Playwright Dan LeFranc's The Big Meal deserves every superlative I can, and will, use to praise it. The forward progression of his plot about the life of a couple from first meeting to final resting place is extraordinary, and Timber Lake Playhouse's production does it justice. This is a presentation that tickles the funny bone, pulls the heartstrings, and turns on the waterworks. It is, quite frankly, emotionally stunning.

The QC Theatre Workshop's Tribes didn't start off well for me on Friday, as I immediately hated Adam Cerny's overacting, with eye rolls so huge I was sure anyone in the lobby could see them through the curtain that separates it from the performance space. So I prepared myself for two hours of such overly dramatic physicality, after first cursing director Jennifer Popple for casting Cerny as a son in playwright Nina Raine's troubled-family saga.

It didn't take long, however, for Cerny to completely change my mind, as it became clear that his Daniel is, himself, over-dramatic, given that his manic figure hears voices in his head. Cerny's characterization, it turns out, isn't bad acting; it's actually spot-on, and moved me from initial dislike - agreeing with Michael Carron's crotchety, opinionated patriarch Christopher that Daniel should "F--- off!" - to sympathetic pity for this troubled person. It was also through Daniel's viewpoint that I experienced Raine's story of a constantly arguing family that cruelly teases each other, with their only sense of grounding coming from Calvin Vo's Billy, the clan's ever-patient, deaf-from-birth younger son.

Good gawd is the Timber Lake Playhouse's Hairspray fun. I went into Saturday's matinée with eager anticipation and left with a sense of thrilled enjoyment, floating on a cloud of happiness. Director Lili-Anne Brown's production of this musical based on John Waters' 1988 film is not only a helluva good time for us, but a rockin' wild ride for Amelia Jo Parish's Tracy Turnblad, as Hairspray's lead goes from overweight sideliner to local-dance-show star to racial-integration crusader in 1960s Baltimore.

There's an effervescent joy permeating the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's The Sound of Music from beginning to end - minus the Nazi involvement, of course. Director/choreographer Jim Hesselman's production exudes an infectious glee that, for me, lifts this Rodgers & Hammerstein classic to new heights of performance pleasure. And as Hesselman must know that audiences take great delight in its composers' cherished musical and remember it fondly, he plays to those happy memories.