Today is National Blues Jeans Day, and we have plenty of events on this week’s list of best bets that don’t require you to don your finest – though you’re certainly welcome to. A film festival, a citywide party, and more all make our list, so keep reading for our picks of the best bets this coming week.
The 7th Houston Greek Film Festival will open at 7 p.m. tonight, Thursday, December 5, at the MATCH with the Gulf Coast premiere of Asimina Proedrou’s family drama Behind the Haystacks, Greece’s 2023 submission to the Oscars. The film, which shows “how the repercussions of a single, tragic event ripple outward across a community, forcing many to consider the costs of their actions for the first time,” leads a lineup of 19 feature films and shorts showcasing the best Greek and Cypriot cinema from around the world. Kosta Papasideris, the co-founder and executive director of the festival, recently told the Houston Press that he wants to make sure that “when people want to go see a foreign film,” that “Greece is on their list.” Tickets to individual screenings, as well as multi-screening passes, are available here for $18 to $90.
Travel through space and meet interesting characters without leaving Lambert Hall with Opera in the Heights’ upcoming production of The Little Prince, which opens on Friday, December 6, at 7:30 p.m. The family-friendly opera, with music by Rachel Portman and a libretto by Nicholas Wright based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s 1943 novella, tells the story of a young boy who befriends a pilot on his planet-hopping adventures. Artistic Director Eiki Isomura, who also serves as the production’s conductor, recently described the production as “a fascinating artistic challenge” to the Houston Press, adding that he “quickly became very enamored” with the show in large part due to the music, which he calls “pleasing to the ear and transporting.” Performances will continue at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sundays through December 15. Tickets are available here for $35 to $85.
Celebrate the season with your fellow Houstonians during Reliant Lights Mayor’s Holiday Spectacular on Saturday, December 7, from 6 to 8 p.m. in Hermann Square at City Hall. The free party will return to downtown Houston for its 105th iteration, promising live performances from headliners LeToya Luckett, a two-time Grammy winner best known as a founding member of Destiny’s Child, and RaeLynn, a Baytown-born alum of The Voice. Revelers can also enjoy performances from Rice University’s Mariachi Luna Llena, Playhouse 1960, Dance of Asian America, Houston Contemporary Dance Company, KIPP Sharp Singers, Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts’ theatre department, and the Carver Aldine High School Dance Company. As always, the evening will culminate with the lighting of a 48-foot White Fir from Grants Pass, Oregon, dressed in almost 100,000 LED lights and 4,000 ornaments.
Beginning in 1939 and continuing every year since 1941, the Vienna Philharmonic performs the Vienna New Year’s Concert, an annual program that always features works from the Strauss family. On Saturday, December 7, at 7:30 p.m., the Houston Symphony will pay tribute to these concerts, particularly the Carlos Kleiber-conducted concerts of 1989 and 1992, during A Viennese Waltz Christmas at Jones Hall. The all-Strauss family program, conducted by Juraj Valčuha, will showcase waltzes, polkas, and other dance music, including the show opener and closer, Kaiser-Walzer and An der schönen blauen Donau, both by Johann Strauss II. The concert will be performed a second time on Sunday, December 8, at 2 p.m. In-hall tickets are available here for $53 to $132. Sunday’s performance will also be livestreamed, and access can be purchased here for $20.
Pets may not be a mental health cure-all, but studies have shown that the internet’s favorite creature – cats – can help with loneliness, especially the loneliness experienced by older adults. It’s a fact that Sayoko, the main character in Naoko Ogigami’s 2012 film Rent-a-Cat has figured out. Sayoko has a one-story house full of cats, so she spends her afternoons pulling a little cat-filled cart and calling out through a little megaphone to passersby, looking to rent out her cats to lonely people. On Sunday, December 8, at 2 p.m., you can catch a free screening of Rent-a-Cat, now on a nationwide tour courtesy of Japan Foundation New York, at Asia Society Texas. Though the screening is free, registration is required here.
Lift a Charles Dickens classic and plop it down in the middle of a fast-food restaurant on Christmas Eve and you’ve got Isaac Gómez’s The Night Shift Before Christmas, which the Alley Theatre will open on Sunday, December 8, at 6:30 p.m. Briana J. Resa, who plays main character Margot (as well as all the supporting spirits who pay her a visit), recently told the Houston Press that audiences will pull for Margot “in a different way than they do Scrooge,” adding that it’s “a retelling of a classic but told from a lens, through a character’s point of view, that we don’t always get to see.” Performances will continue at 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 6:30 p.m. Sundays, and 1:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through December 29. Tickets can be purchased here for $51 to $61.
Personal tragedy and war inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to pen “Christmas Bells,” a poem which – despite its origins – became a popular Christmas carol “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” You can hear the song during Angel Chimes – A Holiday Cabaret, the latest concert from Paul Hope Cabaret, on Monday, December 9, at 7:30 p.m. at Ovations Night Club. Hope will play emcee as performers Richard Paul Fink, Brad Goertz, Pantelis Karastamatis, Lauren Salazar, Tamara Siler, Wesley Whitson, Carrie Woliver, and Whitney Zangarine turn their vocal prowess to seasonal tunes like “Silver Bells,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” and more. The concert will also be performed at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 10, and December 16-17. Single admission tickets are available here for $30 to $40 (with some reserved center tables still available for $140).
One sister, Anna, must save her kingdom from an eternal winter spawned by her sister, Elsa, in Disney’s Frozen, the wildly popular animated film-turned-musical, which opens at Theatre Under the Stars on Tuesday, December 10, at 7:30 p.m. Mark Ivy, who will portray snowman Olaf along with an Afsaneh Aayani-designed puppet, recently told the Houston Press he is “a little bit the heart of the show…Olaf is such a positive energy. I got into this business I loved making people smile, making people laugh. And I instantly feel that when I step into Olaf.” Performances will continue at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 2 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays, and December 24. Tickets can be purchased here for $34.50 to $138.50.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
