HOUSTON THEATER REVIEWS

As the promise of live theater is slowly making its way back to the theatres of Houston, one upcoming exciting endeavor is the 4th Wall Theatre's SUMMER SHAKES program. SUMMER SHAKES is 4th Wall's new conservatory program where they will house ten high school students, teach them modern Shakespeare...

In a world where the Black Lives Matter movement is a focal point, and many organizations are changing their views on diversity, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill at STAGES Theatre in Montrose provides a glimpse of why equality is important. The title character's nickname of Lady Day, otherwise kn...

BLAQUE TCHERIE makes for an impressive film debut for Vincent Victoria, and it looks like his empire may expand to new mediums.  It’s a funny film with a very sweet message about black women and how they should be perceived....

On Friday evening March 12, 2021, Houston Grand Opera presented Live from The Cullen: Jack Swanson and Richard Bado in a wide-ranging recital of music by Robert Schumann, Leonard Bernstein, Roger Quilter, Kurt Weill, Franz Liszt, and Gioachino Rossini. Swanson can hold his audience spellbound with ...

If you’re anything like me (And if you’re a theatre person, you probably are), you’re a sucker for a good cabaret. And a sweet love story. And (of course) musicals. Need I say more? A.D. Players has jumped back into the digital theatre space with their timely production of A SPECK-TACULAR EVEN...

It goes without mention that this year’s festivities look a little different, but in the case of Houston Ballet’s virtual program NUTCRACKER SWEETS, different can be synonymous with delightful: the same decorated holiday production with all the bells and whistles, along with several added layers...

When was the last time your weekly trip to Trader Joe's consisted of 1,500 lbs of food? I know, I know. Trader Joe's is the bomb. But 1,500 lbs?! That, however, is just a regular ol' day for the folks at Second Servings Houston, who recover food excess and connect it to those in need. With the va...

This tricky character-driven piece requires an amazing cast, and that is just what 4th WALL THEATRE COMPANY has managed to assemble. Byron Jacquet plays Pops, and he carries the story ably on broad shoulders. Every moment of his performance has a world weary marinade that rings true....

How far should we hold someone responsible for abuse decades ago? Can we factor in that maybe they grew and changed over the years? Is it fair to seek social justice in the age of the Internet when someone can instantly be fired or destroyed by allegations that were never prosecuted or examined by...

In over ten years of being in the audience at the Hobby Center, I have never heard applause as loud and abundant as I did at last night's curtain call. It was as if the whole audience agreed not only that we had witnessed something significant, but were acknowledging that we witnessed it together. I...

What do Apollo 13, Space Jam, The Mummy, and A Quiet Place all have in common? Why, they're none other than four of the many (many) acclaimed movie musical adaptations of Halpert Evans' (Al Fallick) extensive Broadway career. You haven't heard of him? Well then, let me introduce to you one of Broadw...

Every generation seems to have their Florence Ballard - ultra talented singers who get tossed aside because they don't fit a look or a concept of what a record label wants in its catalog....

FEFU AND HER FRIENDS passes the Bechdel test with glowing colors a?" there are no men seen, and only mentioned briefly, even though we feel their presence as plot catalysts. As these women make soup, have water fights and practice French, read aloud from magazines and eat bourbon popsicles, cry and ...

Why did Stages choose THE FANTASTICKS to open The Gordy, their sparkling new home? Because it is perfect. There is no neater, lovelier piece of musical theatre. To christen a new theatre with this show makes absolute sense....

“This—something, life and...breath?” my friend read as she tried to decode my jumbled mess of notes while I drove us home from the show. “Oh no,” I answered, 'that says, 'This musical lives and breathes.” That short phrase is the most indicative of my experience at ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, a...

Narratively ELLIOT, A SOLDIER'S FUGUE simply combines three soldiers in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq.  They represent a grandfather, a father, and a son who all go through similar experiences in the wars of their respective eras....

Most people know the music pretty well, but few knew the band had a colorful history full of crimes and mob connections that were against the clean cut tradition of their era. They seemed to be more than a boy band and bordered on a gang in many ways. Forget BTS, One Direction, or even the New Kids ...

The year is 1967, the place is San Francisco, and the conflict? A young and optimistic mixed-race couple has just announced their upcoming plans of marriage to unsuspecting parents. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner extracts the nuances and subtleties of prejudice and plops them center stage, both litera...

THE BAND'S VISIT reminds audiences what musical theater can be when we remove garish production values and jukebox hits. It takes us somewhere unfamiliar, and by the end we realize that it's not nearly as far as we thought. The human heart is well mapped no matter where you go, and people have uni...

This is HAMLET like you have never seen before - performed by a handsome stranger who is hellbent on turning Shakespeare's longest work into a 90 minute aria. In concept it sounds dicey, but in execution it works surprisingly well. ...

a?oeDolly will never go away again!a?? But that's just it. Dolly has never gone anywhere. So long as there are humans on earth, Hello, Dolly! will continue to live. Somewhere, somehow, the show will always be produced, the songs always sung, the characters always riffed off of. It has left an impa...

I first saw ELF when TUTS produced it back in 2013, and last year I had the absolute joy of working on a production of it at Queensbury Theatre. I'll be honest, it was a challenge for me to set aside my past experience with the show in order to see it with fresh eyes, giving myself a fair chance to ...

In the thick of the holiday season, there are generally two camps of seasonal shows in the repertoire of our Houston theatre scene: those that indulge the festive, heartfelt genre of holiday classics, and those that provide an alternative. While I am partial to the former (Yes, I also enjoy the chee...

Vincent Victoria has made a name for himself by recreating black female icons that loom large over our cultural imagination. Eartha Kitt like Lena Horne defied the beauty standards of her time to create her own definition of what a leading lady should look and act like....

Claire Barron's edgy comedy/drama centers on a small, slightly dysfunctional family and their problems, the biggest of which is a massive storm system moving relentlessly their way....