The tricks and the treats are in full swing as we near Halloween, and the spooky season is certainly reflected in this week’s best bets. Yes, we’ve murderous plants and classic horror films, but we’ve also got a beloved opera and a visit from a well-known Broadway performer. Keep reading for these and more in our picks for the best of the week.
The story of a shy florist who comes into possession of an otherworldly and blood-hungry plant is currently playing over at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, and you can catch it – Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s Little Shop of Horrors – tonight, Thursday, October 24, at 7:30 p.m. Simone Gundy, who plays doo-wop singer Crystal in the Theatre Under the Stars production, recently told the Houston Press that she thinks the show is so successful “because it perfectly straddles the line between camp and sadness,” noting “a great story line and a great moral of the story,” and “some of the best music.” Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sunday, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through November 3. Tickets can be purchased here for $34.50 to $138.50.
If you’re in the market for spooky but family-friendly activities this October, you’ll want to head over to Discovery Green on Friday, October 25, from 7 to 10 p.m. for Scream on the Green. The three-hour-long free festivities will include living sculptures, psychics and palm readers, music, games, and a screening of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Also returning this year is the costume contest. Get your costumes ready for judging across six categories, divided by age and gender, with prizes also for family/groups and pets, all with various prizes on the line (including a special prize for the best Pixar-related costume). If you want to participate in the contest, you have to register today (it closes by 11:59 p.m. Thursday, October 24).
Celebrate the Halloween season like it’s 1925 on Friday, October 25, at 7 p.m. when the Houston Symphony hosts a silent film double feature of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Phantom of the Opera at Jones Hall. The Symphony will sit this one out as organist Brett Miller takes the stage instead to provide live accompaniment to the two horror classics: One, arguably “the first true horror film,” is Robert Wiene’s Caligari, “a subjective psychological fantasy” that Roger Ebert speculated must have been “unsettling” to audiences in 1920. The second is the first Phantom film, which boasts “one of the most famous moments in silent film,” the unmasking of Lon Chaney’s Phantom. Tickets can be purchased here for $42 to $105, and yes, Halloween costumes are encouraged.
We’re doing the “Time Warp” again when Patricia Quinn, who famously played Magenta in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, stops by Jones Hall on Saturday, October 26, at 7:30 p.m. for a screening of the campy classic starring Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick. In Roger Ebert’s so-so contemporary review, he said The Rocky Horror Picture Show “belongs on a stage, with the performers and audience joining in a collective send-up,” so rest assured – the screening will be interactive (with audience participation encouraged). A shadow cast will also be on hand, and plan to stay for a free after party. And don’t forget to don a costume, because there will be a costume contest. Tickets can be purchased here for $49 to $132.
Gioachino Rossini’s Cinderella doesn’t have a fairy godmother or a glass slipper, but when Houston Grand Opera opens its production at the Wortham Theater Center on Friday, October 25, at 7:30 p.m., you will get a Cinderella (though named Angelina), a wicked stepfather, bracelets, and a prince. Tenor Jack Swanson, who will play the part of the prince named Don Ramiro, recently told the Houston Press that “most of the opera [the Prince is] actually playing his servant because the goal of the Prince is that he meet someone that falls in love with him for who he is and not for his money.” Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, November 1, Thursday, November 7, and Saturday, November 9, 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 27, and 11 a.m. on Saturday, November 9. Tickets can be purchased here for $25 to $280.
Cheyenne Jackson, well-known for his work on Broadway and in film and television, will visit the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, October 26, at 7:30 p.m. for a one-night-only performance of his long-form cabaret, Cheyenne Jackson: Signs of Life. Jackson told the Houston Press that the idea for the show was based on the idea of looking for signs, which is a lesson his father taught him when he was young, saying, “The signs of life, the signs from God or the universe or nature. Signs that you are where you’re supposed to be and you’re doing what you are supposed to be doing. That’s the kind of skeleton of it but then I fill it with all kinds of crazy stuff.” Tickets to the performance are available here for $44 to $247.
Shelley Duvall once said that after her “almost unbearable” experience working with Stanley Kubrick on The Shining, “hardly anyone even criticized my performance in it, even to mention it, it seemed like. The reviews were all about Kubrick, like I wasn’t there.” Since then, plenty has been said about Duvall’s performance, with The New York Times calling her the “perfect Gothic heroine,” adding that “today it can feel as if detractors simply weren’t expecting how unsettling it would be to witness her performance of abject terror.” On Sunday, October 27, at 5 p.m., the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, will screen the 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s novel about a family of three staying in an isolated, empty Colorado hotel to honor the Texas actress. Tickets are available here for $7 to $9.
On Tuesday, October 29, at 7:30 p.m., Performing Arts Houston will welcome humorist, essayist, and now children’s book author David Sedaris to the Wortham Theater Center fresh off the release of Pretty Ugly, a picture book about a little ogre whose face-making gets her stuck looking like a cute little girl. “I just love the idea of somebody turning themselves inside out,” said Sedaris recently. “I mean, can you imagine what you’d really look like if you turned yourself inside out?” Sedaris will read from new and unpublished works, and stick around for a post-show book signing. Tickets can be purchased for $39 to $99, but availability is low, so if you want to be one of the last approximately 25 buyers, go here as soon as possible.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
