We get a bit of a theatrical breather this month before some of the biggest mysteries, comedies, and musicals of the year arrive in July. But June still brings plenty of new shows for theater and dance lovers as we leap into summer.
It seems like the entire Houston performing arts community will participate in the Fade to Black Art Festival. Meanwhile, Ensemble gets tapping, the Houston Ballet soars, and musical cabaret fills some of our most intimate venues. And as is Houston tradition, we officially ring in summer with the debut of the latest wild and outrageous show from Catastrophic Theatre’s Tamarie Cooper.
Summer Cabaret from Paul Hope Cabarets and Music Box Theater
Let’s face it, summer is the perfect time in Houston to head inside for evenings of cool cabaret. Paul Hope Cabarets gets cosmic with Ultra Lounge: Space Capades (now through June 16). The show will feature favorite celestial pop hits of the '50s and ‘60s, all with a space theme, including "Fly Me to the Moon," "Up Up and Away," and "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," as well as a little Burt Bacharach and Michelle Legrand. Over at Music Box Theater’s home inside Queensbury Theatre, they’ll celebrate Number One Hits (now through June 28) with an original show featuring Billboard chart toppers from the late 1950s to today. Look for every style of music, including the The Mamas & The Papas, the Eagles, Elton John, and Lady Gaga.
Fade to Black Arts Festival presented at venues across the Theater District and Midtown (June 8-14)
The annual festival showcases the diverse works of African-American performances in film, music, poetry, and theatre with a special mission to uplift local Black artists. The festival offers classes, talks, and workshops for artists, performers, and even theatrical designers. Screen star Phylicia Rashad will offer an acting masterclass.
But the week will also present a treasure of shows and productions for audiences. Along with dance, poetry, film, and music performances, theater lovers will find short play productions, as well as readings of new scripts from up-and-coming playwrights, as well as contemporary classics works from award-winning playwrights. Some of these readings at the Alley, Ensemble, MATCH and Stages will be free.
Sparrow: A Triple Bill from Houston Ballet (June 12-22)
Houston Ballet takes flight for their final production of the season with three shorter works from masterful choreographers, including one from HB artistic director Stanton Welch. The evening features a classic from ballet great George Balanchine. Theme and Variations is ballet at its most intricate and refined, set to the final movement of Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 3 in G major. Also on the program is Four Last Songs, a work not seen on the Wortham stage since 2007. Houston Ballet artistic director emeritus Ben Stevenson created this audience favorite as a deeply emotional reflection on the journey of life and the inevitability of letting go.
The title work of the performance, Sparrow, comes from Welch, and it celebrates 60s culture using the iconic music of Simon & Garfunkel. Sparrow is a rare bird, indeed, a male-centered ballet spotlighting 19 men and five women. Look for humor and nostalgic charm along with Welch’s usual bold and athletic contemporary choreography.
A Voice Within from Houston Grand Opera (June 17)
In collaboration with the Emancipation Park Conservancy and the African American History Research Center at the Gregory School, HGO debuts another world premiere operatic piece with this new song cycle by HGO Composer-in-Residence Joel Thompson and librettist and Houston poet laureate emeritus Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton. Comprised of 12 songs, A Voice Within tells the often unsung stories of Black Houstonians, providing a platform for voices that sometimes have been marginalized in the classical music world. The poems are based on interviews with longtime city residents, as well as oral histories from the collections of the Emancipation Park Conservancy and Gregory School. Appropriately, the song cycle will debut at the Emancipation Park Conservancy in the Third Ward.
An Evening With Broadway’s DeQuina Moore at the Hobby Center (June 20-21)
Keeping with the many cabaret shows this month, the Hobby Center’s intimate Founders Club welcomes native Houstonian and Broadway star DeQuina Moore for an evening of some of her favorite songs as well as stories from her musical and stage career. While Moore has made film and Broadway waves and starred in national tours, she’s also become a local favorite at Stages, playing local ballerina legend Lauren Anderson in the world premiere play Plumsuga and the great Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. Now hear her own stories and glorious voice at the Hobby Center.
New Work Festival presented by Thunderclap Productions (June 21)
Thunderclap has produced several innovative plays and world premieres in recent years, but usually only one or two productions a season. Before offering another world premiere musical in August, they’re giving Houston theater lovers a chance to glimpse a multitude of new and evolving work from local playwrights, lyricists, and composers in this festival, including: Aaron Alon, Alric Davis, Lizzie Guest, Eric C. Jones, and Neil Ellis Orts.
The Tap Dance Kid at Ensemble Theatre (June 27-July 27)
This feel-good musical was a Broadway and touring hit in the early 1980s and should make for rousing, fun production for Ensemble to end their season on. Father, William, and son, Willie, clash over ambitions, as the strict William wants his son to follow in his footsteps to become a lawyer. But the dance-loving Willie wants to walk, or in this case tap, down his own road after spending time with his maternal uncle, Dipsey Bates. Willie’s uncle and mother were dancing vaudeville stars as kids, and now the he feels the call to dance. Will music and dance tear the family apart or bring it together?
Another Ding-Dang Tamarie Show! from Catastrophic Theatre (June 27-August 2)
The theater queen of Houston summers returns with another brand new show that’s once again timely, personal, comic, musical, and most of all sly fun. And to break even more fourth walls, we hear this Ding-Dang will be a tell-all, meta revue about the making of her annual summer shows. Tamarie dishes and spills all the backstage tea, sharing all her secrets about how the tap-dancing sausage (sometimes literally) gets made. Journey through her creative process as she wrestles with writer’s block, a sexy candy man, A.I. robots, flatulent bumblebees, and other distractions. Plus we await our most favorite summertime reveal, seeing which Catastrophic regular performer gets the weirdest and wackiest costume this year.
Photo courtesy of The Catastrophic Theatre
