Houston Ballet Continues Season with ROMEO & JULIET and SUMMER & SMOKE

Continuing its blockbuster 2022-2023 season, Houston Ballet returns on February 23, 2023 with Stanton Welch’s Romeo & Juliet, a lavish production of the Shakespearean star-crossed lovers and their tragic fate.

This is only the second time Welch’s ornate production has come to the Wortham stage, returning after its lauded premiere in 2015 and a trip around the world to The Australian Ballet.

Following Romeo & Juliet, Houston Ballet presents Summer & Smoke from March 9-19.

The triple-bill program features one of Stanton Welch’s hallmark ballets, Clear, as well as the return of George Balanchine’s masterpiece Concerto Barocco.

Houston audiences will also experience the world premiere of Cathy Marston’s Summer and Smoke, a narrative ballet based on the eponymous play by Tennessee Williams.

Set in the early 1900s in Mississippi, the story revolves around a minister’s daughter and a doctor who search to find the balance between the contradictory pulls of faith and science that keep them apart.

Summer and Smoke is a co-production with American Ballet Theatre set to a commissioned score by Michael Daugherty, premiering first with Houston Ballet before making its debut in New York next season.

 “We are excited to bring Romeo and Juliet, not seen in Houston since its original staging in 2015,” says Stanton Welch, Artistic Director of Houston Ballet.

“With the iconic score of Prokofiev, Roberta Guidi di Bagno’s extraordinary designs, and Houston Ballet’s world class dancers and actors, Shakespeare’s most loved classic is brought to life. Next, we present a feast of dance with the triple bill Summer & Smoke; introducing a new work by Cathy Marston based on the famous play by Tennessee Williams. It is a wonderful addition to our storytelling repertoire, plus the return of favorites, Clear and Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco, the latter of which has not been performed here in over 20 years,” he added.

Tickets are available at 713.227.2787 (ARTS) and online at houstonballet.org.

Photos courtesy of the Houston Ballet.