It’s National Feel the Love Day and, just in case you want to spread some affection around to our city’s lovely arts organizations, we have put together a list of the best bets this coming week. Keep reading for a play that made its Broadway debut last year, a much beloved Shakespearean comedy, a new take on a film more than 70 years old, and much more below.
If you’re in the mood for a “delicious feminist farce about the all-female staff that keeps the country out of war and other sticky situations while babysitting the dullard who holds the highest office in our beleaguered land,” head over to Stages as they officially open Selina Fillinger’s POTUS: or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive at 7 p.m. tonight, Thursday, September 7. Not only does the play feature an ensemble of female characters, but Stages’ production boasts both an all-female cast and crew that “let us experience the double-bind of exceptional women unmediated by the men who depend on their complicity.” Performances will continue at 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 7:30 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through October 8. Tickets can be purchased here for $48 to $88.
Composer Justin Sherburn, artistic director of Montopolis, and his wife, cellist Sara Nelson, will bring Sherburn’s self-composed score for Dziga Vertov’s 1929 film Man with a Movie Camera to The MATCH on Thursday, September 7, at 8 p.m. Sherburn recently told Houston Matters with Craig Cohen that Vertov’s film “feels like a music video from the 80s or 90s” – “fast paced” and “very psychedelic” boasting “every trick as far as special effects with film.” Though Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought new relevance to the work, Sherburn says his original hope in composing a score was to “undermine the original intention” – propaganda – of the Joseph Stalin-commissioned film to “focus it on the individuals, just the common humanity.” The film will be preceded by Buster Keaton’s short comedy The Scarecrow. Tickets can be purchased here for $15.
Despite not making her (uncredited) feature film debut until the age of 42, Brooklyn-born Thelma Ritter’s “salty humor, crackling New York accent and seen-it-all demeanor” eventually made her “one of the most accomplished and dependable character actresses in American film.” On Friday, September 8, at 7 p.m. the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will kick off Thelma Ritter: Hollywood’s Favorite New Yorker, a two-weekend-long celebration of the six-time Oscar for Best Supporting Actress nominee, with a showing of A Letter to Three Wives. The film series will continue with screenings of The Model and the Marriage Broker, All About Eve, Pickup on South Street, Rear Window, and The Misfits. Tickets to any of the films can be purchased here for $7 to $9.
John Neumeier’s take on William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, arguably the Bard’s most beloved work –featuring the mischievous Puck, two mix-and-matched Athenian couples and a man-turned-donkey – will open the Houston Ballet’s season on Friday, September 8, at 7 p.m. Principal Dancer Beckanne Sisk, who will be dancing the role of Hippolyta/Titania for the first time, recently told the Houston Press that that she “was surprised by how modern Neumeier’s take” on the comedy was “especially for it being created in the late ’70s,” adding “I don’t know how he came up with some of these partnerings.” Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, and 1:30 p.m. on September 16 at the Wortham Theater Center through September 17. Tickets can be purchased here for $25 to $220.
México en el Corazón will return to Discovery Green on Friday, September 8, from 7 to 10 p.m. with a revamped – and free – show with 65 performers celebrating Mexican culture. The evening will feature the touring troupe of ballet folklórico dancers and mariachis, organized by the North American Institute for Mexican Advancement, as well as María Elena Orantes López, the new Mexican Consul General, who will lead a re-enactment of El Grito. And, if you want to go full-in on the festivities, stop in at The Lake House (right in the heart of Discovery Green) starting at 6 p.m. where Houston native and Top Chef finalist Evelyn Garcia will be serving a one-time only menu in honor of the evening, including dishes like torta de carnitas and tostada with braised brisket.
The titular character of Euripides’s Medea was “regarded as a dangerous person” to folks in fifth-century Athens – not because of her actions, which were “defined by jealousy and rage,” but “because she defended the rights of women and deplored their treatment by men.” On Friday, September 8, at 7:30 p.m. the Classical Theatre Company will open their season at The DeLuxe Theater with the Greek tragedy, which finds the relationship between Medea and her husband Jason (of the Argonauts) in trouble when he sets his sight on another woman. Medea, on shaky ground as a foreign princess and bewitched by Hera to love Jason, soon begins plotting her revenge. Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and September 11; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday through September 16. Tickets can be purchased here for $10 to $30.
DACAMERA will bring one of jazz’s most exciting stars to Miller Outdoor Theatre on Friday, September 8, at 8 p.m. during Lakecia Benjamin and Phoenix. The alto saxophonist and bandleader will perform work from Phoenix, her fourth studio album, “a brilliant new conceptual work” dominated by Benjamin’s “fiery alto,” which can be heard “fluttering at times like the wings of a bird about to take flight, rising at other times to soar high.” Beginning today, September 7, at 10 a.m. you can reserve a ticket for the covered seating here or you can plan to bring a blanket or lawn chair to sit in the ticketless seating on the Hill. The performance will also be livestreamed, and you can catch it on the Miller Outdoor Theatre website, YouTube channel or Facebook page.
The Cloud Crew and ConcertiaHTX will bring a piece of magical realism to Houston with a production of José Rivera’s “mystical love story for the millennium,” Cloud Tectonics, at The MATCH beginning on September 8. The play, about a young man who picks up an otherworldly and very pregnant hitchhiker on a rainy night, “has its share of interesting ideas about time and perception and love,” and it “builds to a lovely concluding thought about love over a lifetime.” At this time, all of the performances are sold out/standby except for the show at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 9, so hurry and get your tickets. Tickets are pay-what-you-can and available here.
The music of one of the earliest crossover artists, who “heralded the advent of soul,” comes to Miller Outdoor Theatre on Saturday, September 9, at 8 p.m. during The Music of Sam Cooke – A Change is Gonna Come Starring Bradd Marquis and The Magnificents. Marquis has said the show “embodies the look, sound and emotions of the 1950s and 1960s,” and that today’s audiences tend to reflect Cooke’s “broad appeal,” which Marquis attributes to “the unity, equality and love that Sam Cooke exemplified.” You can reserve a ticket for covered seating beginning here at 10 a.m. on Friday, September 8, or you can grab a blanket or lawn chair and opt for ticketless seating on the Hill. If you can’t make it to the free performance, you can catch the show on the Miller Outdoor Theatre website, YouTube channel or Facebook page.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
