IOLANTHE, OR THE PEER AND THE PERI | MIT's Gilbert & Sullivan Players take on G&S's 1882 "fairy opera." | Sala de Puerto Rico, Stratton Student Center [second floor], 84 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 617.253.0190 | May 1-9 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Fri | 2 pm [May 9] + 8 pm Sat | 2 pm Sun | $12; $10 MIT community; $8 students, seniors, children; $6 MIT/Wellesley students
JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA | Artistic director Paul Daigneault is at the helm of this SpeakEasy Stage Company area premiere of the 2004 Olivier Award–winning London sensation, a "fascinating mix of high art and low culture" featuring "some unusual characters, each desperate for their 'Jerry Springer' moment." | Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St, Boston | 617.933.8600 | May 1-30 | Curtain 7:30 pm Tues [May 26] | 7:30 pm Wed-Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 4 + 8 pm Sat | 3 pm Sun | $51-$54; $46-$49 students, seniors; $30 gallery seats; $14 student rush
LORD OF THE DANCE | Michael Flatley's celebration of Irish dance, which has been seen by 100 million persons worldwide, aims to add a few Rhode Islanders to the list. | Providence Performing Arts Center, 220 Weybosset St, Providence, Rhode Island | 401.421.ARTS | May 5-6 | Curtain 7 pm Tues | 7:30 pm Wed | $33-$55
MISS MARGARIDA'S WAY | Theatre on Fire and Charlestown Working Theater take on Brazilian writer Roberto Athayde's 1973 work, an allegory about power and recession set in an eighth-grade biology class whose teacher is way out of control. The audience plays her students. Darren Evans directs. | Charlestown Working Theater, 442 Bunker Hill St, Charlestown | 866.811.4111 | May 8-23 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Sat | $15-$20; $10 seniors; free students with ID
MOVIN' OUT | Twyla Tharp's Tony-winning dance musical set to the tunes of Billy Joel and carrying lifelong friends (among them Brenda and Eddie from "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," Judy from "Why, Judy, Why," and Tony and Sergeant from the title tune) through two turbulent decades makes a stop in Lowell. An on-stage piano man bangs out the music. | Lowell Memorial Auditorium, 50 East Merrimack St, Lowell | 978.454.2299 | May 7 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs | $30.50-$56.50
PLAYWRIGHTS IN PERFORMANCE | Playwright/professor Alan Brody is at the helm of this series of selected one-acts by MIT students and staff. | Kresge Rehearsal Room A, 48 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 617.253.2877 | May 7-9 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Sat | Free
THE PRODUCERS | James Tallach directs Mel Brooks's multiple-Tony-winning musical based on his 1968 film about a failed Broadway producer and his accountant, who seek to make a killing by producing a surefire flop — namely, Springtime for Hitler. | Turtle Lane Playhouse, 283 Melrose St, Newton | 617.244.0169 | May 8–June 7 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Sat | 2 pm Sun | $25-$27.50; student, senior discounts
ROMANCE | The American Repertory Theatre kicks off "Sex, Satire, Romance, and Ducks: A David Mamet Celebration" with the contrarian playwright, filmmaker, and TV producer's "courtroom farce that takes no prisoners in its quest for total political incorrectness." Scott Zigler is in charge of the mayhem as, in the shadow of a Mideast Peace Conference, "an elusive court case is persistently interrupted by domestic squabbles, ethnic slur slinging, and a hallucinating judge." Remo Airaldi, Thomas Derrah, Will LeBow, and The Wire's Jim True-Frost head the cast. | Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St, Cambridge | 617.547.8300 | May 9–June 7 | Curtain 7:30 pm Tues-Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 2 + 8 pm Sat | 2 + 7:30 pm Sun | $25-$79; $10 discount seniors; $25 students; $15 students day of performance; 50 tickets @ $15, day of performance at noon, in person, at the box office
SHAPESHIFTER | Laura Kepley directs this Trinity Repertory Company world premiere of a new work by Laura Schellhardt. Storytelling is what sets off this "lyrical play about our hunger to change the ones we love and to change ourselves for them." | Trinity Repertory Company, 201 Washington St, Providence, Rhode Island | 401.351.4242 | May 1-31 | Curtain 7:30 pm Tues-Fri + 2 pm [May 20] Wed | 2 pm [May 9, 16] + 7:30 pm Sat | 2 pm [no May 3] + 7:30 pm Sun | $20-$60; $20-$30 May 1-5 previews
SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD | Drama Desk Award–winning Broadway orchestrator and Boston College professor Mary-Mitchell Campbell directs this benefit performance of Jason Robert Brown's affecting song cycle. José Delgado heads the cast. Proceeds will benefit Artists Striving To End Poverty, of which Campbell is co-founder and chair, as well as the Boston College Arts Council. | Robsham Theater Arts Center, Boston College campus, Boston | 617.552.4002 | May 9 | Curtain 7:30 pm Sat | $50; $75 includes post-performance champagne reception
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN | Stoneham Theatre presents Craig Warner's stage adaption of the Patricia Highsmith novel that inspired the 1951 Alfred Hitchcock film about two men who meet on a train and hatch a mutually beneficial double-murder plot. Weylin Symes directs. | Stoneham Theatre, 395 Main St, Stoneham | 781.279.2200 | May 7-24 | Curtain 7:30 pm Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 4 + 8 pm Sat | 2 pm Sun | $40; $35 seniors; $20 students
