Another Night Before Christmas
By Sean Grennan and Leah Okimoto. Through December 27. Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables; 305-444-9293; actorsplayhouse.org
Creators of bantamweight AOR musical Married Alive return to reinvigorate a Christmas classic — only this iteration of the poem involves a large and terrifying homeless man breaking into a woman's apartment in the dead of night. Perverse? Sure. And no holiday needs a vivifying splash of perversity more than Christmas, and no theater needs it as badly as Actors' Playhouse. Here's hoping it gets rough. (Which it won't, 'cause there is a very good chance the homeless man in question isn't homeless at all, but instead a certain jolly, bearded elf in disguise. But you can never tell.)
Farragut North
By Beau Willimon. Directed by Joseph Adler. December 26-January 24 at GableStage, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables; 305-445-1119; gablestage.org
GableStage's obligatory annual politics play combines a stellar cast — David Hemphill! Nick Duckart! Deborah Sherman! The irrepressibly sexy Gregg Weiner! — with more or less the plot of Primary Colors: A goodhearted young fellow joins a high-powered presidential campaign, witnesses those around him becoming soulless victory junkies, and realizes it might be happening to him too.
The Storytelling Ability of a Boy
By Carter W. Lewis. Directed by Louis Tyrell. Through January 17. Florida Stage, 262 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan; 561-585-3433; floridastage.org
Storytelling is an intellectually rich, emotionally riveting, and painfully funny play with an ending almost too stupid to endure. Ignore it. In this play, which follows two brilliant but lonely high-schoolers through two violent weeks in the middle of the school year, Carter W. Lewis has created probably the best portrait of modern adolescence to ever hit the stage.
