the best of the baddest

Houston theater's baddest: Bad bosses, bad romances, MJ's 'Bad,' and more of 2023's best stage stars

While live theater has taken a post-pandemic hit all over the country, Houston theater survived and thrived in 2023. This year was a particularly fun one for audiences thanks to one theatrical theme, characters behaving badly.

Fundamentally comedy, drama, and every theatrical genre in between rely on onstage bad behavior to create a good story. But in 2023, we saw an unusual amount of deliciously bad acts.

So as 2024 draws near, we thought we’d look back and celebrate the best of the bad that made for some truly good theater experiences.

Best Bad Mom: Medea (Callina Anderson) in Classical Theatre’s Medea

What if theater’s most infamous, murderous mother had a legion of social media followers? Classical Theatre’s stellar and streamlined production posed this question and Anderson responded with, a Medea that seemed to take directorial notes from Hamlet.

With apologies to to both Shakespeare and Stoppard, in this production Medea was mad north-northwest. Between live-streaming episodes, she knows a hawk from a handbag. The tragedy, of course, resides in her need for revenge outweighing her love for her children, but under John Johnson’s direction, Anderson portrays a maternally calculating queen, who delivers the killing cut with love.

Best Bad Dad: Salter (Shawn Hamilton) in A Number at Rec Room

Using a sci-fi story about cloning, this Caryl Churchill play wrestled with that most ancient of questions: is it nature or nurture — or a lack thereof — that makes us who we are?

Hamilton plays the dad who, failing one son, decides to have an exact copy made to begin again. (Many kudos to Philip Kershaw for making the original son and clones completely unique.) In a series of scenes between Salter and three different “sons” with the exact same genetic code, the father’s flawed love copies and mutates to create distinctly different lives for his sons.

Best Bad (Puppet) Kids: Flora and Miles from Catastrophic Theatre’s The Turn of the Screw

Houston theater went all in on child characters played by puppets, for great sympathy (Wolf Play at Rec Room, Medea) or even wisdom (The Oldest Boy at Main Street). But Catastrophic’s fantastic retelling of the Henry James classic Turn of the Screw brought us the wickedest puppet children of the year.

Adding layers to the original take, the world premiere play was framed as a psychic society investigating strange historical occurrence and used projections, immersive seating, and yes, puppets.

Designed by the production co-director Afsaneh Aayani, those small, simple faces and syrupy sweet voices provided by puppeteers John Dunn and Brittny Bush just upped the creepy kid factor and created one of the spookiest endings of the year.

Best Bad Animals: the birds of Dirt Dog Theatre’s production of The Birds

True, we only heard their cacophony caws and the beating of their wings from off stage. And the whole message of the play seemed to be that when the bird apocalypse comes, it’s the humans who are the real murderous animals.

Still, those were some scary bad birds.

Best Bad Boss: Clyde (Michelle Elaine) in Clyde’s at Ensemble Theatre

Elaine has a devilish good time playing the wrathful truck stop diner owner and supervisor of a kitchen workers in their first employment after time served in prison.

The budding chefs find purpose and redemption trying to create the perfect sandwich. As they strive for sandwich high art, Clyde daily crushes their spirit tempting them ever back to mediocrity. We root for the hopes and dreams of this motley kitchen crew, but we also just have to admire that bad, bad boss queen, Clyde.

Best Murderous Twist: Stages’ Switzerland

Honorable mention goes to the narrative sleight of hand of the Alley’s excellent production of Agatha Christie’s Murder of Roger Ackroyd. But, we have to yodel “bravo!” to Switzerland, which layered about three dark twists with one genre-defying twist before the end.

Some extra, thrilling goodness: The show starred Stages favorite Sally Edmundson as Patricia Highsmith, the real-life, Texan author of the Talented Mr. Ripley books. And the production was the last show Kenn McLaughlin would direct as Stages artistic director.

Best Existential, Dread-Inducing Set: Rec Room’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning

On the surface, this show about a reunion of old friends reminiscing about their time attending a conservative Catholic college looked to be a fascinating exploration of political ideas not often discussed onstage.

Yet amid the clashing rhetoric, Heroes walked the edge of almost every cinematic horror motif, from a lone cabin in the woods to characters who seems of the verge of needing a cleansing exorcism. Strong performances abound, but it was Rec’s resident set designer Stefan Azizi’s dark, deep woods set that we couldn’t take our eyes from.

Azizi has learned to make every inch of stage count at Rec Room, one of the smallest theater spaces in Houston. Yet, this set seemed to require dark magic indeed to create what looked like an infinite void in the world, where neither light nor hope could escape.

We’re still shivering.

Best Bad Romance: Sweeney Todd (Danny Rothman) and Mrs. Lovett (Sally Wilfert) in Theatre Under the Stars’ Sweeney Todd

TUTS played bloody tribute to the late, great Stephen Sondheim with a killer production of the macabre classic — and brought us a fine romance made-in-hell for the ages.

She’d kill for him, and while he’s codependent, in the end, he just really wasn’t into her — as much as seeking revenge on the whole of London for the loss of his wife and daughter.

We’re also bestowing Best Bad Small Business Owner award to Mrs. Lovett. Sure for a time she becomes the queen of meat pies, but it’s never a smart business decision to rely on a serial killer as your sole meat vender.

Best Past Imperfect: What the Constitution Means to Me at Main Street Theatre

Houston theater mined the past for superb drama, but also to make connections to our very imperfect present.

We have to give bravos to two standout touring shows in particular: Broadway at the Hobby Center brought us a still-timely To Kill a Mockingbird, with television and film star Richard Thomas as Atticus Finch. While early in the year, the Alley Theater presented Cambodian Rock Band, which rocked the line between music and drama for a sometimes harrowing sometimes joyful night of theater.

But our favorite homegrown journey into the past took the form of a theatrical lecture about how the U.S. Constitution affects our daily lives at Main Street Theatre. Playwright Heidi Schreck turned her personal, moving — and sometimes truly funny — stories about how the Constitution has touched generations of women in her family into a Tony-nominated play, What the Constitution Means to Me.

Directed by Sophia Watt, this local production starred MST regular Shannon Emerick as Heidi, a role she seemed born to play. Having seen the production on Broadway, we can say the intimacy of the MST stage and Emerick’s performance took us on a sometimes divesting, sometimes hopeful journey into the past — and through the Constitutional amendments — to see what the Constitution means to, and for, us all.

Best “Bad”: MJ The Musical

Honorable mention goes to 4th Wall Theatre’s hilarious production of Sense and Sensibility for the particularly apt use of the song “Bad Reputation” during one couple’s scandalous, unchaperoned, buggy ride of a doomed romance.

Photo by Matthew Murphy

We found the best "Bad" during MJ the Musical.

But the best “Bad” of the year, of course, must go to MJ, which manages to stuff most of Michael Jackson’s hits into one show. While the story doesn’t look all that deep into the man in the mirror, the musical numbers, including “Bad,” did help to portray an artist fighting past demons while giving Houston audiences some of the baddest, thriller live theater.

Best October Art

9 must-see October art openings at Houston museums and galleries

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents "American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection”

Houston falls into new art realms this month as intriguing new exhibitions open that take art lovers from Earth’s elements, specifically silver, all the way to the Moon.

The Blaffer showcases provocative contemporary artists, and the CAMH gets back to the land. For those looking to start their own art collection, October is also the month for art festivals. Then, in keeping with the collecting theme, the MFAH brings Houston the world class Modernism collection from a true Texas original, Charles Butt.

“Maria Gaspar: We Press Our Hands to the Steel Curtain” at Blaffer Art Museum (now through November 21)
In her artwork, interdisciplinary artist Maria Gaspar considers the concept of walls not just as physical structures but as barriers that can influence individual psyches and even societies. Growing up in Chicago in the neighborhood near the Cook County Correctional Facility, Gaspar became interested in jails and prisons and how they impact communities within those wall and outside of them.

The exhibition brings together sculpture, sound installations, video, archival materials, and participatory projects that draw from Gaspar’s years of collaborative research inside and beyond the jails. A highlight of the exhibition is Clamour, a 60 hour video documenting the demolition of one of Cook County Correctional Facility’s housing blocks.

"Singular Visions” at The Silos at Sawyer Yards (now through November 21)
Sculpture Month Houston celebrates its 10th anniversary with this special exhibition in one of Houston’s most unique art spaces, the Site Gallery housed within the decommissioned former rice silos complex at Sawyer Yards. Participating artists have each taken over one of the cylindrical silo spaces, which allows visitors to enter and engage directly with the art in a truly immersive experience.

Look for work that intrigues as it challenges ordinary ideas of reality from some of Houston’s most dynamic artists, including: Tom Bandage, Michael Bhichitkul, Christie Blizard, Steve Brudniak, Alton DuLaney, Jonathan Durham, Alicia Eggert, Tim Glover, Stephan Hillerbrand + Mary Magsamen, Beili Liu, Steve Murphy, Steve Parker, Gladys Poorte, Chris Powell, Margo Sawyer, Amy Scofield, Zulma Vega, and Ed Wilson.

“Adriana Corral: As Long as Life Endures” at Blaffer Art Museum (now through December 5)
Texan interdisciplinary artist Adriana Corral uses a research-based practice to explore themes of memory, loss, human rights abuses, natural disasters, and hidden histories. Corral’s art installations, sculptures, drawings, and films attempt to unearth and preserve those histories.

The exhibition will feature the new film by Corral, Terrebonne, created as part of her research in coastal Louisiana, where she worked with members of the Pointe au Chien Indian Tribe. The film examines how land loss, rising waters, and ecological collapse disproportionately threaten Indigenous communities. Also on view is a large scale transparent bullet resistant polycarbonate sculpture that references above-ground mausoleums often found in places like New Orleans. The juxtaposition of the material with the form asks viewers to ponder questions of who can afford to buy environmental safety and who cannot.

“A Material Inheritance” at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (now through January 30, 2027)
In celebration of its 25th “silver” anniversary, HCCC presents this once-in-a-generation exhibition that examines silver as material and metaphor. Giving both a bit of a science and art history lesson, the exhibition will explore how, as the Earth’s most reflective element, Silver has changed human cultures. Silver’s unique properties, along with human ingenuity, led to advances in mirror-making, photography, and scientific instrumentation, while its weight, density, and malleability established it as a prime medium for currency, ceremonial objects, jewelry, and treasured heirlooms.

The exhibition will showcase artists who work with silver in a multitude of ways, including: Shane R. Hendren, Edward Lane McCartney, Jaydan Moore, Leah Ying Lin, and Anjali Srinivasan. The selected pieces will span a range of ways to work with silver as a medium, from traditional metalsmithing and jewelry making to experimental glass, ceramic, and kinetic media practices that reveal silver’s remarkable conceptual and material range.

“Divination: Beverly Buchanan & Dionne Lee” at the Contemporary Art Museum Houston (now through February 14, 2027)
This is the second in a series of new exhibitions from the CAMH to bring together the work of artists across decades as a way to open up new interpretations. “Divination” finds thematic and art-making commonalities between photographers Beverly Buchanan (1940–2015) and Dionne Lee (b. 1988, New York City). CAMH senior curator Rebecca Matalon notes that though the artists come from different generations, they both explore relationships between Blackness and the land, share an interest in survivalist practices, and have unique relationships with their environment and landscapes.

The exhibition will showcase Buchanan’s photography of her large-scale environmental works that she began in the 1970s, placing stone-like fragments in remote locations across the Southeast. "Divination" organizes Buchanan’s work in conversation with Lee’s 21st century photography and films that examine what it means to honor the land on which we live. The CAMH notes that the exhibition’s title comes from the idea that both artists created work to uncover hidden histories, but they were are also committed to letting these histories remain out of focus and elusive.

“Wall Drawing Series: Jitish Kallat” at Menil Drawing Institute (now through August 8, 2027)
Since 2018, the MDI has commissioned a contemporary artist to create a new work on an interior wall within the building. Art, Cold War history, and even state secrets merge in “Wall Drawing / Redux: A119,” the latest Wall Drawing Series installation by acclaimed multidisciplinary Indian artist Jitish Kallat.

The time-based wall drawing grows out of Kallat’s interest and research into Project A119, a U.S. Air Force plan in the late 1950s to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon. Of course, the plan was never carried out, but the report on the project was only partially declassified at the turn of this century. For “Redux: A119,” Kallat has layered pages from the A119 report, titled “A Study of Lunar Research Flights - Volume I” with his own drawings and watercolors. The piece was then sheathed in laminated glass, and Kallat and the Menil team collaborated with researchers at Rice University on an electrical system so that the glass changes degrees of transparency every 500 seconds, which is approximately the time it takes sunlight to travel from the Sun to the Moon creating what we see as moonlight.

“Bayou City Art Festival” at Memorial Park (October 9-11)
The annual festival always gives art lovers and collectors a chance to meet artists, view original pieces, and purchase artwork from more than 270 creators across 19 disciplines, including world-class paintings, prints, jewelry, sculptures, and more, at prices for everyone. The fest will feature more than just visual artists, as a wide range of musical artists and bands take the festival stage, and look for roaming entertainment throughout the festival area. The three days also boast a wide range of interactive and educational activities for kids and adults.

Affordable Art Fair at George R. Brown Convention Center (October 15-18)
Presented in Houston for the first time, this fair's name sums up the mission, for the Affordable Fair is set to bring thousands of artworks from around the world. The prices, ranging from $100 to $12,000, will likely entice both the experienced and novice collector.

The fair will feature work from 55 galleries, including 17 Houston favorites, as well as 22 U.S from the U.S and 16 prestigious international galleries. Affordable Art Fair organizers have programmed many special events over the weekend, such as a spotlight on Hispanic and Latin American artists from Houston, Mexico, and Argentina, in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month; special installations by artists Kayla Powers, Dan Trelenberg, and Brendan Flores; and a print workshops with PrintHouston. Look also for family hours with KIDO Preschool, Art After Hours evenings, and a Fair Director's Tour.

"American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection” at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (October 25-January 18)
As Americans continue to celebrate the nation’s 250th year, the MFAH offers up one Texan’s extraordinary collection of some of America’s greatest artists of the 20th century. While Charles Butt is well admired across the state for his philanthropy, especially when it comes to education, the H-E-B chairman also has a passion for collecting and wants to share that art with other Texans.

The exhibition will give MFAH visitors new insights into the extent of American artistic diversity in the 20th as it showcases over 80 works of art by such greats as Stuart Davis, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacob Lawrence, Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson Pollock, Joan Mitchell, and Andrew Wyeth, as well as Texas artists like Everett Gee Jackson and Mary Bonner. "American Modernism" will likely also give attendees a glimpse into Butt’s own vision and focus, as it is organized into five intriguing thematic sections reflecting Butt’s life-long passions including: Intimate Perspectives, The Language of the Sea, Land Progressions, Geometric Utopias/Dystopias, and New Directions.

“More than a textbook survey of American modernism, the Charles Butt Collection shows many of the artists at turning points in their careers, with signature works and intimate sketches that encompass a remarkable range of expression and achievement,” MFAH curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Alison de Lima Greene said in a statement.

$The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents "American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection\u201d$

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents "American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection.”

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