It’s official that time of year now. It’s Humbug Day, the day “to cast off your frustrations before Christmas.” So, take the opportunity to vent a little and then check out the events that made this week’s list of best bets. Keep reading for a radio play, a comedy extravaganza and a Pixar favorite.
Just in time for the holidays, Houston’s own detective, Damian Dare, returns to solve the case of the missing Santa Claus in American Radio Company’s Damian Dare in the Electric Kringle Caper at 6 p.m. on Thursday, December 21, at Rec Room Arts. The noir-ish original radio play, written by Houstonians Jakob Hulten and Will White, includes a live foley artist and original musical score to set the scene as Detective Dare searches 1940s-era Houston for the jolly man. Performances will continue at 6 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays and 9:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through December 30. Tickets can be purchased here for $25. With Damian Dare being a 40-minute, intermission-less show, don’t miss your chance to make a double feature out of it and Rec Room’s mainstage production of Peter Pan, which also runs through December 30.
Very Merry Pops returns to the Houston Symphony for another holiday season, and you can see the show at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 21, at Jones Hall. Stephanie Alla, the Houston Symphony’s Associate Director of Artistic Planning, has said that the Symphony likes “to feature in these concerts a lot of traditional holiday music that people know and love and really expect to hear this time of year but we also like to add in something a little different in case you want to mix it up.” The program, featuring vocalist Mandy Gonzalez, will also be performed at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, December 22, and Saturday, December 23, with Saturday night’s performance also being livestreamed. Tickets to the in-hall performances can be bought here for $58 to $160, or you can get livestream access here for $20.
Get an early start celebrating American filmmaker Frederick Wiseman’s 94th birthday (coming up on January 1) by seeing his 44th documentary, in which he turned to “a family-owned, Michelin-starred restaurant” in the French countryside. The New York Times called the film, Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros, a “deeply pleasurable movie,” adding that “it’s absorbing from start to finish.” And that’s quite the statement, since the film – directed, edited and co-produced by Wiseman – “runs a heroic four hours.” You can catch the film this holiday weekend at 2 p.m. on Saturday, December 23, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The film will be screened a second time at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 6. Tickets for either showing can be purchased here for $7 to $9.
Collider recently argued that Robert Zemeckis’s 2004 film The Polar Express, based on a 1985 children’s book of the same name, may have “worked a whole lot better had it been an outright Christmas horror film rather than a regular holiday movie verging on creepy territory.” Even Roger Ebert said that the film had “the quality of a lot of lasting children’s entertainment,” specifically, that “it’s a little creepy.” Still, the film – one of the first “to be filmed exclusively with motion capture” – has settled into Christmas classic territory, and you can catch it on Saturday, December 23, at 3 p.m. during The Polar Express Movie Party at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. You’ll get plenty of props, like Santa hats and sleigh bells, at the interactive event, which you can get tickets to here for $15.97 to $18.13.
The holidays aren’t always merry and bright, but you can certainly invite a little laughter into your life at 8 p.m. on Saturday, December 23, during HO HO HOUSTON: Triple Headliner Comedy Extravaganza at The Secret Group. The live comedy show will feature three headlining performers: Jerry Wayne Longmire, Slade Ham and Lotto Marie. That’s two of the Whiskey Brothers (from The Whiskey Brothers Podcast, check it out here if you haven’t yet) – Longmire and Ham, who will release a new full-length special in 2024 – and this year’s winner of “Best Written Joke” over at The Riot Comedy Club. Doors will open at 7 p.m. and you can purchased tickets here for $20 to $25.
We can’t escape it. The performers of the always mysterious, definitely propagandistic Shen Yun will return to Houston for ten shows beginning at 2 and 7 p.m. on Tuesday, December 26 at Jones Hall. Despite plenty of memes joking about their ubiquitous presence – and it even popping up once on an episode of Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher’s Never Have I Ever – the traveling troupe of dancers are as popular as ever as they make their way back to town. Performances continue at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday; 1 p.m. Sunday; and 1 and 6 p.m. Monday through January 1. Tickets to any of the performances can be purchased here for $80 to $200.
If you’re in the mood for a family feel-good movie, at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, December 27, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston you can catch the 2009 Disney-Pixar film Up. Featuring arguably “Pixar’s best and most memorable opening montage,” the film sees “a curmudgeonly widower and retired balloon salesman” tie “countless helium-filled balloons” to his house to fly away to find Paradise (Falls) with an wilderness scout unexpectedly joining him on his journey. Directed by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, Up is notably only the second animated feature to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Up will screen a second time at 2 p.m. on Friday, December 29. Both screenings are free – first-come, first-served – with museum admission, which you can purchase here for $20 to $24 (children 12 and under get in completely free).
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
