Houston Lifestyles & Homes February 2010
performing arts in the houston area
Dancers Mireille Hassenboehler, Amy Fote and Barbara Bears from La Bayadere
LA BAYADÈRE
Houston Ballet,
Feb. 25, 27, 28 and March 5 - 7
The high point of Houston Ballet’s 40th anniversary season will be a spectacular new production of one of the
great classical works of the 19th century repertoire, featuring choreography by
Stanton Welch and lavish scenery and costumes by celebrated English designer
Peter Farmer.
Set in the Royal India of the past, La Bayadère is a story of eternal love, mystery, fate, vengeance and justice. The ballet
relates the drama of a temple dancer (bayad
ère), Nikiya, who is loved by Solor, a noble warrior. She is also loved by the
High Brahmin, but does not love him in return, as she does Solor.
Photo courtesy of Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre
Theatre Under the Stars,
Feb. 9 - 21
Once again the Les Miz pop composers Boublil and Schonberg, inspired by another classic love story in
wartime, have woven songs pulsing with memorable melodies and resonant lyrics.
With its exotic setting, but familiar conflict of returning draftees,
Miss Saigon makes the story of Madame Butterfly new again. It was clear after the 2001 sold-out TUTS debut—subscribers have since clamored for this soaring score and indelible characters
to return
—and what better sequel to the landmark Les Miserables? Journey with TUTS halfway across the world for one of the most timeless and
moving stories ever told.
For more information, call 713-558-TUTS or go to www.tuts.com.
Michael Cavanaugh Sings
Billy Joel and More
Houston Symphony,
Feb. 26 - 28
Michael Cavanaugh played Billy Joel in the hit Broadway musical Movin’ Out. Now hear him perform Billy Joel hits including Uptown Girl, Piano Man and Just the Way You Are. Also hear the music of Jerry Lee Lewis, Elton John and The Who. Steven Reineke
is conducting. For more information, go to
www.houstonsymphony.org or call 713-224-7575.
Jon Pylypchuk
Blaffer Gallery, Through Feb. 6
Jon Pylypchuk’s work lays bare the frailty of human existence and the fragility of social
relationships. A contemporary fabulist, Pylypchuk creates heart-wrenching
stories of attraction and repulsion, love and loss, pleasure and pain, and
triumph and failure. Endowed with human attributes, yet endearing in their
pet-like cuteness, Pylypchuk
’s hybrid creatures inspire empathy. Their experiences and struggles speak to the
pathetic banality, stubborn determination and relentless optimism that define
many of our paths through life, that unfolding tragicomedy of epic proportion.
Curated by Director and Chief Curator Claudia Schmuckli, this exhibition
presents a 10-year survey of Pylypchuk
’s career, including 75 works created since 1999.
Wonderland
Alley Theatre, Until Feb. 14
Composer Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll and Hyde) returns to the Alley with Wonderland, a delightful new musical that updates Alice’s adventures through an amazing pop score.
Alice is a children’s book writer in Manhattan who is suffering through a creative block, estranged
from her husband and alienated from her daughter. It takes a trip to a
strange-yet-familiar
Wonderland for her to regain her life’s balance and again find the love and everyday magic that reside in us all—if we know how to look. Alley audiences will be among the first to see this new
production filled with extraordinary songs, fantastic characters and lots of
heart.
Your Bright Future: 12 contemporary
artists from korea
Museum Fine Arts Houston, Through Feb. 14
Your Bright Future: 12 Contemporary Artists from Korea features a generation of artists who have emerged since the mid-1980s—some well-known and others on the brink of such recognition—all of whom work on the cutting-edge of international art trends and within a
distinctly Korean context.
Your Bright Future (a deliberately ambiguous title taken from a sculpture by Bahc Yiso) represents
each artist through a large-scale installation or substantial body of work,
including site-specific installations, video art, computer animation and
sculpture.
For more information, go to www.mfah.org or call 713-639-7300.
Thunder Rock
Company OnStage, Through Feb. 20
A Lake Michigan lighthouse is a safe haven for a disillusioned war veteran who
elects to isolate himself from society. The imagined ghosts from a shipwreck on
the lake 90 years earlier give him the confidence to reconnect with the world
he deserted.
Thunder Rock is a fascinating and inspirational drama by Robert Ardrey.
Darke | read
Darke I Gallery, Through Feb. 27
DARKE | read, a group exhibition of works on paper curated by Marcelyn McNeil,
is on display at DARKE | gallery until Feb. 27. Now living and working in
Houston, McNeil received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois
and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pacific Northwest College of Art. Her work has
been featured in
New American Paintings in 2005 and 2007 and she was a Hunting Prize finalist in 2008 and 2009.
McNeil selected a group of artists from across the country that use drawing as
an integral part of their process, individuals whose work she admires for their
sense of economy and deftness in execution. The viewer will see works on paper
interpreting
“read.” While connections exist between the artists, the work is varied. Some pieces
address the current social/political climate; others are ironic and humorous.
Many of the pieces selected share in a
“pop” aesthetic.
The DARKE | gallery is located at 5321 Feagan in Houston. For more information,
go to
www.darkegallery.com.
The Book of Memory
Holocaust Museum Houston, Feb. 2 - April 25
The Holocaust Museum Houston has collaborated with the Consulate General of
Mexico in presenting samples of the work by artist Bela Gold in
The Book of Memory exhibit. For several years, Gold’s work has been a reflection of the complexity of contemporary culture. Her work
is defined by a contrast between beauty and cultural references; in her case,
the Holocaust. She puts this conflict on display in all her pieces, which offer
evidence of our own ambivalence toward the beauty of artistic expression and
the social impact it creates. Gold offers a sample book of the various graphics
techniques depicting a variety of metal etchings, photoengraved-intaglio,
engraved-intaglio, laser engraving, graphite on stone, silkscreen and graphite
drawing on stone, and digital embroidery on cloth.
Red Carpet Oscar Party
Houston Symphony, Feb. 5 - 7
February means the Academy Awards. Remember your favorite Oscar-winning
blockbusters with music from
Lawrence of Arabia, Exodus, Ben Hur and Titanic, as well as 2010 Oscar hopefuls. Michael Krajewski will serve as conductor.
The Turn of the Screw
Houston Grand Opera, Feb. 6, 10, 13
In the operatic thriller The Turn of the Screw, two children are pulled toward the world of the dead by the ghosts of their
prior governess Miss Jessel and her lover, Peter Quint.
Internationally-acclaimed soprano Amanda Roocroft plays the governess whose
obsessive efforts to protect the children may prove more of a threat than the
spirits themselves. Powerhouse mezzo-soprano Judith Forst is housekeeper Mrs.
Grose, the governess
’ only ally. Haunting Victorian sets depict the world of the Henry James novel on
which the opera is based. Directed by Neil Armfield, this is the third opera in
HGO
’s ongoing Benjamin Britten series.
Trio solisti
Houston Friends of Music, Feb. 9
Comprised of three brilliant instrumentalists—Maria Bachman, violin; Alexis Pia Gerlach, cello; and John Klibonoff, piano—Trio Solisti has earned a national reputation for its passionate, committed and
adventurous performances marked by exquisite individuality of expression and
seamless ensemble playing. Collaborating with many of today
’s leading composers, Trio Solisti has performed and commissioned works by Paul
Moravec, Kevin Puts and Philip Glass. In addition to numerous appearances
around the U.S., they have been broadcast nationally on
St. Paul Sunday and NPR’s Performance Today. For more information or tickets, go to www.HoustonFriendsofMusic.org or call
713-348-5400.
STOMP
Society For The Performing Arts, Feb. 12 - 14
STOMP, the international sensation, is making its triumphant return to Houston. The
return of the percussive hit also brings some new surprises, with some sections
of the show now updated and restructured and the addition of two new full-scale
routines, utilizing props like tractor tire inner tubes and paint cans.
The changes now being seen in the tour of STOMP are the biggest since the late ’90s. A new piece, “Paint Cans,” evolved out of the “Boxes” routine in the Las Vegas show, and “Donuts” is a piece that implements huge tractor tire inner tubes, worn around the waist
on a bungee cord. For more information, go to
www.spahouston.org.
Maurizio Cattelan
The Menil Collection, beginning Feb. 12
Contemporary Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan (b. 1960) is known for his witty
embrace of semantic shifts that result from imaginative plays with materials,
objects and actions. In his work, contradictions in the space between what the
artist describes as softness and perversity wage a sarcastic critique on
political power structures, from notions of nationalism or the authorities of
organized religion to the conceit of the museum and art history.
The exhibition will focus on recent large-scale works that premiered in Europe
in 2007 and will feature sculptures that range in tone from the melancholic and
politically contentious to the decidedly irreverent.
Camelot
Masquerade Theatre, Feb. 19 - 21 and Feb. 26 - 28
Camelot, a legendary production for a legendary season, is the crown jewel in the
collaborative efforts of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe (
Brigadoon, My Fair Lady) that will be performed at Masquerade Theatre during February
The legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, and of the tragic
love between him, his queen Guenevere, and the champion Sir Lancelot, is built
on the inherent nobility of the King and his struggle to uphold a perfect ideal
of chivalry and goodness in an all-too-human world
—and all too soon, the choices he must make between being a husband, a friend and
a king. Be drawn into the breathtaking drama and the beauty of
Camelot, a perfect place that cannot exist, with beloved and classic songs.
cirque dreams illumination
Broadway Across America, Feb. 23 - March 7
From the creators of the groundbreaking Broadway Hit Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy comes an all new journey of nighttime dreamers whose imaginations are ignited
within a landscape of towering buildings and infinite possibilities.
Audiences of all ages will marvel and experience a journey of city dwellers who
reinvent everyday objects, balance beyond belief, delicately dangle from wires,
leap tall buildings and redefine the risks of flight in an array of astounding
occurrences that transform the ordinary into extraordinary.
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