OPENINGS AND PREVIEWS
Please call the phone number listed with the theatre for timetables and ticket information.
CLOSE UP SPACE
David Hyde Pierce, Rosie Perez, and Michael Chernus star in this comedy by Molly Smith Metzler, about an obsessive book editor with an impending deadline. Leigh Silverman directs the Manhattan Theatre Club production. In previews. Opens Dec. 19. (City Center Stage I, 131 W. 55th St. 212-581-1212.)
THE GERSHWINS’ PORGY AND BESS
Audra McDonald, Norm Lewis, and David Alan Grier star in the musical by George and Ira Gershwin and DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, about the denizens of Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina, in the nineteen-twenties. With a revised, shortened book by Suzan-Lori Parks. Diane Paulus directs. Previews begin Dec. 17. (Richard Rodgers, 226 W. 46th St. 800-745-3000.)
LYSISTRATA JONES
Douglas Carter Beane wrote the book, Lewis Flinn wrote the music, and Dan Knechtges directs this riff on the Aristophanes comedy, centered on a modern-day basketball team. Opens Dec. 14. (Walter Kerr, 219 W. 48th St. 212-239-6200.)
OUTSIDE PEOPLE
Evan Cabnet directs this play by Zayd Dohrn, set in Beijing, in which an American man falls in love with a young Chinese woman and must navigate the cultural differences that affect their relationship. Previews begin Dec. 21. (Vineyard, 108 E. 15th St. 212-353-0303.)
THE ROAD TO MECCA
Roundabout Theatre Company presents this 1987 play by Athol Fugard, set in South Africa, in which an elderly woman becomes a sculptor following the death of her husband, and a local pastor fights to move her to an old-age home. Rosemary Harris, Carla Gugino, and Jim Dale star; Gordon Edelstein directs. Previews begin Dec. 16. (American Airlines Theatre, 227 W. 42nd St. 212-719-1300.)