Tyler Perry’s The Marriage Counselor

Most people know Tyler Perry for his television sitcoms and films, including Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, Diary of a Mad Housewife and Madea’s Family Reunion. (The writer/producer/director is also the man inside the flowered housedress playing the famous matriarch Madea.) For all their bawdy humor, his stories are full of Christian piety and focus on the power of faith to triumph over evil.

Tyler brings those convictions, along with a double dose of prime-time humor, to The Marriage Counselor, a play about Roger (Tony Grant), an accountant, and his wife Judith (Támar Davis), a marriage counselor. The couple struggle to keep their love alive despite family troubles in the form of in-laws who don’t get along — Roger’s pot-smoking dad and Judith’s Bible-thumping mom don’t see eye to eye. Money problems, late nights at the office and an old boyfriend also threaten the marriage. Of course, all of this is held together with a message about the power of faith.

There’s nothing highbrow about this theatrical event, but Perry’s audiences adore his work. And it’s his work and not him that they’ll be seeing in The Marriage Counselor — Perry is not in the cast. 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 3 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Through November 23. Hobby Center, Sarofim Hall, 800 Bagby. For information, call 713-629-3700 or visit www.thehobby-center.org. $40.50 to $52.50.
Thu., Nov. 20, 8 p.m.; Fri., Nov. 21, 8 p.m.; Sat., Nov. 22, 3 & 8 p.m.; Sun., Nov. 23, 3 & 7:30 p.m., 2008