The Boston theater scene presents one of its funniest, silliest, most laugh-out-loud theater seasons. But alongside the humor will come loads of satire, insight, introspection, and depth, and one production that is darkly and deadly serious. Dive into fall theater with works from Jane Austen, Tom Stoppard, and even ABBA.
Now – Oct. 12, Boston Center for the Arts
Boston breakout playwright Alexis Scheer returns with a comedy about mothers, daughters, art, and intrigue. Ahead of Miami’s Art Basel, Mari’s paintings vanish just as her mysterious mother arrives. “Laughs in Spanish” is a chronicle of a family wrapped in a telenovela wrapped in a whodunit. The show is performed in English, speakeasystage.com
Now – Oct. 13, Huntington Theatre
Tom Stoppard’s latest masterpiece is his most personal play. All four of his grandparents, who were Jewish, died in Nazi concentration camps. Stoppard uses his family legacy to tell the fictional story of a Jewish family in Vienna in five acts spread over the years’ 1899, 1900, 1924, 1938, and 1955. www.huntingtontheatre.org/
Sept. 20, Old Town Hall, Salem
This “Hocus Pocus” focused party isn’t exactly theater. But it’s too silly, spooky, and kooky not to include. This early Halloween bash features live performances by Salem’s own Witch Sister Trio, a DJ spinning ’80s/’90s dance music, bars, souvenir gift bags, and more. 18+, costumes are required, tinyurl.com/SalemParty2024.
Sept. 24 – Oct. 4, Citizen’s Opera House
Here we go again. Three men and a daughter, and a mother, and a wedding, and a Greek Island, and two dozen ABBA songs. Hilarity, music, dancing (queens), and chance-taking ensue. boston.broadway.com
Sept. 26 – 29, Paramount Center
Emmy-nominated dancer/choreographer Dianne McIntyre has created a piece that looks at the legacies of 1920s Harlem salons and the Black Arts Movement of the ’60s and ’70s. With music by Diedre Murray and using the poetry of playwright Ntozake Shange, McIntyre and this eclectic, electric company of dancers and musicians tell a story of beauty, connection, conflict, alienation, and resolution. artsemerson.org
Oct. 18 & 19, Institute of Contemporary Art
A tag team of Sandbox Percussion and Gandini Juggling bridge sound and vision with this collaboration. Sandbox takes on contemporary composers Steve Reich, Iannis Xenakis, Caroline Shaw, and Andy Akiho while the Gandini company matches the drummers’ rhythmic magic with miraculous juggling. icaboston.org
Nov. 14 – Dec. 15, The Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge
Kate Hamill has reinvented classics including “Vanity Fair,” “Sense and Sensibility,” and “Dracula.” But Hamill’s stage twist on Jane Austen’s “Emma” may be her best. The Actors’ Shakespeare Project will bring to life this fever-pitch, screwball, and endlessly witty story of matchmaker Emma Woodhouse and her ill-fated quest not to find love. actorsshakespeareproject.org
Nov. 15 – Dec. 22, Lyric Stage
The Lyric has made it a habit to embed a wild comedy in its fall schedule. It’s a wonderful tradition that continues with legendary play-within-a-play “Noises Off” where a cast of sub-par actors combine with an inept crew to stumble and fall and fall again and then fall some more through a bomb of an opening night. lyricstage.com
