NEW REP 25TH-ANNIVERSARY GALA | New Repertory Theatre celebrates a quarter-century in the business — no small feat — with this gala, which starts with registration at the Arsenal Center, then cocktails and dinner at the near-by Commander's Mansion (shuttle transportation provided), and finally a performance (with "actors and singers from New York, LA, and Boston") in the New Rep theater and a dessert reception in the Arsenal Center atrium. There'll be a sad note as well: New Rep is saying goodbye to producing artistic director Rick Lombardo, who after 13 years is leaving to become artistic director at the San Jose Repertory Theatre. | Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St, Watertown | 617.923.8487 | May 12 | Dinner @ 5:45 pm; performance @ 8 pm | $200 dinner + performance + dessert reception; $75 performance + dessert reception
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
PLAYWRIGHTS IN PERFORMANCE | Playwright/professor Alan Brody is at the helm of this series of selected one-acts by MIT students and staff. | Kresge Rehearsal Room A, 48 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 617.253.2877 | May 7-9 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Sat | Free
THE PRODUCERS | James Tallach directs Mel Brooks's multiple-Tony-winning musical based on his 1968 film about a failed Broadway producer and his accountant, who seek to make a killing by producing a surefire flop — namely, Springtime for Hitler. | Turtle Lane Playhouse, 283 Melrose St, Newton | 617.244.0169 | May 8–June 7 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Sat | 2 pm Sun | $25-$27.50; student, senior discounts
ROMANCE | The American Repertory Theatre kicks off "Sex, Satire, Romance, and Ducks: A David Mamet Celebration" with the contrarian playwright, filmmaker, and TV producer's "courtroom farce that takes no prisoners in its quest for total political incorrectness." Scott Zigler is in charge of the mayhem as, in the shadow of a Mideast Peace Conference, "an elusive court case is persistently interrupted by domestic squabbles, ethnic slur slinging, and a hallucinating judge." Remo Airaldi, Thomas Derrah, Will LeBow, and The Wire's Jim True-Frost head the cast. | Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St, Cambridge | 617.547.8300 | May 9–June 7 | Curtain 7:30 pm Tues-Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 2 + 8 pm Sat | 2 + 7:30 pm Sun | $25-$79; $10 discount seniors; $25 students; $15 students day of performance; 50 tickets @ $15, day of performance at noon, in person, at the box office
