Mark Cofta's May theater picks

Plucky award-winners 11th Hour Theatre Company starts May’s tuneful rush with the local professional premiere of the Michael John LaChiusa’s trio of short mysteries, See What I Wanna See (April 28 - May 15), and 1812 Productions’s new solo work by artistic director Jennifer Childs and composer Chris Colucci, I Will Not Go Gently (through May 15), a multi-character musical about a fictional ‘80s rock icon, with its own original soundtrack album.

‘The Impossible Dream,’ and more, within reach

New productions of Broadway hits include the Bristol Riverside Theatre’s revival of Man of La Mancha (May 10 – June 5) and its signature song, “To Dream the Impossible Dream.” The Arden’s traditional season-closer is The Secret Garden (May 12 – June 19), Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon’s adaptation of the Frances Hodgson Burnett novel, with the production co-conceived by director Terrence Nolen and design whiz Jorge Cousineau. At the Walnut Street Theatre, Sister Act (May 17 – July 17), based on the 1992 movie but now set in Philadelphia, plays on the mainstage while the two-person musical Always . . . Patsy Cline (here’s the BSR review) continues in the Independence Studio on 3 through July 3.

Tales from Wales, Ireland, Korea, and Australia

Plays from other countries include Inis Nua Theatre Company’s American premiere of a play from Wales about the American soldier who exposed military secrets: Tim Price’s The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning (April 27 – May 15; here’s our review). Also from the UK are Curio Theatre Company’s The Cripple of Inishmaan, by Irishman Martin McDonagh, and Irish Heritage Theatre’s third Sean O’Casey play, The Plough and the Stars, produced in partnership with Plays & Players (May 26 – June 11). People’s Light’s A Single Shard (April 27 – May 29), an adaptation of Linda Sue Park’s novel by Robert Schenkkan, is a multi-generational story set in 12th century Korea, and People’s Light’s contribution to the Philadelphia Asian Theatre Project. Azuka Theatre’s Moth (May 4 – 22), by Australian Declan Greene, is their annual New Professionals Production — a great program that hires actors and designers in their careers’ early stages.

American stories

The Wilma Theater’s The Christians (May 4 – 29), co-produced with Syracuse Stage, is a hot play by hot playwright Lucas Hnath (Red Speedo, Theatre Exile, 2014 and, upcoming, Hillary and Clinton at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, May 27 – June 26). Passage Theatre of Trenton, NJ introduces local scribe Bruce Graham’s White Guy on the Bus (May 5 – 22) to area audiences. The New Freedom Theatre, after a long hiatus, starts a three-production series with the premiere of The Ballad of Trayvon Martin (May 11 – 22), by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj and Thomas J. Soto.

Want more? Theatre Exile presents The Invisible Hand (May 12 – June 5), by Pulitzer Prize winner (for Disgraced) Ayad Akhtar, about an American banker kidnapped in Pakistan. Theatre Horizon revives Fully Committed (May 12 – June 5), Becky Mode’s hilarious one-man show, featuring dynamic performer Michael Doherty. FringeArts hosts a welcome revival of last year’s brilliant hit Underground Railroad Game (May 11 – 21; here’s our WNWN look from the 2015 Fringe), written and performed by Jennifer Kidwell and Scott Sheppard with Lighting Rod Special.

Catch it if you can

Too often, theater events running only a night or two are left out of our preview. No more! Tongue & Groove now presents two of their magical long-form “spontaneous theatre” performances monthly: the first Monday at the Drake, and the second Friday at the Playground at the Adrienne. Revolution Shakespeare revs up for their September full production with their third annual all-female staged reading, Shakespeare’s bloody drama Titus Andronicus, on Monday, May 9. Renegade Theatre Company and Spirit Forward share a pop-up cocktail event, In the Garden of Earthly Delights, inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, on May 8 and 9 at the Southwark/Queen Village Community Garden.