and more. Keep reading for these and all of our picks down below.
Anton Chekhov remains “one of the most frequently cited influences of contemporary writers,” noted for “his brevity, impressionism, and disregard for traditional plot.” On Friday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m., Classical Theatre Company, which specializes in plays more than 100 years old, will end its season with Chekhov’s “unhappy family drama” Three Sisters at The DeLuxe Theater. The show – the third of Chekhov’s four major plays the company has produced – tells the story of the three Prozorov sisters, Olga, Masha, and Irina. Following the death of their father, the sisters are essentially isolated and exiled, and yearning “to leave the drudgery of the provinces and go to Moscow.” Performances continue at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and April 21, and 2:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through April 26. Tickets can be purchased here for $10 to $30.
Arguably Buster Keaton’s best film, The General (1926) “is an epic of silent comedy” and “one of the most expensive films of its time” with “an accurate historical recreation of a Civil War episode, hundreds of extras, dangerous stunt sequences, and an actual locomotive falling from a burning bridge into a gorge far below.” On Friday, April 11, at 8 p.m., you can hear a 15-piece ensemble of ROCO musicians, led by Conductor Andrew Earle Simpson, provide a live soundtrack to The General and Music Land, one of the Walt Disney-animated Silly Symphonies from 1935, at River Oaks Theatre. Tickets can be purchased here for $46. There is also an optional dinner service starting at 6:30 p.m. that can be added to your ticket purchase for an additional cost.
On Saturday, April 12, at 2 p.m., Allen Parkway, between Bagby and Dallas, will be the site of art on wheels as the 38th Annual Houston Art Car Parade & Festival returns with more than 250 specially designed vehicles, bikes, and more. Nine-time Olympic Gold Medalist and current University of Houston track and field head coach Carl Lewis will serve as Grand Marshal. Jack Massing, the executive director of parade producer The Orange Show for Visionary Arts, told the Houston Press that the parade “has to do with the intention of what we are trying to champion the intention of a visionary artist or the intention of a visionary artist that are doing what they’re doing because they can’t do anything else and they have to get it done.” The Art Car Parade is free to attend.
Houston Contemporary Dance Company recently welcomed back local choreographer Andrea Dawn Shelley to expand her work “Forget Me Not,” a piece that explores the subject of miscarriage that the company premiered in April of last year. The expanded work will be performed during Revolve, a one-night-only concert at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts scheduled for Saturday, April 12, at 7 p.m. In addition to “Forget Me Not,” which will feature violist Elise Haukenes of the Phoenix Symphony, the concert will showcase a world premiere from the Emmy Award-winning, San Francisco-based Natasha Adorlee and Taryn Vander Hoop of Summation Dance. The program will also include dancers from Summation Dance as the evening’s guest artists. Tickets for the performance can be purchased here for $20 to $50.
As the birthday of the Queen of Tejano Music approaches, there are multiple ways to celebrate the legacy of Selena Quintanilla-Perez, including La Flor: The Music of Selena, a concert featuring Tejano Music Award-winning vocalist Isabel Marie Sanchez backed by the Houston Symphony at Jones Hall on Saturday, April 12, at 7:30 p.m. Conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez will lead Sanchez and the musicians of the Symphony in a program featuring Selena’s songs, both Spanish-language (“Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” and “Como la Flor”) and English (“Dreaming of You” and “I Could Fall in Love”) hits, as well as other surprises. The concert will be performed a second time at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 13. Tickets to either performance can be purchased here for $54 to $155.
Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is the center of the Hindi film industry, commonly referred to as Bollywood, a term the evokes the vibrant costumes and sets, frequent song and dance numbers, and romantic stories often found in the films. On Saturday, April 12, at 8 p.m., a little bit of Bollywood magic will come to Miller Outdoor Theatre during Houston’s Got Bollywood: Love in The Stars produced by Moksh Community Arts. The dance-theater production is divided into four acts, from the introduction of the characters to the evolution of their romantic relationship – complete with conflict and, of course, a happy ending. The performance is free, and you can reserve a ticket here starting at 10 a.m. Friday, April 11, or you can plan to sit on the Hill (no ticket required).
The 2024/2025 Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series will welcome two women authors to conclude the series at the Alley Theatre on Monday, April 14, at 7:30 p.m.: Katie Kitamura, longlisted for the National Book Award, and Pulitzer Prize finalist Karen Russell. Kitamura will read from her newest novel, Audition, described as “her most thrilling examination yet of the deceit inherent in human connection,” and Russell will read from The Antidote, which “blends speculative and fantasy elements with rich language and vivid characters in an effort not to escape reality but to comment even more thoughtfully on it,” before engaging in an on-stage conversation with writer Brenda Peynado. Tickets to the event, which will end with a book sale and signing, can be purchased here for $5.
Adrienne Shelly’s 2007 film-turned-popular musical, Waitress, about a woman named Jenna who attempts to escape her abusive marriage by winning a pie-making contest, comes to the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, April 16, at 7:30 p.m. courtesy of Theatre Under the Stars. Adam Standley, who plays the role of Jenna’s ob-gyn, recently told the Houston Press that he attributes the show’s success to the music by Sara Bareilles, saying too that the show is “about mother and daughters. It’s about getting unstuck. It’s about chosen family. It’s about women.” Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays through April 27. Tickets are available here for $34 to $138.50.
