best may theater

Dragons, drag queens, 'Mad Men meets Sex in the City,' and more star in Houston's top theater for May

Thankfully, May has 31 days, as could spend nearly every one catching all the theater and performing arts shows this month.

Fans can expect world premieres, contemporary classics, fairytales, Sci-Fi, and shows that are quite a drag — in all their high-heeled glory. With pirates, matadors, Elvis impersonators and hippies as our guides, May makes for quite the theatrical adventure.

Tooth & Tale from Mildred’s Umbrella (through May 13)

This new play from Houston playwright Elizabeth A.M. Keel had almost as much of a dramatic fairytale story as what will go on stage in this world premiere production staged at the historic Deluxe Theatre. The show went through several workshop with Mildred’s originally scheduled to produce it in 2020.

Finally, this story of princesses, dragons, pirates and amazing adventures will have its happy ending, a life onstage. Here’s hoping that ending will just be the beginning.

Catholic School Girls from On the Verge Theatre (through May 28)

For their last show, On the Verge staged a play about competitive swimming at an indoor pool facility. Now, the company is back staging this Casey Kurtti memory comedy in a church, specifically Bering Memorial Church.

Set in the '60s, the play showcases the versatility of this cast of four, mostly local actresses who play both the the school girls from the title and the occasional nun. The girls experience bonds of friendship, reprimands from authority figures, and pressure from home, growing up in a time of the Beatles and the election of a Catholic president.

The Legend of Georgia McBride at Stages (through July 2)

A down-on-his-luck Elvis impersonator with a wife and baby finds he can no longer pull audiences in. When the club where he performs makes some programming changes, this Elvis must trade in his white, Rhinestone-studded jumpsuits for something a bit more subtle—namely drag.

He soon learns he has more talent as a performing queen than impersonating the King. With humor and fabulous numbers, playwright Matthew Lopez’s story challenges our perceptions of identity and classic gender roles with humor and depth.

Brother Toad at Ensemble Theatre (May 11-June 4)

In this all-too-timely play, Black high school student Marques recuperates at home after surviving being shot by a white man while he was just sitting in a car with a friend — who was killed.

As the show begins, Marques’s uncle Randall a sport-radio host want the family to attend a community march against gun violence. The family’s reluctance to attend seems to stem from other, unclear concerns, but it’s that fear, in its many forms that is a thread throughout this powerful play from screenwriter and playwright Nathan Louis Jackson.

1968: The Whole World Is Watching from Open Dance Project

Houston’s driving force for world premiere, immersive dance works that are always theatrical in the extreme is back. This latest work that will transport us back to the history-making ’68 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

Breaking down conventional barriers between audience and stage, this immersive experience situates audience members directly in the center of the action, where they walk through and engage with the interdisciplinary, multimedia performance as it mines iconic photographs, news media, music, art, actions, and events of 1968 for a deeper understanding of our conflict-ridden, intensely mediated here and now.

Torera at Alley Theatre (May 12-June 4)

One young woman attempts to break through the red glass cape (capa de brega) in this coming-of-age story. In the world premiere play by Monet Hurst-Mendoza, previously workshopped at the Alley All New festival, Elena Ramírez wants to enter the almost exclusively man’s world of bullfighting.

With the help of her best friend, a matador’s son, Elena begins secretly training to compete with the greatest. When she discovers her seemingly inherent talent can beat even the most accomplished toreros, this young woman must choose between accepting society’s limits or breaking boundaries.

The Best of Everything at Main Street Theater (May 14-June 18)

In what MST describes as Mad Men meets Sex and the City, this comedy chronicles the lives, loves, and careers of a set of ambitious women at a New York publishing company.

One catch to their climb up the corporate ladder: the time is the 1950s and our female heroes are trapped in the steno pool. (Yeah, we had to look up the word steno, too.) We’re guessing this Julie Kramer contemporary adaptation of the Rona Jaffe 1958 novel will have something of 21st century look-back sensibility, as these women try to figure out if they really can have the best of everything.

Rent from Theatre Under the Stars (May 16-28)

The season of love arrives for the final TUTS in-house production for their 22-23 lineup. Jonathan Larson’s show redefined what a musical could be in the late 20th century, all the while inspired by the 19th century operatic heights of La Bohème.

We heard early rumors that director Ty Defoe's vision for this production might include a new focus on documentarian character of Mark and perhaps weaving a multimedia component to the show. Is this Rent for the social media/citizen journalism age? Either way, the core story about love, death, art, and friendship remains timeless.

Drag Wonderettes at Stages (May 19-July 2)

It’s a drag, drag world — at least at Stages — as the company offer this drag version of one of their most popular shows and Off-Broadway smash, The Marvelous Wonderettes.

Stages will actually world-premiere the jukebox musical about the friendship and bond of a '50s girl group conceived as a drag show. Drag Wonderettes will run in repertory with Legend of Georgia McBride, giving audiences the opportunity to see both show a day apart or even on the same night.

The theatre hopes audiences will think of the two shows in conversation with each other about drag as a performance art form. No matter which show we see first, we’re betting the Stages costume designers and assistants will be the hardest working show people in the city this month.

Sin Muros Festival at Stages (May 25-28)

Stages isn’t done in May, as they’ll also bring back their new play festival for its sixth year. See tomorrow’s theatrical works today with stages readings of four new works, including: Hotel Puerto Vallarta: A Legitimate Work of Dramatic Theatre by David Davila; 619 Hendricks by Josie Nericcio; parts per million & prophets by Ricardo Dávila; and a river, its mouths by Jesús I. Valles.

Along with this glimpse of new work from up and coming playwrights, the fest includes the annual presentation of the Premio Puente (Bridge Award) to an individual or organization who has demonstrated great skill/talent/drive/care in serving the Latinx art community in the Houston area.

Other fun includes theater and education workshops and an arts market featuring local vendors, artisans, food trucks, and non-profit organizations.

Divergence from Houston Ballet (May 25-June 4)

The last of HB’s mixed rep productions of their 22-23 season features some very Houston-centric works, including a world premiere from a rock star of the dance world, Justin Beck.

First up, HB brings back Aszure Barton’s Angular Momentum for the first time since its premiere in 2012. This homage to Houston as Space City features otherworldly costume design by Fritz Masten, a Houston-inspired set by lighting and scenic designer Burke Brown and Mason Bates’ hybrid score of orchestral-electronic melodies and archival NASA recordings. The performance will also include the long anticipated return of HB artistic director, Staton Welch’s, Divergence, which hasn’t been seen on stage as a complete work since 2012.

Finally, HB world premieres Tony Award-winning choreographer Justin Peck’s Under the Folding Sky, a dance inspired by the monumental, only-in-Houston artwork, James Turrell’s Twilight Epiphany Skyspace at Rice University.

Peck uses the music from Philip Glass's opera "The Photographer" for his dance, with costumes designed by duo Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung of Reid and Harriet, lighting by Brandon Sterling Baker and scenic design by Rice University alum Karl Jensen.

Divergence will feature the full HB company.

August: Osage County from Dirt Dogs Theatre Co. (May 26-June 10)

When the patriarch of the Oklahoman Weston family disappears, the younger generation — including the three Weston sisters — return to the homestead. Accusations, recriminations, secrets, lies, and bitter truths are revealed.

The large cast of regular Dirt Dog players, as well as veteran Houston actors, will dig their teeth into this Tracy Letts’ darkly comic contemporary classic with shades of King Lear. The show contains so many strong and complex women roles, we’re looking forward to some of our local acting favorites to reveal these dogs as some bad bitches.

A Maroon’s Guide to Time and Space from Catastrophic Theatre (May 26-June 17)

Photo by Melissa Taylor

The cast of Theatre Under the Stars' new production of Rent.

Houston theater artist and filmmaker, Candice D’Meza, is back partnering with Catastrophic for this new, multidisciplinary, immersive theatre piece that merges live performance, music and video.

D’Meza most recent film work has explored Afrofuturism, and it looks like Maroon’s Guide will take further theatrical leaps into strange new worlds, while time traveling into multiple pasts and futures.

When the audiences enter this play — that’s not a play, and much more than a play — they’ll climb aboard a Harriet Tubman time traveling spaceship to transcend science as we understand it, escape their own linear timelines to experience true, abiding, and eternal access to freedom.

Fairview from 4th Wall Theatre (May 26-June 17)

Jackie Sibblies Drury’s 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning play finally gets its first Houston premiere in 4th Wall’s intimate Studio 101. All the better to see (and be seen at) this twisty, layered comedy that has garnered so many awards.

What begins as a situational comedy about the party pressure experienced by a middle-class Black American family preparing for Grandma’s birthday celebration turns into something quite different: a commentary on race, identity, and the power of perception and storytelling.

Best May Art

MFAH's blockbuster modern art exhibit and 7 more openings in Houston this month

as Pablo Picasso, Woman in a Multicolored Hat, part of the MFAH's upcoming Picasso–Klee–Matisse: Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen exhibit, opening May 20

Image courtesy MFAH

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents Picasso–Klee–Matisse: Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen (Pablo Picasso, Woman in a Multicolored Hat, 1939, oil on canvas, Museum Berggruen, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. © 2026 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

May brings some of the biggest art shows and museum exhibitions of the year to town. Some fly in with patriotic fanfare, while others give us a rare opportunity to gaze at European masterworks. Whether someone is looking for irreverent performance art at the CAMH, wants to get in touch with whimsical spirits at Moody Art Center, buy art for a good cause at Silver Street, or get ready for the World Cup at Sawyer Yards, Houston artists, galleries, and museums have a show for all tastes.

“Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents That Forged a Nation” at Houston Museum of Natural Science (now through May 25)
We’ll call this one the art of democracy. This exhibition 250 years in the making might not fit the usual definition of "art," but this touring presentation of Founding-era documents at HMNS has to make this month's must-see list. The National Archives and Records Administration, in partnership with the National Archives Foundation, set aloft this flying tour of some of the nation’s most historical documents, complete with their own plane. Houston is one of only eight U.S. cities where the Freedom Plane will land. The original National Archives records featured in the exhibition are traveling together for the first time. Just some of the historic documents included in the exhibition are an original engraving of the Declaration of Independence; George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr’s Oaths of Allegiance, 1778; and the Secret Printing of the Constitution in Draft Form, 1787.

“As our nation approaches its 250th anniversary, there is no more fitting tribute than bringing these original documents, leaving the National Archives together for the very first time, directly to the American people,” says Joel Bartsch, president and CEO of HMNS. “From George Washington’s oath as a Continental Army officer to the Treaty of Paris that secured our independence, these are not replicas or reproductions. They are the genuine records, and Houston will have the rare privilege of experiencing them in person this May.”

“20th Annual Empty Bowls” at Silver Street Studios (May 15 and 16)
For two decades this beloved grassroots fundraising event has given art lovers the chance to pick up one of a kind, handcrafted ceramic bowl-shaped artworks for just $25 dollars each and helped to serve up millions of meals to the hungry. Over the years, Empty Bowls Houston has raised over $1.2 million for the Houston Food Bank. The lunch fundraiser is a collaboration between Houston-area ceramists, woodturners, and artists working in all media and Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. A special ticketed preview party on May 15 will feature light bites, beer and wine, live music, a pottery throw down event with local potters, and a chance to purchase a bowl early before the main event on May 16. Archway Gallery will also host its own annual Empty Bowls exhibition throughout May.

“No Longer, Not Yet” at Art League (May 15-July 19)
This exhibition of mixed media and fiber sculptures from Houston-based artist Marisol Valencia is the culmination of Valencia volunteering at a Houston-area shelter serving migrant women and children. To create the works in the show, Valencia uses material imbued with meaning, including fibers sourced from rural Mexican communities where migration often shapes daily life; bedsheets and pillows gathered from the shelter; and porcelain pieces inscribed with collected definitions of “home.” At the center of the exhibition will be a large cascading crochet sculpture made in collaboration with women and volunteers at the shelter.

“Picasso–Klee–Matisse: Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen” at Museum of Fine Arts (May 20-September 13)
Houston claims another first as the MFAH hosts the U.S. debut of this monumental touring exhibition of masterworks by Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti, and other major artists of postwar Europe. The exhibition will also tell the story of influential gallerist Heinz Berggruen and his relationship with the artists and collecting world. From the 1940s into the 1990s, Heinz Berggruen assembled a singular collection of hundreds of modern masterworks, many directly from the artists, and then in 2000, Berggruen placed the collection with the German state. The collection is now housed in the Museum Berggruen in Berlin-Charlottenburg as part of the Berlin State Museums/Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage.

“It is especially rewarding to introduce our audiences to the life and legacy of Heinz Berggruen — a pioneering art dealer, publisher, and collector whom I was privileged to know and work with for more than two decades,” remarks MFAH director Gary Tinterow on bringing the exhibition to Houston.

“Ballet of the Masses” at Sawyer Yards (May 21-July 25)
As Houston gets ready for the World Cup, local artists score their own kind of goals with this exhibition of artful soccer balls. Over 40 Houston artists have put a unique spin on a regulation sized fútbol — turning them into sculptural pieces. Organizers will suspend the works from the ceiling of Sabine Street Studios' North Gallery to create a kind of celestial soccer constellation. Together, these works will celebrate the dynamism and joy within sports and art.

“Never Forgotten” at Sabine Street Studios (May 21-July 25)
This powerful exhibition comes from a unique collaboration between Texas Center for the Missing, Houston Police Department Forensic Artists, and Sabine Street Studios, all dedicated to bringing the missing home. Three local forensic artists: Thurston Johnson, Bryan Bradley, and Kristen Aloysius have created age-progression portraits of missing persons in the hopes of reuniting families. Beyond showcasing real art, “Never Forgotten” was organized to shine a light on each individual case and continue raising awareness of the missing in our community. Sabine Street Studios will also host special programming in conjunction with the show, including a workshop on forensic drawing and drawing portraits based on memories.

“Mary Ellen Carroll: How To Talk Dirty and Influence People” at Contemporary Arts Museum (May 22-November 1)
Acclaimed New York-based conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll has spent over four decades crossing disciplines of performance art, photography, architecture, writing, video making, and public art to explore issues of environmentalism, architectural and technological infrastructure, immigration, urban legislation, and identity, as well as tackling fundamental questions of the nature of art. And some of this exploration has taken place in Houston with Carroll’s continual transformation and documentation of a post-war home in the city’s Sharpstown neighborhood.

This first major museum survey of Carroll’s work takes inspiration from legendary comic Lenny Bruce’s 1965 autobiography of the same name, and emphasizes the irreverent and honest nature of Carroll’s work. The exhibition will bring renewed focus onto some of Carroll’s larger series, for example, “prototype 180,” the Sharpstown project, and “My Death Is Pending… Because,” consisting of separate pieces like video documentation of the artist driving and destroying a 1985 Buick in a demolition derby in 2017 and video of Carroll in a polar bear suit climbing a defunct smokestack in Memphis.

“Carroll is that unique kind of artist who continually reminds you of the power of art and artists to inspire radical change, in ourselves and the world,” notes senior curator Rebecca Matalon.

"Shapeshifters, Sprites, and Spirits” at Rice Moody Center for the Arts (May 29 - August 15)
Delve into a world of whimsical wonder in this new exhibition and the first Texas solo show of acclaimed Japanese artist Masako Miki’s sculptural work and installations. Influenced by diverse artistic movements from European Surrealism to Japanese manga, Miki creates sculptures from felt layered over wood armatures. Once completed, they resemble animated and large scale forms of everyday objects infused with personality and character.

Miki’s work is also inspired by folkloric traditions, especially Shinto animism and its belief that all beings and things contain a spirit. For the site specific Moody exhibition, Miki has also created works with a focus on yōkai, supernatural entities taking the form of beings, objects, and apparitions, and particularly those that appear in the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (Hyakki Yagyō), a legend dating to medieval Japan.

“My characters are ordinary but have extraordinary powers,” describes Miki of her sculptures. “They are secular but are attuned to sacred traditions. As a collective, they advocate for both individual and collective agency, and the importance of stories as unifying systems in today’s complex world.”

$as Pablo Picasso, Woman in a Multicolored Hat, part of the MFAH's upcoming Picasso\u2013Klee\u2013Matisse: Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen exhibit, opening May 20$

Image courtesy MFAH

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