Through March 13.
By the time Jane Giering-De Haan delivered her show-stopping aria in the second act of Ariadne auf Naxos, my pop-culture sensibilities had already been overcome by this sumptuous and thoroughly entertaining production. Richard Strauss' opera takes satirical snipes at opera pomposities while dishing out lush, sweeping music that made even a philistine like me swoon.

A serious young composer prepares for the debut of his newest work, about the Greek heroine Ariadne after her lover abandons her on a deserted island. Unfortunately, the composer's wealthy patron decides that the opera and the comic farce that was to follow it should instead be performed simultaneously. The composer freaks out but submits--largely due to the persuasive wooing of the comely leading comedienne (Giering-De Haan). What follows is a collision of lowbrow shtick (a troop of buffoons enter atop a stretch grand piano) and gorgeous, tragic laments, all framed by visually stunning set and lighting design. Director Chris Alexander's theatrically vibrant staging not only keeps the story zipping along, it's genuinely funny and deftly explores the libretto's debates between romantic love and pragmatism, purity and mongrel vitality. My more musically educated cohort felt that Gerard Schwarz's conducting needed more oomph, but he was rapturous about the collected vocal talent.

Being relatively poor, I have mixed feelings about recommending a show that costs, at its cheapest, $37. But if you've got money burning a hole in your pocket, this is a damn pleasant way to spend it. BRET FETZER

Tibet Through the Red Box

Seattle Children's Theatre

Through March 14.
Nowhere in Tibet Through the Red Box's excessive press materials is it ever mentioned how darling and funny this show is. A true story adapted by Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly), the story sounds dull but educational on paper. A Czech filmmaker is commissioned to document the construction of a highway built between China and Tibet in the '50s, then gets lost in the mountains for three years, while Peter--his bedridden 12-year-old son back in Prague--fantasizes about what might have happened. But the show's brochures breathe hardly a word about the spectacular costumes, the imported Tibetan musicians who provide the soundtrack, or the fantastic and complicated Alice-in-Wonderland-like set, replete with rich projected backgrounds, glow-in-the-dark demons, and lots of flying actors. Most of the performances are brilliant, especially Randy Reyes'--kids will dig both his Peter Pan-like guide boy in Tibet and his fey housecat back in Prague. Despite the bland descriptions, Tibet's never dull for a second, but credible and enchanting throughout, wonderful for children and engaging for adults, and all without ever becoming hokey. MEG VAN HUYGEN

Ladyhouse Blues

ArtsWest

Through March 20.
Were it not for the painful dearth of plays with a lot of female parts, the 1976 play Ladyhouse Blues--about a xenophobic Midwestern mother and her four headstrong daughters (one dying of consumption, one a union activist, one unhappily married, one eager to get married)--would have been tossed on the dust heap of mediocrity long ago. Set in 1919, the play contains not one dramatic action. The five women speak of things they will do or want to do or have done, but they do not do a single significant thing onstage. They complain; they make pickled watermelon rinds; they talk about silent-film stars; they learn some sad news and feel bad about it; they spontaneously burst into song--some of which is amusing or pretty, but does not sustain a two-and-a-half-hour show. The cast and direction, though earnest, do not help matters. BRET FETZER

The Shape of a Girl

Seattle Children's Theatre

Through April 4.
Based loosely on the story of a Canadian girl who was murdered by a gang of her teenaged friends, The Shape of a Girl probably means well, but amounts to a cheesed-out after-school special. Carol Roscoe does the show solo as Braidie, a hyperactive 15-year-old who's best friends with the lead bully-girl, and the whole production is Braidie waffling between sympathy for the eventual victim and maintaining her status with the cool kids. However, throughout the show, it's impossible to forget that Roscoe isn't 15 and doesn't really have any idea how to approximate being 15. It's embarrassing, like Gabrielle Carteris on 90210 was embarrassing, and Carteris never spent 90 solid minutes frolicking around on a fake beach, giggling and flirting and over-enunciating at everyone. Can you imagine being a teenaged girl and getting dragged to see this thing by your parents? Watching some lady impersonate you and being nudged in the ribs every time she shrieks about hating her mom and wanting to stay out late with boys? Written by Joan MacLeod and performed all over Canada and in Europe, Shape is really just transparent subterfuge for the moms, who don't know that their teen daughters aren't planning to murder their friends. At one point, Roscoe's character complains, "It's worse than anything--the voice of Mom trying to be my buddy," and it's glorious irony. There isn't a teenager on earth who couldn't plainly see that Roscoe's not an ally but a villain, the very voice of Mom herself. MEG VAN HUYGEN