It’s National Snail Day, so after you show your appreciation for the underappreciated little creature, consider checking out some of this week’s best bets. We’ve got the return of a popular film festival, a world premiere ballet, and a season-ending performance 30 years in the making. Keep reading for these and more below.
Marius Petipa’s Raymonda premiered in 1898, and tonight, Thursday, May 29, at 7 p.m., you can see a brand-new take on the classical ballet at the Wortham Theater Center when Houston Ballet world premieres the show as envisioned by Artistic Director Stanton Welch. Aaron Daniel Sharratt, who will dance the role of the Duke of Vermillion, recently spoke with the Houston Press and emphasized Welch’s “different take,” saying, “The third act is still pretty traditional, but the other two acts are quite different. There are a lot of characters, so you get to see a lot of the dancers really showcased.” Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. May 31, June 6 and 7, and 2 p.m. June 1 and 8 through June 8. Tickets are available here for $25 to $159.
Israel-born Amichai Lau-Lavie, a gay man, descended from 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis. Tonight, Thursday, May 29, at 7:15 p.m., you can watch his journey “from the Radical Faeries’ joyous, transgressive vision of queerness — which led to creating his drag alter ego, Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross — to embracing Conservative Judaism” in Sabbath Queen at River Oaks Theatre. The documentary, co-presented with Keshet Houston, Inc., was filmed over 20 years and has been called a “fascinating look at the act of questioning yourself and your family, your surroundings and your decisions,” which for Lau-Lavie “may never be over.” Following the film, stick around for a talkback with director-producer Sandi DuBowski and Avery Belyeu, the CEO of The Montrose Center. Tickets to the screening can be purchased here for $15.
In Tadashi Nakamura’s Third Act, a documentary about his father, Robert A. Nakamura, “a giant of American independent cinema,” Nakamura “manages to make a realistic portrait of America, with both its shameful history and its contemporary complexities.” Third Act will open the Houston Asian American Pacific Islander Film Festival (HAAPIFEST) on Friday, May 30, at 6 p.m., leading off a lineup of 130 feature films and shorts that will continue through June 15. The festival, presented virtually and in-person at DoubleTree by Hilton, will feature themed programming blocks and showcases, filmmaker Q&A sessions, and more. Tickets to the festival range from $29.99 to $199.99, ranging from single-day general admission passes and virtual access to all-access VIP. You can find more information about passes, as well as the full festival schedule, here.
Comedian and podcaster Hari Kondabolu will visit Punchline Houston this weekend for three shows – the first scheduled for Friday, May 30, at 7:30 p.m. Kondabolu recently told the Houston Press that audiences can expect to hear “the stuff I have historically covered about race and colonialism, there will be some stuff about my parents and aging. I think about myself aging also. Being a co-parent, I have a four-and-a-half-year-old, so knowing what it is like being a four-and-a-half-year-old. What it feels like to have a breakup when you have a kid. That’s a lot of the big stuff.” Kondabolu will perform two more times, at 7 and 9:15 p.m. on Saturday, May 31. Tickets to any of the three performances can be purchased here for $32 to $45.
Celebrate the end of an era with the Houston Chamber Choir on Saturday, May 31, at 7 p.m., when the choir wraps up its season at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church with Gather ‘Round, a season finale that also marks founder Robert Simpson’s final regular season concert as artistic director. Simpson will conduct the evening’s program, which doubles as a look back over Simpson’s 30-year tenure with the choir. Choir member Wayne Ashley told H-TOWN LIVE that “along with being musicians, we’re Houstonians, and this really is a celebration of the wonderful music and art we’ve brought to the city of Houston…It’s called Gather ‘Round so that we can really celebrate this amazing community that we’ve built together with Bob.” Tickets are available here for $10 to $45.
Five-time Grammy winner and Gen Z JazzTok star Samara Joy will make her Jones Hall debut on Monday, June 2, at 7:30 p.m., stopping in Houston, courtesy of Performing Arts Houston, as the Bronx native tours to promote her latest album Portrait. The album, Joy’s third released back in October 2024, has been described as not only “a stunningly enjoyable and musically savvy work” but “also a monumental step forward as an artist for Joy, who co-produced the record, as well as was responsible in some way for arrangements, writing, even the artwork, on the genius work.” It was also recorded in just three days with co-producer (and fellow multi-Grammy winner) Brian Lynch in New Jersey. Tickets can still be purchased here for $54.50 to $104.50.
Update 9:50 p.m. June 1: Spacecapades will now open Monday June 9 at 7:30 p.m. Ticketholders for the cancelled June 2 performances will be moved to Thursday June 12. The remaining performance will be on June 16 as originally scheduled.
Travel out of this world with Paul Hope Cabarets on Monday, June 2, at 7:30 p.m. during Spacecapades, an evening of mid-century pop hits straight from the cosmos performed within the walls of Ovations Night Club. Hope will emcee the program, which will include songs like the Grammy-winning “Up, Up and Away” and the Frank Sinatra standard “Fly Me to the Moon” – as well as Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke’s “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” well-noted for being Sinatra’s first charting single in 1940. The concert will also be performed on Monday, June 9, and Monday, June 16, with both performances beginning at 7:30 p.m. Tickets to any of the three performances can be purchased here for $27.25 to $37.75 (with reserved center tables also available for $142.75).
Gear up for The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston’s upcoming production of Iolanthe with a screening of the 1983 film adaptation of The Pirates of Penzance, “the quintessential work by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan,” at River Oaks Theatre on Wednesday, June 4 at 7 p.m. The Joseph Papp-directed production of the two-act comedic opera “kicked off a tidal wave of renewed interest in the material” in 1981, which led to the movie musical in 1983, for which Kevin Kline reprised his Tony Award-winning role as The Pirate King alongside castmates Angela Lansbury, Linda Ronstadt, George Rose, and Rex Smith. Tickets to the screening can be purchased here for $21 (with $5 from each ticket going to the Gilbert & Sullivan Society Houston).
