Houston NY Eve

Insider's Guide to big New Year's Eve celebration in downtown Houston: Fireworks and free performances

After a two-year hiatus, a big New Year's Eve celebration, complete with a midnight fireworks display and lots of entertainment, is headed back to downtown Houston — in a new location, with the B-52s and Houston-based Tontons as featured attractions.

Other events — all free — will take place inside the Alley and Wortham Center theaters throughout the evening, beginning at 7 pm. They range from a production of SantaLand Diaries to a Broadway Sing-A-Long, and performances by magician Curt Miller, percussionist and bandleader Pedrito Martinez and smooth jazz Bobby Lyle Trio. (See full schedule below.)

Also on tap is an early New Year’s kid-friendly celebration in the Family Zone on Jones Plaza filled with dancing, games, activities and costumed characters.

Grown-ups can toast the end of the year in the Bubbly Garden with room for dancing and a lounge area. The B-52s, affectionately known as the "world's greatest party band" with such dance hits as "Love Shack" and "Deadbeat Club," perform at 10:35 pm on a special outdoor stage constructed on Smith and Capitol streets in the Theatre District, leading to the midnight fireworks celebration from atop Jones Hall. The Tontons will perform from 9:15-10:15 pm.

Food and beverage booths will sell traditional "good luck" food and hot cocoa, coffee and cider, as well as beer, wine and champagne. Parking is available in garages underneath the Theater District buildings.

New tradition

The event revives a burgeoning New Year's Eve tradition that developed when Gloworama was launched at Discovery Green to welcome in 2010 with neon-decorated art cars and a spectacular light show. The event morphed into an event called New Year's Eve Live and organizers hoped to make it an annual family-style blowout as the Bayou City version of New York's big annual celebration in Times Square.

But in late 2013, the annual event was canceled due to a lack of sponsors. Insiders say that Mayor Annise Parker lobbied for the return of the signature downtown happening as one of her last achievements before leaving office. (Mayor-elect Sylvester Turner will be inaugurated on January 4 in Jones Hall). Houston First stepped in to sponsor the celebration.

Other sponsors include the city of Houston, the Houston Downtown Management District, the Houston Theater District and the Houston Chronicle. The event is produced by the Mayor’s Office of Special Events.

“Houston has lots to celebrate and what an extraordinary way to begin a new chapter for this tradition," Parker said in a statement.

Online contest

In conjuction with the big event, sponsors are conducting an online contest, with a chance to win a Theater District experience, which includes overnight accommodations at The Lancaster Hotel, a $100 gift card to the Hard Rock Cafe and four tickets to the Theater Under The Stars production of Mary Poppins.

Entries, which can be made online at www.houstontxgov.nye/contest.html, must be received by Wednesday (December 30) at 5 pm. The drawing will be held on Thursday (December 31) after the 7:45 pm performance of the Curt Miller Magic Show at Wortham Center. The winner must be present at the drawing.

Live options

Because there is so much construction work around Discovery Green, with a giant new Marriott Marquis hotel aiming to open before the 2017 Super Bowl, as well as renovations to the George R. Brown Convention Center, organizers decided to move the celebration to the Theater District and take advantage of the facilities to present live performances in some of the buildings throughout the evening. They include:

7 - 7:45 pm
Cullen Theater, Wortham Center
Curt Miller Magic Show

7 – 9 pm
Hard Rock Café
Kristal Cherelle & Will Makar
Strolling Entertainment
New Orleans Hustlers Brass Band & Glow Go Dancers

7 - 9 pm
Kids Plaza, Jones Plaza
DJ Johnny J, Arcade, Face Painters, Fortune Teller, Red Door Productions Dancers, LunchBox Dance Crew, Balloon Artist
*Special Kids Countdown – 9 p.m.

7:30 - 8:30 pm
Alley, Neuhaus Theatre
SantaLand Diaries (Mature Audiences Only)

Brown Theater, Wortham Center
Broadway Sing-A-Long I

8 - 9:30 pm
Alley, Hubbard Theatre
Pedrito Martinez

9 – 10:15 pm
Cullen Theater, Wortham Center
Bobby Lyle Trio

9:15 - 10:15 pm
Main Stage, corner of Smith and Texas
The Tontons

9:30 – 10:30 p.m.
Brown Theater, Wortham Center
Broadway Sing-A-Long II

10:35 - 11:58 pm
Main Stage, corner of Smith and Texas
The B-52s

Todd Waite stars in The SantaLand Diaries at the Alley Theater at 7:30 pm on New Year's Eve.

Photo courtesy of Alley Theatre

Todd Waite stars in The SantaLand Diaries at the Alley Theater at 7:30 pm on New Year's Eve.

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Movie Review

Star TV producer James L. Brooks stumbles with meandering movie Ella McCay

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Emma Mackey in Ella McCay.

The impact that writer/director/producer James L. Brooks has made on Hollywood cannot be understated. The 85-year-old created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, personally won three Oscars for Terms of Endearment, and was one of the driving forces behind The Simpsons, among many other credits. Now, 15 years after his last movie, he’s back in the directing chair with Ella McCay.

The similarly-named Emma Mackey plays Ella, a 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state in 2008 who’s on the verge of becoming governor when Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) gets picked to be a member of the president’s Cabinet. What should be a happy time is sullied by her needy husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), her agoraphobic brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), and her perpetually-cheating father, Eddie (Woody Harrelson).

Despite the trio of men competing to bring her down, Ella remains an unapologetic optimist, an attitude bolstered by her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), her assistant Estelle (Julie Kavner), and her police escort, Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani). The film follows her over a few days as she navigates the perils of governing, the distractions her family brings, and the expectations being thrust upon her by many different people.

Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, is all over the place with his storytelling. What at first seems to be a straightforward story about Ella and her various issues soon starts meandering into areas that, while related to Ella, don’t make the film better. Prime among them are her brother and father, who are given a relatively small amount of screentime in comparison to the importance they have in her life. This is compounded by a confounding subplot in which Casey tries to win back his girlfriend, Susan (Ayo Edebiri).

Then there’s the whole political side of the story, which never finds its focus and is stuck in the past. Though it’s never stated explicitly, Ella and Governor Bill appear to be Democrats, especially given a signature program Ella pushes to help mothers in need. But if Brooks was trying to provide an antidote to the current real world politics, he doesn’t succeed, as Ella’s full goals are never clear. He also inexplicably shows her boring her fellow lawmakers to tears, a strange trait to give the person for whom the audience is supposed to be rooting.

What saves the movie from being an all-out train wreck is the performances of Mackey and Curtis. Mackey, best known for the Netflix show Sex Education, has an assured confidence to her that keeps the character interesting and likable even when the story goes downhill. Curtis, who has tended to go over-the-top with her roles in recent years, tones it down, offering a warm place of comfort for Ella to turn to when she needs it. The two complement each other very well and are the best parts of the movie by far.

Brooks puts much more effort into his female actors, including Kavner, who, even though she serves as an unnecessary narrator, gets most of the best laugh lines in the film. Harrelson is capable of playing a great cad, but his character here isn’t fleshed out enough. Fearn is super annoying in his role, and Lowden isn’t much better, although that could be mostly due to what his character is called to do. Were it not for the always-great Brooks and Nanjiani, the movie might be devoid of good male performances.

Brooks has made many great TV shows and movies in his 60+ year career, but Ella McCay is a far cry from his best. The only positive that comes out of it is the boosting of Mackey, who proves herself capable of not only leading a film, but also elevating one that would otherwise be a slog to get through.

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Ella McCay opens in theaters on December 12.

movies film