Best Bets: Mud Row, Walter Smith III Quartet and KBR Kids Day

It’s Conflict Resolution Day, and if you want to celebrate after making up with your loved one, consider celebrating while taking in one of our best bet picks. This week, we’ve got a play by a Tony-nominated playwright, Houston musical talent on display, and a family-friendly festival. Keep reading for these and more below.

Back in June, audiences got a sneak peek at Dominique Morisseau’s Mud Row when Stages read scenes from Morisseau’s work during the Fade to Black Festival. Stages will officially open their production of the Tony-nominated, MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient’s play about two generations of sisters, one pair living during the civil rights era and the other in the present day, on Thursday, October 16, at 7 p.m. The play has been described as “well-written” and “mystery-filled,” as well as a “fast-paced, two-hour drama” that “is an entertaining and heart-touching story with universal themes that most families can relate to.” Performances will continue at 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through November 2. Tickets can be purchased here for $25 to $124.

Conductor Christian Reif will lead pianist Hélène Grimaud and the Houston Symphony in George Gershwin’s Concerto in F, a work described as “even more ambitious than” his famous Rhapsody in Blue, during Gershwin & Grimaud: Jazz Meets Symphony at Jones Hall on Friday, October 17, at 7:30 p.m. Julia Perry’s A Short Piece for Orchestra will kick off the evening, which also includes Kurt Weill’s Symphony No. 2. Weill, of course, is well-known for composing popular standards like “Mack the Knife,” written with Bertolt Brecht for 1928’s The Threepenny Opera. The concert will be performed again at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 18, and 2 p.m. Sunday, October 19. Tickets for the in-hall performances are available here for $29 to $142. Saturday night’s show will also be livestreamed, and you can purchase access here for $20.

DACAMERA will launch its jazz series on Friday, October 17, at 8 p.m. with a little hometown talent as the organization presents the Walter Smith III Quartet in concert at the Wortham Theater Center. Smith’s most recent album, three of us are from Houston and Reuben is not, pays tribute to the Bayou City, the saxophonist’s hometown, with tracks like “610 Loop,” a reference to the interstate that divides the inner city from the outer surrounding areas; “Montrose Nocturne,” alluding to the former location of his high school alma mater, Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts; and “Lone Star.”  Smith will be joined by fellow Houstonians, pianist Jason Moran and drummer Kendrick Scott, and the aforementioned Virgin Islands-born bassist Reuben Rogers. Tickets are available here for $53.50 to $101.

For Reformation Day in 1725, a Protestant Christian holiday that celebrates Martin Luther affixing his Ninety-five Theses to a church door in 1517 and sparking the Reformation, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild, BWV 79. The cantata, whose title translates to The Lord God is a sun and shield, was written for the Feast of Reformation, and on Saturday, October 18, at 3 p.m., you can hear it performed by Bach Society Houston during Oktoberfest Vespers at Christ the King Lutheran Church. Following the performance, stick around for an Oktoberfest-inspired outdoor community gathering that promises bratwurst and beer, as well as more music from a brass band. The event is free, but RSVPs are requested, and donations are welcome.

Aperio, Music of the Americas, will open its 20th season with Southern Revival, a program of American music focusing on nostalgia and collective memory, on Friday, October 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the MATCH. The ensemble, conducted by Marlon Chen, will perform a program that includes Shawn Okpebholo‘s Two Black Churches, Andante Moderato from Florence Price’s String Quartet No. 1, and Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, which pulls its text from James Agee’s A Death In The Family. It’s been said that Barber “contributed to Agee’s poem in prose a perfect setting,” noting that “it possesses an immediate sense of childhood memories; the singing line is a natural translation of words into music.” Tickets are available here for $15 to $35.

2025 marks the 10th anniversary of Buffalo Bayou Park’s transformation from “neglected waterway into Houston’s oasis,” and you can gather the whole family to celebrate during KBR Kids Day, a fall family festival scheduled for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, October 19, at The Water Works in Buffalo Bayou Park. A family bike ride with Bike Freedom Academy will start the day, which includes music and dance performances, birds of prey shows, story time with the Houston Public Library, guided walking tours led by Urban Paths, face painting, and a Halloween costume parade (so be sure to don your silliest or spookiest getup). Food and drinks will also be available for purchase from food trucks and other vendors. The event is free, and you can register here.

Theatre Under The Stars is staging a spelling bee starting on Tuesday, October 21, at 7:30 p.m., when The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee opens at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Gemini Quintos, who will play speller Marcy Park in the production, recently told the Houston Press that playing a child is “a fun challenge,” saying, “We all have to play children, which sounds easy, just act like a kid. But really, we have to tap into this part of ourselves that is really self-conscious and really vulnerable and really unsure of ourselves.” Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sunday through November 2. Tickets can be purchased here for $46 to $195.

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