OPENING
AFTER THE QUAKE | Company One presents Tony-winning adapter (for The Grapes of Wrath, in 1990) and director Frank Galati's play, which is adapted from two stories from Haruki Murakami's After the Quake, a collection set in Japan in 1995 between the Kobe earthquake and the poison-gas attacks in the Tokyo subway. In one of those stories, "Honey Pie," a shy man whose would-be sweetheart was swept away by his best friend (but they're now divorced) regales her daughter with the tale of a six-foot frog who's out to save Tokyo. Shawn LaCount directs. | Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre, 539 Tremont St, Boston | 617.933.8600 | July 17–August 15 | Curtain 7:30 pm Wed-Thurs | 8 pm Fri-Sat | 2 pm Sun | $30-$38; $30 seniors; $15 students; $18 Wed; pay-what-you-can [minimum $6] Sun
AURELIA'S ORATORIO | The cirque nouveau pioneer and Charlie Chaplin's daughter, Victoria Thierrée Chaplin, directs her daughter, Aurélia Thierrée, in a 70-minute dream scenario that has its rough-hewn and magical sequences, among them an opener in which Thierrée emerges limb by lissome limb from a chest of drawers. At its best, the show recalls the ones on which Thierrée cut her teeth, her parents' (dad is French clown Jean-Baptiste Thierrée) Le Cirque Imaginaire and Le Cirque Invisible. But the performer (who is abetted by dancer Jaime Martinez) lacks her mother's prodigious circus skills, and it is the most imaginative of the illusions that stick with you in this whimsical offering for the whole family. | Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St, Cambridge | 617.547.8300 | July 22–August 2 | Curtain 7:30 pm Tues-Thurs | 8 pm Fri-Sat | 3 + 7:30 pm Sun | $25-$75; 10 percent discount seniors
BLAME THE WOLF | Hailing from the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, the Al-Rowwad Theatre Troupe, which recently performed for Pope Benedict XVI, brings to Cambridge this original play "adapted from a familiar children's fairy tale to reveal the experiences and lessons of Palestinian life." Howard Zinn introduces the performance. | Central Square Theater, 450 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 617.576.9278 | July 17 | Curtain 7:30 pm Fri | $10, doors only
THE BREATH OF LIFE | Gloucester Stage artistic director Eric C. Engel helms this 2002 David Hare play about two women who once shared the same man and are now trying to reconcile. Local luminaries Nancy E. Carroll and Paula Plum play the roles originated by Judi Dench and Maggie Smith at the Theatre Royal in London. | Gloucester Stage Company, 267 East Main St, Gloucester | 978.281.4433 | July 23–August 2 | Curtain 8 pm Wed-Fri | 3 + 8 pm Sat | 4 pm Sun | $32-$37
CREATING CLAIRE | Cape Cod Theatre Project continues its season of summer staged readings with Joe DiPietro's "exploration of the supernova that results when science, faith, and politics collide." Oscar nominee Barbara Barrie (Breaking Away, Suddenly Susan), Celia Keenan-Bolger (Tony for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), Johanna Day (Tony nominee for Proof) and Matthew Arkin (Drama Desk nominee for Dinner with Friends) star; Christopher Ashley (artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse and director of Xanadu, All Shook Up, and Memphis on Broadway) directs. | Falmouth Academy, 7 Highfield Drive, Falmouth | 508.457.4242 | July 16-18 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Sat | $20; $10 students
"AN EVENING WITH ANTHONY RAPP" | The Improper Bostonian's Jonathan Soroff hosts this benefit evening for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, with cocktails and hors d'œuvre provided by Barbara Lynch's 9 at Home, plus Mr. Rapp, whom you can also see at the Colonial Theatre starring as Mark in Rent: The Broadway Tour, though probably not this up close and personal. | FP3 Residences, Penthouse One, 346 Congress St, Boston | //tinyurl.com/CSCRappEvent | July 20 | 6-9 pm | $50; $100 supporter level
FESTIVAL@FIRST 6: "TABLES TURNED" | "Eight plays, two world premieres, three playwrights, eight directors, 18 actors — see it all in one night in Davis Square." Well, close, the venue is actually four blocks from Davis Square. But you do get all of the above in this sixth annual summer festival of one-acts from community-theater company Theatre@First. On the bill: Chris Lockheardt's Breakfast with Warhol, Helluva Poker Face, Not Funny, and Season's Greetings, Babs Lindsay's Canyon's Edge, Cupid's Beau, and The Usual, and Marc Freed's Dan in the Lion's Den. | Unity Church of God, 6 William St, Somerville | 888.874.7554 | July 23–August 1 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Sat | 3 pm Sun | $12; $10 students, seniors
JERSEY BOYS | Those would be the Four Seasons, four boys from Newark who in the early '60s gave us "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk like a Man," "Candy Girl," "Dawn," and "Rag Doll." Written by Academy Award winner Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe, and choreography by Sergio Trujillo, this dramatization of their story won the 2006 Tony for Best Musical, the 2006 Grammy for Best Musical Show Album, and the 2009 Olivier Award for Best New Musical. Now it comes to Boston, with Matt Bailey as Tommy DeVito, Joseph Leo Bwarie as Frankie Valli, Josh Franklin as Bob Gaudio, and Steve Gouveia as Nick Massi; Tony winner (for Big River and The Who's Tommy) Des McAnuff directs. | Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St, Boston | 866.348.9738 | July 23–September 26 | Curtain 8 pm Tues-Fri [7 pm July 29; 2 pm Thurs matinee July 30] | 2 + 8 pm Sat | 2 + 7 pm Sun | $49-$99
