Comedy news

Comedian John Mulaney goes live on 2025 tour with stop in Houston

Comedian John Mulaney will tour in fall 2025.

Photo courtesy of John Mulaney

Comedian John Mulaney will return to the road on a new stand-up comedy tour, John Mulaney: Mister Whatever, which will stop at Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land on November 8.

The announcement of the tour comes in the midst of Mulaney's run on his current Netflix talk show, Everybody's Live with John Mulaney, airing live weekly on Wednesdays through May 28.

The tour will travel to 31 cities across North America, starting on June 27 in Newark, New Jersey and running through at least December 18.

In addition to the Houston date, Mulaney will perform in Grand Prairie (outside of Dallas) on November 7 and Austin on November 9.

This will be Mulaney's first live dates in Texas since his 2022 tour.

Mulaney has grown to become one of the most popular comedians in the United States. After working as a writer for Saturday Night Live from 2008-2013, he starred in his own short-lived sitcom and starred alongside Nick Kroll in Oh, Hello on Broadway.

He also released two Emmy Award-winning comedy specials on Netflix, went back to SNL to host six times, and hosted two different Netflix talk shows.

Tickets for the tour will be available via presales starting on Wednesday, April 23 at 10 am local time. The general on-sale starts on Friday, April 25 at 10 local time at johnmulaney.com.

John Mulaney: Mister Whatever Tour Dates

Fri, June 27, 2025 - Newark, NJ - Prudential Center with Jon Stewart and Pete Davidson
Sat, June 28th 2025 – Verona, NY – Turning Stone Resort Casino
Sun, June 29th 2025 – Lenox, MA – Tanglewood Theater
Fri, July 18th 2025 – Hinckley, MN – Grand Casino Hinckley Amphitheater
Sat, July 19th 2025 – Winnipeg, MB – Assiniboine Park – Great Outdoors Festival with Martin Short
Sun, July 20th 2025 – Edmonton, AB – Kinsmen Park – Great Outdoors Festival with Martin Short
Thurs, Aug 7th 2025 – New Haven, CT – Westville Music Bowl with special guests Fred Armisen, Mike Birbiglia, and Nick Kroll
Fri, Aug 8th 2025 – Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts with special guests Fred Armisen, Mike Birbiglia, and Nick Kroll
Sat, Aug 9th 2025 – Portland, ME – Cross Insurance Arena with special guests Fred Armisen, Mike Birbiglia, and Nick Kroll
Sun, Aug 10th 2025 – Halifax, NS – Halifax Citadel Garrison Grounds – Great Outdoors Festival with special guests Fred Armisen, Mike Birbiglia, and Nick Kroll
Fri, Sep 5th 2025 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall
Sat, Sep 6th 2025 – Canandaigua, NY – CMAC
Sat, Sep 13th 2025 – Vancouver, BC – Brockton Oval – Great Outdoors Festival with special guestsFred Armisen, Mike Birbiglia, and Nick Kroll
Thurs, Sep 18th 2025 – Philadelphia, PA – The Met Philadelphia presented by Highmark
Thurs, Sep 25th 2025 – Boston, MA – Boch Center Wang Theater
Sat, Oct 4th 2025 – Durham, NC – DPAC
Sun, Oct 5th 2025 – North Charleston, SC – North Charleston Performing Arts Center
Fri, Oct 10th 2025 – Saratoga, CA – The Mountain Winery
Sat, Oct 11th 2025 – Las Vegas, NV – Dolby Live Park Theater
Sun, Oct 12th 2025 – San Diego, CA – Rady Shell
Thurs, Oct 16th 2025 – Detroit, MI- Fox Theatre
Thurs, Oct 23rd 2025 – Pittsburgh, PA – Petersen Events Center
Fri, Oct 24th 2025 – Cleveland, OH – Playhouse Square – Palace Theatre
Fri, Nov 7th 2025 - Grand Prairie, TX - Texas Trust CU Theatre
Sat, Nov 8th 2025 – Houston, TX – Smart Financial Centre
Thurs, Nov 13th 2025 - Austin, TX - Bass Concert Hall
Sat, Nov 22nd 2025 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
Sat, Dec 6th 2025 – Tampa, FL – Straz Center
Sun, Dec 7th 2025 – Hollywood, FL – Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood
Thurs, Dec 11th 2025 – Orlando, FL – Walt Disney Theater
Fri, Dec 12th 2025 – Atlanta, GA – Fox Theatre
Thurs, Dec 18th 2025 – Washington, DC – The Anthem

comedy performing-arts

Movie Review

Jessica Chastain gets in a tangled love story in new drama Dreams

Photo courtesy of Teorema

Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams.

The opening scenes of the new drama Dreams are bracing, fictional sequences that call to mind real-life scenarios. In them, a young Mexican man named Fernando (Isaac Hernández) goes through a somewhat harrowing journey from the back of a semi truck in South Texas all the way to San Francisco. It’s a familiar immigrant story that seems to set the stage for a film with something interesting to say.

It turns out, however, that Fernando has not made the long and arduous trek for a job. Instead, it’s to be with Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), a rich woman who helps lead a foundation dedicated to multiple things, including funding dance academies. Fernando, a talented dancer, and Jennifer have been in an off-and-on affair for years, with Jennifer wanting to keep their relationship a secret.

Although both are drawn to each other in an inexplicable, lustful way, their bond is tenuous, with each of them dissatisfied for different reasons. Fernando clearly sacrifices much more of himself than Jennifer, who wants for nothing except maybe more affection from her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), and brother, Jake (Rupert Friend).

Writer/director Michel Franco seems to try to inject tension into Fernando and Jennifer’s relationship from the start, an attempt that is only halfway successful. It’s clear from the way they greet each other - not to mention a steamy sex scene shortly thereafter - that they have known each other for a good length of time. Franco is able to get across this familiarity with an economy of scenes, and the intensity of their bond holds for a while.

But as the film progresses and both of them grow disenchanted with their arrangement, Franco starts taking the story in some odd directions. The biggest issue is that it’s never clear at what point in time the story is taking place. Fernando ends up making multiple trips back and forth across the border, with Jennifer doing the same at one point, and Franco’s use of flashbacks muddies the waters, wrong-footing the audience when he should be trying to draw them further into Fernando and Jennifer’s complications.

Revelations in the final act make the story even more confusing, as both main characters start saying and doing harsh things that seem to come out of nowhere. That would be all well and good if Franco actually committed to their changes of heart, but he keeps things wishy-washy for most of the final 15 minutes, resulting in an ending that makes little sense for either character.

Despite the story issues, both Chastain and Hernández give compelling performances. Chastain has been a little under the radar since winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but she keeps this character interesting longer than it should have been. Hernández has limited credits and appears to have been cast for his dancing ability, but he goes toe-to-toe with Chastain on more than one occasion and acquits himself well.

Dreams had all of the ideas to explore a more in-depth story about the complicated immigration policies between Mexico and the U.S., or how wealthy people take advantage of those less fortunate. But Franco never finds the right footing, settling instead for a titillating and somewhat mystifying relationship story that feels half-baked.

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Dreams is now playing in select theaters.

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