weekend event planner

Here are the top 15 things to do in Houston this weekend

Celia Hottenstein as Glinda and Olivia Valli as Elphaba in Wicked

Celia Hottenstein (Glinda) and Olivia Valli (Elphaba) get Wicked.

Photo by Joan Marcus

What’s that smell? It’s Meg, the tropical plant causing quite the stink at the Museum of Natural Science. Fans are awaiting the plant to bloom and, when it does, unleash a powerful odor akin to rotting flesh.

Aside from wicked stinks, Broadway smash Wicked begins a bewitching run. Rocker Olivia Jean ghosts Houston — in a good way. A tattoo fest draws up fun for inked-up locals, while the Arboretum goes bananas celebrating the world’s favorite fruit.

$Wicked \u200bCelia Hottenstein (Glinda) and Olivia Valli (Elphaba)$

Photo by Joan Marcus

Celia Hottenstein (Glinda) and Olivia Valli (Elphaba) get Wicked.

Enjoy; here are your best bets for the weekend.

Thursday, June 1

“Meg” the corpse flower at Houston Museum of Natural Science

“Meg” the corpse flower is bringing the funk – literally — at the Museum of Natural Science. Not only is this flower quite the sight, it’s also quite the smell. The flower known officially as Amorphophallus titanum recently started to sprout her spadix, a sign of imminent bloom. (Corpse flowers literally smell like rotting flesh upon blooming.) In 2010, “Lois” the corpse flower caused quite the stink. “Meg” — named for the 50-foot shark at the museum — is smaller than Lois, but promises a bigger odor. Lucky us.

CITYCENTRE presents Summer Socials

CITYCENTRE is getting ready to have memorable evenings all season with the launch of a series of lively, happy hour events in the plaza catered to young professionals. These events will feature Sound Cream Airstream, that all-in-one, mobile discotheque. Visitors will also enjoy cold beverages, music, giveaways, and mingling al fresco every other Thursday night. Plus, participating stores and restaurants will be offering exclusive specials on food, drinks, and services. Come join the fun. 5 pm.

Memorial Hermann Broadway at the Hobby Center: Wicked

Before the two-part (!), big-screen adaptation drops, check out the Broadway sensation that looks at what happened in the Land of Oz, but from a different angle. Long before Dorothy arrives, there is another young woman, born with emerald-green skin. When she meets a bubbly blonde who is exceptionally popular, their initial rivalry turns into the unlikeliest of friendships, until the world decides to call one “good” and the other one “wicked.” Through Sunday, July 2. 1 and 7:30 pm (8 pm Friday; 2 pm and 8 pm Saturday; 2 pm and 7:30 pm Sunday).

Lawndale Art Center presents The Big Show opening reception

Lawndale Art Center will once again have its ambitious annual exhibition of new work by artists practicing within a 100-mile radius of Lawndale. This year, juror Dr. Kanitra Fletcher has selected 113 works by 112 artists from over 400 entries. Raised in Houston, Fletcher worked at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston prior to her current role as Associate Curator of African American and Afro-Diasporic Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Through Sunday, August 12. 7 pm.

Friday, June 2

Houston Tattoo Arts Festival

The Houston Tattoo Arts Festival will feature dozens of tattoo artists and tattoo contests. There will be entertainment from Olde City Sideshow’s Reggie Bügmüncher, Cenobyte Suspension, Verona Fink, James Maltman, and Captain & Maybelle. There will also be special guests, including Trocon Talhouk and Charles Whitfield from VH1, Holli Marie, Fon, Anwon Boneface, John Paul Roldan, Sirvone Smith, E MAC from Ink Master, and Al Fliction & Team Fliction. 2 pm (11 am Saturday and Sunday).

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents Houston Palestine Film Festival

The 16th Annual Houston Palestine Film Festival will go down at MFAH this weekend and Rice Cinema next weekend. First up is A Gaza Weekend, a dark comedy that highlights the bitter reality of life in Gaza between blockade and war. Then, there’s Mediterranean Fever, which tackles the meaning of country and home through two characters. Also, there’s Alam, about a Palestinian-Israeli high schooler who undergoes a political awakening when he falls for the outspoken new girl in his class. 7 pm (3 pm and 7 pm Saturday).

Dirt Dogs Theatre Co. presents August: Osage County

When the large Weston family unexpectedly reunites after patriarch Dad up and disappears, their Oklahoman family homestead explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets. Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for best play that same year, Tracy Letts’s acclaimed play examines how people function within dysfunction. Through Saturday, June 10. 8 pm (2 pm Sunday).

House of Blues presents Olivia Jean

Garage rocker Olivia Jean will be rocking out at House of Blues’s Bronze Peacock this weekend. Raving Ghost, her new album, arrived via Third Man Records last month. Produced by Jean at Los Angeles’ famed Valentine Recording Studios and Third Man Recording Studio in her home base of Nashville, Ghost has been met with early excitement from fans and media alike, with the likes of Pitchfork, SPIN, BrooklynVegan, and more chiming in at the outset. 9 pm.

Saturday, June 3

Houston Botanic Garden presents Go Bananas!

Guests can discover all there is to love about the banana during a day-long festival celebrating the tropical fruit, and one of the can’t-miss plants in the Garden’s tropical collection. There will be educational offerings on banana-related topics, cooking demonstrations and tastings of banana and plantain-inspired dishes, a kid’s zone, a farmer’s market, and more. 10 am.

KimoKawaii Anime Experience & Convention

The KimoKawaii Anime Experience & Convention returns for another adventure into the world of anime. The two-day, family-friendly event offers anime fans of all ages and degrees a variety of fun, anime activities. Events and activities include a cosplay contest, voice-over sessions, an anime-themed fashion show, panels, artists, exhibitors, celebrity voice-over actors, local cosplayers, pictures with Totoro, and more. 10 am.

Vino Vinyasa at Hilton Americas-Houston

This weekend, yogis and wine lovers can unite at the Hilton Americas-Houston on the Skyline Terrace for an exclusive yoga class. Vino Vinyasa classes bring together vinyasa-based yoga and fun wine facts through creative yoga poses. The hour-long educational class ends with a comparative wine tasting, inviting you to mindfully taste what's in your glass while applying what you learned through the poses. 11 am.

Fantastic Voyage Pays Tribute to Flash Gordon Parks at Boondocks

The two-man DJ crew known as Soul Control will have a special edition of their monthly Boondocks party this weekend. They’ll be paying tribute to DJ/ethnomusicologist Flash Gordon Parks. Back when he was doing his Easin’ In (Doing Our Thang) residency at Boondocks, he ushered in Soul Control and other DJs to continue the legacy of holding a space for soulful experiences. Cover is $5. 10 pm.

Sunday, June 4

Cigna Sunday in the Park Series

The last Cigna Sunday in the Park for the spring will happen at Mason Park this weekend. We all know this event gives Houstonians a chance to reconnect with their own neighborhoods, explore other new areas in the city and enjoy local entertainment, all while creating meaningful engagements and memories. But this event will have something special: the Astros World Series trophy, which will be on display for a couple hours. There will also be bounce houses, live music, dancing, free food and games. Noon.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents "Woven Wonders: Indian Textiles from the Parpia Collection" opening day

The Parpia Collection — one of the most significant private collections of Indian textiles outside of India — is also one of the most important in the United States. Seldom are collections of Indian textiles as comprehensive, or collected with such expertise. With this exhibition, the MFAH furthers its goal of representing the rich cultural heritage of Houston’s South Asian community. Through Saturday, August 27. 12:30 pm.

Houston Ballet presents Divergence

This will be the last chance to check out this ballet showcase. It includes Aszure Barton’s Angular Momentum, which pays homage to Space City with influences ranging from the city’s architecture depicted in the set design, to the moon landing in the third movement of Mason Bates’ hybrid orchestral-electronic score. The program will also feature a new work by world-renowned choreographer Justin Peck, And with Stanton Welch’s Divergence, this mixed repertoire program is sure to be a showstopper. 2 pm.

Movie Review

Star TV producer James L. Brooks stumbles with meandering movie Ella McCay

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Emma Mackey in Ella McCay.

The impact that writer/director/producer James L. Brooks has made on Hollywood cannot be understated. The 85-year-old created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, personally won three Oscars for Terms of Endearment, and was one of the driving forces behind The Simpsons, among many other credits. Now, 15 years after his last movie, he’s back in the directing chair with Ella McCay.

The similarly-named Emma Mackey plays Ella, a 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state in 2008 who’s on the verge of becoming governor when Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) gets picked to be a member of the president’s Cabinet. What should be a happy time is sullied by her needy husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), her agoraphobic brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), and her perpetually-cheating father, Eddie (Woody Harrelson).

Despite the trio of men competing to bring her down, Ella remains an unapologetic optimist, an attitude bolstered by her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), her assistant Estelle (Julie Kavner), and her police escort, Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani). The film follows her over a few days as she navigates the perils of governing, the distractions her family brings, and the expectations being thrust upon her by many different people.

Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, is all over the place with his storytelling. What at first seems to be a straightforward story about Ella and her various issues soon starts meandering into areas that, while related to Ella, don’t make the film better. Prime among them are her brother and father, who are given a relatively small amount of screentime in comparison to the importance they have in her life. This is compounded by a confounding subplot in which Casey tries to win back his girlfriend, Susan (Ayo Edebiri).

Then there’s the whole political side of the story, which never finds its focus and is stuck in the past. Though it’s never stated explicitly, Ella and Governor Bill appear to be Democrats, especially given a signature program Ella pushes to help mothers in need. But if Brooks was trying to provide an antidote to the current real world politics, he doesn’t succeed, as Ella’s full goals are never clear. He also inexplicably shows her boring her fellow lawmakers to tears, a strange trait to give the person for whom the audience is supposed to be rooting.

What saves the movie from being an all-out train wreck is the performances of Mackey and Curtis. Mackey, best known for the Netflix show Sex Education, has an assured confidence to her that keeps the character interesting and likable even when the story goes downhill. Curtis, who has tended to go over-the-top with her roles in recent years, tones it down, offering a warm place of comfort for Ella to turn to when she needs it. The two complement each other very well and are the best parts of the movie by far.

Brooks puts much more effort into his female actors, including Kavner, who, even though she serves as an unnecessary narrator, gets most of the best laugh lines in the film. Harrelson is capable of playing a great cad, but his character here isn’t fleshed out enough. Fearn is super annoying in his role, and Lowden isn’t much better, although that could be mostly due to what his character is called to do. Were it not for the always-great Brooks and Nanjiani, the movie might be devoid of good male performances.

Brooks has made many great TV shows and movies in his 60+ year career, but Ella McCay is a far cry from his best. The only positive that comes out of it is the boosting of Mackey, who proves herself capable of not only leading a film, but also elevating one that would otherwise be a slog to get through.

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Ella McCay opens in theaters on December 12.

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