OPENING
BOOM | "It's the end of the world. Do you have a date?" That's the premise for this play by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb that's getting its New England premiere from Downstage @ New Rep. "As an undiscovered comet hurtles towards earth, one lone scientist takes it upon himself to preserve the human race. Hilarity ensues when the woman he has taken captive refuses to procreate, and the shelter he has built is damaged beyond repair." Scott Sweatt, Zofia Gozynska (Luciana in last summer's Commonwealth Shakespeare production of The Comedy of Errors), and ART mainstay Karen MacDonald make up the cast; New Rep associate associate Bridget Kathleen O'Leary directs. | Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St, Watertown | 617.923.8487 orwww.newrep.org| February 21–March 13 | Curtain 7:30 pm Mon [February 22] | 8 pm Wed [no March 3] + Thurs | 8:30 pm Fri | 4 + 8:30 pm Sat | 3 pm [no February 21] + 8 pm Sun | $25 general admission
PARADISE LOST | The American Repertory Theater's "America: Boom, Bust and Baseball" season, which began with Gatz, continues with Clifford Odets's 1935 meditation on the Depression, a play in which the Gordon family find their faith in America tested as Leo Gordon and his partner Sam Katz lose their handbag business. With David Chandler as Leo, Sally Wingert as his wife, Clara, Hale Appleman as their son, Ben, Jonathan Epstein as Sam, Thomas Derrah as the Gordons' friend Gus, and Merritt Janson as Gus's daughter Libby; Daniel Fish directs. | Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St, Cambridge | 617.547.8300 | February 27–March 20 | Curtain 7:30 pm Tues-Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 2 pm [no February 27] + 8 pm Sat | 2 + 7:30 pm [no evening February 28] Sun | $25-$75
STICK FLY | "Sparks fly and long-hidden secrets tumble into the open when the LeVay brothers bring their new girlfriends home to Martha's Vineyard's world of privilege. This smart, moving, and funny portrait of a complex African-American family from acclaimed Huntington Playwriting Fellow Lydia R. Diamond (Voyeurs de Venus, The Bluest Eye) is an of-the-moment look at sibling rivalry and the weight of parental expectations." Kenny Leon directs this Huntington Theatre Company production; the cast includes Billy Eugene Jones as elder son Flip LeVay, Rosie Benton as Kimber, Flip's Caucasian girlfriend, Jason Dirden as younger son Kent, Nikkole Salter as Taylor, Kent's girlfriend, Amber Iman as Cheryl, the daughter of the family's maid, and Wendell W. Wright as "renowned neurosurgeon" and family patriarch Joe LeVay. | Boston Center for the Arts, Calderwood Pavilion, Virginia Wimberly Theatre, 527 Tremont St, Boston | 617.266.0800 | February 19–March 21 | Curtain 7:30 pm Tues [no March 9] | 2 pm [March 3, 10] + 7:30 pm [7 pm February 24] Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 2 pm [no February 20] + 8 pm Sat | 2 pm [no February 21] + 7 pm [no March 7 or 21] Sun | $50-$60; $45-$55 seniors; $15 student rush; $20 last row orchestra
'TIL DEATH DO US PART: LATE NITE CATECHISM 3 | Maripat Donovan is back with a third helping of catechism class, this one focusing on "the Sacraments of Marriage and the Last Rites" and including "her own wacky version of The Newlywed Game." | Club Café, 209 Columbus Ave, Boston | 877.386.6968 | February 19–March 28 | Curtain 7:30 pm Fri | 4 + 7:30 pm Sat | 3 pm Sun | $55
