THE BLACK JEW DIALOGUES | "What's so funny about two American minorities that have slavery, the KKK, and chicken livers in common?" That's a question pondered by Boston natives Ron Jones and Larry Jay Tish as they make a home-town stop with their touring comedy "that explores the history and absurdity of prejudice, hate, and racism in America." Born of three days spent discussing the subject in a cheap hotel room, the show has been touring for two years. | Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St, Boston | 617.933.8600 | February 13 | Curtain 8 pm Fri | $20-$25
BLUE MAN GROUP | The Drama Desk Award–winning trio of cobalt-painted bald pates begin their delightful and deafening evening of anti–performance art beating drums that are also deep buckets of paint, so that sprays of color jump from the instruments like breaking surf, and end by engulfing the spectators in tangles of toilet paper. | Charles Playhouse, 74 Warrenton St, Boston | 617.931.ARTS | Indefinitely | Curtain 8 pm Wed-Thurs | 7 pm Fri | 2 + 5 + 8 pm Sat | 1 + 4 pm Sun | $58; $48 limited view; $25 student rush
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF | Scott Edmiston directs Tennessee Williams's 1955 Pulitzer Prize winner set on the Mississippi plantation where Big Daddy is about to buy the farm and Maggie the Cat is jumping out of her sexual skin. Lyric Stage honcho Spiro Veloudos takes the stage as Big Daddy; Georgia Lyman gets to wear Liz Taylor's slip. | Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon St, Boston | 617.585.5678 | February 13–March 14 | Curtain 2 pm [February 18, March 4] + 7:30 pm Wed | 7:30 pm Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 4 + 8 pm Sat | 3 pm Sun | $25-$50
DARK PLAY OR STORIES FOR BOYS | Apollinaire Theatre Company presents the area premiere of Carlos Murillo's play, which debuted at the 2007 Humana Festival for New American Plays. Inspired by real-life events in Manchester, England, it's about a 14-year-old boy who comes across a naively worded Internet ad posted by a 16-year-old boy who wants to fall in love. "Already bored with cyber-sex and posting fake on-line ads, Nick invents the girl of Adam's dreams, Rachel, and Adam and Rachel fall hard." Mayhem ensues. Danielle Fauteux Jacques directs. | Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St, Chelsea | 617.887.2336 | February 20–March 22 | Curtain 8 pm Fri-Sat | 3 pm Sun [March 15, 22] | $18 in advance; $20 at the door; $15 student rush
THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK | Marco Carneiro is at the helm of this Boston Stage Company revival of the Pulitzer-winning 1955 stage adaptation by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. | Factory Theatre, 791 Tremont St, Boston | 617.697.6012 | February 13-21 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Sat | 2 pm Sun | $13; $10 seniors, students; $8 Boston Conservatory, Emerson College, Phillips Academy students
