The Battles of Sexes Has a Staged Houston Moment: Your Guide to the City’s Best Events from The Guru

Houston weekends are packed full of events, but how many of them are truly worthy of your time? PaperCity’s Weekend Guru Matthew Ramirez cuts through the clutter to give you the best options in this weekly series.

Balls Out Tennis

The showdown between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs wasn’t just a sports and tennis spectacle, but a local one as well. Dubbed “Battle of the Sexes,” the 1973 match took place right here in the Astrodome. Fresh off the film of the same name (starring Emma Stone and Steve Carrell), local institution Stages Repertory Theatre presents Balls, featuring a highly physical and sensational shot-by-shot reimagining of the match itself.

Presented in conjunction with the One Year Lease Theater Company from New York (which has received heavy acclaim from The New York Times, NPR, and the Village Voice), Balls is the work of Tony Award nominee Bryony Lavery and Kevin Armento, and co-directed by One Year Lease’s co-artistic directors Ianthe Demos and Nick Flint. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, as well as Wednesdays and Thursdays, through October 29 at Stages. For showtimes and tickets, click here.

Pull Up with “Dat $tick”

Rich Chigga is the stage name of a teenaged kid from Indonesia (real name: Brian Imanuel), whose viral “Dat $tick” video raised the prerequisite eyebrows and gained plenty of clicks on novelty alone. However, in light of Bhad Babie, Matt Ox, Post Malone, and other fake rappers, Chigga at least has an amiable personality, engaging video presence, and, let’s face it, “Dat $tick” is a banger. Saturday at Warehouse Live, with doors opening at 8 pm and tickets starting at $22.

Whitney Houston

Finally there are two sold out shows this weekend I think are worth a mention if you can get into them: Sunday sees local heroes Maxo Kream and Trill Sammy at Warehouse Live. Maxo is fresh off his excellent collaboration with megastar Lil Uzi Vert, “Mars” — and Trill Sammy is still quietly racking up millions of views and SoundCloud listens while appealing to teens. Sunday, with doors opening at 8 pm.

Tuesday, rising R&B singer Daniel Caesar also hits Warehouse Live, touring behind his solid late-summer record, Freudian. Caesar is just 22 but sings as smoothly as Maxwell or D’Angelo. The soul is there and the songs are sensual and catchy, featuring fellow stars like Kali Uchis and Syd and interpreting Kirk Franklin songs just for fun. Once his songwriting catches up to him, watch out. Tuesday at Warehouse Live, doors open at 8 pm.

Astros in seven.