THE LIFE OF GALILEO | Move over, Richard Goodwin. Award-winning director David Wheeler directs British playwright David Hare's translation of Bertolt Brecht's 1938 play, in which "Galileo Galilei abolishes Heaven." The production by Catalyst Collaborative @ MIT, in conjunction with Underground Railway Theater, commemorates the 400th anniversary of Galileo's turning his telescope upward to "change the way human beings thought of their place in the cosmos." Richard McElvain plays the scientist in hot water with the Church in Brecht's examination of scientific responsibility written on the brink of World War II. | Central Square Theater, 450 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 866.811.4111 | Through May 17 | Curtain 7:30 pm Wed-Thurs | 8 pm Fri-Sat | 3 pm Sun | $32; $22 seniors; $18 students with ID; $12 student rush day of show | Carolyn Clay's review page 26
MEN OF TORTUGA | Apollinaire Theatre Company presents the area premiere of Jason Wells's first play, which debuted in 2005 at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre. In Wells's "brutally hilarious satire, three power brokers scheme with a weapons specialist to eliminate their enemy. But when one of them takes a young idealist under his wing, his long-dormant conscience begins to reawaken, forcing the cabal to concoct even more outlandish scenarios of annihilation and ponder whether the ends justify their means." Danielle Fauteux Jacques directs. | Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St, Chelsea | 617.887.2336 | Through May 17 | Curtain 8 pm Fri-Sat | 3 pm Sun [no May 3] | $18 in advance; $20 at the door; $15 student rush
THE MIRACLE AT NAPLES | Artistic director Peter DuBois is at the helm of this lively Huntington Theatre Company world premiere of David Grimm's commedia dell'arte–inspired sex farce about traveling players who land in Naples in 1580 just in time for an annual miracle that fails to take place. Social activity stops dead until San Gennaro's blood liquefies in the local church named for him, and this gives both players and townies time to engage in various erotic confusions. Grimm uses commedia as a jumping-off point for his own lust-inspired 21st-century themes, of course, and a brief commedia performance stops the play dead in its tracks. But if the raunchy show isn't perfect, it's rarely less than pleasurable, with particular comedic contributions from Lucy DeVito (whose famous dad would be proud) and Broadway vet Dick Latessa. | Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St, Boston | 617.266.0800 | Through May 9 | Curtain 7:30 pm Tues | 2 + 7:30 pm Wed | 7:30 pm Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 2 + 8 pm Sat | 2 + 7 pm Sun | $20-$60; $10 discount BU community; $25 patrons 35 and under; $15 student rush, with college ID, two hours before curtain
A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN | This Merrimack Repertory Theatre revival of Eugene O'Neill's redemptive drama is a co-production with Norfolk's Virginia Stage Company and is directed by Edward Morgan, who describes the encounter between drunk, self-loathing Jamie Tyrone and earth mother Josie Hogan as "part rollicking Irish comedy; part lyrical, soulful drama." | Merrimack Repertory Theatre, 50 East Merrimack St, Lowell | 978.654.4MRT | Through May 17 | Curtain 8 pm Wed-Fri | 4:30 + 8:30 pm Sat | 2 + 7 pm Sun | $26-$56; student, senior, discounts
