A new musical comedy inspired by the legendary National Public Radio show! Our hero – the overweight, always-late invertebrate Rusty Fenders – has racked up as many miles as his ‘93 KIA. Attempting to salvage happiness from the junkyard of his life, he collides with his ruthless boss Beaulah Gasket, his unrequited office romance Sheila, and the red-hot fantasy car Miata C. LaChassis. Can the Wizard of Cahs put the brakes on Rusty’s musical wipe-out? Car Talk: The Musical!!! is low-brow, high-octane fun. Car and Theater Magazine named this show the “best automotive musical of the twenty-first century, so far.”

How Do You Spell Hope? are true stories of overcoming obstacles to literacy – a Cambridge high school athlete, Frederick Douglass, a Latina immigrant – woven together by puppets and actors in a world of giant pop up books. A play for all ages.

Machetes… Rock ‘n’ Roll… Burma Shave… Dwight D. Eisenhower… audiences will discover the unpredictable land of Terra Incognita with three intrepid women explorers who can never be quite sure where – or when – their next steps will lead them when. On the Verge is written by Eric Overmyer, directed by Wesley Savick, and stars Deanna Dunmyer, Alicia Kahn, Anna Waldron, and Barlow Adamson.  Eric Overmyer’s vividly imaginative On the Verge(or The Geography of Yearning) follows the adventures of three fiercely independent Victorian women explorers as they spin through time from 1888 to 1955. As they embark on their trek to an unknown land, it becomes apparent that they are not on an ordinary expedition. While traversing the geography of yearning, they discover within themselves a powerful pull towards the future, absorbing knowledge while they travel through time.  Through their encounters with a kaleidoscope of unlikely characters, they satisfy their need for adventure in a journey of wildly unpredictable discovery. Full of pop culture references from the late nineteenth century to the mid 1950’s On the Verge is a play that is both joyfully feminist as well as a masterpiece of rhythm and word. It has become one of Overmyer’s most popular works, due to its heightened, dynamic interplay of language and the smart, comic insight into nineteenth century women and culture.

Einstein’s Dreams is wry and wild, funny and intellectually stimulating, provocative and surprisingly moving. Alan Lightman’s best-selling novel has inspired dozens of theatrical productions – Savick’s, premiered by Underground Railway Theater in 2007, is Lightman’s favorite. Set in Switzerland, 1905, the play portrays Einstein, a modest patent clerk in a new marriage, struggling to make ends meet while in the back of his mind re-conceiving time. Einstein’s Dreams reveals Einstein’s imagination as he completes his Theory of Relativity, envisioning many possible dimensions of time, posing tangled, absurd and poetic worlds that illustrate the tragedy and beauty of the human condition. Music is by Evan Harlan. Alan Lightman will lead conversations about the play after the November 18 and 20 performances; after almost every other performance, conversations will be led by actors from the cast and scientists from MIT and Harvard.

Chekhov’s final and most famous work, The Cherry Orchard brings to life a quirky family whose absurdities warm the heart. Written and set in 1904, the funny yet heartbreaking theatrical classic chronicles the decline of the Russian aristocracy at the turn of the 20th century through the story of a family’s futile attempt to save their beloved cherry orchard. After having returned to their ancestral estate to find that their family fortune has dwindled to practically nothing, they seem incapable of saving themselves from disaster, ignoring all offers of help and refusing to see the inevitability of change.