Best Bets: Día de Muertos, Korean Films, and David Sedaris

This weekend, we celebrate Día de Muertos, welcome a new month, and acknowledge that tomorrow is National Knock Knock Joke Day. So, get your best one ready to tell whoever you invite to join you at one of our best bets. Keep reading for four days of Korean films, a concert of musical showstoppers, the return of one of the country’s preeminent humorists, and much more.  

The police find a young woman standing over the dead body of a man, the author of a novel about a kidnapping. She claims the story is based on her own kidnapping, the author her kidnapper, but refuses to say more unless she can talk to a former classmate-turned-detective in Chun Sun-young’s 2024 thriller A Girl with Closed Eyes, which will open Korean Film Nights at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on Thursday, October 30, at 7 p.m. The weekend-long festival returns for the seventh year with a selection of new and cult favorite films from South Korea, including Lee Min-jae’s zombie romcom, Zombie for Sale; the transplant recipients turned superheroes in Kang Hyeong-cheol’s Hi-Five; and Parasite director Bong Joon Ho’s 2009 film, Mother. Tickets to individual screenings are available for $8 to $10, and you can view the full schedule here.

Though known for masterworks like La Boheme and Madame Butterfly, experience three of Giacomo Puccini’s less familiar one-acts – Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi – when Houston Grand Opera presents Il Trittico at the Wortham Theater Center on Thursday, October 30, at 7 p.m. Soprano Corinne Winters, who plays a role in each, told the Houston Press the program is “like reading short stories,” adding that audiences will find them “just as compelling as an episode of a binge-worthy TV show. Especially in these kinds of operas which are so real and so relatable I think they’re going to get lost in it.” Performances will continue at 2 p.m. on Sunday, November 2, and 7 p.m. on Saturday, November 8; Wednesday, November 12; and Friday, November 14. Tickets are available here for $25 to $367.50.

Carol Channing first delivered “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” in the 1949 stage production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, but it was Marilyn Monroe’s performance in Howard Hawks’ 1953 film version that earned it 12th place on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest works of American movie music. The song will be featured alongside showstoppers from musicals like West Side Story, The Sound of Music, and Cats during From Stage to Screen: Broadway Meets Hollywood at Jones Hall on Friday, October 31, at 7:30 p.m. Conductor Steven Reineke and the Houston Symphony will welcome Broadway stars Elizabeth Stanley and Hugh Panaro for the concert, which will be performed again at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, November 1, and 2 p.m. Sunday, November 2. In-hall tickets are available here for $29 to $141. Saturday night’s performance will be livestreamed, with access available here for $20.

Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a time to honor those who have passed, a tradition celebrated throughout Mexico and parts of Latin America rooted in pre-Columbian beliefs and shaped by the Catholicism introduced by the Spanish in the early 1500s. On Saturday, November 1, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., you can join the celebration during MECA’s 2025 Día de Muertos Festival: Honoring Our Past, Celebrating Our Future at the Historic Dow School. The celebration, free and open to the public, includes family-friendly art activities and cultural workshops, authentic Latin American crafts and flavors, and live music and dance performances from acts like Danza Azteca Macuilxochitl, Mexico Folklorico, and Grupo Aliados, as well as a curated exhibition of community ofrendas, or altars. The festival continues on Sunday, November 2, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

A magazine contest gave Johann Strauss II the idea for his first and only full-length ballet in 1898. From more than 700 scripts, the winner was Aschenbrödel, which is Cinderella in German. Strauss died before completing the ballet, but not before moving the action to a department store, making the heroine a shop girl, finishing the first act, and sketching out the rest. On Sunday, November 2, at 7 p.m., you can see Stauss’ ballet (finished by composer Josef Bayer) when World Ballet Company presents Cinderella at the Wortham Theater Center, courtesy of Performing Arts Houston. The Los Angeles-based company boasts 40 professional ballet dancers from more than ten countries, hand-painted sets, and over 150 hand-sewn costumes in their touring production. Tickets can be purchased here for $33.90 to $141.25.

The birth of an iconic, eleven-and-a-half-inch-tall blonde doll recounted by Renée Rosen. Rachel Cockerell’s deep dive into her great-grandfather’s role in relocating thousands of Russian Jews to Galveston. Mitch Albom‘s exploration of “love, time, and the ache of second chances.” They are all stories you can learn more about during the Ann and Stephen Kaufman Jewish Book & Arts Festival, which begins at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston on November 2 and runs through November 15. There are a variety of ticketing options available here, including individual event tickets for $16 to $84, premium tickets for $33 to $50, a book bundle plus ticket option for $32 to $39, access to virtual recordings for $16 to $25, a “Pick 3” subscription for $39 to $59, and a full festival subscription for one ($139 to $193) or two ($278 to $386).

Dr. Charles Steinberg believed that Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” had “transformative powers,” which is why the song became a well-known Fenway Park tradition. It’s one example of the reach Diamond’s music has, as is the success of A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical, coming to the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, November 4, at 7:30 p.m. Jer, a member of the production’s ensemble dubbed “The Noise,” told the Houston Press, “If you love theatrical magic, I think our show does that so beautifully. We label this as a small intimate play with music.” Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, 1 p.m. Thursday, 2 p.m. Saturday, and 1:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday through November 9. Tickets can be purchased here for $55 to $265.

Performing Arts Houston will once again bring David Sedaris, the humorist and best-selling author behind books like Calypso, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls, to town on Tuesday, November 4, at 7:30 p.m. for An Evening with David Sedaris at Jones Hall.  Sedaris, who has a new collection of essays titled The Land and its People set to be published next summer, will read, tell stories, and participate in a Q&A session during the event. After the performance, Sedaris will stick around in the lobby for a book signing. If you’re without a book, or want to pick up a new one, Brazos Bookstore will be on hand with a selection of titles for you to purchase. Tickets to the evening can be purchased here for $33.35 to $113.85.

This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

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