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Vanilla Fudge's Mark Stein Solos

Vanilla Fudge's Mark Stein Solos

Houston Christmas Theater Part II: The Nutcracker and The Christmas Shoes

Houston Christmas Theater Part II: The Nutcracker and The Christmas Shoes

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Anthrax's Frank Bello Brings the Noise—and the Memories

By Bob Ruggiero
Nov 26, 2021

As the bassist for Anthrax during the vast majority of their career, you would expect that Frank Bello’s musical likes and influences would include the Usual Suspects like KISS, Iron Maiden and Motörhead. But the guy who holds down the low end for one of Thrash Metal’s “Big Four” (along...
Best Bets: Thanksgiving, Shorts, and Double the Tchaikovsky [UPDATED]

By Natalie de la Garza
Nov 25, 2021

There’s no shortage of dance, theater, music this Thanksgiving weekend.
Houston Christmas Theater 2021, Part I: Miss Bennet and A Christmas Carol

By D. L. Groover
Nov 24, 2021

Miss Bennet, Christmas at Pemberly Egad, who spiked the punch at the Darcys? For past holiday seasons, Main Street Theater has presented Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon's sequels of sorts to Jane Austen's immortal Pride and Prejudice: Miss Bennet and The Wickhams, both subtitled Christmas at Pemberly. I believe it...
Warren Haynes and Gov't Mule Get Heavy into the Blues

By Bob Ruggiero
Nov 23, 2021

Even those who have followed the multi-faceted career of Warren Haynes—whether with the Allman Brothers Band, Gov’t Mule, his solo output or other collaborations—might be surprised to hear that he’s never done an all-blues album. Until now. The singer/songwriter/guitarist, along with the rest of the Mule (Matt Abts on drums,...
Children's Book Details the Journey of Willie and Bobbie Nelson

By Bob Ruggiero
Nov 22, 2021

In an era where facts can be “alternative” and the political divide in the Lone Star State is yawning to an epic gap, there’s at least one thing that almost all Texans can agree upon: Willie Nelson is a state treasure. Hell, the most famous son of Abbott a national...
In The Christmas Shoes, A.D. Players Offers a Special Holiday Story

By Margaret Downing
Nov 22, 2021

With a specially commissioned work, A.D. Players offers Houston audiences another option in winter holiday stories when it will present the world premiere of The Christmas Shoes, a story about a boy and his present to his dying mother. This stage adaptation by Jessica Lind Peterson is based on The...
A Woman Over the Precipice in 4.48 Psychosis at Catastrophic

By D. L. Groover
Nov 20, 2021

Catastrophic Theatre has not been softened by a year-and-a-half of COVID isolation and deprivation, it’s been sharpened and honed razor-sharp. It will cut you. As a welcome back present to the theater, Sarah Kane's radical and subversively lyrical 4.48 Psychosis, a cause célèbre to some, a cri de coeur to...
Alan Walden's Song of the South with Otis, the Allmans, and Lynyrd Skynyrd

By Bob Ruggiero
Nov 19, 2021

If you had to compare the size of a city to level of musical influence, it would be hard to beat the yawning gap of Macon. After all, it’s there in “The Heart of Georgia” where Little Richard honed his performing chops, Otis Redding brought his deep R&B and soul...
An All Access Ticket to the Rock Show—From Those Who Were There

By Bob Ruggiero
Nov 18, 2021

It’s common among a performer or band’s superfans to note something along the lines of “Yeah, their studio albums are great. But you really need to see them live.” Outside of the different sheen a live performance can put on a song though, that’s not the reason people go to...
Best Bets: 4.48 Psychosis, Terra Firma, and A Dust in Time

By Natalie de la Garza
Nov 18, 2021

The holiday season has begun and you can see it in this week's best bets.
Main Street Returns to Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley For Its Holiday Show

By Margaret Downing
Nov 17, 2021

For the third time Chaney Moore will take on the role of Mary Bennet, the overlooked Bennet sister brought to life in Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley about to go back on stage at Main Street Theater — and she's happy to do so. "It's a little bit of magic...
Supporting Actors Steal the Spotlight In Tootsie

By Jessica Goldman
Nov 17, 2021

There’s a lot of upstaging going on in Tootsie, the movie turned musical now playing at Broadway at the Hobby Center. A trifecta, to be exact. Lyrics over music, first act over second, and most jarringly, supporting performances over the lead. And while none of this makes Tootsie (music and...
El Huracán Arrives at Mildred's Umbrella With Storms External and Internal

By D. L. Groover
Nov 12, 2021

We give thanks to Mildred's Umbrella for our knowledge of playwright Charise Castro Smith. El Huracán (2018), a generational fable, is the company's third Smith production, following the ironic and wacky The Hunchback of Seville and the weird and horrific Feathers and Teeth. Each play is different in style, construction,...
Now See Tootsie On Stage and In Song at the Hobby Center

By Margaret Downing
Nov 12, 2021

Drew Becker originally auditioned more than a year ago to be part of the ensemble for the national tour of the Tony Award winning Tootsie, the musical based on the movie by the same name. But when he got call backs for the casting director it was to read the...
Best Bets: Film, A Night Market, and El Huracán

By Natalie de la Garza
Nov 11, 2021

Film is in the air on this week's list of best bets.
How Accessible Are Houston's Theaters?

By Jessica Goldman
Nov 10, 2021

Doors, dogs, and a demi disaster. It’s alliteration, sure, but it’s also an accurate snapshot of the challenges I faced this past month as a post-surgery wheelchair/walker/cane user trying to navigate shows at several of Houston’s theaters. Notice I said challenges, not roadblocks. The good news is that theaters in...
The Woman in the Mirror Poignantly Tells Radio DJ Dayna Steele's Journey With Her Mom's Alzheimer's

By Colby Etherton
Nov 5, 2021

What sets Blue Squirrel Productions' The Woman in the Mirror apart from most is that from the get-go, the audience knows what to expect. There aren't any unexpected twists and turns or a grand, climactic peak that leaves us gobsmacked. The premise is clear. Based on Dayna Steele's 2016 book...
Sister Act: Cute Twerking Nuns and All at TUTS

By D. L. Groover
Nov 5, 2021

For TUTS' sake, I should let anyone sitting around me during Sister Act write this review. It would be a rave. My nearby audience whooped and laughed, really laughed out loud, at everything on stage. They murmured in hushed anticipation when gangster Curtis purred out his death threat against Deloris;...
A Christmas Carol Returns to Live Performance at the Alley Theatre

By Margaret Downing
Nov 5, 2021

This year, when audiences return to the Alley Theatre for A Christmas Carol, they won't be immediately plunged into Dickensian England. Instead, says director Brandon Weinbrenner, "You'll meet a troupe of actors in 2021 on the stage of the Hubbard Theatre, there to put on A Christmas Carol. The stage...
Graham Nash's Life Through the Lens

By Bob Ruggiero
Nov 5, 2021

Graham Nash has been making music for more than 60 years. First with friend Allan Clarke, then as the pair co-founded the English Invasion group the Hollies, and later as a member of Crosby, Stills and Nash (and sometimes Young). He also had a consistent and intertwining solo career. But...