This weekend is National Goof Off Day, so we’ve compiled a list of best bets that you won’t mind shucking your responsibilities to enjoy. Whether you want to celebrate French culture or art culled from artists across the nation, a classic MGM musical, or the return of homegrown talent, we’ve got you covered. Keep reading for these and more on this week’s list of best bets.
Broadway legend and three-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone will bring her latest one-woman show, Patti LuPone: A Life in Notes, to the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. The decade-spanning show is the performer’s first time playing Houston and will see LuPone – famous for roles in shows like Gypsy and Evita – singing songs she associates with each one. LuPone recently spoke to the Houston Press and said the show is “about the songs that when you hear them again you remember exactly where you were or who you were with, how old you were, how they affected you. Music can crystalize a moment in time. These are some of the moments of my life.” Tickets can be purchased here for $44 to $64.
Francophiles, the French Cultural Service in Houston will kick off this year’s French Cultures Festival on Friday, March 22, from 6 to 10 p.m. at Discovery Green with an evening event free and open to all. Paris Saint-Germain Academy will organize some soccer friendlies at 6 p.m. followed by a talk with Congo-born French novelist and poet Alain Mabanckou at 7:30 p.m., and then an outdoor screening on the lawn of director Gilles Lellouche’s 2018 film Sink or Swim. The feel-good dramedy finds a group of middle-aged Frenchmen who form their local pool’s first all-male synchronized swimming team. The festival will continue with a variety of events, including film screenings, concerts, story times and tastings through April 20, and you can find a list of events here.
Between Arthur Freed, the man “who created the modern musical as we know it”; Vincente Minnelli and “his artistic perfectionism”; and Judy Garland, “whose delivery of song resonated with unparalleled sentimental immersion” a “nearly perfect movie” was made – 1944’s Meet Me in St. Louis. On Friday, March 22, at 7 p.m. the “Movies Houstonians Love” series will return to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston with the film, selected by the General Director and CEO at Houston Grand Opera, Khori Dastoor. The film centers on a St. Louis family finding out they have to move to New York, but is really “about family and home and what happens if either is potentially disrupted.” Tickets to the screening can be purchased here for $7 to $9.
At one point, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 was titled “Bonaparte,” as Beethoven aspired “to create the symphonic equivalent of a Homeric epic with Napoleon as his subject.” Over time, the titled changed to “Heroic,” and today the symphony is noted as “confessional, even confrontational” and the expression of an “epic struggle.” At 8 p.m. Friday, March 22, at Jones Hall, the Houston Symphony will present the work during Mozart + Beethoven’s Eroica alongside work from Missy Mazzoli and pianist Emanuel Ax taking on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25. Additional performances are scheduled for 8 p.m. Saturday, March 23, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 24. Tickets to in-hall performances are available here for $34 to $140, or you can livestream Saturday night’s show for $20 here.
Meet a few of the talented alumni of Houston’s own Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts on Saturday, March 23, at 7 p.m. during From Houston to Broadway and Back at Discovery Green: Tony-nominated Kevin Cahoon (Class of 1989), who has appeared in The Wedding Singer, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and The Lion King; Darlesia Cearcy, whose credits include The Color Purple, Ragtime and The Goodbye Girl; and Samantha Williams (Class of 2016), whose roles include Caroline, or Change, Dear Evan Hansen, and an upcoming production of The Pirates of Penzance. These artists will not only perform songs from their career, as well as personal favorites, they’ll also share about their time at Kinder HSPVA. The event is free, but register in advance here.
Antonín Dvořák’s stint as the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City “gave him ample time to compose,” and one of the works produced during this time was his String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96, known as the “American” Quartet. You can hear the piece, inspired by the Czech community he encountered in Spillville, Iowa, at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 23, at the Wortham Theater Center when Mercury Chamber Orchestra presents Dvořák’s America. Joining Dvořák on the program are works from Missy Mazzoli, Anna Clyne, and Frank Proto. Tickets to the in-person concert can be purchased here for $10 to $76, or you can get a virtual ticket to access the livestream from home here for $20.
The Houston Jewish Film Festival returns to the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center for its 20th anniversary year this weekend. The festival officially opens at 7 p.m. on Sunday, March 24, with a screening of June Zero, directed by Jake Paltrow (brother of Gwyneth), and will continue through Thursday, April 4, when it closes with Avi Nesher’s The Monkey House. In between are about a dozen films – comedy, drama, documentary, shorts – that celebrate Jewish and Israeli culture. Screenings will be held at the Evelyn Rubenstein JCC, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Holocaust Museum Houston, and select films will also be available online. Individual tickets will be available for $15 to $23, “pick 3” subscriptions for $38 to $53, and full festival subscriptions for $135 to $189. You can view the full schedule with locations, times, and prices here.
