Today is National Tear the Tags Off the Mattress Day, but if participating is a little too daring for you, we’ve got some other ways to spend your time. For example, how about checking out a show you’ve never seen before? This week, we’ve got a world premiere play, a hip-hop retelling of a Shakespearean classic and a very famous man-eating plant. Keep reading for these and more on this week’s list of best bets.

If you love a classic whodunit, you’ll want to check out The Ensemble Theatre’s latest production, Roger Furman’s Midnight, Friday the Thirteenth, which you can see on Friday, May 10, at 7:30 p.m. The late New Jersey-born, Harlem-based playwright launched New Heritage Repertory Theater in 1964, which is where the off-off-Broadway play premiered in 1979. The play takes us to upstate New York for the reading of a man’s last will and testament on which both the cast and audience will be forced to figure out whodunit in this interactive theater piece. Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 3 p.m. Sundays through June 2. Tickets to any of the performances can be purchased here for $31 to $59.

In 2020, Grammy-winning vocalist Kurt Elling released Secrets Are the Best Stories, an album featuring pianist Danilo Pérez that delved “deep into the American psyche with a collection of blank verse narratives that twist, turn and rarely end well.” Comprised of a “thoughtful thrill of contemplative concertos,” the songs reflect poetic inspirations (from the likes of Robert Bly and Toni Morrison) resulting in a recording that has been described as “a defining statement of Elling’s 25-year career.” On Friday, May 10, at 8 p.m. DACAMERA will welcome the Kurt Elling Quartet featuring Danilo Pérez to the Wortham Theater Center to perform music from the album and more. Tickets to the concert can be purchased here for $46 to $86.

Before they continue their season Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling later this month, Houston Ballet will take over Miller Outdoor Theatre this weekend for A Night of Celebration on Friday, May 10, at 8 p.m. When the fourth largest ballet company in the United States returns to Miller, they will again bring a mixed repertory program that showcases their talent for dance lovers as well as first-timers. The show is free, and you can get reserve your tickets here starting at 10 a.m. today, Thursday, May 9, or you can sit on the no-ticket-required Hill. The program will be performed a second time on Saturday, May 11, at 8 p.m. If you’d like to reserve a seat for Saturday, they will be available here beginning on Friday, May 10, at 10 a.m.

One of William Shakespeare’s most famous protagonists becomes a hip-hop star in Othello: The Remix, which you can catch at Stages on Friday, May 10, at 8 p.m. The Q Brothers have adapted the tragedy into “a clever and exuberantly performed hip-hop version of the play,” one that “is essentially a rapped opera” and is “as much a spoof of Othello as it is a serious attempt to translate the play into a contemporary musical idiom.” The 80 to 90 minute, intermission-less production, which also features a live DJ on stage, will continue through June 9 at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays and May 31 and June 7. Tickets can be purchased to any of the performances here for $25 to $78.

The classic tale of a sweet but nerdy florist and his recently acquired man-eating plant comes to the Water Works in Buffalo Bayou Park on Saturday, May 11, at 7:30 p.m. when Friends of River Oaks Theatre and Buffalo Bayou Partnership present the 1986 horror musical Little Shop of Horrors. Though the film, starring Rick Moranis and based off Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s 1982 off-Broadway musical of the same name, will start at 8:30 p.m., you’ll definitely want to arrive by 7:30 p.m. to hear Nancy Greig, the former director of the Cockrell Butterfly Center, talk about real-life botanical monsters and enjoy a special musical performance by Theatre Under The Stars at 7:45 p.m. Tickets are free and you can register for them here.

In No-No Boy, “a Portland-based music and multimedia project,” Dr. Julian Saporiti “combines vivid narrative storytelling with Asian American history.” The singer-songwriter began the project “as part of his dissertation for a PhD in ethnomusicology and American studies from Brown University” and “ended up penning more than 100 songs.” On Saturday, May 11, at 7:30 p.m. Saporiti will perform works from his third (and maybe last) album, Empire Electric, when he and his collaborator (and wife) Emilia Halvorsen Saporiti visit Asia Society Texas for No-No Boy in Concert. The performance will be followed by reception, and tickets to the performance can be purchased here for $10 to $25.

Though the late Thornton Wilder never completed The Emporium, the play – finished off by playwright Kirk Lynn – will get its world premiere at the Alley Theatre when it opens on Wednesday, May 15, at 7:30 p.m. David Rainey, who tackles several roles in the play, told the Houston Press that “the wonderful thing about Thornton Wilder is that Thornton Wilder is never just about the story itself. He's always concerned with much, much bigger issues. In most of his plays he kind of pits humanity against the background of the universe and really shows us how small we are.” Performances will continue through June 2 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, and 7 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are available here for $51 to $74.