POWER UP!

The new arts season promises plenty of electric moments

by D.L. Groover

If we could just harness all the electricity that gets produced here on our Bayou City stages, museums, and performance art spaces and transmit it to the northeast quadrant, New York City would never go dark again.

Here is but a sampling of the power and excitement that our Houston arts generate. Don’t be left in the dark. Go see something.

• A.D. PLAYERS

2710 Alabama ∑ 713/526-2721

www.adplayers.org

Anastasia

April 30-June 6, 2004

Respected for its Christian family values, Jeannette Clift George’s theater company isn’t usually the first venue our GLBT community would think to attend, but after last season’s superlative production of Tim Slover’s George F. Handel-inspired Joyful Noise, we look forward to their late-season Anastasia. This is the same teledrama by Marcelle Maurette that transferred so successfully to Broadway and Hollywood (winning Ingrid Bergman a second Oscar). An amnesiac found on the Paris streets by a Russian con man is passed off by him as the long-dead daughter of Russia’s last czar. The recognition scene between the wary, icy grandmother and the young woman is one of theater’s magic moments. This big, suspenseful romantic drama is the kind they don’t write any more.

I Do! I Do!

July 9-August 15, 2004

Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, creators of The Fantasticks and 110 Degrees in the Shade, crafted one of the best two-character musicals in the rep when they adapted Jan de Hartog’s 1951 play The Fourposter. The original cast boasted Mary Martin and Robert Preston as a married couple we follow from their wedding day forward for the next turbulent, loving 50 years. Tuneful and delightful with just enough old-fashioned Broadway sass.

• ALLEY THEATRE

615 Texas ∑ 713/228-8421

www.alleytheatre.org

Cantinflas!

September 23-October 5, 2003

Workshopped at the Alley in 2001, this tribute to Mexico’s greatest comedian, written and acted by Herbert Siguenza, opens their season. Former acrobat and bullfighter Mario Moreno found his true calling when he appeared on screen, becoming a movie star clown nonpareil. Except for his work as frazzled French butler Passepartout in Mike Todd’s gargantuan Around the World in 80 Days, his immense charm and physical comedy didn’t translate in the States. Hollywood didn’t know what to do with this Caplinesque sad sack with a motor mouth and disdain for authority, witness the very bad Pepe, and he returned to Mexico where he is rightly glorified today as a “symbol of peace and happiness of the

Americas.”

Fully Committed

October 17-November 16, 2003

Restaurant haute culture gets skewered oh-so-nicely in Becky Mode’s hilarious satire. In a tour de force role, Jamison Stern gets to be the power broker from hell as he mans the phone reservations for Manhattan’s hottest new eatery. He also gets to be about 39 other characters from harried maitre d’ to Naomi Campbell whining for the best table. Next time you’re at Tony’s or Café Annie, you’ll realize why this play is so damned on target. Savory and delicious.

Proof

January 9-February 1, 2004

For his second full-length play, author David Auburn hit solid gold. Not only did his mathematical mystery play snatch the Tony away from Tom Stoppard’s Invention of Love, but it garnered the Drama Desk Award and the Pulitzer Prize, too. Not bad for a drama that weaves together mental illness, genius, mathematical theorems, romance, handwriting analysis, and ghosts. Not nearly so worldly wise as it would like us to believe, Auburn’s conventions (especially the old canard of “genius=madness”) entertain and make us think nevertheless. John Tyson, Elizabeth Heflin, Elizabeth Bunch, and Ty Mayberry portray the dysfunctional quartet.

Topdog/Underdog

January 16-February 15, 2004

Suzan-Lori Parks’ modern morality tales (Fucking A, Mutabilities, Venus, In the Blood) like this one are caustic fables about the black experience that reach out and embrace, or slap, us all. Her poetic voice, hyper-real and edged with acid, can put off the audience or have them standing in celebration. Two brothers, Lincoln and Booth, share a ratty apartment and a love/hate relationship. Lincoln is done with the street con life; Booth wants him back in. To be topdog, there has to be an underdog to rise above; to be underdog, there has to be a topdog to rail against. If you rail against the Man, he may very well turn out to be a relative, if not your own reflection.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

May 14-June 6, 2004

Stephen Sondheim’s first solo foray into music and lyrics, with a book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, produced his best show. A combo platter of Plautus, vaudeville schtick, and burlesque groaners, this wily musical comedy is a pleasure from overture to curtain call. Sexy and silly, it plants a big wet kiss while squirting you with seltzer. This is a rare Alley foray into Broadway musical territory, and they will have a ball. So will you.

• BAYOU CITY CONCERT MUSICALS

Ovations (2536 Times Blvd.) ∑ 713/527-8219

She Loves Me

September 10-13, ,2003

Alley resident company member Paul Hope continues his string of ab-fab concert restagings of Broadway musicals with this delectable soufflé from Harnick and Bock (creators of Fiorello!, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Apple Tree). Based on a play by Miklos Laszlo, this musical delight brims with whipped cream and romance as two co-workers bristle during store hours but are secret admirers in anonymous correspondence. Co-directed by David Thome with musical direction by Stephen Jamail, this buoyant and witty musical stars Kevin Cooney, returning to the Houston stage after years in California, and the sparkling Chesley Santoro. An encore staging is set for January 26 at the Hobby Center.

• BROADWAY IN HOUSTON

Hobby Center • 713/622-SHOW

www.broadwayacrossamerica.com

Yes, the big news is the February 3-24 arrival of the Mel Brooks romp The Producers, but there is more to the season. Texas girl Jerry Hall seduces in The Graduate (September 23-October 5). See page 00 for our interview with Hall. The men of The Full Monty strip down(November 4-16). Citizens rise up against a private-toilet monopoly in the wicked Urinetown (March 30-April 11). Two show-biz classics, 42nd Street (May 12-23) and Oklahoma (July 6-18) complete the season. —VZ

• COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE

12802 Queensbury ∑ 713/467-4497

www.countryplayhouse.org

The Lion in Winter

September 12-October 4, 2003

“What family doesn’t have its little ups and downs,” muses she-wolf Eleanor of Aquitaine as her family implodes during their plots against dad/husband Henry II. Christmas with the royals takes on a whole new meaning in James Goldman’s 1966 award-winning play, best known for the 1968 film adaptation with Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn. This earthy and gleefully corrupt family is replete with betrayals, murderous machinations, homoeroticism, and dysfunction. Just like home.

A Chorus Line

January 16-February 7, 2004

To some Broadway babies, this 1975 Michael Bennett/James Kirkwood/Marvin Hamlisch show is the ultimate Broadway musical. It is a classic and hit the Great White Way with a revolutionizing big bang. The 18 “gypsies,” desperately auditioning for eight anonymous places in the chorus, reveal their inner selves in vignettes that are heartbreaking, sentimental, sappy, humiliating, yet uplifting in a masochistic way. After collective hearts get stomped on, you feel jubilant that the remaining eight finally get to be in a show, even one as mundane as the final number seems to indicate.

• DA CAMERA OF HOUSTON

Various venues ∑ 713/524-5050

www.dacamera.com

It’s an art-and-music combo all season long with Houston’s own chamber music presenter. Opening night (October 4, Wortham Center) pairs musical jewels with masterpieces from NYC’s Museum of Modern Art: Picasso’s Three Musicians with a Haydn trio and Pulcinella Suite; Gauguin’s The Seed of the Areoi with Ravels Chansons madécasses; Matisse’s Goldfish with Palette with Debussy’s Poissons d’or. October 28 brings the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir with music from the Russian Orthodox Church (Wortham Center). On November 8 (Wortham Theater), jazz superstar saxophonist Joshua Redman makes his Houston debut. On December 9, DaCamera showcases Lucy Shelton, soprano, and Sarah Rothenberg, piano, in Russian avant-garde music of the revolution. The younger musical generation exemplified by the Miro Quartet gets down with Charles Ives and George Crumb. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues will be alternately played on harpsichord and piano on April 26 (Menil Collection) by Sarah Rothenberg and JohnGibbons.

• DIVERSEWORKS

1117 East Freeway/N. Main @ Naylor ∑ 713/223-8346

www.diverseworks.org

Houston’s premiere cutting-edge performance and visual arts facility celebrates its 20th anniversary, and, rest assured, they won’t be giving us china. Choreographer Sarah Irwin returns for the opening program on October 3 and 4 in her world premiere Vanish. Abundance arrives December 11-13. Co-commissioned by DiverseWorks and created by Obie-winner Marty Pottenger, this multi-media show asks How much money is too much? DiverseWorks favorites Eve Beglarian and Phil Kline make a timely Valentine’s arrival on February 13-14 with their homoerotic song cycle based on Pierre Louys’ paean to Bilitis. And watch the skies between March 16 and 23 when Jennifer Monson flies in for her Bird Brain-Ducks and Geese Tour, a “multi-year navigational dance project” performed at various outdoor locations. Birds of a different feather will flock March 13-May 4 to Janet Biggs and Barbara Pollacks’ PG-13 Male Adolescent Identity in the Age of Video Culture, a video exploration of young male gender and the influence of pop culture. To celebrate gay pride, gay artists will be represented by shOUT! and Queer Poetry Slam, May 14-June 26.

• DOMINIC WALSH DANCE THEATRE

Wortham Center ∑ 713/652-3938

www.dwdt.org

The Miller’s Daughter

November 6, 2003

Blessed with a super abundance of Houston Ballet dancers, DWDT can dance the hell out of anything. Its second season showcases choreographer/founder Walsh’s narrative Miller’s Daughter, set to Schubert’s nature-loving, boy-meets-girl/boy-loses-girl 1823 song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin. Also on the program: Ayman Harper’s Bed Fears, Dream Piles. On December 1, Walsh co-presents the Illumination Project at DiverseWorks in collaboration with DiverseWorks and Hope Stone, Inc. The performance benefits the Pediatric AIDS Initiative of Baylor College of Medicine and A Caring Safe Place, Inc.

• DOS CHICAS THEATER COMMUNE

Helios (411 Westheimer) ∑ 713/201-0193

Specific dates were not available at press time, so here are tentative times from the gals who brought you the greasy yet tasty Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Porn Stars Gone Bad, and Zastrozzi, the Master of Discipline.

Where’s My Dinner, Bitch?

October 2003

This world premiere “not suitable for children” satire by Bob Morgan was such a hit last March that dos chicas is reviving it for their season opener. Abusive trailer-trash husbands die while their put-upon wives put on better lipstick. There’s a lot on this platter to savor, but it’s bitter and black like the sneering mouth to hell.

For Those Who Live in Cities

February 2004

Bob Morgan takes the early poetry of Bertold Brecht and adapts it as a multi-media performance art fantasia.

Angels in Chains

April 2004

This favorite 1976 episode from the ultimate jiggly show, Charlie’s Angels, gets the Bob Morgan treatment. Our three supermodels infiltrate the Pine Parish Prison Farm For Women to investigate the disappearance of an inmate. They discover a secret brothel. Even Time weighed in on this particular show and decried it as “family-style porn.” As Kelley says to the sadistic matron, “How long has it been since you’ve been sprayed?”

Private Lives

June 2004

Can’t wait to see what the folks at dos chicas have in store for this

Noel Coward bonbon.

• HALLOWEEN MAGIC

Edwin Hornberger Conference Center (2151 West Holcombe Blvd.)

www.halloweenmagic.org

Aquanet: The Montrose Hairspray

October 18-19, 2003

Here they come, those mad equal-opportunity offenders with tongues firmly planted in cheek and armed with barbs wickedly hurled at all who need to be skewered. This year’s production, the 15th in a string of Halloween Magic hits, is Aquanet, written by Gary Rod, Shana Ross, Barry Mandel, John Cichon, John Tucker, and Gilbert Perez, so who knows what’s going to happen. But guaranteed, the wicked satire of these zanies will leave you limp from laughing and feeling oh-so-happy knowing that your well-spend money benefits AIDS Foundation Houston, The Assistance Fund, Being Omega, Center for AIDS, Montrose Clinic, Montrose Counseling Center, and the PWA Coalition. Saturday night’s performance includes one of Houston‚s best silent auctions and our favorite—an open bar. See you there.

• GAY MEN’S CHORUS OF HOUSTON

Various venues • 713/521-7464

www.gmch.org

What sound is more exhilarating and powerful than a men’s chorus? Our favorite singing group, especially the all-male kind, is the Gay Men’s Chorus of Houston, celebrating its 25th anniversary. Life Lines Silver Edition is the chorus’ opening concert, a chamber musicale featuring solos, duets, and trios (October 24, Bering Memorial United Methodist Church). December heralds the annual festive Christmas concert, Silver Bells, Holidays in the City (December 5, The Grand 1894 Opera House, Galveston; and December 8, 12, 14, Wortham Center). Pure Sterling: The Music of Cole Porter brings a sophisticated kick to spring with the GMCH small ensemble, VocalEase (March 20, 21, 23, Hobby Center). Pride month sings out with greatest hits from the chorus archives (June 13, 15, 18, Wortham Center).

• HOUSTON BALLET

Wortham Center (500 Texas) ∑ 713/227-ARTS

www.houstonballet.org

HB has a new artistic director, Australian choreographer Stanton Welch, and the company is pumped. Its press releases herald “a new chapter in its history” and an “exciting journey ahead—as HB moves boldly into the future.” We believe it, and all the excitement will be self-evident when the curtain goes up.

Fall Rep

September 4-14, 2003

Following last season’s magical Peter Pan, HB’s choreographic associate Trey McIntyre returns with his world premiere one-acter, The Shadow, based on five Hans Christian Andersen tales and set to Antonin Dvorak’s elegant 8th Symphony. Stanton Welch is represented by the company premiere of his A Dance in the Garden of Mirth, an animated abstract ballet derived from medieval life. Modern master William Forsythe, with his spikey techno ballet in the middle, somewhat elevated, sears the retinas with classical steps gone grunge.

The Sleeping Beauty

September 18-27, 2003

This most classic of classical ballets is a signature piece for HB, and it is a beauty, full of non-stop bravura dancing and incredible panoply thanks to Ben Stevenson’s enchanting restaging after Marius Petipa, Desmond Heeley‚s opulent sets and costumes, and, of course, Tchaikovsky’s sublime score.

Winter Rep

February 26-March 7, 2004

Rising American choreographer Julia Adam creates a world premiere. Sharing the program: Stanton Welch’s gritty and physical Divergence to Bizet’s L’Arlesienne Suites, and Ben Stevenson’s evocative Four Last Songs to Richard Strauss’ achingly elegiac last music.

Tales of Texas

March 11-March 21, 2004

The HB ballerinas keep their toe shoes but toss their tutus in Stanton Welch’s world premiere homage to our bluebonnet state. It’s jeans and sexy bustiers for the cowgirls, boots and hats for the lusty cowpokes, as they all two-step through Copland, Patsy Cline, and Matthew Pierce while they dance the tall-tale romance of Pecos Bill and Sluefoot Sue and then the country/western lovings of some Eisenhower-era women pioneers. Yee haw.

A Balanchine Celebration

May 27-June 6, 2004

The greatest choreographer of the 20th century receives stunning tribute with a trio of his most brilliant shorter works: Apollo (Stravinsky), La Valse (Ravel), and Theme and Variations (Tchaikovsky). Ballet was never the same after Balanchine. Once you see these, you won’t be either.

• HOUSTON GRAND OPERA

Wortham Center (500 Texas) ∑ 713/546-0246

www.houstongrandopera.org

Tosca

October 24-November 9, 2003

Puccini’s melodious melodrama stars the leather-lunged Russian soprano Maria Guleghina and, in his HGO debut, Mexican tenor Alfredo Portilla as her tortured lover. Rounding out the international cast, German baritone Franz Grundheber portrays the vile Baron Scarpia in this Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production.

Julius Caesar

October 30-November 16, 2003

As history, G.F. Handel’s 1724 masterpiece is bunk, but as opera, it’s sublime, full of that glorious Saxon’s soaring arias and Baroque flights of melody. Reigning countertenor David Daniels, an openly gay opera star, makes his HGO debut singing Caesar. Another openly gay singer, baritone Joshua Winograde, a Houston Opera Studio product, is featured in his first major role. Coloratura deluxe Laura Claycomb, who wowed Houston audiences in Rigoletto and Lucia di Lammermoor, croons the Queen of the Nile.

Jenufa

January 23-February 7, 2004

Czech composer Leos Janácek was nearly 60 years old before he became an overnight success with the 1916 Prague premiere of this opera, completed in 1904. The folk-style melodies and naturalistic vocal lines give this work a distinct style that perfectly serves the psychologically dense drama. The verismo plot with its unwanted pregnancy, infanticide, mutilation, and redemption, is elevated by Janácek‚s mastery into the stuff of universal truth. All his operas are great blasts of fresh air, allowing his immense humanity to blaze forth. The amazing Patricia Racette (Jenufa) and the compelling Katherine Malfitano (stepmother Kolstelnicka) bring their own blasts of talent to these two great opera roles.

The End of the Affair

March 6-21, 2004

With international success of Dead Man Walking still ringing in his ears, Jake Heggie adapts Graham Greene’s novel for this twenty-ninth HGO world premiere. During the London blitz of 1939, a writer has a torrid affair with a married woman who mysteriously calls it off. Years later, the lover hires a detective to find out why. Cheryl Barker, the original Mimi in Baz Luhrmann’s pop La Boheme, and Teddy Tahu Rhodes, the only lasting memory from last season’s Little Prince, play the guilty lovers.

Turandot

April 30-May 16,m 2004

Puccini’s great ice princess of China is a most demanding lover. Not only does she lop off heads of prospective suitors if they fail to answer her riddles and tortures an innocent slave girl before her eyes, but she has also ruined many a singer who has dared try to sing the fiendishly difficult dramatic role. In a final bit of pique, she even killed her composer before he finished the opera. Maestro Arturo Toscanini approved the lesser known composer Franco Alfano to complete the score from Puccini’s sketches, but was so dissatisfied with the result that on opening night refused to conduct past the point where Puccini stopped. American soprano Adrienne Dugger, who received raves for her interpretation at the Metropolitan Opera, debuts here in this killer role.

• HOUSTON SYMPHONY

Jones Hall (615 Louisiana) ∑ 713/224-7575

www.houstonsymphony.org

While music director Hans Graf has not scheduled any specific “gay series,” there is always Tchaikovsky (September 27-29); Modern Broadway (October 10-12); Handel (October 16-17) and his Messiah (December 19-21); Samuel Barber (October 25-27); Patti Lupone (November 7-9); Benjamin Britten (October 25-17 and November 15-17); Mussorgsky (January 10-12 and May 15-17); Leonard Bernstein (March 27-29); Michael Feinstein (April 8-10); Maurice Ravel (April 24 ˆ 26); and k.d. lang (April 30-May 1).

• HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE

1 Hermann Circle Drive ∑ 713/639-4629

www.hmns.org

Pearls, A Natural History

September 27, 2003-January 18, 2004

Now, I know you admire pearls and wear them fetchingly, but did you know this? Snails make them, or that a grain of sand is the least likely source of a later jewel, or that once snatched from recalcitrant bivalves they need not be polished or cut, or why they radiate from within? Find out all your answers and marvel at the range of nature’s most perfect gem as you salivate over a half million of these luminous beauties in this exhibition, which includes Joe Dimaggio’s honeymoon gift to Marilyn Monroe and priceless baubles worn by Marie Antoinette.

The Living Genone: Reading the Book of Life

Through December 12, 2003

Nature or nurture? That is the question. From cloning to stem cell research, from forensic analysis to the spiraling beauty ofdeoxyribonucleic acid, find out all you ever wanted to know in this interactive, mind-bending tour of our very secrets.

• INFERNAL BRIDEGROOM PRODUCTIONS

The Axiom (2524 McKinney) • 713/522-8443

www.infernalbridegroom.com

Jerry’s World

September 25-October 18, 2003

If you’re a radio junkie whose tastes in programming are more adventursome than Garrison Keillor, you’re probably aware of Joe Frank and his bizarre shows. A cult personality from years of on-again/off-again scheduling and his own personal demons in producing these intense broadcasts, Frank has garnered awards for his psychotic talents and a loyal audience. His shows can be rants, monologues, fake discussion panels, and original plays usually edited from actual conversations over the phone, or all of the above. Playwright Troy Schulze (Actual Air, Roberto Zucco) adapted this strange worldview from Frank’s actual programs.

Rhinoceros

November 20-December 13, 2003

The leading exponent of the Theater of the Absurb, Eugene Ionesco fills his stage with grotesque visuals that almost snuff out the people. It‚s the perfect manifestation for what he has to say about modern life and the struggle to live it. In many of his nightmarish comedies, the everyman Berenger rails against boundaries, internal and external, those same old fences that prevent people from connecting. In this 1959 darkly comic masterpiece, Berenger wakes to find a rhinoceros rampaging through town. Slowly, to his horror, he watches everyone turn into a horned snorter. Ionesco’s stand against conformity has been banned as dangerously anti-Fascist (Germany), anti-Communist (Romania), anti-Peronist (Argentina), and anti-bourgeois (England). Everyone in power seems to be scared of his message.

A Symphony of Rats

February 19-March 13, 2004

Richard Foreman, artistic director of NYC’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater, is an acolyte of Ionesco, and his plays are like Baroque mystery dreams. In this one, a bizarre political satire, a U.S. president, deaf and dumb, gets marching orders from outer space. Outside of IBP, Foreman’s quirky and challenging works are not often performed. In Foreman’s own words, “I would like to think that the perceptual exercising that my plays demand make your mental apparatus, and your emotional apparatus, feel attuned, feel awake. It’s very difficult—a glass of water in the face.” Go, but be warned.

• MAIN STREET THEATER

2540 Times Blvd • 713/524-6706

www.mainstreettheater.com

The Dead

November 6-December 7, 2003

This Tony award-winning musical by Richard Nelson (book and lyrics) and Shaun Davey (music) is adapted from the most famous story in James Joyce’s poignant collection of short tales, The Dubliners. During a Christmas party at his the home of his favorite aunt, college teacher Gabriel watches the life drain out of his world. What he thinks are romantic stirrings with his wife are nothing more than her reminiscences of a dead boy who was her greatest love. If you’ve seen the superlative 1988 John Huston film with daughter Angelica Huston and Donal McCann, this show may be a letdown, as it changes focus midway through its intermissionless hour and a half, and misses the lambent quality so effortlessly achieved by Joyce.

Oh, Boy!

December 31, 2003-January 17, 2004

This musical rarity with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse was one of the earliest Broadway blockbusters. George returns home to Long Island after eloping with Lou. She wants time to explain the marriage to her parents, and of course this gives everyone the necessary excuse to have mistaken identities and marital mixups. When madcap actress Jackie climbs into George’s bedroom window, this tilt-a-whirl plot goes into overdrive. A charming, delightful dinosaur from the age of the Zeigfeld Follies, Eddie Cantor, and Maytime.

Copenhagen

January 15-February 14, 2004

With perfect scheduling, Michael Frayn’s Tony-winning intellectual drama plays at the same time as the Proof at the Alley. This one, though, is not so funny. Coming from the author of the screamingly funny Noises Off, this turn to the serious is no cause for panic. Although nuclear physics gets more stage time than in any other play on earth, Frayn knows enough about stagecraft than to give us dry quantum mechanics. Set in a celestial court, we now have a battle between Danish scientist Niels Bohr, his wife Margrethe, and his prize pupil, German physicist Werner Heisenberg, over politics, war guilt, and personal responsibility.

• MASQUERADE THEATRE

1537 N. Shepherd • 713/861-7045

www.masqueradetheatre.com

The Wild Party

September 18-October 11, 2003

Queenie, a vaudeville dancer during the roaring ‘20s, lives with her abusive lover, Burrs, a vaudeville clown. To embarrass him publicly for the continual beatings, she convinces him to throw “a party to end all parties.” The scheme goes horribly awry in Andrew Lippa’s adult musical based on Joseph Moncure March’s 1928 rhymed verse narrative that is part Nathaniel West, part Faulkner. These high living lowlifes revel in the debauchery, inspired no doubt by Fatty Arbuckle’s infamous San Francisco party that destroyed his career. One pair who shows up for the evening are the Brothers d’Armano: “They were powdered, rouged, sleek of hair: they must have worn pink silk underwear.”

A New Brain

February 19-March 13, 2004

Two weeks after the phenomenal opening of his gay-themed musical Falsettos, which would later garner him a Tony, composer/lyricist William Finn was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation of his brain. He thought he was about to die. Miraculously, he survived and turned his misfortune into song: the operatic A New Brain. Taking a page from Dennis Potter and his caustic television musical The Singing Detective, Finn created, with frequent Sondheim collaborator James Lapine, a phantasmorgoric romp through the brain of musician Gordon Schwinn as he undergoes the grueling hospital stay, operation, and recovery. While he lies partially comatose, or entombed in the MRI, the people in his life swirl through his fevered brain. For all its deadly subtext, this Broadway opera (completely sung throughout) is amazingly sweet and gentle.

• THE MENIL COLLECTION

1515 Sul Ross • 713/525-9400

www.menil.org

Kazimir Malevich: Suprematism

October 3, 2003-January 11, 2004

Russian abstract artist Malevich (1878-1935) eschewed literalism in all forms, especially in art. He created a movement he called Suprematism to showcase his belief that the ultimate reality in the world is pure feeling and that only pure geometric shapes could convey meaning. “The suprematist does not observe and does not touch—he feels,” Malevich commanded. He loved the square, and in one of his most famous works, Black Square, painted a black one against a white background. Yet many of his works are full of primary colors, with constructionist flat overlays of shapes that represent a running man, an aviator, or a figure in a yellow shirt. He was overjoyed when the Russian revolution happened, thinking that old art would be swept away. When the socialist powers wanted art to sway people and represent greater good, he was horrified that his “true art” had to conform. Depressed, he stopped painting and turned to mathematics.

• THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON

1001 Bissonet • 713/639-7300

www.mfah.org

The Heroic Century: The Museum of Modern Art Masterpieces

September 21, 2003-January 4, 2004

Now that you’ve learned everything there is to learn about the Impressionists after MFAH’s last four incredible shows, see where all that pastel fuzzy art led. In a historic loan out, NYC’s Museum of Modern Art has sent 209 works that continue our travels through the history of art. Marvel at the hyper colors of the Fauvists. Wonder at the meaning of the Symbolists. Gasp at down-and-dirty Expressionism. Ponder the Cubists. Give your laughing heart to Dada. See the photographic Figuratives. Scratch your head over the Abstracts. Say to yourself, I can do that, after viewing the Pop Artists and Conceptualists. The priceless works of man on view include Monet’s Water Lilies, Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Picasso’s Three Musicians, Fernand Leger’s Three Women, Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel, Dali’s The Persistence of Memory, Robert Rauschenberg’s First Landing Jump. It’s Jansen’s History of Art right in front of our eyes.

• OPERA IN THE HEIGHTS

Lambert Hall (1703 Heights Blvd.) • 713/861-5303

www.operaintheheights.org

Il Barbiere di Siviglia

September 18-27, 2003

Rossini’s comic love story launches the eighth season of the regional opera company in the historic hall in the Heights. Also on the schedule: Faust, Manon Lescaut, and Lucia de Lammermoor. —VZ

• RADIO MUSIC THEATRE

2623 Colquitt • 713/522-7722

www.radiomusictheatre.com

In the immensely funny hands of Steve Farrell, Vicki Farrell, and Rich Mills, the loony Fertle family of Dumpster, TX, is alive and well, although old man Fertle died in their last outing, Grandpa Hasn’t Moved in Days. If you want to laugh yourself unconscious, go see this trio of wonder. Pick any of the following shows to have a unforgettable time in the theater. Better yet, see them all. Doc Moore and More opens September 4; their Christmas classic, A Fertle Holiday, opens November 28; and Birthday From Hell begins January 15.

• SOCIETY FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Various venues • 713/227-4SPA

www.spahouston.org

Satirist David Sedaris, one of the funniest gay men alive, regales Jones Hall on October 24. See him first, then the Theater LaB production of his Santaland Diaries and Season’s Greetings (see below). Other season highlights: Twentieth-anniversary screenings of the movie Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, accompanied by the ensemble directed by Philip Glass, who composed the film score (September 25-26); Seán Curran Company (January 16); and DanceBrazil (May 21). —VZ

• STAGES REPERTORY THEATRE

3201 Allen Parkway • 713/527-0123

www.stagestheatre.com

Recent Tragic Events

October 1-26, 2003

Is Waverly and Andrew’s arranged meeting, the day after 9/11, a blind date from hell, or are the coincidences evidence of “cosmic shit,” as her blissed-out neighbor Ron implies? If you think there’s no humor to be found anywhere near that tragic day, Craig Wright (Six Feet Under) mines it like fool’s gold. There’s also a coin-tossing audience member who may—or may not—control the situation. Free will vs. determination gets all mixed up. And don’t forget the Joyce Carol Oates sock puppet.

Bat Boy: The Musical

December 3, 2003-January 11, 2004

What other show can boast as inspiration that supermarket icon of journalistic integrity, the Weekly World News? In 1992, and continuing in wacky installments ever since, the WWN published the story of the half-boy/half-bat discovered living in a cave near Hope Falls, West Virginia. This is his story, told in a splashy witty musical. Like all misunderstood monsters, even with his pointy ears, bug eyes, razor-sharp fangs, and fondness for blood, BatBoy just wants love and acceptance. You may die laughing.

Dirty Story

May 12-June 20, 2004

John Patrick Shanley (Oscar-winning screenwriter for Moonstruck) goes for allegory with a capital A in this black comedy of geo-politics, i.e., the Middle East situation. Can you tell who’s the victim and who’s the abuser? “It’s not right that you’re here,” says one character. “But is it wrong?” says the other.

Convenience

May 12-June 20, 2004

Young man Vince wants to move in with his boyfriend, but he’s got conflicts with his mom, his dead father, and with himself. He’s still in the closet; it’s convenient. The resolution to this timely family story unfolds in Gregg Coffin’s recent musical.

• THEATRE LAB HOUSTON

1706 Alamo • 713/868-7516

www.theaterlabhouston.com

Box Office of the Damned

September 3-October 11, 2003

Theatre LaB opens its tenth anniversary season with a revival of its most requested show, Michael Ogborn’s hilarious send-up of all things show biz, as seen from inside the box office. From a singing ticket to whiny theater patrons, from Sunday matinee blue hairs to a sexy refund policy ballad, this delicious satire is designed to delight. And delight it does. Under the crack direction of Jimmy Phillips, the all-singing, all-dancing cast boasts Joanne Bonasso, Mary Hooper, Greg Gorden, Tye Blue, Bethany Daniels, and Mr. Phillips. Musical Direction by Steven Jones.

New York Values

October 21-26, 2003

Legendary NYC performance artist Penny Arcade, a.k.a. Suzanna Ventura, creator of Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!, who has worked with Warhol, Ludlam, and Jack Smith, is a must-see, whatever she does. In this show, she takes on the death of bohemianism, 9/11, celebrity culture, sex, and western civilization. I hope she brings her Jon Benet Ramsey Momorial Dancers, who traveled to London when she appeared there with this eye-and-brain-opening experience.

Santaland Diaries and Season’s Greetings

November 22-December 20, 2003

Except maybe a puppy, what could be a more perfect Christmas gift than these two subversive comic takes by gay humorist David Sedaris? Adapted by Joe Mantello, these two monologues pummel our favorite holiday with wicked observations and subversive humor, all done in a voice that reassures while it kicks you in the pants. Santaland relates the wry tale of a bored yuletide Macy’s elf who takes out his frustrations on the innocent kids until a most unusual Santa starts work. The much darker Season’s Greetings spoofs the cheery annual holiday newsletter from the Dunbar family. The picture-perfect suburban world at 714 Tiffany Circle takes a nosedive with a crack-addicted grandchild and a visit by a Vietnamese prostitute who claims her father is Mr. Dunbar.

• THEATRE NEW WEST

1415 California • 713/522-2204

Slap & Tickle

October 17-December 13, 2003

David Parr’s new play is set in a NYC bathhouse. Six actors portray all the myriad characters that inhabit, glorify, or despise the experience. None of them are there to get clean.

The Stops

October 24-December 20, 2003

Stage...too

Eric Lane Barnes, whose musical revues Fairy Tales and Fruit Cocktail, have been bright highlights for TNW, has a new cabaret musical about church ladies. Three lady organists, all members of the Organists Guild, are touring the hinterlands to offer support for their mentor who has recently come out. They don’t quite believe their own revival meeting, even as they boogie to a “Bossa Nova for Jehovah” or urge everyone to have a “Faith Lift.” Needless to say, the three good women are played in drag.

Boys and Girls

January 9-February 28, 2004

Love, commitment, and maturity get a drubbing from two same-sex couples in Tom Donaghy’s recent drama. Bev and Shirley want a father figure for their child. Their mutual friend Reed seems like the right choice, but his former boyfriend Jason surfaces to entice him away from the new family. Dysfunctional parents aren’t just for straights in this war of neo-words and halting phrases. Dialogue and wings get clipped in this battle of adults who act like children.

Men on the Verge of a His-panic Breakdown

January 16-March 6, 2004

Stage...too

In Guillermo Reyes award-winning one-man show, the immense diversity of modern gay Hispanic life is portrayed with all its cultural baggage, sexual frustration, and personal confusion intact. A comic Panavision look at modern Latino immigrants who battle their macho culture while looking for themselves.

Martin Yesterday

March 26-May 15, 2004

Gay Canadian Brad Fraser, who wrote the screenplay for Unidentified Remains, turns dark and mordant in this thick drama with its patina of AIDS, unfaithful lovers, and serious dysfunction. When cartoonist Matt decides to look for stability, he finds Martin, a gay politician who seems to have it all together. However, Martin keeps dropping bombshells until the damage—and Matt—is irreparable.

The Last Sunday in June

June 11-July 31, 2004

Jonathan Tolins’ recent off-Broadway hit is like a contemporary update to that classic of gay theater, Boys in the Band. “Just what we need,” says one character, “another gay play.” And that’s exactly what Tolins delivers. At first glance, couple Michael and Tom have it made: They‚re movin’ on up out of the gay ghetto and maybe into fatherhood. As they watch the annual NYC gay pride parade pass beneath their apartment window, they’re besieged by a who’s who of stereotypical gay characters: the opera queen, the HIV-infected cynic, the ex-lover who’s gone straight, the muscle stud, the puppy dog newcomer to the life. In a postmodern twist, Tolins nudges us constantly to make sure we know we’re watching a “gay play.”

• THEATRE UNDER THE STARS

Hobby Center (800 Bagby) • 713/558-2600

www.tuts.com

Extending that 15 minutes of fame for another year, one-time teen idol Frankie Avalon appears in a new production of Grease (October 14-November 2). On Broadway, the musical version of Thoroughly Modern Millie gave toothsome diva-in-training Sutton Foster her big break. She won’t appear in Houston but expect a similar leggy belter. David Henry Hwang’s acclaimed reworking of Flower Drum Song (January 15-February 1) still includes the anthem “I Enjoy Being a Girl.” Haven’t seen Brigadoon since your you appeared as the fourth Scotsman in your senior-class musical? Here’s your chance (March 11-28). In 1995, TUTS and the Alley Theatre spawned Jekyll & Hyde, which returns (April 22-May 9) in a new but sure to be noisy production. We remember the knock-out lighting design. —VZ

• UNHINGED PRODUCTIONS

Location pending • 713/547-0440

One of our favorite venues for gay theater, Chris Jimmerson’s Unhinged moves to a temporary new home this season. At press time, Jimmerson reported that he is negotiating for space with a another local theater company. Pending the securing of rights, Unhinged plans to mount The House of Yes by Wendy MacLeod in February and the Nicky Silver comedy Free Will and Wanton Lust in April. A yet-unnamed show will bow in December. In October and November, the company will present staged readings of three scripts by local writers. —VZ

• THE VENUE

4040 Milam • 713/426-2626, 713/526-2626

Naked Boys Singing

Opens September 19, 2003

When Christian DeVries had his Bienvenue Theatre on Washington, this in-the-buff revue was a long-running hit. Now with a different cast, Naked Boys will open his new space. (Yes, the Venue was known as Stargaze Theater when we wrote about it last month. Ars longa . . .) DeVries reports that he will soon announce the rest of the inaugural season. —VZ

D. L. Groover writes on arts for OutSmart. Victor Zorn also contributed to this article.

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