OPENING
AS BEES IN HONEY DROWN | Flat Earth Theatre stages Douglas Carter Beane's satirical comedy about a gullible up-and-coming novelist taken in by a flashy record producer's request that he write her life story. After the author racks up a mountain of debt paying for his client's luxurious demands, she makes a break for it instead of repaying him. He returns the favor by penning a book about her true career as a con artist. Jake Scaltreto directs. | Arsenal Center for the Arts, Black Box Theater, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown | flatearththeatre.com or 800.838.3006 | August 13-21 | Curtain 8 pm Fri-Sat | 2 pm Sun | 8 pm Thurs [August 19] | 2 pm Sat [August 21] | $20; $15 advance; $10 students
HAIRSPRAY | Marissa Perry once understudied as Tracy Turnblad on Broadway; now, she now reprises the part of the plump would-be dancer for this Reagle Players production. Todd Michel Smith and Judine Somerville direct and choreograph the Tony-winning musical about '60s-era racism and (still relevant) prejudice against people of size. Dan Dowling Jr. does "a grand drag turn" as Tracy's mother, Edna Turnblad. | Robinson Theatre, 617 Lexington St, Waltham, 02452 | 781.891.5600 or reaglemusictheatre.com | August 12-22 | Curtain 2 pm [August 12] or 7:30 pm [August 19] Thurs | 7:30 pm Fri-Sat | 2 pm Sun | $35-$57; $25 age 18 and under
MORE WORDS! MORE PLAY! | Wolfe Coleman and Tom O'Keefe, the same team who wrote last year's Bankside Fest play about Shakespeare's life, Wordplay!, have penned this follow-up about who really wrote the Bard's works. "This is not the first piece of work to address the authorship question that is rife with historical inaccuracy," says O'Keefe. "But it may be the first to do so with so many bawdy jokes." The players are the 11 young actors in S&C's Center for Actor Training Performance Intern Program; Steve Ginsburg directs. | Shakespeare & Company, Rose Footprint Theatre & Bankside, 70 Kemble St, Lenox | 413.637.3353 or shakespeare.org | August 12–September 6 | Curtain this week: 5:30 pm Thurs + Sun + Tues | $15; $5 age 18 and under
NOW PLAYING
THE AMOROUS QUARREL | This early work by Molière includes all the trappings of great 17th-century comedy: several misunderstandings, gender swapping, and servants besting their superiors. Jenna Ware directs the "pair of sometimes-silly gentleman pining hopelessly for the same Lady, while her sister — long disguised as a man — searches for a way to claim one of them as her own." | Shakespeare & Company, Rose Footprint Theatre & Bankside, 70 Kemble St, Lenox | 413.637.3353 or shakespeare.org | Through August 28 | Curtain this week: 5:30 pm Fri-Sat | $10; free for age 18 and under
BAD DATES | Elizabeth Aspenlieder stars in Theresa Rebeck's one-woman comedy about a single mom's lackluster love life and rotten dating luck. Theresa "balances the pressures that come with a new career as a fashionable New York City restaurateur, raising a teenage daughter, and even a too-close-for-comfort relationship with the Romanian mob — and does so without neglecting to find the perfect pair of shoes." Eric Tucker directs. | Shakespeare & Company, Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, 70 Kemble St, Lenox | 413.637.3353 or shakespeare.org | Through September 12 | Curtain this week: 8 pm Thurs-Fri | $15-$48
