LAKEWOOD THEATRE

U.S. Route 201, Madison

474-7176 or lakewoodtheater.org

“Too Many Cooks,” Sept. 12-21.

It is 1932 in Niagara Falls, Ontario. It is the Depression. It is Prohibition. Irving Bubbalowe knows this. He also knows that he and daughter Honey have risked everything on a new gourmet restaurant opening within a few hours. Their gimmick: renowned singing chef Francois LaPlouffe will be in the kitchen. What Irving doesn’t know is that LaPlouffe has failed to appear and is being sought by Immigration officer Veronica Snook. The man in the kitchen is unemployed chef Frank Plunkett who wandered by looking for work. Bubbalowe also does not know that his delivery man has an illegal shipment of booze in the basement that belongs to Chicago gangster Alfonse “Noodles” Feghetti and his right hand man, Shirley. When the delivery man is shot, a teetotaler Dudley-Do-Right Mountie, Hamilton X. Effing, is ready to arrest Bubbalowe for murder and bootlegging. Madness ensues as Bubbalowe and the others create a hornet’s nest of fabricated stories and identities as they try valiantly to save the restaurant and themselves from the gangsters and the law.

“Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club,” Aug. 29-Sept. 7.

The Suicide Club is a theatrical mash-up that will kill you. In the heart of Edwardian London, in the years before World War I, some of Europe’s most powerful men gather to play a game whose far-reaching effects could decide the fate of Europe. The game is murder, and this is The Suicide Club. “Suicide by second party” is how an elderly gent explains the club’s policy of members helpfully offing each other one by one.

This new stage thriller features the famed sleuth in a tale full of mystery, romance, twists and chills. Daring gambits, desperate gambles, sleight-of-hand and deadly showdowns all play a part in a whip-smart mystery. It is intelligent, clever, teasing, seductively engaging — and just plain fun. It’s elementary, my dear.

LEVI STEWART THEATER

Corinna * 416-5655

“Laffing Room Only,” directed by Gary Dorman, Friday and Saturday. Tickets: $6. Performed by the adult actors group.

WATERVILLE OPERA HOUSE

873-7000, operahouse.org or acattheatre.org

“The Secret of Comedy,” directed by Jeralyn Shattuck. through Sept. 15. Tickets: $12 for adults, $10 for students and senior citizens. Season’s passes are available for $36 and are available at the door,

Aqua City Actor’s Theatre presents Michael Kimball’s dark comedy, “The Secret of Comedy” finds mother and daughter, Emily and Carey Petrocelli, polishing their comedy routine against their best straight man, husband and father, Dave Petrocelli. When Dave wins the lottery it should be a happy day, but all the money in the world can’t cure his wife’s cancer. Carey copes by trying to enlist her mother’s help in writing a comedy routine about death. But Emily has her own mission — to lead her family through the stages of grief, from denial to acceptance.

Featuring Dee Cooke as Emily, Dan Goodheart as Dave, Karen LaPlante as Carey along with Meaghan Miner, Margi Hayes, Juan Lavalle-Rivera, Tessa Hathaway.

“Parents Night Out: Comedy about Family,” with Karen Morgan and Jim Colliton. Sept. 13. Tickets: $16.50.

Marriage, mayhem and minivans! National headlining comedians Karen Morgan and Jim Colliton join together in this hilarious show about parenting, marriage, and family. Jim and Karen are both happily married — just not to each other — so they bring both perspectives of the relationship to the stage. Through stand-up comedy and hilarious audience participation, Karen and Jim take you on a wild ride through the insane world that is family. The show is clean but intended for grown-ups.

THEATER AT MONMOUTH

Cumston Hall * 933-999 * theateratmonmouth.org

“Patience,” by Gilbert & Sullivan. Directed by Bill Van Horn. Sept. 19-29; tickets: $20-$30.

The society ladies in the village are mad for aesthetic poets but the poets are in love with Patience, the village milkmaid. The young ladies’ military suitors see no point to overblown verses but give it a try to win back the ladies’ hearts. Things are touch and go for a while but in the end everyone lands a suitable partner, even if it is only a tulip or lily.

Full of wit, charm and a delightfully complicated love triangle, Patience is the sixth collaboration of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. It satirizes the “aesthetic craze” of the 1870s when the output of poets, composers and painters was prolific but whose followers, some argued, were shallow and self-indulgent. Featuring Shannon Kessler Dooley as Patience (the milkmaid); Matthew Mastronardi as Bunthorne (the fleshy poet), John Dooley as Grosvenor (the idyllic poet), Connor McAndrews as the Duke of Dunstable (the wealthy bachelor) and Frank Omar as Colonel Calverley (the commander of the brigade).

MONMOUTH

COMING TO CUMSTON HALL

OCTOBER 10-13

Theater at Monmouth’s production is part of Shakespeare for a New Generation, a national program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.

Shakespeare’s rollicking tale of wild infatuation and mistaken identities–Twelfth Night is set at Illyria University where Orsino pines for the love Olivia. At sister school, Illyria College for Women, Olivia mourns her late brother and rejects all suitors under the watchful eye of her stern headmaster, Malvolio. When shipwrecked and separated twins, Viola and Sebastian arrive on the scene mayhem and misadventure ensue.

Preview Performance: October 10th at 7:30 p.m.

$10 Tickets for Monmouth Residents!

(offer not available online)

To submit a theater production for

publication, email

happening@

mainetoday.com.

Copy the Story Link