OPENING
BOYCE & MELINDA'S INVESTMENT STRATEGIES FOR THE POST-MONEY WORLD | "It's the year 2020, and President Palin's faith-based economy has collapsed. Where can you turn?" Why, to this "hilarious musical-comedy and financial seminar" from Gip Hoppe, author of Jackie: An American Life. The original score, by Hoppe and Chandler Travis, features "investment-savvy tunes" including "Rockin' the Money/Rollin' the Green," "Toxic Assets," "All the Best Things in Life," and "New America." Former ART stalwart Will Lebow plays Boyce; Julie Perkins reprises her Melinda from the production last summer at Payomet Performing Arts Center in Truro. | Boston Center for the Arts, Calderwood Pavilion, Virginia Wimberly Theatre, 527 Tremont St, Boston | 617.933.8600 | January 14-31 | Curtain 8 pm Tues-Fri | 4 + 8 pm Sat | 1 + 5 pm Sun | $35; $31.50 seniors; $25 students
THE GOOD NEGRO | Company One presents the Boston premiere of Tracey Scott Wilson's play, which aims to "rip through the pages of history to uncover the human story at the heart of the 1960s American civil-rights movement." It all starts in Birmingham, where Claudette Sullivan takes her daughter into the "whites only" restroom at a department store, and proceeds to death threats from the Ku Klux Klan and wire taps by the FBI. With James L. Dent as James, Cedric Lilly as Rutherford, Jeff Mahoney as Steve, Greg Maraio as Rowe, Marvelyn McFarlane as Claudette, James Milord as Pelzie, Cliff Odle as Henry, Jonathan Overby as Paul, and Kris Sidberry as Corrine; Summer L. Williams directs. | Boston Center for the Arts, Plaza Theatre, 539 Tremont St, Boston | 617.933.8600 | January 15–February 6 | Curtain 7:30 pm Wed-Thurs | 8 pm Fri-Sat | 2 pm Sun | $30-$38; $30 seniors; $15 students; $18 Wed
INDULGENCES | New Repertory Theatre hopes to start the new year off right by discovering "the solution to life's puzzles" in this "fractured fairy tale" from Canadian playwright Chris Craddock that's getting its New England premiere. "Once upon a time in a kingdom somewhere," we're told, "a king and a commoner swap identities, a prince and his lover plot to protect their union, two advisers conspire to foil everything, and a man known only as 'Salesman' bargains for everyone's 'happily ever after.' " The cast includes Steven Barkhimer, Leigh Barrett, Neil A. Casey, and Benjamin Evett; Kate Warner directs. | Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St, Watertown |www.newrep.org| January 17–February 6 | Curtain 7:30 pm Mon [January 18] + Wed [February 3] | 2 pm [January 21] + 7:30 pm Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 3:30 pm [no January 23] + 8 pm Sat | 2 + 7:30 pm [no evening January 24] Sun | $35-$54; seniors $28-$47; students half price
THE SING SONG SHOW | This new work by Boston Arts Academy faculty member John Oluwole Adekoje "tells a poetic and darkly satirical tale of dictatorship, post-colonialism, and the trafficking of human organs, set to a catchy, original musical score." Rosalind Thomas-Clark directs, Allyssa Jones did the original score, and the cast includes Kevin Peterson as the One Lung General, Keith Mascoll as the Butcher, and Damean Hollis as the House Thief. | Boston Playwrights' Theatre, 949 Comm Ave, Boston | 866.811.4111 | January 15-17 | Curtain 8 pm Fri-Sat | 2 pm Sun | $15
