December
‘DURANG/DURANG: An Evening of Short Plays by Christopher Durang’
Through Dec. 12
Cambridge Family
YMCA Theatre
820 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
$10-$20
www.badhabitproductions.org
Mash-up comedic theatre features 13 local actors juggling multiple roles while skewering Tennessee Williams, David Mamet and Sam Shepard. And, apparently, Duran Duran.
‘Vengeance Is the Lord’s’
Through Dec. 12
Boston University Theatre
264 Huntington Ave., Boston
$15-$89, 617-266-0800
www.huntingtontheatre.org
Tensions run high at family holiday dinners when a daughter’s murderer comes up for parole. Questions of justice, mercy and closure abound in Bob Glaudini’s play.
‘The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby’
Through Dec. 19
The Lyric Stage Company
140 Clarendon St., Boston
$25-$56, 617-585-5678
www.lyricstage.com
Twenty-five actors play more than 150 characters in this adaptation of the Dickens classic. That’s an epic undertaking — though try saying this guy’s name five times fast.
December
‘Frankie and Johnny’
Through Dec. 19
New Repertory Theatre
321 Arsenal St., Watertown
$30, 617-923-8487
www.newrep.org
A waitress and short-order cook discover that food’s not the only thing made in the kitchen. We’re talking about whoopie, sweet whoopie!
‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’
Through Dec. 30
BCA Plaza Theatre
527 Tremont St., Boston
$20-$35, 617-353-5443
www.bu.edu/bpt
Do they eat Welsh Rabbit in Wales for Christmas? Is rabbit even an ingredient in Welsh Rabbit? Perhaps these questions will be answered in this Dylan Thomas-penned production.
‘The Blue Flower’
Through Jan. 8
Loeb Drama Center
64 Brattle St., Cambridge
$25-$35, 617-547-8300
www.americanrepertorytheater.org
Check out Metro next week for Nora Dunne’s story on this play that is part love entanglement, part history ride.
‘Striking 12’
Dec. 8 through Jan. 2
Calderwood Pavilion
527 Tremont St., Boston
$25-$55, 617-933-8600
www.speakeasystage.com
Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl” + modern-day New Year’s Eve setting=funky musical theatre hybrid alternative for a holiday season rooted in otherwise predictable traditions.
‘Where Heaven and Earth Meet: The Cosmic Drama of Japan’
Dec. 8 through Dec. 12
TheatreLab@855
855 Comm. Ave., Boston
Free, 617-353-3350
www.bu.edu/cfa
Associate Professor of History Ronald K. Richardson heads up a night of Japanese Noh dra-ma, including an adaptation of Zeami’s “The Damask Drum.” The event is free — and, like, how often do you get to experience a cosmic drama for free?
‘Her Red Umbrella’
Dec. 10 through Dec. 18
The Factory Theatre
791 Tremont St., Boston
$15-$17
www.1111theatre.com
Boy finds girl’s red umbrella abandoned in Harvard Yard, tracks down girl and discovers unexpected romance. Screw romance — if we found a nice red umbrella in Harvard Yard, we’d pawn that!
‘Scrooge the Musical’
Dec. 10 through Dec. 19
Riverside Theatre Works
45 Fairmount Ave., Boston
$15-$20, 617-361-5269
www.riversidetheatreworks.org
For a twist on Dickens’ perennial “A Christmas Carol,” check out this musical adaptation.
‘Spring Storm’
Dec. 14 through Dec. 17
Boston University Theatre
264 Huntington Ave., Boston
$10-$12, 617-353-3350
www.bu.edu/cfa
This early Tennessee Williams play was kinda like his college thesis project in 1938. It was rediscovered in the mid-’90s, in all its sexually repressed/sexually liberated glory.
January
‘The Understudy’
Jan. 1 through Jan. 29
The Lyric Stage Company
140 Clarendon St., Boston
$25-$56, 617-585-5678
www.lyricstage.com
A little schadenfreude goes a long way. (That isn’t as dirty as it sounds.) Or so we hope with Theresa Rebeck’s play about a Hollywood action star trying his hand at Broadway acting.
‘Hysteria, or Fragments of an Analysis of an Obsessional Neurosis’
Jan. 6 through Jan. 30
Central Square Theater
450 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
$20-$40, 866-811-4111
www.centralsquaretheater.org
Dali has tea with Freud in this What If? comedy of sorts. Here’s hoping Dali turns the “Freudian Slip” into a cool art brushstroke.
‘Ruined’
Jan. 7 through Feb. 6
Boston University Theatre
264 Huntington Ave., Boston
$25-$89, 617-266-0800
www.huntingtontheatre.org
Neutrality and obligation are but a few of the ideas explored in this depiction of Mama Nadi and her canteen smack dab in the middle of the Congo civil war.
‘Glengarry Glen Ross’
Jan. 13 through. 22
BCA Plaza Black Box Theatre
527 Tremont St., Boston
$13-$17, 617-286-2437
www.brownpapertickets.com
David Mamet’s modern classic about salesmen and unforgiving economies is arguably more relevant now than when it was first written.
‘In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards by The Civilians’
Jan. 19 through Jan. 23
ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage
Paramount Center,
Black Box Theatre
559 Washington St., Boston
$39, 617-824-8000
www.artsemerson.org
An exhaustive investigation into the Brooklyn development project Atlantic Yards provides the basis for this dramatic production. Interviews with real-life residents, activists and developers mix with theater, dance and music.
‘The Secret Garden’
Jan. 28 through Feb. 27
Wheelock Family Theatre
200 The Riverway, Boston
$20-$30, 617-879-2300
www.wheelock.edu
Most days, we wish we had a secret garden of our own that we could retreat to and, you know, do absolutely anodyne and boring things there. The Wheelock Family Theatre gets it, too, with this adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1919 novel.
February
‘My Name Is Asher Lev’
Feb. 11 through March 12
The Lyric Stage Company
140 Clarendon St., Boston
$25-$56, 617-585-5678
www.lyricstage.com
Adapted from the Chaim Potok novel, Aaron Posner’s play pits art and faith as a young Jewish painter attempts to reconcile his work with his Hassidic background.
‘The Golden Age’
Feb. 24 through Feb. 26
Black Box Theatre
559 Washington St., Boston
$10, 617-824-8000
www.emerson.edu
Finally, a play set in Tasmania! Australian playwright/novelist Louis Nowra’s story of love and war features a tribe of Tasmanians, though it looks like no devils.
–Listing assistance provided by ArtsBoston.org, Boston’s premiere
arts and entertainment online calendar, putting Boston’s arts at your
fingertips.
