The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
Monday 21, Alamo Village
First I saw this was back in the ol’ sweaty days when Hyperreal Film Club screened in Hotel Vegas. I sat with frequent Calendar contrib Lina Fisher on a rickety fold-out chair while we and everyone else enjoyed what has to be one of the MOST Texas movies ever made. Biggest gut busters from my audience were at the expense of Texas’ spineless executive branch, who’ve yet to gain any moral backbone in the years since Miss Dolly Parton’s comic classic premiered. Anything a shade bluer than a Sunday church service gets treated as evil incarnate, which is the fate that befalls sweet local business owner Mona Stangley and her Chicken Ranch. The long-running brothel gets busted by a moral-panic-mongering transplant, which causes a lotta hijinks and a lotta laughs. – James Scott
Foreign & Domestic 15th Anniversary
Through May 18, Foreign & Domestic
Founded back in 2010, Ned and Jodi Elliott’s chef-forward restaurant may have changed ownership after seven years – switching from the Elliotts to Nathan Lemley and Sarah Heard – but the kitchen’s never lost its passion for good food. This fine dining establishment celebrates staying the course for 15 years with an anniversary dinner series. Each edition features guest chefs and FND folks creating collab menus for one-night-only sensations. First among them is a Monday, April 21, feast from chefs Chris Sapp (FND) and Taylor Hall (Apis) with Barley Swine mixologist Chelsea Carter. Further programming features Lemley and Parkside Projects chef Shawn Cirkiel (April 28), Heard and Chef’s PSA’s André Natera (May 12), and a big ol’ party on May 18 featuring a parking lot roast pig. – James Scott
Melinda French Gates: The Next Day with Dr. Brené Brown
Monday 21, Paramount Theatre
Melinda French Gates is one of the most powerful women in the world, but she got her start right here in Texas, setting off for Duke after graduating first in her Dallas Catholic high school class, after which a career in STEM led to her partnership with Bill Gates that ended in 2021. Her new memoir, The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward, covers that and other major life changes like losing a dear friend and becoming a parent. French Gates will discuss the book with bestselling author and podcaster Dr. Brené Brown (Dare to Lead) in what’s sure to be an engaging and inspiring conversation. Proceeds go to charitable causes. – Kat McNevins
A Streetcar Named Desire
Monday 21, Alamo Mueller
“Stellaaaaaaaaaaaa”… OK, yes, one of the best name callings in all of film history, but this Elia Kazan classic has another legacy that haunts us. Its many Oscar nominations legitimized the Stanislavski method – at the time controversial, and now ubiquitous, for better or for worse. It undeniably works in this dank, dark portrayal of the folly and violence of domesticity set in New Orleans, wherein Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden all used method acting. Most famously Brando, who studied apes and imitated their mannerisms for his portrayal of Stanley Kowalski. Though burdened by its intimidating success, it’s a film whose unctuous visual style and lascivious jazzy soundtrack make it easy to get drawn into. This is a classic worth revisiting, not just for educational purposes. – Lina Fisher
New Wave
Tuesday 22, G.B. Dealey Center for New Media, UT Campus
In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam, filmmaker Elizabeth Ai is on tour with her very personal doc New Wave, which won her a directing prize at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Compiling first-person recollections and totally radical Eighties footage and matching aesthetic, New Wave explores the Vietnamese diaspora and the synth sounds a displaced community found new identity in. Following the screening will be a conversation between Ai and music scholar and journalist James Gabrillo. – Kimberley Jones
Graphic Novel Book Club: Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees
Tuesday 22, Central Library
I tell you this story features talking animals and you think, “Ah. Like Disney’s Zootopia.” Nay, my innocent Chronicle-reading friend. This story’s not like Disney’s anything. Patrick Horvath’s short-run series is more akin to Dexter than most other anthropomorphic tales, as its lead – a brown bear named Samantha Strong – works by day in small-town Woodbrook’s hardware shop and by night sates her bloodlust on city slickers she buries, well. Beneath the trees where, you know. Nobody sees. Separation’s worked well for our antihero so far, but when a death happens on her turf, Strong needs to find who else is playing killer after dark. Austin Public Library offers both physical and digital copies for book club readers, so everyone can enjoy the fearsome furries. – James Scott
On Story Season 15 Premiere Party and Live Taping
Tuesday 22, KLRU Studios
For more than 30 years, Austin Film Festival has provided screenwriting enthusiasts a front-row seat to the finest talents working in film and TV – and for nearly half as long, they’ve been extending that access to public television fans for the low, low cost of zero dollars. (But, you know, consider supporting AFF and PBS Austin both – the arts matter, guys!) Their nationally syndicated half-hour program, On Story, kicks off a new season with a conversation with Emmy Award-winning Hacks co-creator Jen Statsky, preceded by a reception and chance to ogle KLRU’s snazzy studios. It’s free to attend, but you’ll have to RSVP. – Kimberley Jones
May Election Early Voting Begins
Tuesday 22, Various locations
We just did this, right? Well, here we march off to the polls again, this time for the Travis County General & Special Elections. A sample consolidated ballot reveals 10 pages of exciting choices to make for everything from a city of Bee Cave tax proposition to the Lake Travis ISD Board of Trustees election to a race for Triada County MUD director. Your own ballot depends on where you live, and you can lay eyes on a preview at votetravis.gov so you’ll be prepared before you walk into the booth, found anywhere you see a sign that says “Vote Here/Vote Aquí.” Early voting runs through April 29 for the Saturday, May 3, election. – Kat McNevins
Roy Choi: The Choi of Cooking
Tuesday 22, Stateside at the Paramount
While the thread’s not a direct line, you can still basically connect all current food truck fervor to one chef, the fusion-focused Roy Choi. His iconic truck Kogi BBQ blended Korean and Mexican flavors so well it caused a worldwide sensation – and he’s continued to create culinary magic, including with his new cookbook. First Light Books invites the famous food-ster to Congress Ave. along with local legend Aaron Franklin. Watch these peers – and friends – chat cuisine, creativity, and cookbookery for $21 per ticket, or add in a signed copy of Choi’s book for a total $53. – James Scott
The Psychology of a Murderer
Wednesday 23, Paramount Theatre
Murder is rarely simple and often involves a web of trauma, mental health, and environmental factors. Fascinating stuff, which is why the true crime genre has captivated so many of us. Dive deep into the minds and motivations of some of the most perplexing people on the planet at this talk with forensic psychologist Dr. Rachel Toles. On the agenda to be explored via case studies, expert analysis, and audience Q&A: Jeffrey Dahmer, Aaron Hernandez, Chris Watts, Aileen Wuornos, the Menendez brothers, and more. – Kat McNevins
Body Politics
Wednesday 23 – Sunday 27, the Vortex
Poet, comedian, multi-hyphenate powerhouse Shasparay has been out here, highlighting social injustice with their poignant mix of wry humor and clearcut boundaries. They know what’s right, what’s wrong, and who they are. Expect that level of clarity with Body Politics, their solo show treatise on the “fat experience.” Having a body is inherently political. Especially when female-presenting. Especially when Black. Especially when fat. And Shasparay? They’ve been through it all. Belittlement, shame, fetishization, all within the presentation of curves and skin and outward expression. It’s a show about the thin line between love and hate, about self-acceptance, about reconciling identity. And with Shasparay’s dynamic delivery, it will be difficult to look away. – Cat McCarrey
Tommy Boy
Wednesday 23, Alamo Village, Slaughter Lane & Lakeline
Woke moment: This top-tier Chris Farley vehicle, where sweet but stupid Tommy Callahan III (Farley) must save his family’s auto empire after his father, Big Tom, passes, is actually political. The narrative oozes class commentary – the family-owned factory versus the national chain, whose subtly slimy owner as played by Dan Aykroyd (Crystal Head vodka) keeps trying to buy Callahan Auto out. That doesn’t mean it’s all big thoughts: Haughty assistant Richard Hayden (a rarely topped David Spade) is the perfect foil to the foolish Tommy, and no-duh Farley lights up the screen. But the magic’s in the heart that comes from Tommy trying to keep all of Callahan Auto’s workers employed – seeing them as real people rather than numbers. Seems like a good lesson, now of all times – but hey. There’s always the fat guy in a little jacket to keep ya smiling. – James Scott
Austin Bat Cave’s Trivia for Cheaters
Thursday 24, Pinthouse Brewing
Finally! An excuse to be morally corrupt. Literary arts nonprofit Austin Bat Cave – who’ve been providing gratis writing workshops for kiddos and older adults since 2007 – offers you the chance to sabotage those around you via trivia-based tomfoolery. Your team of 4 to 6 players can either win the old-fashioned way or use special paid cheats: $50 to steal points from another team, $25 to get a trivia question ahead of the event, or $50 to defend yourself against point stealing. All funds go right into ABC’s important creative writing work, so kids can learn valuable skills and you can claim your dirty, dirty victory. – James Scott
FEAST.
Through May 17, Hyde Park Theatre
Shrewd Productions brings playwright Megan Gogerty’s one-woman take on the Beowulf story to the Hyde Park stage. That one woman is repeat B. Iden Payne award winner Katherine Catmull. The tale is mythological but also runs up against modern culture and is described as both “immersive” and “visceral.” That sounds about right for a play that tackles the authoritarian moment we’re currently wrestling with. Laughs and rage are also promised, and that’s our baseline these days, so we’re looking forward to it. – James Renovitch
Meek by Diana Small
Thursday 24, Trinity Street Playhouse
Who among us hasn’t wrestled with “the body, gods, death, and change,” as Diana Small’s theatrical work does? A worker in service of stage and the spirit (Small’s day job is as a hospital chaplain), her newest script opens at the black-box theatre just above First Baptist with the Trinity St. Players. Based loosely on real-life activist Father John Dear – a Catholic priest whose arrests for nonviolent civil disobedience number in the 80s – the story follows a priest reuniting with his estranged daughter, an oncology nurse caring for an inmate undergoing treatment for Stage IV cancer. Jenny Larson-Quiñones directs, with featured actors including Lee Eddy, Buck Eddy-Blair, James Dean Jay Byrd, khattieQ, Robert Joseph, and Mitchell Thomas. – James Scott
True Stories
Thursday 24 & Sunday 27 – Monday 28, AFS Cinema
Dang it, David Byrne: You couldn’t stick to just being a musical genius. You had to go and make a Roger Ebert-approved picaresque cult classic too. True Stories is based on Byrne’s drawings of supermarket tabloid articles found on tour with the Talking Heads, and follows a cast of wacky characters as they navigate human drama in the fictional hamlet Virgil, Texas, set to a banging soundtrack featuring the likes of Meredith Monk, Terry Allen, and of course Talking Heads. John Goodman stars as Louis Fyne, a sad-sack romantic country singer/office worker looking for a wife, alongside a happily married couple who never speak to each other, one Miss Rollings who never leaves her bed, a manic conspiracist preacher, a Tejano singer who can hear people’s “tones” (as Byrne himself claimed to in college), and so many more. Byrne himself appears as a narrator in a red convertible, giving the film a kitschy storybook quality that lands thanks to its meticulous execution. Comforting in its absurdity, it’s a film that plants so many visual, auditory, and philosophical Easter eggs you can’t help but be inspired to make something afterwards. Austinite Anne Rapp, script supervisor on the film, joins AFS on April 24 to provide reminiscences of the shoot. – Lina Fisher
Want to see all of our listings broken down by day? Go to austinchronicle.com/calendar and see what’s happening now or in the coming week.
This article appears in April 18 • 2025.
