Amy Bazin and Katie Yoner in The Devils, U of A Studio Theatre. Photo by Brianne Jang, bbcollective

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

Spring forward (and out) to the theatre this weekend. You’re in the right city for that…. See a new play (with music). See a Broadway musical (two different vintages, two different stages). See a See a 70-year-old play with a link to theatre history that retains its topicality. And speaking of topicality, see a play that gets its fascinating story from the 17th century, via a 20th century novel.

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And as for making it up? Hey, it’s an improv-mad town.

Dead in the Water, Lodestar Theatre and Theatre Yes. Photo supplied.

•At the Varscona, it’s the premiere of a new solo comedy, of darker hues, that explores the adventures, dreams and disappointments of a woman of a certain age. And she’s at the piano, singing original songs. Ruth Alexander’s Dead in the Water opens tonight. And not only does it introduce the versatile playwright/actor/ composer/musician, in all of those talents, but it introduces the enterprising Lodestar Theatre pair, relocated from the U.K., who have taken on the indie company Theatre Yes. Alexander’s director husband is Max Rubin, and they’re making plans for that affirmatively-named indie company that has specialized in non-traditional spaces and projects.

Dead in the Water runs through April 16. Tickets (on a sliding scale): varsconatheatre.com. Read 12thnight’s PREVIEW interview with Ruth Alexander here.

•At the Mayfield, go on a Journey, get nostalgic, and don’t stop believin. The 2009 Broadway jukebox musical Rock of Ages, opening Friday, takes us to the big-hair metal-glam world of ‘80s rock, with tongue in cheek. Kate Ryan, artistic director of Plain Jane Theatre, directs the Mayfield production that runs through June 11. Tickets: mayfieldtheatre.ca

•At the U of A’s Studio Theatre, The Devils, a 1961 play by the Brit playwright John Whiting inspired by the Aldous Huxley novel, takes us to the French village of Loudon in 1634. The opposition of a secular priest, Urbain Grandier, to the prevailing regime makes him a target. A charge of witchcraft ensues, with attendant religious hysteria. If the dangerous intertwining of religion and politics, church and state, doesn’t ring a bell with you, you haven’t been paying attention to the news. The production directed by David Kennedy runs through April 15 at the Timms Centre for the Arts, 87 Ave. and 112 St. Tickets: showpass.com.

•At Rapid Fire Theatre, the festivities surrounding their new and forever home, The Rapid Fire Exchange (10437 83 Ave.) in Strathcona continue. Friday night, it’s RFT’s “solo sketch comedy show” Guest House, Saturday night Improvised Dungeons and Dragons, with the great Mark Meer, who takes nerdism to stratospheric levels of expertise, as the Dungeon Master. For a full schedule at this busiest of theatre companies, and tickets: rapidfiretheatre.com.

At Grindstone Theatre (10019 81 Ave.), there are shows every night. Catch the impossible, a one-off all-improvised musical, Saturday: The 11 O’Clock Number. Tickets and schedule: grindstonetheatre.ca.

Alana Bridgewater in Trouble in Mind, Citadel Theatre/ Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. Photo by Nanc Price

•Continuing at the Citadel, Alice Childress’s 1955 play Trouble in Mind, named for a 1924 blues song, is a backstage look, funny, biting, and heartbreaking, at the link between power and racism, undimmed and in many ways enabled by white liberal hypocrisy. Its story is provocative seven decades or so later.

The Citadel/ Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre production directed by Cherissa Richards runs through April 16. Tickets: citadeltheatre.com, 780-425-1820. Check out the 12thnight REVIEW.

Pretty Woman the musical, Broadway Across Canada. Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade.

•And an ultimate romantic fantasy arrives, singing and dancing, on the Jube stage just after the weekend (April 11 through 16). Pretty Woman is the 2018 Broadway musical based on the 1990 screen fantasy that made Julia Roberts a movie star. The director-choreographer of the Broadway Across Canada touring production is musical theatre veteran Jerry Mitchell (Hairspray, Kinky Boots). And the songs are by rocker Bryan Adams with Jim Vallance.

Tickets: edmonton.broadway.com, and ticketmaster.ca.