OPENING
THE AWESOME 80S PROM | We haven't seen a Joey & Maria's Italian Wedding–type show around for a while, but this interactive entry from Metro Boston native Ken Davenport appears to be in the ballpark. | Club Venu, 100 Warrenton St, Boston | Indefinitely |www.awesome80sprom.com| Curtain 8 pm Sat | $40-$100
BOSTON THEATER MARATHON | Now in its 11th year, the BTM proves it can go the distance by stretching out to two days, with the idea of eventually expanding to "multiple venues, hundreds of performers, and thousands of cultural tourists and Boston theater patrons — not unlike Edinburgh's famed festival." Wow! For now, however, Day One is a "warm-up lap," with three staged readings of new plays — one of them Theresa Rebeck's The Novelist, with Huntington Theatre artistic director Peter Dubois directing. Day Two will bring the usual extravaganza of 50 10-minute plays; if the one you're watching doesn't grab you, you don't have long to wait for another. For the complete schedule, check thePhoenix/btm09. | Boston Center for the Arts, Virginia Wimberly Theatre at the Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont St, Boston | 617.933.8600 | May 16-17 | Curtain May 16: 11 am + 3 pm + 7 pm [limited to 100 seats]; May 17: noon–10 pm | $25 advance/$30 doors; "warm-up lap" free
CITY SPOTLIGHT | The third annual performance edition of this Citi Performing Arts Center initiative — which takes in high-school internships, community performance workshops, and intergenerational neighborhood ensembles — spotlights the talents of Charlestown, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale and West Roxbury, and the South End. The special-guest artists will include the hip-hop-infused B Boy Tapper, R&B singer Lisa Bello, breakdancing troupe the Floorlords, rap-lyricist Mr. Harvey, the Hyde Square Task Force's Ritmo en Acción, musicians the John Family, and spoken-word artist Lady Enchantress. | Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St, Boston | 866.348.9738 | May 16 | Curtain 7 pm | $5 general seating
"AN EVENING OF ALMOST" | In the wake of the Boston Theater Marathon, 11:11 Theatre Company presents its own slate of 10-minute plays, each adhering in some way to the common theme of "almost." | Boston Center for the Arts, Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont Sat, Boston |www.1111theatre.com| May 22-30 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Fri | 3 pm [May 30] + 8 pm Sat | 3 pm Sun | $20; $17 students, seniors
LORD OF THE DANCE | Michael Flatley's celebration of Irish dance, which has been seen by 100 million persons worldwide, aims to add a few more Bostonians to the list. | Opera House 519 Washington St, Boston | 800.982.ARTS | May 15-17 | Curtain 8 pm Fri | 2 + 8 pm Sat | $30-$70
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING | Beatrice and Benedick are at it again professing their distaste for each other — until the mystery mash notes surface — in Shakespeare's bittersweet comedy about love and honor, as Actors' Shakespeare Project takes itself to Roxbury. Even the title's not as innocent as it might look when you check out what Elizabethan slang has to say about "nothing." Benjamin Evett directs a cast that includes Sheldon Best, Johnny Lee Davenport, John Kuntz, Doug Lockwood, Paula Plum, Kami Rushell Smith, Richard Snee, Bobbie Steinbach, and Michael Forden Walker | Roxbury Center for the Arts at Hibernian Hall, 182 Dudley St, Roxbury | 866.811.4111 | May 14–June 14 | Curtain 1 pm Wed [May 27] | 7:30 pm Thurs-Fri | 2 pm [no May 16] + 8 pm Sat | 2 pm Sun | $25-$47; $20-$30 May 14-15 previews
PIRATES! (OR, GILBERT AND SULLIVAN PLUNDER'D) | Pirates of the Caribbean? Yes! The Huntington Theatre Company has taken G&S's Cornwall-set musical and moved it to the New World, leaving the music intact but altering the book in the hope of putting a little zing back into the political satire. Can't wait to see what they do with "I am the very model of a modern major general." Gordon Greenberg, who directed earlier versions of the piece at the Goodspeed Opera House and the Paper Mill Playhouse, is at the tiller; the cast includes Anderson Davis as pirate apprentice Frederic and Farah Alvin as his beloved Mabel, a role she previously played at both Paper Mill and Goodspeed. | Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston | 617.266.0800 | May 15–June 14 | Curtain 7:30 Mon [May 18] | 7:30 pm Tues [no May 26] | 2 pm [May 27, June 10] + 7:30 pm [7 pm May 20] Wed | 7:30 pm Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 2 pm [no May 16] + 8 pm Sat | 2 pm [no May 17] + 7 pm [May 31] Sun | $20-$82; $5 senior, military discount; $10 BU community discount; $25 patrons 35 and younger, with ID; $20 back row of balcony; $15 student rush, two hours before curtain, with ID
NOW PLAYING
