"AN EVENING OF ALMOST" | In the wake of the Boston Theater Marathon, 11:11 Theatre Company presents its own slate of 10-minute plays, each adhering in some way to the common theme of "almost." | Boston Center for the Arts, Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont Sat, Boston |www.1111theatre.com| Through May 30 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Fri | 3 + 8 pm Sat | 3 pm Sun | $20; $17 students, seniors
THE EYES OF BABYLON | Jeff Key wrote and performs this one-man play based on his experience as a US Marine in Iraq. One blurb reads, "Support the troops? Don't miss this!", so we're guessing he didn't have a good time. | Boston Playwrights' Theatre, 949 Comm Ave, Boston | 866.811.4111 | Through June 6 | Curtain 8 pm Thurs-Sat | 2 pm Sun | $25; $20 seniors, $15 students
FAITH HEALER | Berkshire Theatre Festival opens its 2009 season with Brian Friel's story about the Irish faith healer who tours Great Britain with his wife and his manager, a story that's told entirely through monologues. Colin Lane has the title role, David Adkins is Teddy, Keira Naughton is Grace; Eric Hill directs. | Berkshire Theatre Festival Unicorn Theatre, Main St, Stockbridge | 413.298.5576 | Through July 4 | Curtain through June 20: 8 pm Thurs-Sat + 2 pm Sun | Curtain June 21-July 4: 8 pm Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat + 7 pm Wed | $15-$44
GREY GARDENS | What the singing version of Grey Gardens, in its local premiere by the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, has that David and Albert Maysles's 1975 peep into the lives of fallen American aristocrats Edith Bouvier Beale and her namesake daughter Edie does not is a flashback of a first act that underlines Big and Little Edie's connections to Camelot and a score, part period novelty, part haunting subtext, not borrowed from No, No, Nanette. What Spiro Veloudos's well-pitched production throws in are a couple of pretty uncanny replications of the eccentric, dysfunctional duo the Maysles brothers captured living amid memory, grievance, and squalor. Moreover, Leigh Barrett, who plays Big Edie in act one and the idiosyncratic Little Edie of the documentary in act two, sings better than either. Some of the first-act songs are jitterbugging filler, and the creators —Scott Frankel (music), Michael Korie (lyrics), Doug Wright (book) — seem to have felt that the musical couldn't just peter out but required a climax and a cuddly reconciliation for its subjects. But the odd valor of the women and the poignancy of their shared dysfunction — the very things that make the documentary more than an exercise in voyeurism — are enhanced by the score. | Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon St, Boston | 617.585.5678 | Through June 6 | Curtain 2 + 7:30 pm Wed | 7:30 pm Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 4 + 8 pm Sat | 3 pm Sun | $25-$44
