We’re officially more than halfway through the dog days of summer, and if nothing else, that means it’s really hot outside. Luckily almost all of this week’s best bets are indoors and airconditioned, with the one exception being Shakespeare at Miller Outdoor Theatre. But we believe that if The Bard can’t make you brave the evening heat, nothing will. Keep reading for this and all of our other best bets for the coming week.
If you’re in the mood for a “woozy surrealist masterpiece,” the Friends of River Oaks Theatre will be screening the 4K restoration of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet at The MATCH on Thursday, July 27, at 8 p.m. The film, which “exists both on a level of absolute reality and out-and-out nightmare” is about a “seemingly straight-arrow college kid who discovers the seamy underbelly of a small lumber town while investigating the origins of a severed ear he finds in a vacant lot.” It’s also notable for its musical choices and Isabella Rossellini’s lounge singing character, so the evening will start at 7 p.m. with a pre-screening performance by jazz singer Raquel Cepeda, along with pianist William Sigismondi. Cinephile members get in free, and individual tickets for non-members can be purchased here for $17.
Summer in Houston means a lot of things – mostly heat-related – but it also means the return of the Houston Shakespeare Festival to Miller Outdoor Theatre. This year, the University of Houston School of Theatre & Dance and the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts will present Much Ado About Nothing and a “science-fiction and post-apocalyptic stories”-inspired Macbeth in repertory. Performances of Macbeth are scheduled for 8:15 p.m. on July 27, 29 and 31, and August 2 and 4, while Much Ado About Nothing will be presented at 8:15 p.m. on July 28 and August 1, 3 and 5. Each performance is free, with reserved seating in the covered audience area and open seating on The Hill. Tickets for reserved seating are available at 10 a.m. the day before each performance here. You can also learn more about the productions at 7:45 p.m. each night during the pre-show Bard Talk.
It’s arguably “the single best movie score in history,” and it all started when George Lucas gave composer John Williams his marching orders: “Give me a body of work comparable with the greatest masterpieces of symphonic history.” The result is Williams’ score for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 28, at The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, you can experience it all – the “bombastic opening brass melody,” the cantina band’s “up-tempo, jazzy” tune, and the “beautiful, lonesome, and haunting section of the score” now known as “Luke’s Theme” – when the Houston Symphony performs Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert. The concert will be performed twice more at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 29. Tickets for any of the three concerts can be purchased here for $61 to $175.
A young man seeks the help of a fortune teller to find his imaginary friend. Two crooks disguise themselves as priests in an attempt to escape with stolen money. An older divorcee goes to a Gen Zer for dating help. You can see these stories and more at Theatre Southwest’s 26th Annual Festival of Originals at 8 p.m. on Friday, July 28. This year’s festival – comprised of five one-act plays, each with its own director and cast – will feature more comedy than usual and three playwrights from Texas, and we expect it to be good. Mimi Holloway, the artistic director of Theatre Southwest, recently told the Houston Press that the goal is for the “eclectic group of plays” to gel “into one show rather than five different scenes.” Performances are scheduled through August 12 at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. August 6. Tickets are available here for $20 to $22.
In Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution, a wealthy woman is found dead and her much younger – and very married – male friend, Leonard, is the prime suspect. On Friday, July 28, at 8 p.m. Cone Man Running Productions will open the classic courtroom drama with cast entirely made up of members of Houston’s legal community. Civil trial lawyer John Raley, who plays Leonard’s defense lawyer, told the Houston Press that he’s bringing his career in criminal justice into the character, including all of his “experiences in innocence work and in pro bono exonerations of innocent people, the pressure you feel of believing with all your heart that your client is innocent and yet they’re in this fix and if you don’t help them no one else will.” Performances continue through August 12 at 8 p.m. Thursday, Fridays, Saturdays and July 31 and 3 p.m. Sunday, August 6 at Spring Street Studios. Tickets can be purchased here for $15 to $40.
It’s “go big or go home” for The Octarine Accord, Houston’s newest theater and production company. On Saturday, July 29, at 1 p.m. the company, named for a bit of writing from Sir Terry Pratchett, will open “The Honeycomb Trilogy,” Mac Rogers’s three-part, 20-year-spanning alien invasion story. Advance Man, Blast Radius and Sovereign will be presented in rep at The MATCH through August 13, and though each show can be seen as a standalone, you’ll want to catch all three as the plotting gets “tidier, the conflicts sharper and the emotional force much greater” as they go on. You can purchase single-show tickets for $40, you can buy a $90 flex pass (which lets you choose whichever dates and times work for you), or you can pick a Saturday or Sunday and watch all three in the same day with a $75 binge pass. All three ticket types are available here.
Take a closer look at Houston’s historic 5th Ward on Saturday, July 29, at 1:30 p.m. during a screening of Keda Sharber’s Life in the Nickel at The Heritage Society at Sam Houston Park. Presented as part of their current exhibit, “The New Red Book: A Guide to 50 of Houston’s Black Historical and Cultural Sites” curated by Dr. Lindsay Gary, the documentary looks at Houston’s 5th Ward through the eyes of three of the community’s residents. Following the screening, stick around because Sharber will participate in a talkback. The event is free, but you need to RSVP here. And if you want to learn more about “The New Red Book” exhibition, you can find more information here.
It’s been 35 years since Stages premiered Ted Swindley’s Always…Patsy Cline, which opens on Saturday, July 29, at 7:30 p.m., and like the country star’s tunes – 27 of which are featured in the show – it’s still easily enchanting audiences. Kelley Peters, who is again playing the role of Cline, told the Houston Press back in 2018 that the singer didn’t “have that fairytale story” and used that to become “a pioneer,” now known as one of the few singers in the world that “when they sing, specifically when they emote their songs, the way they take their life experiences, it cuts right through you.” Performances continue at 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 7:30 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through October 29. Tickets – including VIP ticket experiences featuring seats at cabaret-style tables next to the stage – can be purchased here for $48 to $94.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
