Happy day-after-Valentine’s-Day! If you’re not quite ready to let go of the holiday spirit, we’ve got great love songs and a love-at-first-sight musical. If you’re over it, we’ve got a ton of art, short films, and one of the country’s most popular game shows visiting Houston. Keep reading for these and more of our picks for the best things you can do over the next seven days.
We may be post-Valentine’s Day, but you’ve got one more chance for a program of reimagined love songs with one of Houston’s most talented performers tonight, Thursday, February 15, at 7:30 p.m. when The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts presents Holland Vavra in LOVE, Holland (Vavra – not the country). During the cabaret-like experience, part of The Hobby Center’s new “Live at the Founders Club” series, you can hear Vavra take on love songs from artists like Huey Lewis & The News, Marvin Gaye, Elvis Presley, and more. The series will continue this season with performers like Michael Cavanaugh, Belinda Munro and Camille Zamora, doing the music of Billy Joel, Elton John, Natalie Cole and more. Tickets for tonight’s show are still available and can be purchased here for $49 to $59.
It's love at first sight and some very concerned parents in Craig Lucas’s Tony Award-winning musical The Light in the Piazza, which Opera in the Heights will open on Friday, February 16, at 7:30 p.m. The company’s artistic and general director, Eiki Isomura, recently told the Houston Press that the show’s score, written by Adam Guettel, “is a blend of popular and operatic styles,” and he attributes the popularity of the show to “how utterly gorgeous the music is” and “the way the setting transports the audience to Florence and then Rome.” Performances, which will be sung in English and Italian with English surtitles, are also scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, February 17, and 2 p.m. Sunday, February 18, at Lambert Hall. Tickets are available and can be purchased here for $29 to $85.
You can hear “one of the pillars of the chamber music repertoire,” Franz Schubert’s String Quartet in D Minor, D. 810 – more commonly known as “Death and the Maiden” – on Friday, February 16, at 8 p.m. when DACAMERA welcomes the Danish String Quartet back to Houston and to the Wortham Theater Center. In addition to Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden,” which wasn’t published until three years after the composer’s death, the Grammy-nominated quartet (comprised of violinists Frederik Øland and Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violist Asbjørn Nørgaard, and cellist Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin) will play Henry Purcell’s Chaconne in G Minor, Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in G Minor, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp Minor. Tickets to the performance can be purchased here for $46 to $76.
On Saturday, February 17, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will kick off Black Art Houston, a weekend of events all celebrating contemporary Black art all around the city. The citywide initiative not only includes the opening of the MFAH’s new exhibition “Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage,” but exhibitions, open studios, writing workshops and panels at a variety of community partner locations, including the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston Museum of African American Culture, Project Row Houses, and many more. You can view the full schedule of events and locations here. Many events are free, but check the schedule for any potential cost, too. (Also, “Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage” will continue through May 12.)
When you think about your favorite toy from childhood, what do you think of first? Maybe G.I. Joe or Barbie, or possibly a Lego structure towering over the coffee table in your family’s living room (with a parent yelling in the background after stepping on a stray Lego for good measure). If you’re interested in a little blast-from-the-toy-box-past, swing by the Houston Toy Museum on Saturday, February 17, starting at 10 a.m. when Texas Time Warp Collectibles takes over the space for their Vintage Toy Show. You can browse the museum’s exhibits while also browsing through the wares of over 20 vendors for all your throwback toy needs, such as Star Wars figurines, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and more. Admission to the event is $5 at the door.
Experience the world of Daniel Johnston, described by Rolling Stone as “the outsider folk artist whose childlike pleas for love captivated the likes of Kurt Cobain and Tom Waits,” on Saturday, February 17, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. when Deborah Colton Gallery hosts the opening reception of their latest exhibition, “Daniel Johnston: I am a Baby in My Universe.” With almost 200 works of art representing 45 characters, the exhibit will serve as a comprehensive introduction to the characters that populated Johnston’s imaginative world. Saturday night’s reception, which also marks the gallery’s 20th anniversary, will also welcome Johnston’s sister, Marjory Johnston, and special musical guest Kathy McCarty and Speeding Motorcycle. If you can’t make it, the exhibition will continue through March 16.
Certain prognosticators may be predicting Wes Anderson’s “utterly delightful” The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar – “a densely detailed journey with an intricate Russian doll story structure” – to take home this year’s Oscar for Best Live Action Short, but you can decide if Anderson’s Roald Dahl adaptation is the best of the nominees on Sunday, February 18, at 5 p.m. when the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents 2024 Oscar-Nominated Short Films: Live Action. The five nominated short films will be screened again at 7 p.m. on February 24, March 1 and March 8 leading up to the Academy Awards on March 10. And if short films are your thing, the museum will also screen the nominees for animation and documentary, too. Tickets to the screenings are available for $7 to $9.
In the United States, it’s the longest-running syndicated game show. It’s current incarnation, starring Pat Sajak and Vanna White, celebrated 40 seasons just last year. Of course, we’re talking about Wheel of Fortune, and the series’ famous wheel and word puzzles are coming to town on Sunday, February 18, at 7:30 p.m. when Wheel of Fortune LIVE! visits The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Mark L. Walberg will host the tournament-style proceedings, with groups of three randomly selected audience members invited on stage to play the fame with the goal of making it to the Bonus Round (and win very real destination trips and cash prizes). Tickets to the show are available here for $29.50 to $49.50
