Let’s say, hypothetically, you’re not a Swiftie and have no intention of being at NRG Stadium this weekend – or major you just couldn’t get tickets. If either are the case, then you may be looking for some other ways to fill your time. Lucky for you, the Houston arts and culture scene has got your back. Keep reading for our best bets over the next week.
In 1888, Gustav Mahler completed his First Symphony, also known as “the most crazily ambitious symphonic project in the genre’s history.” On Thursday, April 20, at 8 p.m. Finnish conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste will lead the Houston Symphony in Mahler 1, a work that “laid down the gauntlet for a new kind of symphony that would fuse the imagination and narrative of the symphonic poem with the architectural cohesion of earlier models.” Violinist Elina Vähälä will also join the program to perform Jaakko Kuusisto’s Violin Concerto. The concert will be performed again at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 22, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 23. Tickets to the in-hall performances can be purchased here for $29 to $109, or you can buy a ticket to the livestream of Sunday’s concert here for $20.
Dubbed the “Dark Lady of DNA,” Rosalind Franklin took the photo of DNA that allowed eventual Nobel Prize winners James Watson and Francis Crick to identify the double helix. Though mostly overlooked, playwright Anna Ziegler puts the spotlight on Franklin in Photograph 51, which opens at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston on Thursday, April 20, at 8 p.m. Ziegler has said that what she finds “fascinating” about Franklin “is that she was a brilliant scientist who lived at a time when it was very hard to be a female scientist, but it was elements of her own personality that I think stood in her way more than any element of the environment or the circumstances.” Performances will continue at 8 p.m. on April 22, 27 and 29, 2 p.m. on April 23, and noon on April 30. Tickets are available here for $20 to $25.
The political thrills, jealousy and betrayal of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, “the first opera of the 20th century,” will come to Houston Grand Opera, in a co-production with Lyric Opera of Chicago, on Friday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m. Soprano Tamara Wilson, who will perform the role of jealous opera singer Floria Tosca, recently told the Houston Press that she intends to play the role “more playful and more human — less the stereotype,” noting too her belief that Tosca is “one of the better operas in terms of the theatrical experience. It feels much closer to a musical or a play and goes by fairly quickly.” Performances will continue through May 5 at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Tuesday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Wortham Theater Center. Tickets can be purchased here for $20 to $250.
If you’re in the mood for a laugh and “like physical comedy and old-school farce,” make your way over to A.D. Players at The George Theater for The Play That Goes Wrong, which officially opens on Friday, April 21, at 8 p.m. The “highly physical and very silly comedy,” written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, features “cast and crew of the ‘Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society’ attempting to stage a 1920s murder mystery – and everything that can go wrong, does.” That of course includes “lost props, fluffed lines, bungled entrances and falling scenery.” Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through May 21. Tickets can be purchased here for $40.50 to $81.
Before the film was “a Southern staple with something for everyone who loves to laugh, cry, or eat armadillo cake,” Steel Magnolias was a successful play off-Broadway. On Friday, April 21, at 8 p.m., The Garden Theatre will open Robert Harling’s play – “a sympathetic portrait of a rural Southern town, a comedy entirely populated by female characters and yet gently penned by a man, a play sympathetic to rural Christians and working-class folks, a play focused on women of maturity, a play that makes no mention whatsoever of any political or contentious issues and makes no apology whatsoever for its own sentimentality.” Performances will continue at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, and 8 p.m. Fridays through April 30 at The MATCH. Tickets can be purchased here for $20 to $25.
On Saturday, April 22, at 8 p.m. DACAMERA will welcome Emanuel Ax to the Wortham Theater Center for his first solo recital in Houston. The seven-time Grammy-winning pianist, whose playing has been described as “always marvelously articulate and totally unfussy” with “nothing done for effect or to draw attention to the player” as opposed to the work, “has been a favorite with audiences around the world ever since he won the prestigious Arthur Rubinstein competition in Tel Aviv in 1974.” Though Ax boasts “an impressively wide-ranging repertory, from Bach to living composers,” for his stop in Houston, Ax will play two pieces from Franz Schubert (including Schubert’s Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-flat Major, “a work of vast dimensions and vertiginous depths”) and two pieces from Franz Liszt. Tickets to the concert can be purchased here for $42.50 to $72.50.
Remember, as University of Houston history professor Raúl Ramos has said, “Texas would not be Texas if it weren’t for Latinos.” Though “the Mexican branch of the Hispanic family, combining Native, European, and African elements, has left the deepest imprint on the Lone Star State,” it can’t be forgotten that the “arrival of Cubans in the early 1960s, Puerto Ricans in the 1970s, and Central Americans in the 1980s has made for increasing diversity of the state’s Hispanic, or Latino, population.” On Sunday, April 23, from 1 to 10 p.m. you can celebrate Latin culture, music, food and more during the 10th Annual Houston Latin Fest at the Crown Festival Park at Sugar Land. Presale tickets for the festival can be purchased here for $12, with special family packs and VIP tickets also available.
An Aaron Sorkin-penned adaptation of one of America’s most beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning novels is coming to town courtesy of Memorial Hermann Broadway at the Hobby Center: Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Richard Thomas takes on the role of Atticus Finch in the touring production, which will open on Tuesday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m., and it’s a role that’s been moved front and center in Sorkin’s play. The play’s Scout, Melanie Moore, recently told the Houston Press that “what Aaron has done is not only the children who have the loss of innocence but also our hero figure Atticus Finch.” Performances continue at The Hobby Center at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through April 30. Tickets went fast, but you can still find a few here for $40 to super-high resell prices.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
