Boston Metro Spotlight: May 2009

The phrase “banned in Boston” is officially obsolete, now that Speakeasy Stage has acquired regional rights to the outré London hit Jerry Springer – The Opera (May 1 -30) and Ryan Landry’s Gold Dust Orphans are rendering comic homage to Roald Dahl in the form of Willie Wanker and the Hershey Highway (through May 24). The Boston Globe initially balked at printing the latter title but relented.

Fully family-friendly, the Huntington’s Pirates! or, Gilbert and Sullivan Plunder’d (May 15-June 14) is an update of the G&S classic relocated to the Caribbean, with a Broadway-powered cast led by Steve Kazee (Pirate King), Ed Dixon (Modern Major General) and Tony Award winner Cady Huffman (Ruth). For a glimpse of treats to come next season, consider the 2009 Spotlight Spectacular! gala May 4, hosted by Tony winner Kelly Bishop and featuring Maureen McGovern and Euan Morton.

Meanwhile, the American Repertory Theatre Company twits the U.S. judicial system with David Mamet’s 2005 farce Romance (May 9-June 7). The Boston Pops are in a show-biz state of mind, hosting Barbara Cook (May 6-7), Michael Cavanaugh (May 8-9), and John Pizzarelli (May 12-13).

For an exciting survey of homegrown talent, you couldn’t improve upon the Boston Theater Marathon XI (May 17), a ten-hour, 50-play extravaganza at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, with special preview day on May 16 featuring staged readings of works by Theresa Rebeck, Alan Brody, and Kirsten Greenidge. Tucked amid the BCA’s myriad spaces, you’ll find the feisty young Whistler in the Dark troupe assaying Euripides’ The Bacchae (May 1-16); the Village Theatre Project premiering company member Shawn Sturnick’s farce Better Off Dead (May 8-16); and the 11:11 Theatre Company presenting An Evening of Almost: A Festival of Short Plays (May 22-30). The Boston premiere of Grey Gardens blossoms at Lyric Stage (May 8-June 6), starring golden-voiced Leigh Barrett. The Actors Shakespeare Project have taken up Much Ado About Nothing (May 14-June 14), with Paula Plum and Richard Snee playing Beatrice and Benedict.

Underage theatermaniacs are in for a bonanza: Piti Theatre Company’s Elmer and the Elder Tree — extrapolated from Shel Silverstein and Jean Giorno — at the Boston Playwrights Theatre (May 1-17); the Broadway Across America tour of Dora the Explorer Live! Search for the City of Lost Toys at the Boston Opera House (May 7-10); and Ben’s Trumpet, a jazzy guest residency of Roxbury’s BalletRox at the Wheelock Family Theatre (May 27-June 7).

The fringes are abustle. The Mill 6 Collaborative brings Tom Jacobsen’s Wilde-inspired meta-theatrical riff Bunbury: A Serious Play for Trivial People to the Factory Theatre (May 1-17), where Counter-Productions Theatre Company will later present Charles Busch’s Psycho Beach Party (May 29-June 14). Charlestown’s edgy Theater on Fire mounts Robert Atheyde’s provocatively interactive Miss Margarida’s Way (May 8-23). Cambridge’s Nora Theatre Company revives Eric Overmyer’s On the Verge, or The Geography of Yearning, with Deanna Dunmyer, Alicia Kahn, and Anna Waldron playing intrepid time-traveling explorers (Central Square Theater, May 28-June 21). In the ‘burbs, Stoneham Theatre presents Craig Warner’s film-noirish dramatization of Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train (May 7-24).

The Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater on Cape Cod finds a compatible match in Charles Ludlum’s spoof The Mystery of Irma Vep (May 20-June 20). Meanwhile, the Provincetown Art Theatre is hosting a mini-cabaret fest Memorial Day weekend (May 22-24). On any given night, you could catch indie folkie Melissa Ferrick, musical parodist Poppy Champlin, the cross-dressing female comedy troupe All the Kings Men, and Miss Richfield 1981, a transvestite beauty queen of a certain age and an irresistible sense of humor.

At the other end of the state, the Berkshires rev up with Jenny Allen’s solo show I Got Sick Then I Got Better, directed by James Lapine and Darren Katz at the Barrington Stage Company (May 15-17). BSC’s Musical Theatre Lab resumes with a staged reading of Poolside at the Hotel Bel Air by Janet Allard and Nikos Tsakalakos (May 23-24), about an LA newbie offered a sentimental education by a glamorous older woman. And the fabulous Bacon Brothers — Kevin and Michael — put on a benefit show (May 30).

Berkshire Theatre Festival kicks off its season with Brian Friel’s trilogy of moving monologues, Faith Healer (May 21-July 4), starring David Adkins, Colin Lane, and Keira Naughton. Shakespeare & Company has Romeo and Juliet on the roster (May 21-June 7), supplemented by company founder Tina Packer in the title role of Shirley Valentine (May 27-31 and September 11). Especially exciting is the prospect of the Berkshire Playwrights Lab Free Staged Reading Series, which will run alternate Wednesdays starting June 10. To get the ball rolling (and raise funds), Joan Ackermann, Eric Bogosian, Larry Gelbart, and David Mamet are writing original short plays for the Lab’s gala at Great Barrington’s Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center (May 29), starring area resident Karen Allen alongside Elizabeth Franz, Dan Lauria, Wendie Malick, Peter Riegert, and Jay Thomas.