Best bets of the week of May 9 to 15, 2024

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

If you like classic crime novels, you may want to check out Theater Ensemble’s latest production, Roger Furman’s Midnight, Friday the 13th, which you can see on Friday May 10 at 7:30 p.m. The late New Jersey-born, Harlem-based playwright started New Heritage Repertory Theater in 1964, 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 the actors and the public will be forced to discover the thriller of this interactive play. Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays and at 3 p.m. on Sundays until June 2. Tickets for any of the performances can be purchased here for $31 to $59.

In 2020, Grammy-winning singer Kurt Elling released Secrets are the best stories, an album featuring pianist Danilo Pérez who delved “deep into the American psyche with a collection of blank verse narratives that twist, turn, and rarely end well.” Composed of a “reflective thrill of contemplative concertos”, the songs reflect poetic inspirations (from 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 with Danilo Pérez to the Wortham Theater Center to perform music from the album and more. Tickets for the concert can be purchased here for $46 to $86.

Before continuing their season, Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling later this month, Houston Ballet will take over the Miller Outdoor Theater 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, it will once again present a mixed repertory program. which showcases their talent for dance lovers as well as beginners. The show is free and you can book your tickets here from 10am today, Thursday May 9, or you can sit on the Hill with no tickets required. The program will be repeated a second time on Saturday May 11 at 8 p.m. If you would like to reserve a place for Saturday, it will be available here from Friday May 10 at 10 a.m.

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Othello: The Remix arrives on Stages for a new version of a Shakespearean classic.

Photo by Melissa Taylor

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

The classic story of a meek but nerdy florist and his recently acquired man-eating plant comes to the Water Works at Buffalo Bayou Park on Saturday, May 11 at 7:30 p.m. when the Friends of River Oaks Theater and Buffalo Bayou Partnership present the film of 1986. horror musical Little Shop of Horrors. Although the film, starring Rick Moranis and based on Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s 1982 off-Broadway musical of the same name, begins at 8:30 p.m., you’ll definitely want to arrive at 7:30 p.m. to hear Nancy Greig, the former director of Cockrell Butterfly Center, talk about real-life botanical monsters and enjoy a special musical performance from Theater Under The Stars at 7:45 p.m. Tickets are free and you can register 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 started the project “as part of his doctoral dissertation in ethnomusicology and American studies at Brown University” and “ended up writing over 100 songs.” On Saturday May 11, at 7:30 p.m., Saporiti will perform works from her third (and perhaps final) album, Electric Empire, when he and his collaborator (and wife) Emilia Halvorsen Saporiti visit Asia Society Texas for No-No Boy in Concert. The show will be followed by a reception and tickets for the show can be purchased here for $10 to $25.

Although the late Thornton Wilder never finished The shopthe play – completed by playwright Kirk Lynn – will have its world premiere at the Alley Theater when it premieres on Wednesday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. David Rainey, who takes on multiple roles in the play, told the Houston Press that “the wonderful thing about Thornton Wilder is that Thornton Wilder isn’t just about the story itself. He is always preoccupied with much bigger issues. In most of his pieces he sort of pits humanity against the backdrop of the universe and really shows us how small we are. Performances will continue until June 2 at 7:30 p.m. from Tuesday to Thursday, at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, at 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays and at 7 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are available here for $51 to $74.