best november theater

12 best November performances no Houston theater fan should miss

Blue Man Group's colorful act is coming to town.

Photo by Lindsey Best

While some Halloween spirit remains in November — including ghost stories (4th Wall Theatre), friendly sea monsters (the Alley) and possible zombies (Rec Room) — it’s beginning to look a lot like holiday shows for much of this month.

Look for a brand-new Christmas Carol, holiday cabaret, Christmas Motown, Panto and our favorite Nutty prince. Those whose plans are to Bah Humbug until December can stay in a holiday-free zone with some blue men, singing queens, farcical French servants, and the Catastrophic gang.

Blue Man Group from Performing Arts Houston (November 5 and 6)

If you’re already feeling a bit blue as the holidays approach, Performing Arts Houston has you covered (possibly in cannon confetti) with an all-new show from the bluesy trio. While the Blue Men are famously tight-lipped when it comes to spoilers, we’ve heard to expect their signature drumming, colorful moments of creativity and quirky comedy for all ages, with a message that “the men are still blue but the rest is all new!” Get ready for pulsing, original music, custom-made instruments, surprise audience interaction and hilarious absurdity.

The Six from Broadway at the Hobby Center (November 8-20)

Six queens take the stage to have (and belt) it out over who had a worst marriage — to the same husband. With those marriage outcomes being: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived, they’ve got a lot to sing about. Yes, the wives of Henry VIII finally get to tell their own side of the story in this theatrical concert extravaganza, a West End, Broadway and beyond hit.

The Marriage of Figaro from Classical Theatre Company (November 10-26)

The company that only performs works over a 100 years old, yet still manages to find intriguing new spins on the classics, has decided to focus on comedies for their entire 22-23 season. They begin with the original French farce by Pierre de Beaumarchais, the work that Mozart later turned into one of the most beloved operas. This sequel to The Barber of Seville follows the hijinks of the clever Figaro and his duplicitous master, the Count Almaviva, as the servant gets ready to marry the love of his life. Classical artistic director John Johnston translated the original 18th-century play into English and also directs this new production.

A Motown Christmas at Ensemble Theatre (November 17-December 24)

The midtown staple celebrates the holidays with this festive holiday revue. It’s the perfect blend of traditional Christmas carols paired with the soulful sounds from such Motown celebrities as Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, and The Jackson 5. This soulful play promises to bring back good memories and deliver a delightful Christmas treat for the entire family.

They Do Not Move from Catastrophic Theatre (November 18-December 10)

Always a company to counter the holiday rush with something a bit weird, the avant-garde company will present a world premiere collaborate work from director Brian Jucha with the Catastrophic acting ensemble. Using found text, music, stylized physicality, and an abundance of pop culture references, the show will depicted a future dystopia, but perhaps whimsical one, where a disorganized band of vagrants, waifs, and strays are hunted by monarchist forces. With beauty pageants, sitcoms, horror movies and conversation therapy woven into the work, Catastrophic says to be ready for “frenetically funny love letter to our city.”

Houston for the Holidays with DeQuina Moore at Stages (November 18-December 24)

Uber fresh off playing Lauren Anderson in Plumshuga, which closes 5 days before this one opens, Houston native and Broadway star DeQuina Moore brings her own unique voice to the holidays. Look for this cabaret show to highlight Moore’s personal nostalgic stories including Broadway backstage memories. Written by Moore and rising Houston playwright ShaWanna Renee Rivon, Stages says this cabaret will deck your halls with nostalgia, joy, and cheer.

A Christmas Carol at Alley Theatre (November 18-December 30)

For decades, the Alley has kept its holiday tradition of producing a A Christmas Carol, and for many of those years that Carol was their ghostly adaptation by Michael Wilson. Then came the pandemic and two years of scaled-down productions that celebrated the art of theater-making. This year, they offer a big world premiere Carol adaptation, as artistic director Rob Melrose has gone 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, but also look for Victorian costumes by Raquel Barreto, magical elements created by illusionist Jim Steinmeyer, and holiday carols arranged by John L. Cornelius II,

Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical from Garden Theatre (November 18-27)

In another bit of counter-programming for this very busy November theatrical week, one of Houston’s newest theater companies will present the off-Broadway jukebox musical based on the Sarah Michelle Gellar/Reese Witherspoon film that was itself based on the play Dangerous Liaisons (based on the French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses). Love is the most dangerously cruel liaison of all in this show featuring the ultimate '90s numbers with music from Boyz II Men, Counting Crows, The Verve, Christina Aguilera, REM, 'NSYNC, and, of course, Britney Spears.

The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley at Main Street Theater (November 19-December 18)

Main Street has found their own holiday tradition in recent years by spending Christmas with the characters of Pride and Prejudice. The first hit sequel to P&P, Christmas at Pemberley written by contemporary playwrights Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, gave Bennet middle sister, Mary, time to shine. In this sequel to the sequel, the comedy heads downstairs on the same Christmas to see how the Pemberley servants handle the crisis when the conniving Wickham shows up to see his estranged wife, Lydia. Expect ensuing comic chaos likely seasoned with Christmas renewal, romance and family forgiveness.

Panto Snow White and the Seven Dorks at Stages (November 25-December 24)

Buttons and a whole crew of fairytale characters are back for the long-running Stages tradition of taking U.K holiday Panto and giving it a decidedly Texas twist. In this world premiere, Snow White finds herself banished by the Evil Queen and her high-tech virtual assistant mirror. As she fumbles through Silicon Valley in search of help, she finds a team of dorky hackers. Together, they overthrow and out-code the forces of tech tyranny using brains, algorithms, and some Panto magic. Buttons gets a reboot as he is reinvented as head of Tech Support for the Evil Queen.

The Nutcracker from Houston Ballet (November 25-December 27)

While Houston Ballet artistic director Stanton Welch’s glorious vision leaped back to live performances at the Wortham last year. This year, HB levels up to its magical giant-Christmas-tree-scale. All 61 Company dancers will perform during the production’s run, joined by over 300 young dancers — 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 HB company.

A Texas Carol at A.D. Players (November 30-December 23)

Get ready for holiday family-time laughs with the new outrageous and very Texan comedy from A.D. Players executive artistic director Jayme McGhan and artistic producer Kevin Dean. The whole family is on the way to Mee-Maw Jane's East Texas ranch for what might be her last Christmas. The only problem--when the first group arrives, Mee-Maw is already gone! Now, how to keep that fact (and her body) from the rest of the family and save Christmas? A.D. Players promise a hysterical and heart-warming story about all things Christmas and all things Texas that ultimately brings us straight to the true meaning of Christmas.

fall theater preview

Sneak peek at the 2026 fall performance slates for 15 Houston companies

Theatre Under the Stars presents The Music Man

Photo courtesy of Theatre Under the Stars

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For theater and performing arts lovers, late summer is the most wonderful time of the year, as stage companies across the city begin their new 2026-2027 seasons. But before the curtains rise, most of those companies also give us the gift of Houston Theater Week and all those buy-one-get-one-free discounts.

To get ready, CultureMap has put together this fall theater guide with the opening shows and dates for each company, as well as taking an early look at what the rest of the fall and holidays will bring. So grab those discounted tickets for a fall filled with blockbuster musicals, dramas, comedies, as well as lots of classics and audience favorites.

A.D. Players opens with Holly Street (August 19)
The spiritual and family friendly theater company began its season a bit early with a poignant world premiere set in small town Kentucky in the 1940s after World War II. Holly Street tells the story of two sisters at Christmas time and two unexpected guests.

The company takes a break for a month and then offers one of the funniest, yet heartwarming holiday plays for all ages withThe Best Christmas Pageant Ever, the beloved comedy about a children’s play that goes wrong.

Houston Ballet opens with Pecos Bill (September 11)
HB says howdy to a great fall season with a mixed rep program that holds something for all dance tastes. The performance includes Stanton Welch’s rollicking ballet version of cowboy folklore, Pecos Bill’s adventures. Performances also feature George Balanchine’s elegant and dynamic Symphonie Concertante, and an HB debut, Meadow, a work by celebrated choreographer Lar Lubovitch.

For the first full story ballet of the fall (September 24), HB brings the opulence of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s now classic and tragic Mamon, the doomed love story between an irresistibly beautiful femme fatale and impoverished student. Of course, in November, it wouldn’t be the holidays without Stanton Welch’s version of The Nutcracker Ballet that brings the story’s focus back to the adventurous Clara.

4th Wall Theatre opens with Proof (September 11)
The first of several Pulitzer Prize-winning plays produced this season comes from this intimate stage. Playwright David Auburn’s Proof is the story of the daughter of a genius mathematician who might have inherited both his aptitude for math and his mental instability. The play travels back and forth through the present and past to study the formulas of family, loss, and love

Over the years, 4th Wall has produced several wild and moving adaptations of Jane Austen novels. This year, it will present Are the Bennet Girls Ok? This new version of the Pride and Prejudice story, that had a recent Off-Broadway debut to much critical praise, tells the Bennet girls’ marriage quests from their mother’s point of view.

Main Street Theater opens with Cold War Choir Practice (September 12)
Also earning lots of recent off-Broadway buzz, this genre-defying comedy with music is one of the most intriguing picks for the fall. In Reagan’s America, a young girl is embroiled in intrigue when her estranged uncle, a prominent Black conservative, brings his mysteriously ill, white wife home for the holidays and forces long-simmering tensions within the family to boil.

From Victorian England to a fast food joint, theaters across the world and certainly in Houston have put Dickens’s Christmas Carol into a multitude of settings. For the holidays, MST invites Houstonians to a Dublin pub for An Irish Carol, where rich owner David has lost touch with his own humanity in the interest of self-protection and material success. Now on Christmas Eve, a voice from the past will ask David to look at his relationships in the past, present, and possible future to perhaps change his life for the better.

Theatre Under the Stars opens presenting The Music Man (September 15)
TUTS changes its usual mix of more self-produced shows than touring shows, leaning in on presenting this season. The season begins with this classic musical comedy about a charming con man who gets conned himself by small town sincerity and love.

The touring hits continue in October with Mrs. Doubtfire, the musical based on the Robin Williams comedy about a divorced man who disguises himself as a British nanny to take care of his kids. Then for the holidays, TUTS brings back its own leviathan-sized production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid for under the sea family fun with a cast filled with Houston singing sensations, including students from the TUTS schools.

Rec Room opens with Amadeus (September 17)
The east-ish downtown theater company decided to take some time off after last year's productions of Angels in American to switch from a calendar year season to the traditional fall/spring season that most Houston companies use. Now they’re back and celebrating their 10 year anniversary with plays Houstonians haven’t seen in quite a while, or ever, on a local professional stage. The season begins with the now classic 20th century play about the (mostly one-sided) rivalry between composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and its exploration of jealousy and the nature of genius.

For the ultimate holiday show counter programming, Rec Room will produce a new adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning Italian playwright Dario Fo’s The Accidental Death of an Anarchist. It’s Christmas time at the police station, as Rec Room reimagines Fo’s groundbreaking political farce of the 1970s as a contemporary American satire infused with detective noir, Cold War paranoia, and sharp absurdity.

Ensemble Theatre opens with Purpose (September 18)
Ensemble celebrates its 50th season with this recent Best Play Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner by Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins about a prominent and political Black family, the Jenkins. While the patriarch was a leader in the Civil Rights movement, the adult sons are having trouble living up to their father’s legacy. Generational aspirations come to a comic clash for one particularly awkward but purposeful family dinner.

For the holidays, the company brings back an audience favorite, the joyful and soulful A Motown Christmas, which melds Motown hits and choreography with traditional holiday classics.

Stages opens with Come From Away (September 19)
Based on the true story, this poignant and hopeful musical tells the story of a small town in Newfoundland that rallied together to host thousands of stranded international travelers after planes were grounded September 11, 2001. It’s been a few years since Come From Away toured nationally, so Houstonians are definitely looking forward to seeing Stages begin its season with an intimate and homegrown production.

In October, Stages jumps from a musical with a large cast of characters to The Roommate, the Jen Silverman comedy about two 50-something women with very different personalities and life experiences who begin living together. For the holidays, it brings back another audience favorite with all the music, fun, and wild plots found in The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical.

Alley Theatre opens fall with Romeo and Juliet (September 25)
While technically the thrilling Girl on the Train began its 26-27 season, the Alley heats up the fall with the play that originated the term star-crossed lovers and is arguably the greatest romantic tragedy in literature. The entire resident acting company will take the stage in Shakespeare’s wrenching tale of young lovers crushed between their warring families.

In October, the Alley leaps from a classic of world literature to a world premiere satire with Uhuru. This play explores very contemporary themes of access and identity as it follows a group of climbers up Mount Kilimanjaro. Uhuru was developed as part of the Alley All New play reading season. For the holidays, look for both Alley artistic director, Rob Melrose’s, lovely adaptation of A Christmas Carol as well as its very contemporary Texas version of The Night Shift Before Christmas.

Broadway at the Hobby Center opens with The Sound of Music (September 29)
Musical lovers might want to see if the Hobby Center will rent a room this fall, because the TUTS and Broadway combined schedules will fill Sarofim Hall with the sound of music almost every week, including the actual Sound of Music. One of the most beloved musicals of all time, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s story of the von Trapp family and the woman who brought music into their lives tours the country again with new direction from three-time Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien (Hairspray).

Then, just in time for spooky season, the ghost-est with the mostest, the irrepressible Beetlejuice, returns to haunt Houston after being a surprising comic hit a few seasons ago. Then, the Tony Award-winning Buena Vista Social Club arrives. Depicting the backstage story of the Grammy-winning album of the same name, the show transports audiences into the heart of Cuba, beyond the glitz of the Tropicana into the soul of the music.

Houston Grand Opera opens with Susannah (October 23)
Continuing its centenary celebration for the great American composer Carlisle Floyd, HGO opens its season with this tragic beauty of an opera inspired by Floyd’s childhood as a minister’s son. With a score infused with revival hymns and Appalachian folksong, the opera depicts life in a small Tennessee town and the gossip, judgement, and hypocrisy that leads to the ruin of one innocent woman.

HGO elevates spooky season with upGounod’s masterpiece Faust in late October. This production from acclaimed Scottish director David McVicar reimagines Faust as a tormented composer in Belle Époque Paris, before making a deal with the devil for youth and earthly pleasures.

Other fall debuts

While it might only be producing one show this fall, Houstonians still have these plays from some of the city's mid-sized and smaller companies on their must-see lists. In early September, Mildred’s Umbrella gets mad with Jen Silverman’s Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties, a sharp comedy with its synopsis in the title as it depicts the lives of five very different women all named Betty. The recently announced Catastrophic Theatre season scheduled the majority of its shows in 2027, but in September the company will revive Eugene Ionesco’s epic absurdest play, Rhinoceros, about a small town whose citizens begin to transform into a herd of giant horned mammals.

In mid-October, Dirt Dogs presents one of those great dinner parties from hell plays with Donald Margulies’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Dinner with Friends about one couple’s divorce that leads their best friends to question their own marriages. Also in October, Classical Theatre opens its season with one of George Bernard Shaw’s wittiest works from his “Plays Pleasant” collection, Arms and the Man, about a young woman who has romanticized war until she decides to shelter a war-weary enemy soldier.

Photo courtesy of Theatre Under the Stars

Theatre Under the Stars presents The Music Man