JOHNNY BASEBALL | This world-premiere musical from the American Repertory Theater blends fact and fiction in its attempt to explain the Red Sox’ 86-year championship drought. The Curse, we’re told, goes back “to a collision of three orphaned souls: Johnny O’Brien, a hard-luck right-hander on the 1919 Sox; his idol, Babe Ruth; and Daisy Wyatt, a dazzling African-American blues singer and the love of Johnny’s life.” With Colin Donnell as Johnny, Stephanie Umoh as Daisy, and Burke Moses as the Babe; the creative team includes Robert Reale (music), Willie Reale (lyrics, story), and Richard Dresser (book, story), and ART artistic director Diane Paulus is at the helm. | Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St, Cambridge | 617.547.8300 or americanrepertorytheater.org | May 14–June 27 | Curtain 7:30 pm Tues-Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 2 + 8 pm [no performances May 15] Sat | 2 + 7:30 pm [no evening May 16] Sun | $25-$75
THE LADY WITH ALL THE ANSWERS | That would be Ann Landers, and this is the New England premiere, courtesy of the Nora Theatre Company, of David Rambo’s “riotous and touching play about everyone’s favorite advice columnist.” Hey, wait a minute — what about “Dear Abby”? Anyway, this one’s set in 1975 Chicago, as Ann, “while revisiting favorite columns on such topics as nude housekeeping and the correct way to hang toilet paper, composes the most important letter of her life.” Sounds like material for a musical, but we gather it isn’t. Stephanie Clayman plays Ann; Daniel Gidron directs. | Central Square Theater, 450 Mass Ave, Cambridge | centralsquaretheater.org | May 13–June 20 | Curtain 7:30 pm Wed | 2 pm [May 13] + 7:30 pm Thurs | 8 pm Fri-Sat | 2 pm Sun | $35; $25 seniors; $20 students
OUR TOWN | Grover’s Corners comes to Provincetown, as CTEK Arts stages Thornton Wilder’s 1938 Pulitzer Prize winner about love, life, and the meaning of it all in a small New Hampshire community. Obie winner David Drake directs. | Provincetown Theater, 238 Bradford St, Provincetown | 508.487.7487 or provincetowntheater.org | May 13-22 | Curtain 7:30 pm Thurs-Sat | 5 pm Sun | $26; $23 students, seniors
PRELUDE TO A KISS | The Huntington Theatre Company concludes its 28th season with Craig Lucas’s 1988 drama, a kind of gloss on “Beauty and the Beast.” Peter and Rita have just exchanged their wedding vows when a old man kisses the bride and a different exchange takes place: her soul transfers into his body and vice versa. Will Peter cleave to the beautiful body with the soul of a stranger, or will he seek out his soulmate in the body of an old man? With Brian Sgambati as Peter, Cassie Beck as Rita, and MacIntyre Dixon as the Old Man, plus Nancy E. Carroll, Ken Cheeseman, and Michael Hammond; HTC artistic director Peter DuBois is at the helm. | Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston | 617.266.0800 or huntingtontheatre.org | May 14–June 13 | Curtain 7:30 pm Tues [no June 1] | 2 pm [May 26, June 9] + 7:30 pm Wed | 10 am [June 3] + 7:30 pm Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 2 pm [no May 15] + 8 pm Sat | 2 pm [no May 16] + 7 pm [May 16, June 6] Sun | $20-$82
