In a recent New York Times interview, singer-songwriter Jennifer Nettles remarked of her new show, Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo, “The joke of it, the irony, is that my little musical about poison is the antidote we need right now.” Based on the audience response at a recent performance, her point was well taken. In witnessing a succession of abusive, barbarous, and toxic men succumbing to murder, many in the crowd clearly found their retribution. As news feeds clutter with stories of national leaders, Senate candidates, and millionaires evading justice for their crimes against women, there is indeed something quite gratifying about watching vigilante vengeance set to an intoxicating, pop-music beat.

Family entertainment often settles for amusing the children while asking adults to patiently endure the ride. The Listies: Make Some Noise gleefully defies that formula, delivering an hour of quick-witted comic anarchy in which playwright-performers Richard Higgins and Matthew Kelly prove that silliness, when executed with razor-sharp timing and imagination, can delight audiences from preschoolers to grandparents.

The ideals and experiences that bond people together when they are young may be the very things that divide them when they mature. This we learn from the protagonists in Birthright, Jonathan Spector’s play that tracks the lives of six Jewish friends from 2006 through 2024. In each of the three nearly one-hour acts, perceptible changes occur in each character’s priorities and attitudes, at least in part because in their discussions, no topic is sacrosanct.    

For anyone who has ever believed mathematics belonged exclusively to gifted minds, That Math Show offers a joyful correction. Created and performed by Dr. Arthur Benjamin and directed by Eric Krebs, this lively production reveals the beauty and playfulness of numbers.

Neil Armstrong landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. Less than a month later, the Woodstock festival rocked America’s psyche. The run-up to these landmark events provides the symbolic dissonance for the bighearted and multifaceted new musical, A Walk on the Moon. With a score by AnnMarie Milazzo and book by Pamela Gray, this stage version of the 1999 film (also written by Gray) tracks a not-so-happy housewife through a risky voyage of self-discovery, just one short hike away from Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, N.Y., and one giant leap from her otherwise square and earthbound life.

Erica Murray’s The Loved Ones is a poignant meditation on grief and betrayal that offers a potentially melodramatic setup but largely avoids obvious broad strokes in favor of quieter pleasures—sharply observed dialogue, characters who defy the labels placed on them, and an exploration of the difficulties and power of empathy. An outstanding ensemble led by the great Maryann Plunkett depicts the international group of women—Irish, English, and American—brought together in rural West Clare, Ireland, through tragic circumstances that threaten to divide them yet end up eliciting a precarious and precious sense of solidarity.