110 in the Shade isn’t just the Houston weather forecast for, oh, the entire month of August. It’s also a musical version of the classic play/movie The Rainmaker. Set during a Texas heat wave in the ´30s, it tells the story of the unlikely romance between old-maid-in-training Lizzie Curry and Starbuck, the charismatic BS artist who comes to town promising a downpour. The show was written by Texas natives Tom Jones (not he of the gyrating crotch) and Harvey Schmidt back in 1963, and it’s not the musical pair’s only collaboration. Their other effort is a little song-and-dance effort called The Fantasticks — the world’s longest-running musical.
May 9-21, 7:30 p.m.
This article appears in May 4-10, 2006.
