Theater Minis

OPENING

• Henry IV, Part 1 — The Shakespeare Theatre. This look into the relationship between a father and a son also features Falstaff, one of Shakespeare’s most popular characters. Opens Wednesday in repertory with “Henry IV, Part 2.” 202/547-1122.

• Henry IV, Part 2 — The Shakespeare Theatre. Prince Hal matures and distances himself from his old friend Falstaff. Opens Wednesday in repertory with “Henry IV, Part 1.” 202/547-1122.

• Jesus Christ Superstar — Warner Theatre. The first big Broadway hit from the legendary writing team of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Opens Tuesday. 202/783-4000.

• Passing the Love of Women — Theatre J. A pair of Talmudic scholars love studying more than they love their wives, and love one another more than they love studying. Opens Wednesday at the D.C. Jewish Community Center. 800/494-8497.

• The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife — Stanislavsky Theater Studio. Garcia Lorca’s comic play, “a violent farce in two acts,” sees a young woman leave her older husband only to have him return in disguise and test her true feelings. Opens Tuesday at the Church Street Theater. 800/494-8497.

NOW PLAYING

• Cats — Toby’s Dinner Theatre — ***. Toby’s is one of the first theaters to try to re-create the kittenish allure of this Andrew Lloyd Webber musical warhorse, which premiered on Broadway in 1982. The intimacy of the space makes the show less of an empty spectacle and aligns it more closely with its source material, T.S. Eliot’s book “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” You do miss a complete orchestra as the keyboard-heavy 10-piece orchestra strives not to sound rinky-dink. But matters are helped by the emphasis on full-out choral singing. Costumes and makeup are captivating, and the actors give fetching portrayals of the show’s 26 cats. Through Aug. 8. 410/730-8311. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Children of Eden — Ford’s Theatre — **1/2. Based on a book by Tony winner John Caird, with music and lyrics by Tony nominee Stephen Schwartz, this accessible miniextravaganza is family fun loaded with colorful, familiar characters and visually arresting dance numbers. Its take on Judeo-Christian theology, however, is decidedly nonstandard. Its two acts remanufacture the decline and fall of Adam and Eve and the tempest-tossed voyage of Noah’s ark. The basic stories remain intact. However, the concepts of good and evil are largely peeled away. The youthful cast rocks with infectious enthusiasm, and the time flies if you just want to have fun. But it looks as if there’s no exit from the 1960s. Through June 6. 202/347-4833. Reviewed by T.L. Ponick.

• The Comedy of Errors — Folger Theatre — ***1/2. Hey, listen: This D.C. director named Joe Banno gets together with the Folger, and they set this play about mistaken identity in modern-day Brooklyn. They put New York Italian accents on Shakespeare’s English, and dress up the actors like cheap floozies and two-bit hoods. People play “Godfather” music in the background and the cast is terrific. What a concept. Shakespeare purists probably won’t like it, but what can we tell ya? This manic act of rehab is so nutty it actually works. So go buy a ticket, see? Through May 23. 202/554-7077. Reviewed by T.L. Ponick.

• Elegies: A Song Cycle — Signature Theatre — ***1/2. This hauntingly beautiful production of William Finn’s latest musical, a tender tribute to the people he has loved and lost over the years, is a sung-through piece without any dialogue. The composer is eccentric and nontraditional without resorting to ironic distance, and a zippy neuroticism permeates his music. Director Joe Calarco’s five actors acquit themselves with polished, impassioned performances. Through May 9. 703/218-6500. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Far Away — Studio Theatre — ****. Brought to jolting life by an ideal cast, by artistic director Joy Zinoman and a superlative design team, British playwright Caryl Churchill’s creepy jab to the brain and solar plexus delivers some of the most alarming and exquisite imagery you’ll see anywhere, in a production that burrows in your subconscious like a nightmare. Set in wartime somewhere in the 20th century, the play takes the idea that there is no refuge from battle to almost existential extremes, by subverting civilization’s warmest, fuzziest moments — a parade, a child’s visit to the home of loving relatives — so that our comfort zones are abolished. This is a shuddery warning: The enemy is not in some far-off place, but within and without us. Through May 16. 202/332-3300. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Fences — Round House Theatre — **. August Wilson’s “Fences,” part of his 10-play cycle chronicling black American life in each decade of the 20th century, is a play of music, rage and coiled rhythm. Yet it becomes a pedantic harangue in this production. By focusing on the anger of the main character, a talented baseball player in the Negro Leagues who never got a chance in the majors, this staging loses the beat poetry of Mr. Wilson’s dialogue along with its epic sense of tragedy. So the lead becomes not a hero but just a nasty bully, and the play veers into melodrama, squabbling on the earth when it should be reaching for the stars. Through Sunday. 240/644-1100. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Five by Tenn — The Shakespeare Theatre — ***. This evening of recently discovered and obscure one-act plays by Tennessee Williams is not “A Streetcar Named Desire,” or even “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” or “Glass Menagerie.” But directed by the Shakespeare Theatre’s Michael Kahn with a quickness and lightness that draw out the plays’ humor, the five small plays and their vivid, frequently brazen, brush strokes, grant us intriguing insights into Mr. Williams’ development as a writer. Through May 9 at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. 202/467-4600. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Henry IV, Part 2 — The Shakespeare Theatre — **. “Henry IV, Part 1” examines the impetuousness and wastrel ways of youth. Its companion, Part 2, gives a burnished treatment of old age. This production, directed at a processional pace by Bill Alexander, captures the long nap of aging and death almost too well. The gloomy wooden set does little to lift one’s spirits, nor does the uninspired staging. Thankfully, both plays feature the irascible figure of Falstaff, played with zaftig bonhomie by Ted van Griethuysen. In fact, the more seasoned actors run off with the play. Through Sunday, then in repertory with Part 1 through May 16. 202/547-1122. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Oh, Coward! — Olney Theatre Center for the Arts — *1/2. A celebration of the drollery of English writer and bon vivant Noel Coward, this production is a pastiche of his music hall ditties, vermouth-dry witticisms and memorable lines. The set is perfect, an art deco nightclub in gorgeous black and rose-gold. But the rest is all champagne and no fizz. With Coward, the breeziness must be effortless. This production feels labored and forced, with the cast of three straining for insouciance. In fact, the show is about as airy as a closed-off room. Through May 16. 301/924-3400. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Rosemary and I — MetroStage — . Alexandria’s doughty MetroStage should be applauded for its gutsy world premiere launch of Leslie Ayvazian’s short drama. But this shapeless effort is not ready for prime time. A “memory play,” it traces the lonely childhood of Julia, the central character (played by the playwright). But the driving force of the play is not in the characters but in the writer. What results is an evening of frequently moving prose poetry delivered by an exceptional cast of professionals. At no time does real drama ever happen. Through May 9. 703/548-9044. Reviewed by T.L. Ponick.

• Senor Discretion Himself — Arena Stage, Fichandler Theater — ***. This exuberant, mischievous production of Frank Loesser’s lost 1968 Mexican musical about the redemption of a town sot is given both corazon and cojones by director Charles Randolph-Wright, who did such an outstanding job with Mr. Loesser’s “Guys and Dolls” at Arena in 2000. The multiethnic cast is on fire. And the performance artists Culture Clash inject the book with a shot of irreverence. The musical is a product of its era and could not be called “culturally sensitive,” but it certainly is a lot of fun. Through May 23. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.• Waiting for Godot — Washington Shakespeare Company — ***. This frequently funny production of Samuel Beckett’s enigmatic tragicomedy, wherein two tramps confront their meaningless lives, is a revelation: To its existential angst and discordant poetry “Godot” adds the elements of burlesque comedy. Audience members laughed out loud at the cracking comedic timing of Christopher Henley, a Stan Laurel type who seems born to play Vladimir, and Brian Hemmingsen, who as Estragon recalls the gentle buffoon Bert Lahr. Together they are peerless. As directed by Dorothy Neumann, this affecting staging casts laughter and humanity into the dark corners of Mr. Beckett’s world. Through May 22 at the Clark Street Playhouse. 800/494-8497. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS