Fetch: “Mean Girls” come to Kenner and Covington goes to the “Pirates”

A summer of adventures continue on stages on both sides of Lake Pontchartrain as playhouses look to the past and the present with some musical productions.

‘A Rollicking Band of Pirates We’

Ahoy, mateys — there be pirates in Covington.

W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s classic operetta of swashbuckling, maidens and a “modern major-general” hits the high seas Saturday when “The Pirates of Penzance” run aground at Playmakers Theater in St. Tammany Parish.

The English-language musical comedy will be the season closer for Playmakers and is filled with familiar tunes and storylines.

The tale revolves around a young man, indentured to a not-too-fierce band of pirates, who gets released on his 21st birthday. He meets the daughter of a major-general, falls in love but soon learns a dastardly truth. Being born on Feb. 29 in a leap year, he hasn’t truly celebrated 21 birthdays and must remain with the pirates for a few more decades (6.3 to be exact). There’s plenty of subterfuge, singing and a couple of good sword fights in the run romp with some Keystone Cops-style cops in the offing.

Jennifer Patterson directs, with Thomas Braud as the young man, Esther Trsosclair as the daughter and Adam Trosclair as the major-general. Other cast includes Shawn Patterson, Ruth Burke, Dylan Malbrough, Billy Davis, Heather Orgeron, Grier Patterson, Sydney Mecklenborg, Michael Lucio, Michael Psotka, Matthew Psotka, Emmett Racine, Reese Davis, Jen Patterson, James Sayles, Stephanie Salyes, Brian Zitzmann, Jaclyn Krottner, Andi Vickers, Daniel Hartley, Rebecca Trosclair and Nada Elkassouf.

The show will run at 7 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets start at $30. 

‘Welcome to the jungle’

School’s out for summer, but anyone will tell you teen cliques know no calendar, especially not the infamous “Plastics” of “Mean Girls,” the cult classic movie-turned-Broadway-show-turned-back-into-a-movie.

Fetch.

Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts, 325 Minor St., in Kenner brings Tina Fey’s characters to life in the musical opening Thursday. It runs through July 21.

For those who lived through high school with real mean girls, this story will seem a bit of deja vu, but in the hands of Fey, it becomes a fun romp, filled with lessons on loyalty, friendship, bullying and social pressure. 

The story focuses on a new girl, thrust into the deepest, darkest jungle of high school life, presided over by a shrewd krewe of venomous vixens. Through twists and turns, the characters learn about each other, being different and being their true selves.

Taking the role of the new girl is Savannah Fouchi, with Mallory Commander as the lead “Plastic” and Ellie Bono, Regan Nugent and Savannah Westacott following her lead as Queen Bee. Additional cast includes Brady D’Agostino, Titan Thomas, Kelly Laines, Abby Nastasi and Evan Johnson. Kelly Fouchi directs, with Katelin Zelon as choreographer and Ahsley Smetherman Lemmler as musical director.

The show is at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, plus July 17, and at 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets start at $39. rivertowntheaters.com. 

Opening this week July 11-17

“ANYTHING GOES”: Opens 7:30 p.m. Thursday to Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday; Dixon Hall, Newcomb Circle, Tulane Uptown campus. Summer Lyric Theatre production of Cole Porter’s song and dance on the high seas aboard the SS American with an evangelist-turned-club singer Reno Sweeney, billionaires, a Public Enemy, an heiress and her mother, a love-struck junior Wall Streeter, a titled Englishman and a crew with lots of upbeat tunes and more than a few laughs. Tickets start at $31.50. liberalarts.tulane.edu/summer-lyric-theatre.

“JULIUS CAESAR”: Opens 7:30 p.m. Friday, runs 7:30 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays, 1:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through July 21; Lupin Theater, 150 Dixon Hall Annex, Newcomb Circle, Tulane Uptown campus. New Orleans Shakespeare Festival mounts the Bard’s story from 1600 and it features a cadre of conspirators who kill Caesar because they fear he is too powerful, then his friend Antony stirring the citizenry to cast out the killers. One by one, they meet Shakespearean fates. Tickets start at $40. neworleanshakespeare.org.

“A VERY IMPORTANT PLAY”: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 150 Dixon Hall Annex,  Newcomb Circle, Tulane Uptown campus. The Fool’s Ensemble, a mashup of improv and Shakespeare certain to be a memorable evening as part of the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival, crafting a new Shakespearean work never performed before … and most likely will never be performed again. Tickets start at $25. neworleanshakespeare.org.

In production

“SIX”: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through July 20; Cutting Edge Theater, 767 Robert Blvd., Slidell. High school version for a sextet of songstresses to recount their lives (and deaths) of the wives of the infamous Henry VIII, from Catherine of Aragon to Catherine Parr (with a couple of Annes and a Jane in between) in a rock concert format retelling of the stories of the women who were “divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.” Tickets start at $32. cuttingedgetheater.com.