Lollyville is a communal village entirely inhabited by women, and one ghost. Playwrights Bret Fetzer and Juliet Waller Pruzan weave a modern fairytale about loneliness, love, and school reports about ladybugs. Talkback with the playwrights and director Kristina Sutherland to follow. Macha Monkey Productions at $10.
Nominated for five Tony Awards, Moises Kauffman's play is a drama set in New York City and Austria about a mother and a composer separated by 200 years. $10-$45.
Writer Alexander Harris and director Jaime Roberts return with (almost all of) the original cast members for the final installment in the superhero trilogy about "the underbelly of doing good," which Paul Constant has described as "a superhero movie made on a tiny theater budget." $5-$20.
A play by Jon Marans about a love affair between two of the founding members of the Mattachine Society, the first sustained LGBT rights organization in the US. The title comes from the early 20th-century usage of the word "temperamental," which is slang for "homosexual." "An eminently likable docudrama about gay identity in the age of Eisenhower" (New York Times). $12-$20.
A puppet version of the classic fable about three goats who attempt to cross a bridge, guarded by a troll. Thistle Theater company uses Bunraku, full-body, and rod puppets, designed and built by Brian Kooser. Featuring two puppeteers and original music. $8-$10.
"Directed by Kurt Beattie, Grey Gardens is a musical based on the fascinating real-life story of Edith and Little Edie, a mother and daughter from the wealthy Bouvier-Beale clan, once great socialites (and cousins of Jackie O) who became fallen, cat-food-snarfing shut-ins. Act one (the problem!) takes place in July 1941, when the Bouvier-Beales are living high on the gilded hog in their still-glorious Hampton estate. This part of the legend is necessary for context, to introduce the family, and to properly frame their fall. It needs to be, you know... there. But it is not worth fully one-half of this darn-nigh-three-hour show. And it is definitely not the most interesting or important part of the Grey Gardens story." (Adrian Ryan) $55-$77.
The (mostly) true story of Fela Kuti, the Nigerian musician and activist who helped create Afrobeat, a blend of jazz, funk, and Yoruba music. His unusual living situation (he lived in an urban commune with 27 wives) and outspoken political critiques made him a target for the Nigerian military, which attacked and killed some of his family and bandmates. (During an attack on the commune, Kuti's mother was flung out of a window and killed.) Directed by Bill T. Jones, the musical mostly focuses on Kuti's sonic inventiveness and the generation of Africans he inspired. $20-$85.
Twin stories by Julia Cho about love and language, in which a linguist can't talk his way out of divorce and an indigenous tongue is threatened with extinction due to a lover's spat. Directed by Shana Bestock. $10-$29.
University of Washington graduate students Tina Polzin and Leah Adcock-Starr directed five one act plays by Tennessee Williams, featuring an ensemble cast of graduate and undergraduate students. $10-$20.
Upright Citizens Brigade comedian Kate Hess parodies the BBC's Downton Abbey entirely on her own and with period costumes. The Daily Beast calls it one of the "six best Downton Abbey spoofs." $10.
Rod Serling's scripts are brought to life by director Tim Moore and an ensemble cast in a boozy, cheerful atmosphere. This round features the episodes "I Shot an Arrow into the Air," "It's a Good Life," and "The Night of the Meek." $18-$23.
Set in 18th-century Germany, Itamar Moses (Outrage, Celebrity Row, The Four of Us) composes a fictional story—structured like a fugue—about J.S. Bach vying against German organists who play dirty as they all reach for the position as prime organist and musical director. $20-$40.
"SMOKED! is marketed as an homage to the genre-defining spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, best known for the Man with No Name trilogy. Ray Tagavilla gamely invokes Clint Eastwood's stoic, irreverent stranger, riding into a troubled town in the grip of a big bad boss. Two of the dishes elicited actual pain. The spring vegetable 'spaghetti' (read: coleslaw) came with mozzarella 'meatballs' rolled in powdered olives, a combination so salty it hurt. The smoked alfalfa-hay popcorn was impressive only from a scientific standpoint, as each kernel carried such an intense cigarette-smoke sensation that it stung the lungs." (Kim Fu) Cafe Nordo at $60-$80.
A new circus and cabaret show set in a casino, rolling high with the talents of Les Petits Frères, contortionist Vita Radionova, chanteuse Francine Reed, trapeze artists Duo Madrona, juggler Sergiy Krutikov, and former Ringling Bros. clown Peter Pitofsky. $60-$108.