Must-see stage performances
The reopening of the Wortham Center marks the Houston arts scene’s triumphant return to form. This holiday season has a bit of an unusual flavor, featuring an eclectic mix of world music, avant-garde opera and pops. Here are our top five picks for the performing arts in Houston for November and December.
PEDRITO Da Camera, MARTINEZ Dec. 1 Afro-Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martinez will be playing in the Wortham Center’s beautiful Cullen Hall. That’s a sit-down room. You don’t want to sit down for Pedrito Martinez. The founder of Afro-beat band Yerba Buena and winner of NPR’s Best Jazz Album in 2016, Martinez is an infectious soloist and bandleader who will make you want to stand up and dance. ‘LA Houston Opera, BOHÈME’ through Grand Nov. 11 “La Bohème” isn’t being marketed as a Christmas show in the same vein as “The Nutcracker” or “A Christmas Carol,” but its themes of love, hope and revolution, not to mention the Christmas Eve setting, make it the perfect wintertime opera. ‘HOME ALONE’ WITH LIVE ORCHESTRA Houston Symphony, Dec. 14 It’s not just the fact that John Williams composed the score to this hit film, about a boy accidentally left by himself to fend off two incompetent robbers. It’s that the music helped enshrine “Home Alone” into the minds of an entire generation of ’90s kids, a score that was sweeping, holiday-centric and heartwarming. A CHRISTMAS FRENCH BAROQUE Mercury Houston, Nov. 29-Dec. 2 Mercury’s focus on the Baroque period of music serves as a fitting way to celebrate the holidays in your neighborhood. The group takes its small-scale concert of French Baroque and Renaissance Christmas music and presents it in multiple locations, including the MATCH, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Dosey Doe in The Woodlands. ‘HANSEL Rec Room, & Dec. GRETEL’ 2-22 Director experimental Matt Hune’s imagining of the classic fable “Hansel & Gretel” was an unexpected smash last year. It took the bones of a very familiar story and turned it into a multigenre experience, blending elements of opera, immersive theater and dance all at once.