Theater: Broadway, Off-Broadway, a bit of Irish

The second half of the region's bustling theater season comes alive with plays fresh from Broadway and Off-Broadway - mixed in, as always, with world premieres, American premieres, and, this year, a series of Irish plays on different professional stages. In April, the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts brings some new stage work with a French twist.

  - Howard Shapiro 

Inquirer theater critic

Lidless A new play by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig concerns a retired Guantanamo Bay interrogator - a woman who is confronted by a former detainee with an extreme demand for a part of her liver. InterAct Theatre Company produces, through Feb. 13. (215-568-8079 or www.interacttheatre.org)

In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play Leave it to Sarah Ruhl to posit, in her play from the last Broadway season, that electricity's discovery gave us - ta-da! (or ta- d-d-d-d-da!) - the vibrator. In this instance, it's in the hands of a doctor who cures ill humors, initially for women, with his nifty new machine. Wilma Theater Company presents it March 2-April 3. (215-546-7824 or www.wilmatheater.org)

Superior Donuts Tracy Letts followed his steamrolling success August: Osage County with this engaging, smoothly written tale about a doughnut shop in a changing neighborhood. The play's Broadway dramaturge - Arden Theatre Company associate artistic director Ed Sobel - stages it here at the Arden. It runs March 3-April 3. (215-922-1122 or www.ardentheatre.org)

Pterodactyls Members of a Main Line family seem, well, normal in their happy dysfunction until one of the kids comes home with a few facts to fling at them. Nicky Silver's comic drama had an Off-Broadway run in the '90s and here, done by New City Stage March 3-27 at the Adrienne Theater, features Philadelphia playwright Bruce Graham in one of the roles. (215-563-7500 or www.newcitystage.org)

The Emperor Jones A rare chance to see a production of Eugene O'Neill's story about a train porter who fancies himself a Caribbean dictator. Taking the lead is Kash Goins, a Philadelphia native who has been producing, writing, and acting in New York and this year is in a number of productions here. At Centre Theater in Norristown, March 4-27. (610-279-1013 or www.ironagetheatre.org)

The 39 Steps Take Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 spy flick, rewrite it so that only a few people play all the roles and provide almost all the effects, make it as much a mockery of the film as it is a tribute to it, and you have the madcap stage version that was a hit on Broadway and is still a hot ticket Off-Broadway. The Walnut Street Theatre's own production runs March 15-May 1. (215-574-3550 or www.walnutstreettheatre.org)

The Terrible Girls Azuka Theatre's world-premiere comedy by Philadelphia playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger is set at a Southern diner, where a staff of three friends specializes in secrets. At the Latvian Society, March 17-April 3. (www.azukatheatre.org or 215-733-0255)

Let Me Down Easy The health care system, Hurricane Katrina and steroids are just of few of the subjects performance artist/playwright Anna Deavere Smith takes on in her Philadelphia debut, presented by Philadelphia Theatre Company, March 18-April 10. (215-985-0420 or www.philadelphiatheatrecompany.org)

The Who's Tommy See me . . . feel me . . . touch me . . . Hmmm . . . must be the musical about the prodigy pinball player. At Media Theatre, March 30-May 22. (610-891-0100 or www.mediatheatre.org)

The Credeaux Canvas Keith Bunin's play has two struggling young artists swindling an art collector. It's produced by Theatre Horizon at Norristown's Centre Theater as part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, April 7-30. (610-283-2230 or www.theatrehorizon.org)

Laughter on the 23d Floor First, 1812 Productions, the city's all-comedy stage company, presents Neil Simon's play based on the great writers of Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, from April 7-May 6 - and presents it in repertory with an original production called Your Show of Shows (April 21-May 15; 215-592-9560 or www.1812productions.org). But wait! There's more Neil Simon in the wings, with Hedgerow Theatre's Plaza Suite in Rose Valley, near Media (Feb. 10-March 6; 610-565-4211 or www.hedgerowtheatre.org) and Plays and Players' Lost in Yonkers. Plays and Players, long an amateur company, is now among the city's newest professional houses. (June 2-19; 215-735-0630 or www.playsandplayers.org)

Hell Based on the novel by Henri Barbusse, the play is about a boarder who sees much through a hole in the wall of his room. EgoPo Classic Theater presents the world premiere as part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, at the German Society, April 27-May 15. (215-552-8773 or www.egopo.org)

Little Women The musical based on Louisa May Alcott's ever-popular classic about four sisters growing up in an America riven by the Civil War is being staged by Bristol Riverside Theatre's founding director, Susan D. Atkinson, May 3-22. (215-785-0100 or www.brtstage.org)

The Bridge Club On San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, a man prepares to jump - but there's already a garrulous woman on the edge. This Richard Raskind world premiere is at Society Hill Playhouse May 3-29. (215-923-0210 or www.societyhillplayhouse.org)

26 Miles Philadelphia native Quiara Alegría Hudes (Broadway's In the Heights) wrote this comedy about a teen and her estranged mother who meet up for a road trip from Philadelphia to Yellowstone. Flashpoint Theatre Company gives the play its local premiere at the Adrienne Theatre, May 4-28. (215-665-9720 or www.flashpointtheatre.org)

Dividing the Estate It's the end of the '80s, the oil recession is killing parts of Texas, and a family must deal with the future of its fading estate. Funny and thoughtful, it was Horton Foote's last play. At People's Light & Theatre Company May 11-June 5. (610-644-3500 or www.peopleslight.org)

Vigil A hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in London, this dark comedy by Canadian writer Morris Panych involves a man who receives an indecipherable note from his moneyed, elderly aunt, then crosses the continent to be with her. It's being staged by Lantern Theater Company at St. Stephen's Theater, May 19-June 12. (215-829-0395 or www.lanterntheater.org)

   Next to Normal Believe it or not, a musical that treats mental illness seriously can (1) get to Broadway, (2) become a big hit, (3) win a Pulitzer Prize, and (4) have legs nationally. That last part - the tour - comes to the Academy of Music June 21-26. (215-893-1999 or www.kimmelcenter.org/broadway)

The Philadelphia Irish Theatre Festival

The festival of Irish plays produced by six theaters has already begun. Some future highlights:

 The Lieutenant of Inishmore Martin McDonagh's intensely funny, bloody play about the probable uproar when an over-the-top Irish National Liberation Party soldier finds out his cat is dead is at Theatre Exile Feb. 17-March 13. (215-218-4022 or www.theatreexile.org)

The Pride of Parnell Street Act II Playhouse's U.S. premiere of Sebastian Barry's story of a rupturing marriage, set against Ireland's loss to Italy in the 1990 World Cup, runs March 22-April 17. (215-654-0200 or act2playhouse.org)

Dublin by Lamplight Michael West's look at the explosive role the Irish National Theatre played in 1904 Dublin is an American premiere and the largest production of the Inis Nua company so far. April 26-May 14. (215-454-9776 or inisnuatheatre.org)

The Cripple of Inishmaan Martin McDonagh's comedy about the fever over a rumor that Hollywood is coming to make a film on an Irish island is at the Annenberg Center's Zellerbach Theatre, performed by the Druid Theatre of Galway. May 19-22. (215-898-3900 or www.annenbergcenter.org)