broadway is back

Tina Turner, MJ, and can't-miss classics headline Broadway at Hobby Center's thrilling new season

For performing arts lovers, the real most wonderful time of the year has just begun with season announcement season.

Memorial Hermann Broadway at the Hobby Center has revealed its lineup with nine shows to keep our musical theater calendar filled. With new Broadway and West End blockbusters returning classics, bio-musical and lots of '80s inspiration, we’re anticipating one “Thriller” of a 2023-2024 season.

“The 2023-2024 Season delivers on the promise to our audiences to bring the very best of Broadway right here to Houston. The Broadway series is as hot as ever with Houstonians filling Sarofim Hall for performance after performance,” said Hobby Center president and CEO, Mark Folkes in a statement announcing the season. “We are inspired by the enthusiasm we've experienced from audiences in recent months and look forward to another blockbuster season with eight spectacular diverse productions.”

MJ (November 14-19, 2023)

This one doesn’t even need a full name in the title: we know that sound and silhouette of Michael Jackson. The hottest show on Broadway right now makes its Texas debut in Houston bringing the music, moves and story of Michal Jackson. With a book by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage, we expect to go deeper into the rise of the king of pop.

The song list includes global hits like “Beat It,” “Billie Jean” and “Man in the Mirror” but also real surprises like Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Climb Ev'ry Mountain.” the Broadway at Hobby season is gonna Be Startin’ Something with this one.

Tina-The Tina Turner Musical (January 2-7, 2024)

The new year opens with simply “The Best” and all round queen of rock, R&B, soul, pop and really the musical universe. Another Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, this time, Katori Hall wrote the book on Turner’s extraordinary, no holds barred story.

The musical follows her from childhood singing in the church to her rise to stardom, marriage and divorce to Ike Turner and her triumph second, third and beyond acts as a international rock superstar. Who needs another hero when we’ve got Tina Turner.

Les Misérables (January 23-28)

Do you hear the people sing, singing the songs of the show that began a Broadway revolution? Dream a dream and storm the barricades once more with this revival of the Cameron Mackintosh’s acclaimed production of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Tony-winning phenomenon.

Beetlejuice (March 5-10, 2024)

Say his name, say his name, say his name and prepare for chaotic, ghostly fun in this musical based on the '80s Tim Burton film. (BTW, that film now could be seen as a timely exploration of property rights and home renovations when the previous owners won’t move on — because they’re dead).

While the two movie showstoppers “The Banana Boat Song” and "Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)” will still have us dancing in our Hobby Center seats, listen for brand new songs written for the show by Eddie Perfect.

Girl from the North Country (April 30-May 5, 2024)

While by definition a jukebox musical, this Girl tells a poignant tale as acclaimed Irish playwright weaves the songs of Bob Dylan into story of lives changed one faithful night. Though Dylan originally wrote many of these songs in the '60s and '70s, they set an authentic mood for this depression era saga.

In Duluth, Minnesota (Dylan’s birthplace), we meet a group of wayward travelers whose lives intersect as they take shelter in a guesthouse one stormy night. The Tony-nominated show reimagines 20 Dylan’s songs as they’ve never been heard before, including “Forever Young,” “All Along The Watchtower,” “Hurricane,” “Slow Train Coming,” and “Like A Rolling Stone.”

Hairspray (June 4-9, 2024)

The musical based on the '80s John Waters film that was later made into a movie musical is back on tour with an all-new production that reunites Broadway’s award-winning creative team led by Director Jack O’Brien and Choreographer Jerry Mitchell.

This dance revolution will be televised as '60s high schooler Tracy Turnblad’s ambition to take her big hair and curves onto the Corny Collins Show opens her eyes to segregation and racial injustice. Filled with some big comedy, the show still packs powerful emotional punch.

Disney’s The Lion King (July 11-August 4)

Long live the king of Broadway with this family-favorite becomes an add on to the lineup. This version of Hamlet as depicted by big cats keeps enchanting each new generation with its music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi and most of all its stunning costumes, set and choreography.

Funny Girl (August 20-25, 2024)

The revival that’s been on everyone’s musical radar for the past year takes to the road in 2024, and we won’t rain on this parade. Featuring one of the most beloved, and sing-along-able scores of all time by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, an updated book from Harvey Fierstein, Funny Girl was one of the first Broadway shows about Broadway.

The show follows the indomitable Fanny Brice climbs her way from vaudeville to musical stardom. For decades she’s reminded us that people who need theater people are the luckiest people in the world.

Photo by Matthew Murphy

Naomi Rodgers channels Tina in a can't-miss musical.

Blockbuster exhibits star in Houston's top 10 arts stories of 2025

Three Chinese Terracotta Warriors amid an archeological dig.

Photo courtesy of the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center

Terracotta Warriors and more than a hundred artifacts head to the HMNS this November.

Editor's note: Houstonians had lots of reasons to be excited about the arts this year, as evidenced by the 10 most-read stories of 2025. Ancient Chinese warriors came back to the Bayou City, bringing with them a history dating back more than 2,000 years. Life-sized elephant sculptures marched across the city, too, helping Houstonians learn about these remarkable creatures and the artists who made them. And an interactive new museum really lifted people's spirits.

Read on for the 10 hottest arts headlines in Houston this year:

1. China's Terracotta Warriors return to Houston Museum for fall exhibit. Visitors to the Houston Museum of Natural Science were able to get an up-close look at these life-size figures, which date to 206 BCE. They’re one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in Chinese history, unearthed in the 1970s. Presented with items from more recent digs, HMNS curator of anthropology Dr. Dirk Van Tuerenhout said the exhibit represented “a story of over two millennia with kingdoms waxing and waning.” The warriors were last in Houston in 2012 and 2009.

2. Unforgettable elephant art installation rumbles into Houston's Hermann Park. One-hundred life-size Indian elephant statues came to Hermann Park and surrounding areas like the Texas Medical Center from April 1-30. Created by the artists of The Real Elephant Collective, a community of 200 Indigenous artisans living within India’s Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, each elephant is one-of-a-kind and based on a real-life pachyderm. “The Great Elephant Migration is more than an art installation — it is a call to action and a place to experience joy,” said Cara Lambright, president and CEO of Hermann Park Conservancy.

3. World-renowned interactive balloon art museum glides into Houston. The Balloon Museum opened November 15, emphasizing inflatable and air-based art. Think balloons, aerial installations, interactive lighting displays, and more. It showcases the work of 14 artists from around the world, and is one of several balloon museums worldwide, including in Paris. The museum is open through April 19, 2026.

4. Houston Ballet principal dancer announces retirement after 13 years. For more than a decade, Soo Youn Cho dazzled Houston audiences with her elegant artistry and technical brilliance in roles like Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, and myriad others. Her retirement came following spinal surgery to treat chronic back pain. The company’s first Korean principal, she called dancing with the Houston Ballet “one of the greatest blessings and privileges of my life.”

5. Houston Ballet names new executive director with deep ties to its past. Ballerina Sonja Kostich was on stage dancing in a commission that would pave the way for Stanton Welch to become the Houston Ballet’s artistic director. In May, Welch announced that Kostich would become the company’s executive director, with a tenure to begin in August. In addition to a dynamic career as a dancer, she also earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the Zicklin School of Business at CUNY Baruch College, graduating as salutatorian, and has a master's degree in arts administration.

6. Where to see art in Houston now: 10 exhibits and shows opening in September. Houstonians got a preview of all that was to come in the year’s ninth month. Among the shows to see were an exhibit of of bonded marble sculptures by Nigerian sculptor Ejiro Fenegal at Mitochondria Gallery; works by seven international artists at Rice’s Moody Center for the Arts that was inspired by nature and biological processes; and necklaces and brooches dating from 1976 to 2025 by internationally renowned German jewelry artist, Dorothea Prühl, that is still on display at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 3.

Photo courtesy of the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center

Terracotta Warriors and more than a hundred artifacts head to the HMNS this November.

7. All roads lead to Houston museum's blockbuster exhibit of Imperial Rome. “Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times” showcases 160 objects of antiquity, including marble sculptures, frescoes, mosaics, delicate glass vessels, and exquisite bronze artifacts. On display at the MFAH, the exhibit transports visitors back in time to the Roman Empire. Pieces in the collection are on loan from several Italian museums. “This is truly a rare opportunity for U.S. audiences to experience spectacular objects from this glorious era of the Roman Empire,” said Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH.

8. Hermann Park's always-free theater breaks ground on new Gateway Plaza. The Miller Outdoor Theatre Advisory Board broke ground on the new Gateway Plaza in November. Enhancements to the theater's welcome space include new walkways, new shade structures that replicate the theater’s distinctive, A-frame design, and an improved “Dining Boutique” with refreshed picnic tables and other improvements. Audiences will experience the changes for themselves next summer.

9. First-ever Houston Art Weeks promotes local galleries and supports mental health. Taking a cue from the popular Holiday Shopping Card, the StellaNova Foundation unveiled the inaugural Houston Art Weeks 2025 in October. The initiative was designed to support local Houston artists and provide contributions to assist Houston-area organizations that connect those in need to necessary mental health services. Shoppers could purchase works from local artists, galleries, and art events, bringing home unique items and knowing a portion of the sale would be donated to this year’s primary beneficiary, The Montrose Center.

10. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston celebrates Frida Kahlo with groundbreaking new exhibit. A pioneering exhibit organized by the MFAH, “Frida: The Making of an Icon,” traces Kahlo’s phenomenal rise onto the world art stage and her colossal influence on generations of later artists. More than 30 works in the exhibit are by Kahlo herself, which will hang amid more than 120 objects by artists from the 1970s into the 21st century who were influenced by her work. The exhibit opens in January 2026.

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