Staff picks

Sondheim's musical about friendship and ambition unfolds in reverse chronological order, tracing three friends' idealism back from adulthood's disappointments to youth's glowing optimism. Why we love it: The score ("Our Time," "Good Thing Going," "Not a Day Goes By") is one of Sondheim's most beloved, and Signature hasn't staged it in 20 years.

Golden Globe winner Brian Cox plays Johann Sebastian Bach, forced into a musical duel with Frederick the Great's court, under Trevor Nunn's direction at Harman Hall. Why we love it: It's the play's only American stop after sold-out runs at Theatre Royal Bath and in the West End.

Simon Godwin sends four runaway lovers into a fairy-ruled forest brought to life by puppet master Basil Twist, whose designs turn Oberon and Titania's mischief into something you watch as much as follow. Why we love it: Twist's puppetry has previously reimagined My Neighbour Totoro and Stravinsky's Petrushka onstage.

Tony winner Laura Benanti's one-woman comedy, fresh off Edinburgh Fringe and two sold-out Off-Broadway runs, mixes original songs with brutally honest takes on motherhood, people-pleasing, and aging. Why we love it: A New York Times Critic's Pick that's as sharp as it is heartfelt.

Joshua Harmon's daringly personal play follows a playwright whose dying grandmother has one request for the family drama he's about to write: make it as bitter and vitriolic as possible. Why we love it: The writer of Studio's biggest hits (Bad Jews, Admissions) turns the camera on his own family this time.

For one night at Filene Center, the company dances an all-American program: Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free, Balanchine's Stars and Stripes and Who Cares?, and Eliot Feld's Variations on 'America', set to Bernstein, Gershwin, Ives, and Sousa. Why we love it: Fancy Free is the ballet that inspired the musical On the Town.