On The Boards showcases two fascinating imports. In Radiohole's Fluke (January 10-13), the four member avant-garde ensemble physically upends Moby Dick. Meanwhile, Hey girl! by Societas Raffaello Sanzio (January 31-February 3), which is inspired by a group of girls waiting at a bus stop, traces womanhood through a series of riveting images punctuated by jaw-dropping theater magic.

Multiple Shakespearean experiences are available this month. A gritty, in-the-dirt style Hamlet is being done by Eclectic Theatre Company (January 10-February 2) and a lean, 90-minute version will be produced by Seattle Children's Theater (January 25-February 24). Taproot presents As You Like It (January 30-March 1) set in the 1960s hippie era of transformative politics, and Romeo and Juliet debuts at Balagan Theatre (January 31-February 23). Seattle Shakespeare Company contrives Chamber Julius Caesar (January 1-27), as well as Swansong (January 7-23) by actor Patrick Page, in which Ben Jonson hesitates as he is ordered to compose a poem for the first Folio of his friend Shakespeare's great plays.

The Capitol Hill Arts Center hosts renowned monologist Mike Daisey in Monopoly! (January 18-February 3), which explores the warped genius of inventor Nikola Tesla and his war with Thomas Edison over electricity, followed by How Theater Failed America (February 8-10), which takes stock of the dystopian state of theater in America. The CHAC also presents Vesta, a play by Bryan Harnetiaux (January 18-February 3) that focuses on a woman's declining health and ultimate passing.

Elsewhere, Richard Greenberg's acclaimed drama Three Days of Rain (January 31-February 24) comes to Seattle Public Theatre. Steven Berkoff's Kvetch (January 17-February 16), a dark comedy on the anxieties of a modern couple where the audience is privy to the characters' thoughts, is at Theater Schmeater. Village Theatre trips along with Neil Simon's beloved comedy Barefoot in the Park (January 23-March 7), while Showtunes warbles Promises, Promises (January 19-20), the musical take on Billy Wilder's The Apartment, written by Simon with a score by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Finally, Grace and Glorie (Bellevue Civic Theatre, January 25-February 2) tells of a cancer patient and a hospice worker in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

Children might enjoy Twelfth Night's annual production of Amahl and the Night Visitors (January 4-6); The Three Pigs sing about the wolf at StoryBook Theater/Studio East (January 25-March 2); and The Brave Little Tailor swats flies at SecondStory Repertory (January 18-February 3).