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Holiday-themed productions star in Houston's 11 best shows for November

Our long fall nights have arrived just in time for all the evenings we’re going to need to see some of the most eclectic theater of the year. Holiday favorites like A Christmas Carol and The Nutcracker take to stages across town, but we’ve also got lots of comedies from holiday heartwarming to the darkly funny social commentary. Meanwhile Broadway at Hobby yields a corny harvest, and we’ve got two immersive shows for those who want to get caught up in the action.

The Endings from Strange Bird Immersive (ongoing through 2024)
Though known as the company who ties immersive theater with escape room experiences, there’s no escaping (the dark fun) with this new show that makes life and death choices into an absurdist adventure. Consider yourself a player, actor, or audience member. Either way you become a job applicant at an organization that seems to have a very bad history of OSHA violations. Wearing a headset and guided by a narrator, each applicant will explore a ruined office space and the hallways of their own mind. Players make choices that take them down different branching narratives. The Endings boasts eleven different narratives and thirty-six possible endings, but no matter where the story takes each player, it always ends in their very own ludicrous death.

Safe at Home at Schroeder Park, University of Houston’s baseball stadium (November 7-10)
Baseball meets immersive theater in this unique production from UH’s School of Theatre & Dance. In this new play by Gabriel Greene and Alex Levy, a visiting guest artist at UH, the actors and sets act as a kind of set bases as the audience moves from one scene to the next within Schroeder Park to see a whodunit thriller unfold. Each scene ends with a cliffhanger urging the audience to literally move onward into the story.

Set against the backdrop of Game 7 of the World Series, the play provides a voyeuristic look into complex issues of U.S. immigration policies, racial politics, and the intersection of personal ethics with media influences — all the while challenging societal perceptions.

Playhouse Creatures from Lionwoman Productions (November 7-23)
Is there a new queen of Houston’s theater jungle? We’ll find out as this prideful new company Lionwoman sets its debut production at the MATCH this month. It’s a thematically resonating choice of plays for a company on a mission to lift diverse voices, as this play by award-winning playwright April De Angelis tells the story of some of the first women actresses on the British stage.

Set during the 1660s in Restoration London, when women were first allowed into acting professions, Playhouse Creatures focuses on the lives of five, real-world actresses of the time. These fierce and fascinating “creatures” relish their opportunity to work on stage and navigate the society and time into which they’ve been “plopped.” Though a popular play in the U.K, this will be the first Texas production.

Love Bomb from Catastrophic Theatre (November 15-December 7)
It wouldn’t be the Houston theater holiday season if Catastrophic wasn’t decking the halls with some likely absurdist, wild, and avant garde counter programming. This year it’s a world premiere devised musical.

Conceived and directed by frequent Catastrophic guest artist Brian Jucha, this collaboration with the Catastrophic ensemble actors centers around taxi dancers, women in early 20th century dance halls who earned a living by ballroom dancing one song and one man at a time. Featuring songs from 1970’s singer-songwriter and cultural icon Melanie (a.k.a the First Lady of Woodstock), the experimental production will invite audiences into a dance hall where people will do anything to find love. Catastrophic says the rest is going to have to remain a surprise, and we can bet it will be.

The Twelve Ways of Christmas at Ensemble Theatre (November 15-December 22)
With a musical and moving focus on the word “ways,” this new production at Ensemble looks at the many ways people celebrate Christmas — with family, with friends, the holiday's religious significance for some, the wonder of being a child receiving gifts, and the longing of a soldier away at war. The show even tackles the experience of knowing grief during the holiday season. With book and and a jazzy score by artist Chika Kaba Ma’Atunde, the show should bring lots of music, laughs, and genuine feelings to our theatrical holidays.

A Christmas Carol at Alley Theatre (November 15-December 29)
The Alley world premiered this charming new production of the classic tale adapted by Alley artistic director Rob Melrose a few years ago, and it’s already a Houston holiday theater tradition. Melrose went back to Charles Dickens' original novella for inspiration. David Rainey is back as Scrooge with the rest of the resident acting company and Alley regulars playing all the ghosts and Dickensian characters. The Alley creative team and designers weave their own holiday magic alongside the actors in this production to create a music-filled Victorian wonderland with floating houses, intricate and sometimes spooky costumes, beautiful puppetry, wondrous stage illusions, and light snow for every performance.

Shucked presented by Broadway at the Hobby Center (November 19-24)
While many a traditional holiday show debuts this month, Broadway at Hobby isn’t quite done with its fall musical harvest, as it brings the Broadway smash musical Shucked to town. If legendary oldies Brigadoon and The Music Man ever had a Gen Z baby, that baby would be Shucked.

In this award-winning show, travel to a lost, magical farming town that needs the help of a Florida (con)man to save its dying corn harvest. With an original book by Robert Horn and an original score by the Grammy Award–winning songwriting team of Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally that's filled with numbers like the “Corn” song, the “Corn (reprise)” song, and the finale showstopper “Corn Mix,” this is one musical that loves four things: love stories, down home dance numbers, corn, and every corny pun it can sow and reap.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike from 4th Wall Theatre (November 22-December 15)
While not a holiday homecoming, siblings reuniting to hilarious results is definitely a core narrative in Christopher Durang’s Tony-winning comedy that gets an up close and personal production from 4th Wall. The story follows two middle-aged siblings, begrudgingly named after Chekhov characters, who are living a static existence in Pennsylvania until their movie-star sister Masha arrives, accompanied by her attractive and younger lover, Spike. Add in a possibly clairvoyant housekeeper, a wannabe actress neighbor, and a costume party to bring out everyone’s best-worst behaviors as the characters lives get thrown into comic disarray.

This all-in-the family production is directed by 4th Wall artistic director, Jennifer Dean and stars 4th Wall founders Philip Lehl and Kim Tobin-Lehl, along with some Houston favs. It should be a good pick for theater fans looking for a non-holiday comic treat. Small spoiler alert: Vanya and Sonia contains what is arguably one of the greatest comic monologue rants in the last 15 years of American theater, and we can’t wait to watch Lehl tackle it.

Winter Solstice at Rec Room (November 23-December 14)
Leave it to one of Houston’s smallest and most innovative theater companies to bring us a very different kind of awkward holiday family get-together with this play from award-winning German playwright, Roland Schimmelpfennig. On Christmas Eve, married couple Bettina and Albert get an unexpected surprise when Bettina’s mother brings a guest to dinner, a seemingly charming stranger she meets on the train. But charm can be deceiving. Rec Room says this sharp edged and sometimes experimental comedy plays with liberalism's inability to immunize itself against fascism’s rhetorical power in this wildly theatrical and inventive production.

A Texas Carol: Part Deux at A.D. Players (November 29-December 22)
A few years ago A.D. Players artistic producer Kevin Dean and executive artistic director Jayme McGhan created a new seasonal comedy for Houston with a decidedly east Texas twang. The holiday trials and tribulations of the dysfunctional but loving Dinkel family as they faced the death of their beloved matriarch made for a moving yet funny hit for the company.

This month, A.D. Players debuts the world premiere sequel with the members of the Dinkel family returning, along with most of the original actors. Two years after the events of the original Texas Carol, the extended family gathers once more at Mee-Maw's beloved ranch on Christmas Day for more holiday mayhem, including a wedding, bickering relatives, budding romances, weather emergencies, visiting French Canadians, Texas hockey, a giant feral hog on the loose, and probably most volatile of all, college cousins on opposite sides of the UT and A&M divide. The company calls the show their zany and heartfelt ode to families who, despite their dysfunction, somehow manage to keep moving forward in love.

The Nutcracker from Houston Ballet (November 29-December 29)
Houston Ballet wraps up the year with Stanton Welch’s sugarplum dreamy Nutcracker Ballet. The full company of dancers will perform during the production’s run, joined by hundreds of young dancers — a mix of students from Houston Ballet Academy as well as locals from the annual open audition. Dancing to the beloved Tchaikovsky score, all our favorites — the Nutcracker Prince, Sugarplum Fairy, Rat King, and the international ambassadors — will take a turn at the magical winter court. In Welch’s imagining, Clara becomes the hero of this enchanting story where the all the animals dance as well as the weather, in the form of the loveliest snowflakes in Houston.

Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Broadway at the Hobby Center presents Shucked.

performing-arts houston ballet alley theatre broadway at the hobby center

Best February Art

10 art museum and gallery exhibits to see in Houston this month

María Fernanda Cardoso's Maratus: Spiders of Paradise

Image courtesy of Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino

María Fernanda Cardoso, "Spiders of Paradise: Maratus plumosus", 2024. Pigment print on paper, 35 7/16 x 35 7/16 x 1 9/16 inches.

Art and history merge in many museums and galleries across Houston this month, as contemporary artists and curators look to the past for inspiration and examination. From Black History Month to agricultural history in the Americas to queer history to the mid 20th century glamorization of dining, we’ve got a range of shows for all art and history tastes. If that’s not enough, we get up close to Australian spiders and celebrate Houston as a town of makers.

"The Black Experience: Past, Present and Future” at Bisong Art Gallery (now through February 28)
Celebrating Black History Month, Bisong Art Gallery presents this show curated by The Dream Affect Foundation. With a focus on Black artistic practice as both an archive and a catalyst, the exhibition features the work of six contemporary artists, including Lauren Luna, Romeo Robinson, Craig “TheArtist” Carter, Corey Haynes, Lanre Buraimoh, and John Whaley Jr. The gallery notes that these artists’ works reflect the enduring influence of history while asserting bold, forward-thinking visions of Black life, identity, and imagination. Though using a varied of medium and visual languages, what each artist has in common is an engagement with cultural memory, resilience, and creative sovereignty.

"Just Wood - Mostly” at Archway Gallery (now through March 5)
Featuring whimsical, creative, and utilitarian works “mostly” in wood, this new show showcases the quirky utilitarian and decorative sculptures by Robert L. Straight, as well as cabinet work by guest artists and furniture maker Tom Wells. From wooden race cars to body parts, Straight’s work offers many unique visions of what woodwork can be. Look for sculptures, new furniture, clocks, and sundry surprises from both artists.

“Nick Vaughan And Jake Margolin: Around The Corner And Two Blocks Down” at McClain Gallery (now through March 7)
The acclaimed Houston-based duo continues their multimedia 50 State Project to reveal lost queer histories and stories from across the U.S. This exhibition at McClain Gallery features some of the latest art from their wind drawing series, a selection of charcoal work within the larger project.

To explore ideas of history lost and rediscovered, the artists translate photographs of prior queer spaces into laser cut stencils and lay down charcoal powder onto the page. Then, they blow the charcoal away using pressurized air. The force of the wind drags the charcoal particulates across the tooth of the paper, etching the final image onto the page.

“Art, Place, and Power: Project Row Houses in Houston's Third Ward” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (now through November 8)
One great Houston arts institution celebrates the history of another great Houston art organization with this MFAH installation of works on paper by several of the founders of Project Row Houses, including James Bettison, Bert Long, Jr., Jesse Lott, Rick Lowe, and Floyd Newsum. In 1993, seven artists came together to transform a block of abandoned row houses in Houston’s Third Ward neighborhood, making them into a new kind of cultural space. As the Project Row Houses mission reminds us, the founders sought to preserve the culture and history in one of the city’s oldest Black neighborhoods through the practice of socially-engaged art.

For over three decades PRH has staged free exhibitions, offered artist residencies and youth programs, promoted the preservation of historic architecture, and become a cultural landmark in Houston. With this installation, the MFAH helps Houstonians gain further appreciation of the founders' art. These works celebrate the powerful impact of community-oriented artists and art.

“Boris Lurie: Nothing To Do But To Try” at Holocaust Museum Houston (February 13-July 19)
For this exhibition focused on Boris Lurie, the acclaimed artist, writer, and Holocaust survivor, organizers use his artwork to trace the story of his remarkable life. Viewed together within the show, Lurie’s paintings, drawings and sculptures – many of which he never exhibited during his lifetime – create a portrait of an artist reckoning with devastating trauma, haunting memories, and a lifelong quest for freedom. The HMH notes that these works, presented along with objects from the artist's personal archive, trace his experience from his childhood in Riga through the concentration camps and postwar period in Europe, to his immigration to the United States, followed by his return visit to Riga thirty years after the Holocaust and beyond. Photographs, official documents, and personal writings underpin the visual retelling and processing of Lurie's survival and its crucial function in forming his identity as an artist.

“Midcentury Menu: Dining in the Atomic Age” at Rienzi (February 18-July 31)
The MFAH plates up a visually delicious dish of Midcentury Modern at Rienzi, the museum’s house for European decorative arts located in River Oaks. This unusual and fascinating exhibition draws from Rienzi’s historical cookbook collection and loans from the Heritage Society, to explore how convenience, technology, advertising, gender, and labor converged to redefine the meaning of eating in postwar World War II America.

The exhibition will examine how American’s perspective on food and dining changed at the end of WWII with waves of scientific advancement, complex supply chains, and the rise of popular culture media that put preparing meals, dining, and ads for modern appliances into magazines and on television. Cooks like Julia Child encouraged women to experiment with French cuisine, and the fictitious Betty Crocker championed convenience with step-by-step guidance. Food and home entertaining took center stage in this new age of abundance, and a wide range of cookbooks promoted everything from curious Jell-O salads to international cuisine.

“In Search of History” at Throughline Collective (February 20-March 21)
This juried exhibition and part of FotoFest Houston’s “Participating Space” program, examines the evolution of lens-based art. Curated by Museum of Fine Arts photography curator, Lisa Volpe, this show focuses on 21st century photography and especially the new uses of technology and the diversity in stories that technology brings.

“The works of art submitted to Throughline Collective demonstrate the wide-ranging vision of lens-based art,” Volpe said. “The artwork included in this exhibition provides a fascinating cross-section of artistic production, representing the diverse landscape of contemporary photography and also the vigorous involvement of the artists in contemporary discourse.”

“Maratus: Spiders of Paradise” at Sicardi Ayers Bacino (February 27-April 11)
This show of multi-disciplinary artist María Fernanda Cardoso’s work will feature her ongoing photographic project to bring the minuscule Australian Maratus spider into larger focus. Featuring large-scale and small-scale digital photographic portraits of various Maratus species, each photographic image is comprised of over 1000 individual photos. Seen together as one spider image, the photos reveal the spider’s colors and form and especially its unique and brightly colored abdomen that are part of the species’ elaborate mating rituals. Much of Cardoso’s work explores connections and tensions between society and the natural world.

“Mud + Corn + Stone + Blue” at Lawndale Art Center (February 28-May 2)
Last month, the Blaffer Museum opened the first section of this exhibition, organized by Blaffer chief curator Laura Augusta, that uses artwork to trace the historical entanglements between the United States and Central America through the angle of U.S. agricultural policy. Now Lawndale expands the selection of works from artists with ties to farming communities in the U.S., Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador. To complement the Houston presentation of this exhibition, Lawndale has commissioned a mural from Dario Bucheli, activations with Zine Fest Houston, and textiles and candies made by Jorge Galván. Lorena Molina will also install an outdoor corn maze in Lawndale’s 4900 Main Street lot as an immersive piece that explores the experience of immigration and diaspora.

“Clutch City Craft” at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (February 28-August 8)
Clutch City, Space City, Bayou City, now among our other favorite monikers for Houston, HCCC would like to add one more: Maker City. Calling H-Town “one of the nation’s most formidable centers of making” HCCC celebrations that maker spirit by organizing this special exhibition to examine Houston’s craft traditions and material cultures. The show features a wide spectrum of making practices, from the artists behind century-old, mosaic street signs to cowboy boot makers and fiber artists who design space suits and preserve the woven interiors of NASA mission control.

“Drawing its title from the city’s emblematic nickname — earned during the Houston Rockets’ back-to-back NBA championship wins in 1994 and 1995 — this exhibition uses Clutch City as both a cultural ethos and curatorial framework to examine how skilled craftsmanship underpins Houston’s industrial, social, and aesthetic identities,” HCCC Curator and Exhibition Director Sarah Darro said.

$Mar\u00eda Fernanda Cardoso's Maratus: Spiders of Paradise$

Image courtesy of Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino

Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino presents "Maratus: Spiders of Paradise"

visual-art museums openings