weekend event planner

Here are the top 12 things to do in Houston this weekend

Pretty Woman charms audiences with a red-hot musical.

Photo by Matthew Murphy

The first weekend of 2023 offers some feel-good fun in theater, music, and comedy starring some familiar names.

Fans of the romcom classic Pretty Woman will delight in the red-hot musical that's in town. Fans of David and Bowie and Elvis can celebrate the stars at a show honoring them both. And, fans of Elton John and Billy Joel can jam at a Houston Symphony show of the pair's greatest hits.

Plus, some funny folk stage some serious comedy this weekend. Enjoy; here are your best bets for the weekend.

Thursday, January 5

The Riot presents "Live LAUGH Love" Comedians on Relationships

We’re nowhere near Valentine’s Day, but you can still head over to the legendary Rudyard's comedy room to catch comedians share their dating experiences and answer your questions about relationships. The club features comedy shows with the funniest comedians you've seen on Netflix, HBO, Comedy Central, at the Comedy Store and Comedy Cellar. They also serve tasty food, draught beer, wine, Delta-8, and cocktails in an intimate and casual setting. 7 pm.

Memorial Hermann Broadway at the Hobby Center: Pretty Woman

Based on one of Hollywood’s most beloved romantic stories of all time, this stage-musical version of the 1990 movie that made Julia Roberts a star springs to life with a powerhouse creative team led by two-time, Tony-winning director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell. The production features an original score by Grammy winner Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance & a book by Garry Marshall, the movie’s late director, and screenwriter J. F. Lawton. 7:30 pm (8 pm Friday; 2 and 8 pm Saturday; 2 and 7:30 pm Sunday).

ISHIDA presents Stirs up still things

Stirs up still things includes world premieres by ISHIDA based on original poetic narratives and works by emerging and renowned, international choreographers. “Among dim shapes” follows an intimate relationship and the ghosts they carry, triggered by archetypal patterns. The program also includes a new creation by Swedish dancer, film director, and choreographer John Wannehag (formerly with Tanzmainz), and a new work by award-winning, British-Finnish choreographer Kristian Lever. 8 pm (2 pm Sunday).

Friday, January 6

Vitacca Vocational School for Dance presents Winter Works

This Friday and Saturday, Vitacca Vocational School for Dance presents this two-act performance, featuring Vitacca Studio Company dancers in a restaged excerpt of La Bayadere and original contemporary works. These works are created by 2022-23 guest artists Greg Dolbashian, Jess Hendricks, Sean Aaron Carmon, Garrett Smith and Kelly Ann Vitacca. 7 pm.

Improv Houston presents Bill Bellamy

Using his experiences growing up in Newark, former MTV VJ (and creator of the phrase “booty call”) Bill Bellamy started doing stand-up while he was a student at Rutgers University. Bellamy quickly discovered how much he enjoyed making people laugh, and began honing his skills at small comedy clubs around the country and was soon making waves in clubs and on shows like HBO’s Def Comedy Jam. 7:30 and 9:45 pm (7 and 9 pm Saturday; 7:30 pm Sunday).

Houston Symphony presents The Music of Elton John and Billy Joel

From “Rocket Man” to “Piano Man,” the iconic hits of two classic rock legends come alive in this special concert. Piano-and-vocal talent Michael Cavanaugh — handpicked by Billy Joel to recreate his music in the Broadway musical Movin’ Out — delivers electrifying renditions of the songs you know and love, including “Tiny Dancer,” “Uptown Girl,” “Your Song,” “New York State of Mind,” “Saturday Night’s Alright,” and many more. 8 pm (2:30 pm Sunday).

Saturday, January 7

Community Artists' Collective presents Morgan Newton: "When I Think of Home" opening reception

The Community Artists’ Collective opens the new year with a solo exhibition by local artist Morgan Newton. The paintings included in this exhibition mark a stylistic shift that conveys the aesthetic and spiritual blossoming of Newton’s pursuit to internalize familial notions of home and cultivate home within herself. Newton centers Black female figures as symbols for her life experiences, in idealized, chromatic and in some cases, fantastically celestial environments to suggest the infinite potential of the nurtured self. Through Saturday, February 4. 2 pm.

Splice Records presents 14th Annual BowiElvis Fest

Yes, there will be many David Bowie-related events popping off this weekend. But, of course, the Continental Club and Splice Records will have its annual birthday party for Bowie and Elvis Presley, two of the most beloved and influential artists of the previous century. This year’s fest will feature music by Swimwear Department, Pecos Hank, Brian Scartocci, and Henry & the Invisibles. 6:30 pm.

The Museum of FIne Arts, Houston presents The Conformist

When a member of Mussolini’s secret police and his new bride travel to Paris for their honeymoon, Marcello plans to assassinate his former college professor, an outspoken anti-Fascist living in exile. But Marcello’s political and romantic loyalties are tested when he meets the professor’s alluring young wife. A commentary on Fascism and beauty alike, Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1970 masterpiece is acclaimed for its sumptuous visuals and extravagant, artful cinematography. 7 pm (2 pm Sunday).

Sunday, January 8

Italian Cultural & Community Center presents Festa della Befana 2023

Come learn about this Italian holiday tradition with your family. Children will receive sweets from Befana when she comes to visit. L a Befana is an old, kind woman who flies by broomstick on the night of January 5, dropping off goodies for kids to wake up to. According to the legend, the three kings asked her to come with them to bring gifts to baby Jesus. Now, she flies on her broomstick and brings treats to children each year on Three Kings' Day. 3 pm.

Leonard "Lowdown" Brown and Jonn Richardson Play Lucky's Guitar at Emmit's Place

Do you know the story of Lucky Peterson and his ostrich-covered guitar? If you don’t, read it here. And, after that, you can check out this very special, afternoon event. At the request of the current owners, both Leonard “Lowdown” Brown and Jonn Richardson will be playing this custom, ostrich-covered guitar before it is lovingly returned home to Lucky Peterson’s family. A wonderful story of this guitar and its journey home – 15 years in the making. 5 pm.

The Gumbo Jam

It’s time once again to get all funky and well-fed, at this Louisiana-inspired jam session with a serious food menu. This session is home to all things hip-hop and jazz. Singers, rappers, poets, musicians and, of course, horn players from all over come to party in the loose, laid-back vibe of Matthew Hartnett & The Gumbo All-Stars. If you like to dance, eat good food, and hear great music, this is the place. And, yes, there will be hookahs! 8 pm.

entertainment weekend events

Creed concert review

Creed serve up millennial nostalgia at pyro-packed RodeoHouston concert

Courtesy of Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

Singer Scott Stapp serenades the RodeoHouston crowd.

Hello, my friend, we meet again.

I’ve had a torrid relationship with Creed. As a circa-2000s punk rocker, it was implied that I was supposed to hate them. Nevertheless, I enjoyed those hook-laden Mark Tremonti riffs and Scott Stapp’s burly, Bono-grasping vocals, with just a hint of irony deep in the mix. I had “One Last Breath” on a burned mix CD, bunched in with Fugazi, Rancid, and Sham 69. I would skip it as quickly as I could, depending on who was in the car. Driving home from a long day slinging milk in the Kroger dairy cooler? Windows down, Stapp up.

When I began my music journalism career 20 years ago (!!!), I began sticking up for them, much to the consternation of a lot of my fellow writers who were hung up on stuff that was supposed to be cooler and hipper. Creed’s pop-culture zenith came right as The Strokes and The White Stripes were thrust on us by the music press as a counter to post-grunge, which other music writers were categorically allergic to. Remember when our biggest problems in America were bands that were overtly influenced by Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains?

In 2012, I interviewed lead singer Scott Stapp along the way for the Houston Press, and I distinctly recall Stapp being confused on our call that a guy from a smug alt-weekly wasn’t asking him stupid questions or making fun of his leather pants. The band was heading to Houston for a two-night stand at the Bayou Music Center in 2012 when they played 1997’s “My Own Prison” and 1999’s “Human Clay” in their entirety.

Fun fact: “Human Clay” has sold over 20 million albums alone, besting Nirvana’s “Nevermind” and Pearl Jam’s “Ten” by only a relatively small margin. Creed moved more physical CDs when people actually bought music.

Somehow, along the way, people stopped hating Creed and Nickelback, and the hate gave way to pre-social media, millennial high school, and pre-9/11 nostalgia. The similarly maligned Nickelback sold out the rodeo in 2024.

On Wednesday, March 11, I saw junior high school kids wearing crispy new Creed shirts with their parents. Gen Alpha is beginning to get curious about what mom and dad were up to during spring break 2001, and Zoomers are rediscovering Y2K fashions. Haven’t you seen those “Mom, What Were You Like In The ‘90s?” memes?

Creed has been sold out for weeks, drawing 70,007 attendees. If you had told someone 10 years ago that Creed would sell out RodeoHouston, they would have been skeptical. And yet here we are, staring down at a sold-out Creed show. These things run in cycles. Emotions fade. Annoyance turns into wistfulness for the days of Nokia brick phones and 99-cent gas. You can even go on a Creed Cruise now.

Creed hit the stage just before 9:30 pm, an enviable bedtime for most elderly millennials, kicking off with the TOOL-chugalug of “Bullets,” with Stapp and Tremonti making the best use of their stage platforms, crucial devices for any major rock band in the 2000s. Unrelenting pyro shot from the dirt surrounding the stage every time Stapp lifted or flailed his arms like Elvis if he discovered cardio.

The dirge of “Torn” — the second single from My Own Prison — was pyro-less, likely giving the cannons a few minutes to cool off. The sweaty Stapp, at just 52, looks to be in better shape than he did 20 years ago, now sporting a conservative haircut like he stepped out of his company’s stadium suite or finished a twilight run at Memorial Park.

Stapp introduced “My Own Prison” with a preachery pep talk that wouldn’t sound out of place at an altar call at Sturgis. The crowd hung on every emphatic word. Maybe seeing two middle-aged dudes wearing Stryper shirts down on the concourse made more sense than I realized. Is Creed actually just TOOL that accepted Christ? The graphics behind the band could’ve fooled me.

Stapp introduced “One” with a speech on commonalities and love. Looking back, Creed’s lyrics were much too earnest, hitting at a time when critics were still hungover from grunge.

During “With Arms Wide Open,” the rodeo cameras would routinely cut to tattooed dads and rocker chicks in the crowd playing air guitar along with Tremonti and singing their guts out like they did the first time they heard it on 94.5 The Buzz. For a large segment of the crowd, they might have had a Gen-X parent jamming this stuff on the way to school in the morning.

“Are you ready to get higher in here, Houston?” Stapp yells. The place erupts as “Higher” starts. Stapp was in his element, pyro shooting off, his silver jewelry dangling, taking in the crowd, like he didn’t expect such a response.

Possibly the last true rock power ballad ever recorded, “One Last Breath,” got the biggest screams of the night; it might also be the Gen-Z “Don’t Stop Believing” as long as we’re making wildly controversial statements. [Editor’s note: Isn’t that Mr. Brightside? -ES]

Welcome back, Creed, from pop-culture purgatory, and props for what might have been the loudest RodeoHouston show in years.

SETLIST

Bullets
Torn
Are You Ready?
My Own Prison
What If
One
With Arms Wide Open
Higher
One Last Breath
My Sacrifice

Courtesy of Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

Singer Scott Stapp serenades the RodeoHouston crowd.

rodeohouston houston livestock show and rodeo concert review