Theater Minis

OPENING

m Eccentricities of a Nightingale — The American Century Theater at Gunston Theater II — Tennessee Williams reworks “Summer and Smoke,” a story of ruinous romance. Opens tonight. Through April 26. 703/998-4555

m The Mollusc — Quotidian Theatre Company at the Writer’s Center — Hubert Henry Davies’ Edwardian comedy of ill manners, first staged in London in 1907. Opens tonight. Through May 4. 301/816-1023

m 1776 — Olney Theatre Center for the Arts — The 1969 Tony-winning Broadway musical. Opens Wednesday. Through May 11. 301/924-3400

m The Stephen Schwartz Project — MetroStage — A musical revue featuring the songs of the composer of “Wicked,” “Pippin,” “Godspell” and other award-winning Broadway shows. Opens Thursday. Through May 25. 800/494-8497

NOW PLAYING

n Bad Dates — Olney Theatre — Theresa Rebeck’s comedy “Bad Dates” progresses like a first encounter. At first, it is one of those “Sex and the City”-style, chick-lit types of evenings. Haley Walker (Melissa Flaim, an engaging raconteur) stands in her scanties in her bedroom, surrounded by clothes and what she estimates to be 600 pairs of shoes. It is right before this single mom’s first date in a number of years, and she’s understandably nervous. The play takes a bewildering twist when it becomes a half-baked episode of “Law and Order” that involves Romanian money launderers, Zen lawyers, cooked books at restaurants and Haley’s eleventh-hour crime confession. Directed with empathetic elan by Lee Mikeska Gardner, “Bad Dates” has its blithe charms, but like a fun first date who turns out to be a stalker, the play becomes something odd you want to avoid at all costs. Through April 20.

m Kiss of the Spider Woman — Signature Theatre — *** Director Eric Schaeffer’s vision for John Kander and Fred Ebb’s 1993 musical shuns Broadway glitz for a severe production that emphasizes dehumanizing elements while telling an affecting love story that develops between two men sharing an Argentine prison cell, Molina (Hunter Foster), a fey window dresser, and a socialist radical named Valentin (Will Chase). With his vivid retellings of movies starring his favorite actress, Aurora, Molina uses his imagination to cushion the pair’s physical and psychological tortures. Aurora’s fantasy numbers, featuring Karma Camp’s clever Busby Berkeley-style choreography, are witty parodies of movie standards with the prisoners sprung magically from their cells to become hunky chorus boys who accompany her in fiery rumbas and tangos. Mr. Foster and Mr. Chase are poignant and entirely believable as unlikely compadres who take comfort, and strength, in each other. Unfortunately, Mr. Foster’s voice was not up to the Kander-and-Ebb score. Mr. Chase’s impassioned Valentin had no such problems in a grim, almost masochistic production that makes up in broody atmosphere what it lacks in romantic fantasy. Through April 20. 703/820-9771.

m Macbeth — The Folger Theatre — ***1/2 — Houdini and haggis merge in Teller (the silent partner in the magic act Penn and Teller) and co-director Aaron Posner’s blood-soaked version of “Macbeth,” an exultant melange of Jacobean tragedy, Grand Guignol thrill show and manga comic book. The production’s teeming thrills and chills include severed heads, Scottish assassins and ghosts and nerve-racking “Psycho”-like music by Kenny Wollesen. The pairing of Shakespeare with the magic of Teller is ingenious, providing the audience with spine-tingling moments pricked with ghoulish good humor. 202/544-7077. Sold out. Through April 13.

m The Price — Theater J — **1/2Actor Robert Prosky delivers a performance of deep charm as Gregory Solomon, the debonairly cunning Jewish furniture appraiser in Arthur Miller’s 1968 play. He adeptly mines the comic and poignant aspects of both advanced age and a lifetime of haggling to provide the only glints of warmth and playfulness in Mr. Miller’s bitter and often dour probe into sibling rivalry and family dynamics. In Theater J’s production, directed by Michael Carleton, Mr. Prosky’s real-life sons Andrew and John play Solomon’s battling sons. Mr. Prosky and Andrew (who physically resembles his father) establish a relaxed, bantering rhythm that brings out teasing and humorous elements in this somber drama. Confrontations between the two brothers should be revelatory and searing as they peel back the layers of resentment and revisionist history until they are faced with the ugly truth of who their father truly was. Here, though, the skirmishes seem shouty and showy. Through April 18.800/494-TIXS.

m Stunning — Woolly Mammoth Theater Company — **** David Adjmi’s world-premiere receives a sensational production under the beautifully intuitive direction of Anne Kauffman. Provocative, smart and stinging, “Stunning” takes audiences into the ludicrously materialistic, ultramacho and acutely trend-conscious cosseted world of Syrian Jews living in Brooklyn, N.Y., yet speaks brashly and unsparingly about racial identity as a whole and what is gained and lost by assimilation and exposure to other cultures. He portrays his people with familiarity rather than affection. The result is a gorgeous, bitingly humorous assemblage of glittering monsters. Closes Sunday. 202/393-3939.

MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS

Jayne Blanchard