A BRONX TALE | Oscar nominee Chazz Palminteri comes to town fresh from the successful Broadway reprise of the 1989 one-man show that became the 1993 film in which Palminteri starred with Robert De Niro. In the stage version, here directed by four-time Tony winner Jerry Zaks, the actor plays 18 characters as he re-creates his tough 1960s childhood in the New York neighborhood of the title. | Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston St, Boston | 800.982.ARTS | March 31–April 5 | Curtain 7:30 pm Tues-Thurs [except Wed at 7 pm] | 8 pm Fri | 2 + 8 pm Sat | 2 + 7:30 pm Sun | $35-$81 | Sara Faith Alterman's preview in "TJI," page 6
THE CHERRY ORCHARD | Phoenix contributor Steve Vineberg is at the helm of this College of the Holy Cross department of theatre production of Chekhov's masterpiece about the demise of the Russian gentry and some prime real estate. | Fenwick Theatre, O'Kane Hall, College of the Holy Cross campus, Worcester | 508.793.2496 | March 26–April 4 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Sat | $10; $7 Holy Cross community
EVERY BROOM AND BRIDGET — EMILY DICKINSON AND HER SERVANTS | Film and stage actor Peter Berkrot is at the helm of poet Tom Daley's play, which, set in Amherst on the day of Emily Dickinson's burial, explores the relations between the poet and her Irish servants. Based on Dickinson's writings as well as on "historical documents," the show seeks to convey "the complexity of the attitudes — sometimes affectionate, sometimes resentful — of the Dickinsons' Irish-Catholic staff toward their well-to-do Protestant employers." | Cambridge Family YMCA Theatre, 820 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 617.256.8242 | April 4 | Curtain 7:30 pm Sat | $10; $8 students, seniors, unemployed
THE FIRST [W]RITES SERIES | In Vivo Productions and Cambridge Center for Adult Education team up for this new play-reading showcase. This installment presents portions of Incubation Period, a new comic tragedy by Hortense Gerardo. | Cambridge Center for Adult Education Blacksmith House, 56 Brattle St, Cambridge | 617.547.6789 x 1 | March 28 | Curtain 8 pm Sat | $10
HAROLD'S FALL OR KING WILL | Joe Antoun directs this play by George Watsky, winner of Emerson Stage's New Fest 2009 student playwrights' competition. Set in a Manhattan Park, it focuses on a chess game but is loosely based on King William's Norman invasion of England. | Semel Theater, Tufte Performance and Production Center, 10 Boylston Place, Boston | 617.824.8369 | April 2-4 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Fri | 2 + 8 pm Sat | $14
HECUBA | Acting faculty member Janet Morrison plays the title character in this Brandeis Theater Company production of Euripides's play about the enslaved former queen of Troy. The new translation is by Eirene Visvardi, adapted by Eric Hill. | Mainstage, Spingold Theater Center, Brandeis University, 415 South St, Waltham | 781.736.3400 | April 2-5 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Fri | 2 + 8 pm Sat | 2 pm Sun | $18-$20
