{"id":199298,"date":"2025-09-04T10:28:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T10:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/199298\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T10:28:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T10:28:15","slug":"best-bets-the-week-of-september-4-10-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/199298\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Bets the Week of September 4-10, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n It\u2019s Eat an Extra Dessert Day<\/a>, so consider stopping on your way to, or on your way home from, one of our best bets for a sweet treat. This week, we\u2019ve got a ballet returning to Houston after 17 years, two classic film restorations, and much more. Keep reading for these and all our picks of the best things to check out this week.\n <\/p>\n

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Go down the path of an alternate history, one where the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol was ultimately successful. In this world, a white supremacist, Christian nationalist government rules, and a father and daughter, Jewish, are living in upstate New York, hiding their identity when a 1,000-year-old Yiddish-speaking woman shows up at their door. That\u2019s the premise of Deborah Zoe Laufer<\/a>\u2019s The Last Yiddish Speaker<\/a>, a co-production between Mildred\u2019s Umbrella Theater Company<\/a> and the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston<\/a>, which will open tonight, September 4, at 7:30 p.m. at the Evelyn Rubenstein JCC. Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 11 a.m. Sundays through September 21. Tickets can be purchased here<\/a> for $18 to $29.\n <\/p>\n

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For the first time since 2008, Houston Ballet<\/a> will stage Onegin<\/a>, a three-act ballet, choreographed by John Cranko to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and based on Alexander Pushkin’s verse novel Eugene Onegin, at 7 p.m. Friday, September 5, at the Wortham Theater Center<\/a>. Aaron Robison<\/a>, who will be dancing the titular role of a man hit by karma after cruelly rejecting a young woman in the production, recently told the Houston Press<\/a> he thinks the show is \u201cquite relatable to many people<\/a>\u201d because \u201cthe characters in the story are very strong and complex<\/a>\u201d as is the idea that \u201cpeople can change because of events that happen in life.<\/a>\u201d Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday, 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through September 14. Tickets are available here<\/a> for $25 to $170.\n <\/p>\n

click to enlarge <\/a><\/p>\n

DACAMERA brings the Isaiah J. Thompson Quartet to Miller Outdoor Theatre on Friday.<\/p>\n

Photo by Jati Lindsay <\/p>\n

Before DACAMERA<\/a> officially opens its 2025-26 season with Other Worlds: Season Overture<\/a> next month, it will present the Isaiah J. Thompson Quartet<\/a> at Miller Outdoor Theatre<\/a> on Friday, September 5, at 8 p.m. Thompson<\/a>, a Juilliard graduate who made his recording debut with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis<\/a>, recently released The Book of Isaiah: Modern Jazz Ministry, a suite of music he has said is about his \u201ccoming to faith<\/a>.\u201d Of recent concerts, he\u2019s said, \u201cI think if you\u2019re interested in the potential of what God can do through music, can do through jazz, through modern jazz, I think it might be worth you considering to come hear us.<\/a>\u201d The performance is free, and you can reserve a ticket here<\/a> starting at 10 a.m. today, September 4. Or you can sit on the Hill<\/a> \u2013 no ticket required.<\/p>\n

\n Thirty-five years ago, in July 1990, Houston played host to the 16th G7 Summit, attended by then Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu, who participated in the unveiling of a model for the Japanese Garden in Hermann Park<\/a>. He also gifted funds to construct a garden pavilion, or azumaya. On Saturday, September 6, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Japan Festival Houston<\/a> will honor this history when it returns to Hermann Park<\/a> for two days of Japanese food, cultural exhibits, family-friendly activities, martial arts demonstrations, cosplay, and traditional and contemporary performances, including two performances by alumni from Takarazuka, an all-female musical theatre troupe \u2013 one on Saturday, September 6, at 8 p.m. at Miller Outdoor Theatre<\/a>. The free festival will continue Sunday, September 7, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.\n <\/p>\n

There are numerous anecdotes about the release of Charlie Chaplin\u2019s The Gold Rush<\/a> in 1925: Ten minutes of \u201cuninterrupted audience laughter<\/a>\u201d broadcast by BBC Radio when the film premiered in England. A demand to \u201crewind the film and screen an encore<\/a>\u201d in Berlin after the audience viewed \u201cthe film\u2019s now-iconic \u2018dance of the rolls\u2019 sequence.<\/a>\u201d This year, the film, \u201cthe highest-grossing silent comedy in history<\/a>,\u201d received a 4K restoration in honor of its centenary that made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival<\/a>. On Saturday, September 6, at 7 p.m., you can catch Chaplin\u2019s Little Tramp in 4K on the big screen at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston<\/a>. If you can\u2019t make it, the film will be screened a second time on Sunday, September 7, at 5 p.m. Tickets to either screening can be purchased here<\/a> for $7 to $9. <\/p>\n

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The story goes that \u201chis first glimpse of the New York skyline<\/a>\u201d inspired Fritz Lang to make his 1927 film Metropolis, a \u201challucinatory<\/a>\u201d film thought to be \u201cthe first great science-fiction film<\/a>\u201d and \u201ca seminal prediction of a megacity where the masses work as slaves for the good of a ruling elite.<\/a>\u201d In 1998, Roger Ebert declared that \u201cfew films have ever been more visually exhilarating<\/a>,\u201d and on Saturday, September 6, at 7 p.m., you can view a restoration of the film with an original score \u2013 featuring classical, metal, dance, and other elements \u2013 performed live by an Austin-based composer and multi-instrumentalist during The Complete Metropolis Live Score with David DiDonato<\/a> at River Oaks Theatre<\/a>. Tickets to the screening can be purchased here<\/a> for $21.\n <\/p>\n

click to enlarge <\/a><\/p>\n

Artistic Director Dr. Betsy Cook Weber will lead the Houston Chamber Choir in season-opener Mozart Requiem.<\/p>\n

Photo by Jeff Grass Photography <\/p>\n

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the Haydn brothers, Franz Joseph and his younger brother Michael, were not only contemporaries, but at times neighbors, friends, collaborators, and rivals; Michael Haydn was once Mozart\u2019s chief competition for the job of organist at one of Salzburg’s largest churches<\/a>. Considering their intertwined lives, Houston Chamber Choir<\/a> will open its season, its first conducted by new Artistic Director Dr. Betsy Cook Weber<\/a>, at St. Luke\u2019s United Methodist Church<\/a> on Saturday, September 6, at 7:30 p.m. with Mozart Requiem<\/a>, a program set to feature all three composers. During the concert, featuring members of the Houston Symphony<\/a>, Mozart\u2019s titular piece will be bookended by works by the Haydns: Franz Joseph Haydn\u2019s Te Deum, which will open the program, and \u201cExsurge\u201d from Michael Haydn\u2019s cantata Applausus, which will close it. Tickets are available here<\/a> for $10 to $50.<\/p>\n

\n Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie<\/a> will return to Houston on Monday, September 8, at 7:30 p.m. to open the 2025\/2026 Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series<\/a> at the Wortham Theater Center<\/a> with a reading from Dream Count, the Nigerian-born author\u2019s first novel since 2013\u2019s Americanah. Despite the passing decade, The Guardian<\/a> deemed it \u201cworth the wait<\/a>,\u201d calling the novel, \u201cbuilt around the friendship of three Nigerian women whose lives haven\u2019t panned out as imagined with respect to marriage and motherhood<\/a>,\u201d almost \u201cfour novels for the price of one<\/a>\u201d and \u201ca big book, richly marbled with criss-crossing storylines<\/a>.\u201d Following the reading, Adichie will join Rice University<\/a> Assistant Professor of English Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan<\/a> in conversation and end the evening with a book sale and signing. Tickets for the reading can be purchased here<\/a> for $6.50.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Eat an Extra Dessert Day, so consider stopping on your way to, or on your way home…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":199299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[40646,1022,10929,4084,1020,4345,70230,1084,975,5039,9221,358,1148,35789,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-199298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-ballet","9":"tag-books","10":"tag-dance","11":"tag-festival","12":"tag-film","13":"tag-houston","14":"tag-japanese-culture","15":"tag-literature","16":"tag-music","17":"tag-play","18":"tag-stage","19":"tag-texas","20":"tag-theater","21":"tag-ticket-prices","22":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115145559483217135","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}