GATZ | The American Repertory Theater presents the theater troupe Elevator Repair Service in its 2004 tour de force take on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby ("James Gatz — that was really, or at least legally, his name"), in which "the ensemble brings to life every word of the novel with no text added and none removed." The set-up has an employee in a low-rent office space stumbling on a tattered old copy of Gatsby and starting to read it aloud; his co-workers pay no attention — at first. The piece was conceived as a six-hour entity; here it'll be presented in two parts, and when both parts are performed on the same day, there'll be an hour-long dinner break. With Scott Shepherd as Nick, Victoria Vazquez as Daisy, Jim Fletcher as Gatz, and Gary Wilmes as Tom; ERS founder John Collins directs. | Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St, Cambridge | 617.547.8300 | January 7–February 7 | Curtain 3 + 7:30 pm Mon [January 18: P1/P2] | 7:30 pm Tues [January 12: P1; February 2: P1] | 7:30 pm Wed [January 27: P1; February 3: P2] | 7:30 pm Thurs [January 7: P1; January 21: P1; January 28: P2] | 3 pm [P1; no January 7 or 14] + 7:30 pm [P2; January 8 P1] Fri | 3 pm [P1] + 7:30 pm [P2] Sat-Sun | $25-$75; $15-$65 seniors; $20 student rush
HARRIET JACOBS | Underground Railway Theater and the Providence Black Repertory Company present Lydia R. Diamond's new adaptation of Harriet Jacobs's autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the main incident being her hiding out in her grandmother's attic for seven years to escape her master's sexual advances. After escaping from North Carolina, she ran a boarding house for Harvard students; she's buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery. The cast includes Kortney Adams, Ramona Alexander, Sheldon Best, De'Lon Grant, Mishell Lilly, Raidge, Obehi Janice, and Kami Smith; former PBRC associate director Megan Sandberg-Zakian is at the helm. | Central Square Theater, 450 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 866.811.4111 | January 7-27 | Curtain 7:30 pm Wed [January 13] + Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 2 + 8 pm Sat | 2 + 7 pm [evening January 10] Sun | $35; $25 seniors; $20 students
IN THE HEIGHTS | Washington Heights, that is, in Manhattan — "a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open, and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. It's a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions you take with you, and which ones you leave behind." This touring version of the 2008 Broadway hit that took the Tony for Best Musical has Kyle Beltran as Usnavi, Daniel Bolero as Kevin, Rogelio Douglas Jr. as Benny, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer as Vanessa, Arielle Jacobs as Nina, Jose-Luis Lopez as Graffiti Pete, Genny Lis Padilla as Carla, Isabel Santiago as Daniela, Elise Santora as Abuela Claudia, Shaun Taylor-Corbett as Sonny, and Natalie Toro as Camila; Tony nominee Thomas Kail directs. | Opera House, 539 Washington St, Boston | 800.982.ARTS | January 12-24 | Curtain 7:30 pm Tues-Thurs [7 pm January 13] | 8 pm Fri | 2 + 8 pm Sat | 2 + 7:30 pm Sun | $30-$91
