Happy St. Patrick’s Day weekend! In between your holiday-themed, green-clothed revelry, may we suggest the following events to keep you busy and entertained all weekend long. Keep reading for our picks of the best bets in music, comedy, film, and more.
Against a backdrop of “significant political and social upheaval” in Europe and a tumultuous personal life, Gustav Mahler composed Symphony No. 6 in A Minor, titled Tragic, in the early 1900s. On Friday, March 15, at 8 p.m. Houston Symphony Music Director and Conductor Juraj Valčuha will lead the Symphony during Valčuha Conducts Mahler 6 at Jones Hall. Mahler’s sixth symphony, influenced by the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Heinrich Leopold Wagner, famously features an instrument dubbed the Mahler “Box and Hammer,” which strikes during the final movement. The concert will also be performed at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 16, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 17. Tickets to these in-hall performances can be purchased here for $34 to $105. Saturday night’s show will also be livestreamed, and you can get access here for $20.
Vanessa Gonzalez has gone from Laredo, Texas, to a Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents special, opening for Chelsea Handler three years in a row, and an appearance on the Netflix special Verified Stand-Up. On Friday, March 15, at 8 p.m. you can catch Gonzalez during a headlining appearance at The Secret Group. Gonzalez looks to add a new voice to the comedic landscape, saying “I feel like being Mexican, and being Texas-Mexican…It’s multidimensional; we’re full of contradictions. It doesn’t make sense. And I have yet to see us portrayed that way.” Tickets to the 18-and-up show are available in advance here for $15 and will be on sale for $20 at the door. VIP tickets for $30, which include preferred seating and a meet and greet, can also be purchased online (and will not be available at the door).
For those that consider themselves strange and unusual – or at least have an interest in dabbling in the bizarre and macabre – you may want to check out the Houston Oddities & Curiosities Expo 2024 on Saturday, March 16, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The two-day expo will showcase vendors peddling their weird wares including taxidermy items, funeral collectibles, antiques handmade oddities, clothing, jewelry, artwork and more, not to mention an all-day stage featuring sideshow performers and, for an additional cost, taxidermy and entomology classes. The expo will continue on Sunday, March 17, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets purchased here in advance are available for $10, with tickets also available day of for $15. Also, kids 12 and under get in free.
Over at Stages, Denise Fennell-Pasqualone the the regular embodiment of the “Sister” at the center of Late Night Catechism series of plays. On Saturday, March 16, 2024 at 12 p.m. Fennell-Pasqualone will get to live out the character’s dream when she takes on the role of Grand Marshal for the 63rd Annual Houston St. Patrick’s Parade, which will begin at POST Houston. You can join the fun and celebrate Houston’s Irish community during the two-hour parade, which is free to attend, as well as at the after-party in Market Square. And if you haven’t seen the latest “Sister” show (Sister’s Irish Catechism: Saints, Snakes, and Green Milkshakes!), you still have a chance as the run will continue (adapted slightly to reflect the honor) through March 22. More information can be found here.
It’s now been 30 years since “a loose-limbed, low-budget British romcom about a group of affable toffs enjoying amorous encounters at society events became a surprise US box office hit” and launched the career of one Hugh Grant. Yes, it’s director Mike Newell’s 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral, which is playing at Alamo Drafthouse on Sunday, March 17, at 11 a.m. The “unlikely pop culture phenomenon” with a “grounded, faintly subversive sensibility” and “lo-fi aesthetic” features Grant’s Charles chasing after Andie MacDowell’s Carrie in a fairly “cringe-inducing quest,” but “if your enthusiasm for the androcentric British romcom has waned in recent years, you may be surprised by how well Four Weddings has stood the test of time.” Tickets to the throwback screening can be purchased here for $11.
To rise to international acclaim as an artist while working exclusively in Fort Worth is pretty special, and you can learn more about the man who did it on Sunday, March 17, at 2 p.m. when the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston screens Breaking the Code, Michael Flanagan’s documentary about Vernon Fisher. The artist is well known “for placing national pop symbols such as Mickey Mouse alongside a Dairy Queen or grocery store and using text to tell sometimes dark stories.” Following the film, Flanagan will join curator Alison de Lima Greene for a panel discussion. Admission to the screening is free with admission to the museum, with seating on a first-come, first-serve basis. Admission to the museum is available here for free (for children 12 and under) to $24.
One thing composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Miklós Rózsa, and Kurt Weill had in common is that they all fled Europe – specifically, the Nazis – and settled in Los Angeles to great success. Korngold won two Oscars, Castelnuovo-Tedesco scored around 200 films at MGM and other studios, Rózsa picked up 17 Academy Award nominations, and Weill famously collaborated with Bertolt Brecht (and wrote “Mack the Knife”). On Sunday, March 17, at 7 p.m. Musica Tra Amici will celebrate the work of these composers during their latest program, From Europe to Hollywood, at the MATCH. Tickets are available here for $25 to $35. If you can’t make it, you can always buy access to the livestream for $17 here (which includes a video-on-demand option available from Tuesday, March 19, to Sunday, March 31).
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
