OPENING
AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' | Erstwhile American Idol Ruben Studdard stars in this 30th-anniversary national tour of the Tony-winning 1978 musical revue by Murray Horowitz and Richard Maltby Jr. built on the tunes of composer, stride pianist, and 1930s Harlem fixture Thomas 'Fats' Waller, among them "Honeysuckle Rose," "This Joint Is Jumpin'," and "Your Feet's Too Big." Maltby Jr. is at the helm; the cast includes two other Idol alums, Frenchie Davis and Trenyce Cobbins. Citi Performing Arts Center and the City of Boston are the presenters. | Strand Theater, 543 Columbia Road, Dorchester | 866.348.9738 | April 10-12 | Curtain 8 pm Fri | 2 + 8 pm Sat | 3 pm Sun | $28-$58
ALL IN THE TIMING | Bad Habit Productions visits area bars and the Somerville Theatre with this sextet of witty short plays by David Ives. On the bill are Words, Words, Words, about the proverbial monkeys trying to tap out literature on typewriters, and the musical Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread. Anna Waldron directs. | Hennessey's Bar, 25 Union St, Boston | April 3, 10, 17 | Curtain 7 pm Fri | Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Sq, Somerville | April 4, 11, 18 | Curtain 7 pm Sat | Burren, 247 Elm St, Somerville | April 5, 19 | Curtain 4 pm Sun | Sweet Water Café, 3 Boylston Place, Boston | April 9, 16 | Curtain 7 pm Thurs |www.badhabitproductions.org| $15 on-line; $20 doors
ANGELS IN AMERICA | Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club takes on both parts of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer-winning "gay fantasia on national themes," which, set in the midst of the 1980s AIDS epidemic, features lovers, Mormons, and Republican demon Roy Cohn. Sara Wright directs Millennium Approaches; Laura Hirschberg is at the helm of Perestroika. | Loeb Drama Center Mainstage, 64 Brattle St, Cambridge | 617.496.2222 | April 3-11 | Curtain Millennium Approaches 8 pm Fri [April 3] | 2 pm Sun [April 5] | 8 pm Thurs | 2 pm Sat [April 11] | Curtain Perestroika 8 pm Fri [April 10] | 8 pm Sat [April 4, 11] | 8 pm Sun [April 5] | $12, $15 both parts; $8 students, seniors, $10 both parts
ANTIRETROVIRALS AND WATER REFUGEES: A LIVING NEWSPAPER ON HAITI | MIT Dramashop utilizes puppets, shadow theater, toy theater, video and audio sampling, and live brass music as it "looks at the past, present, and future of Haiti in terms of the politics of global health care as refracted through the work of Paul Farmer's Partners in Health organization and its fight against AIDS." MIT guest artist and puppeteer John Bell directs. Post-show discussions follow. | Kresge Little Theater at MIT, 48 Mass Ave, Cambridge |www.dramashop.mit.edu/tickets| April 9-17 | Curtain 8 pm Wed-Sat | $8; $6 students
BIG APPLE CIRCUS | Now in its 31st season, the intimate one-ring circus returns with a new edition. Play On!, which takes its name from the opening line of Twelfth Night, boasts "high-spirited Colombians on the flying trapeze; an acrobatic Chinese ballerina pirouetting on top of her partner; jazzed-up juggling twins from America; Russians springing skyward from their Russian barre; a talented troupe of Italian dogs; and the breathtaking exploits of Big Apple Circus equestrians vaulting onto galloping horses." And if that's not enough for you, they'll send in the clowns led by BAC veteran Grandma. The inventive set is by 2008 Tony Award winner (for August: Osage County) Todd Rosenthal. | City Hall Plaza, Boston | 888.541.3750 | April 4–May 10 | Performance times vary | $20-$65; $100 premium seating weekends and Patriots Week
CHARLOTTE'S WEB | Roll over, Beth of Little Women fame — there may be no bigger tearjerker in youth literature than the demise of the arachnid who befriends a pig in E.B. White's classic tale. It's brought to the stage by Joseph Robinette; Jane Staab directs a cast led by Merle Perkins, Robert Saoud, and Grace Brakeman. | Wheelock Family Theatre, 200 the Riverway, Boston | 617.879.2300 | April 10–May 10 | Curtain 1 pm Tues-Thurs [April 21-23] | 1 pm [April 24] + 7:30 pm Fri | 3 pm Sat-Sun | $15-$25; $10 Pajama Party Fridays; $13 Teens Take Charge
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 GONDOLIERS, OR THE KING OF BARATARIA | Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert & Sullivan Players take on the Venice-set 1889 G&S operetta in which there are too many maids and not enough handsome gondoliers to go around, plus a princely case of mistaken identity. | Agassiz Theatre, 10 Garden St, Cambridge | 617.496.2222 | April 2-12 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Fri | 2 + 8 pm Sat | 2 pm Sun | $14; $10 seniors; $5-$8 students
