OPENING THIS WEEK

Evita

Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice

Directed by Adam Fratto

At the Loeb Mainstage

This weekend and next

COMPOSER Andrew Lloyd Webber has a knack for turning the most unlikely subjects into inexplicably successful rock/pop operas. Jesus Christ, T.S. Eliot's cats, roller-skating trains, the Phantom of the Opera. And Argentine actress/first lady Eva Peron. Adam Fratto, who directed last year's Lowell House opera, bucks convention by having a rock ensemble, instead of the traditional string orchestra, play the rock-inspired score. Why has no one thought of this before?

The Bald Magic Hamlet

Adapted and directed by Mark Prascak

At the Currier House Dining Hall

This weekend and next

LAST year, director Mark Prascak wanted to put on David Mamet's Glengarry Glenn Ross amid the trees in Currier's dining hall, but he ended up putting it on in Currier's nearby Fishbowl. This year, the trees are gone, but Prascak gets his wish, as the dining hall will be the site of his musical adaptation of three works: Eugene Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, Mozart's The Magic Flute and Shakespeare's Hamle

Knock Knock

Written by Jules Feiffer

Directed by Zoe Mulford

At the Quincy House Cage

This weekend and next

IT can get mighty hot in the basement space known as the Quincy House Cage. This seems appropriate for what Knock Knock's producers describe as a "manic farce about Joan of Arc and two other guys." Playwright Jules Feiffer is best known for his political cartoons, but he has written the screenplays to such manic farces as Robert Altman's Popeye.

The Arc of Music

Conceived by Performance Space Space Performance

Directed by Gary Negbaur

At the Dunster House Dining Hall

Through this weekend

WE incorrectly reported that this was running last week. Performance Space Space Performance (formerly Performance Space Six), the group that produced the Sea Monkey's Sideshow multi-media extravaganza last May at the Carpenter Center, is behind this event, which features simultaneous acts of creativity by musicians, fencers, painters and storyteller Brother Blue.

The Miss Firecracker Contest

Written by Beth Henley

At the Loeb Experimental Theater

Through this weekend

BEFORE she wrote Crimes of the Heart, Beth Henley cooked up this slice of female oriented Americana.