GREY GARDENS | Artistic director Spiro Veloudos is at the helm of the Lyric Stage Company of Boston's New England premiere of the hit Broadway musical about Jackie O's eccentric relatives, Big and Little Edie Beale, who lived in symbiotic squalor in the filthy remains of a once-grand Long Island manse. They've been the subject of a famed documentary and an HBO movie; come hear them sing. Musical direction is by Jonathan Goldberg; Leigh Barrett plays one of the Edies. | Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon St, Boston | 617.585.5678 | May 8–June 6 | Curtain 2 pm [May 13, June 3] + 7:30 pm Wed | 7:30 pm Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 4 + 8 pm Sat | 3 pm Sun | $25-$44
HOW TO EAT A LOBSTER | Karen Bray & Friends present this combination platter of dance, improvisation, theater, and comedy. | Green Street Studios, 185 Green St, Cambridge | 617.953.3937 | May 8-9 | Curtain 8 pm Fri-Sat | $20; $50 sponsorship; $10 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
MISS MARGARIDA'S WAY | Theatre on Fire and Charlestown Working Theater take on Brazilian writer Roberto Athayde's 1973 work, an allegory about power and recession set in an eighth-grade biology class whose teacher is way out of control. The audience plays her students. Darren Evans directs. | Charlestown Working Theater, 442 Bunker Hill St, Charlestown | 866.811.4111 | May 8-23 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Sat | $15-$20; $10 seniors; free students with ID
MOVIN' OUT | Twyla Tharp's Tony-winning dance musical set to the tunes of Billy Joel and carrying lifelong friends (among them Brenda and Eddie from "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," Judy from "Why, Judy, Why," and Tony and Sergeant from the title tune) through two turbulent decades makes a stop in Lowell. An on-stage piano man bangs out the music. | Lowell Memorial Auditorium, 50 East Merrimack St, Lowell | 978.454.2299 | May 7 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs | $30.50-$56.50
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
