At last count, there were a grand total of 69 theatrical productions scheduled to debut at area venues between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend. That's awfully impressive. Yet what's even more impressive - and, in all honesty, really unusual - is that you could actually catch all 69 without ever seeing the same show twice.

While playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's boom is slyly hilarious, and the QC Theatre Workshop's production of it laudable for so many reasons, there is one aspect of the performance that stands out in particular: Angela Elliott's laugh.

Augustana College's production of subUrbia features one of the most (if not the most) layered and fascinating sets I've yet seen on a local stage, as Adam Parboosingh's scenic design manages to give us both a brick storefront - including parking spaces, cement parking bumps, scaffolding, a dumpster, and even a period-appropriate, mid-'90s pay phone - and the fully stocked interior of a convenience store at the same time. Consequently, Parboosingh's set rendered Friday's performance interesting well before the play even started, offering much to take in visually while we waited for the proverbial curtain to rise.

While I've loved every children's production I've reviewed at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, How I Became a Pirate marks the first in which I wish I had the soundtrack to enjoy with my partner's nine-year old daughter Madison on our way to and from school each day. With music and lyrics by Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman (both of whom also wrote the musical's book), the songs are worth revisiting for their singable melodies and enjoyable styles, particularly the calypso numbers and a speedy, staccato, complexly rhymed nod to Gilbert & Sullivan's "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General." After Saturday's performance of the show, in fact, Madison and I were singing lyrics from several of the songs on our car ride home, which I hope suggests how fun and memorable they are.