It’s looking to be a "Hakuna Matata” summer as July brings us singing lions along with chills, thrills, and musical spectaculars to stages across the city. Musicals are kings this month, but we won’t say no to spooky season in July as other companies mount some haunting and murderous productions for a good summer scare. Whether you want to sing a long with kings, witches and wizards or to hone your detective skills, Houston theater has a show for you.
Pullman Porter Blues at Ensemble Theatre (now through July 28)
Ensemble ends its 47th season with what they’re calling a play with music that enlightens as much as it entertains. Inspired by her grandfather’s life adventures during his career as a postal worker working on the trains, playwright Cheryl L. West tells the story of three generations of pullman porters who work on the luxurious Panama Limited train. Midwest blues songs flavor their journey from Chicago to New Orleans as the porters confront dark secrets from their past and tough truths about their future together. Iconic blues music becomes the soundtrack to this moving and dramatic coming of age story.
Feeling Groovy from Music Box Theater (now through September 21)
Houston’s home for cool comedy cabaret, Music Box Theater, continues its tradition of summer tripping on groovy tunes in an all-new exploration of the music from the 1960s and 1970s. At their new(ish) weekend home at Queensbury Theatre, the MBT cast have created a show featuring classics songs originally sung by The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles, Blood, Sweat & Tears, 5th Dimension, Led Zeppelin, and more. If you’re looking to combine an evening performance with a day at the beach, consider taking a short roadtrip to Texas City, as MBT has begun a music residency featuring Feeling Groovy at the Blue Lagoon Bar and Grill in Texas City, Texas’ largest man made lagoon.
Disney’s The Lion King presented by Broadway at the Hobby Center (July 11-August 4)
It’s something like the circle of musical life as each summer Broadway at the Hobby Center brings in a blockbuster musical for an extended run, and this year is no exception as Houston feels the love each night for almost three weeks for the contemporary classic The Lion King. Based on the Disney animated film with music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice, the show went on to win six Tonys, including one for best musical, with no small thanks to director Julie Taymor and the show's groundbreaking puppetry and costume design. This coming of age story with a Shakespearean plot filled with palace intrigue, fratricide, a lost prince, revenge, and, of course, the comic stylings of a warthog and meerkat duo make for the perfect musical for all ages.
The Wizard of Oz at Queensbury Theatre (July 12-28)
In the past, CityCentre’s Queensbury Theatre has been home to some terrific musical productions including some shows we rarely see staged in Houston, but in the last few years the theater has put a focus on performing art education and their Tribble School. This summer they’re back with a witchy, family-friendly classic for a main stage production with a stellar cast of local performing faves. The road to Oz is filled with adventures and song as Dorothy, Scarecrow, Lion, and Tin Man head down the Yellow Brick Road to find home in this reimagined production of L. Frank Baum’s beloved tale, featuring the iconic musical score from the MGM film.
The Woman in Black at Main Street Theater (July 13-August 11)
Houston’s theater staple for brainy productions gets spooky this summer with this ghostly tale that embraces both horror and theatrical playfulness with a show-within-a-show story about a man who turns to playwriting to rid himself of a haunting spirit. Arthur Kipps is obsessed with a deadly curse he believes has been cast over him and his family by the specter of a woman in black. He hires a skeptical young actor to help him dramatize and stage his terrifying story in the hopes to exorcise the fear gipping his soul. But as actor and author become caught up in the Arthur’s darkest memories will the past and perhaps even the dead find a door into the present?
And Then There Were None at Alley Theatre (July 19-September 1)
Before there was ever that final girl or guy to survive any murder mystery massacre, there was one of Agatha Christie’s most twisty stories of 10 people brought to an isolated island and then bumped off one-by-one in spiraling macabre ways. Adapted multiple times for stage, screen, and even streaming, the story still thrills and chills audiences even if you go in vaguely remembering the ending. The Alley has served up the killer mystery before for their Summer Chills production, but for this run they’re bringing in New York’s Geva Theatre artistic director Elizabeth Williamson, who they say is known for her ability to breathe fresh life into classic stories while staying true to their essence. The cast features the Alley resident company and some of our favorite Houston actors all dying to murder each other in good fun.
Ruddigore from the Gilbert & Sullivan Society (July 20-28)
If it’s July, it must be time for another annual performance from Houston’s longest running opera company, the Gilbert & Sullivan Society. While Ruddigore or The Witch's Curse might not be as well known by today’s audiences as other Gilbert and Sullivan classics like The Yeomen of the Guard and The Pirates of Penzance, when the society describes the show as Jane Austen meets Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein, it certainly goes high on our list of must-sees. In this satirical take on Victorian and gothic melodrama, a witch’s curse sentences a family line of baronets into lives of crime or else they’ll die in agony. Throw in a reluctant baronet on a light crime spree, an etiquette-book consulting fair maiden and meddling ghosts and that’s an operetta party. Professor Emeritus and founder and former director of the Moores Opera Center at the University of Houston, Buck Ross, stage directs, with Opera in the Heights’ Eiki Isomura once again serving as music director.
Next to Normal presented by Houston Broadway Theatre (July 26-28)
H-Town’s newest theater company, Houston Broadway Theatre, will make a splashy, Broadway-style entrance with this Tony and Pulitzer-winning musical. Going big early, the company also brings to town some veteran Broadway and television performers for this production that will be staged at the Hobby Center’s midsize Zilker theater. This rock musical, with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt, explores issues of mental illness and family relationships as it tells the story of a seemingly average suburban American family, but one struggling with a member with bipolar disorder. Tony-nominated and American Idol finalist, Constantine Maroulis, stars as Dan and Broadway and television veteran Mary Faber stars as Diana.
Ensemble Theatre courtesy photo
Ensemble Theatre presents Pullman Porter Blues.
