OPUS | New Repertory Theatre presents the New England premiere of violinist-turned-playwright Michael Hollinger’s 2007 drama, in which “the celebrated and world-renowned Lazara String Quartet is struggling to prepare for its highest-profile performance when its gifted but volatile violist mysteriously disappears.” “Sex, drugs, and chamber music!” is how Charles Isherwood began his New York Times review. With Shelley Bolman, Benjamin Evett, Michael Kaye, Becky Webber, and Bates Wilder; Jim Petosa directs. | New Repertory Theatre, 321 Arsenal St, Watertown | 617.923.8487 | Through April 17 | Curtain 7:30 pm Wed-Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 3:30 + 8 pm Sat | 2 + 7 pm Sun | $35-$54; $27-$49 seniors; half-price student reservations
INDEFINITELY
BLUE MAN GROUP | The Drama Desk Award–winning trio of cobalt-painted bald pates begin their delightful and deafening evening of anti–performance art beating drums that are also deep buckets of paint, so that sprays of color jump from the instruments like breaking surf, and end by engulfing the spectators in tangles of toilet paper. | Charles Playhouse, 74 Warrenton St, Boston | 617.931.ARTS | Indefinitely | Curtain this week: 8 pm Thurs [April 8] | 7 + 10 pm Fri | 4 + 7 + 10 pm Sat | 2 + 5 pm Sun | 8 pm Wed | 8 pm Thurs [April 15] | $48-$62; $30 student rush
THE DONKEY SHOW | Diane Paulus & Randy Weiner’s disco-set riff on A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an hour-long work set in the Studio 54–inspired environs of Club Oberon and framed by episodes of Saturday Night Fever in which you may or may not choose to star. The dramatis personae include Dr. Wheelgood, a gold-lamé-clad Puck on roller skates; club owner Mr. Oberon, who’s out to humiliate his haughty diva girlfriend, Tytania; desperately yearning or cockily dismissive lovers Helen, Dimitri, Mia, and Sander; and a twin couple of ruffle-shirted, Afro-coiffed dudes both named Vinnie. Ingeniously double-cast, sexily supple, and screeching into headsets, they join the paying crowd (a small minority of whom occupy tables in a cabaret area that also sees action) for an immersive night of hedonism and hustle driven by the pounding beat and melodramatic passions of disco hits from the 1970s. | Oberon, Mass Ave + Arrow St, Cambridge | 617.547.8300 | Indefinitely | Curtain 8 pm Fri | 8 + 10:30 pm Sat | $25-$49
SHEAR MADNESS | The dramatis personae of the audience-participation whodunit (which is now the longest-running non-musical in American theater history, having run 29 years in Boston) continue to comb Newbury Street for the murderer of a classical pianist who lived over the unisex hair salon where the show is set. | Charles Playhouse Stage II, 74 Warrenton St, Boston | 617.426.5225 | Indefinitely | Curtain 8 pm Tues-Fri | 6 + 9 pm Sat | 3 + 7 pm Sun | $42; $31.50 with AAA discount; half-price college-student rush, one ticket per college ID, at the box office, one hour prior to curtain
