Mountain Playhouse Staging ‘Things My Mother Taught Me’; ‘Boeing Boeing’ at Little Lake Theatre (Thurs., 7/25/19)

1) Three years ago, Stephen Karam’s The Humans rather surprisingly won the Tony Award for Best Play and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It’s an interesting-enough seriocomedy, about a young couple moving into a new apartment while the woman’s wacky parents try to help; the surprising part was that a relatively lightweight play received such high accolades. But there is an even lighter play you might call The Humans lite. Katherine DiSavino, author of Nana’s Naughty Knickers, has a comedy titled Things My Mother Taught Me. Here, the young couple are moving into an apartment in Chicago, not New York (which shouldn’t be quite so tough), and you get a warm-hearted happy ending instead of a gloomy symbolic one. 2 p.m. Runs through August 4. See Things My Mother Taught Me at the Mountain Playhouse, 7690 Somerset Pike, Jennerstown. (MV)

2) Boeing Boeing is a naughty French sex farce from the early 1960s. It concerns a playboy in Paris who’s romancing flight attendants from three different airlines, deftly juggling their “layovers” (pun intended) so the women will not meet—until, of course, one day they do. Filled with wacky physical comedy and outré innuendo, Boeing Boeing, by Marc Camoletti, gained a new generation of fans when a 2008 Broadway production won that year’s Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Camoletti’s plays are hot in summer stock this year. Little Lake Theatre is doing Boeing Boeing with John Herrmann as the playboy and Briana Downs, Paige Borak, and Miranda Schuck as the high-flying women. 8 p.m. Runs through August 3. 500 Lakeside Dr. South, Canonsburg. (MV)

3) There really was a streetcar named Desire. New Orleans once had a trolley that ran through the French Quarter to Desire Street, and now Pittsburgh Classic Players are staging Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire in our town. Director Shannon Knapp notes that the 1948 Pulitzer Prize winner remains very relevant today, as it deals with themes of sexual abuse, socioeconomic class, and mental illness. Streetcar also remains a very good play. It’s about an abusive husband, a battered wife, and their disruptive house guest: the wife’s older sister Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern belle who is either a chronic liar or delusional, possibly both. Blanche, a magnetic and mysterious character, has been played by noted actresses ranging from Jessica Tandy and Vivien Leigh to Frances McDormand. Pittsburgh Classic Players has Alyssa Herron as Blanche, along with Brett Sullivan Santry as Stanley, Jalina McClaren as Stella, and Chris Collier as Mitch. 7:30 p.m. Performances continue through July 28. At the Spartan Community Center, 134 E. Elizabeth St., Hazelwood. (MV)

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