Honus & Me

Home-team playwright Steven Dietz hits a dinger with his new play Honus & Me, now premiering at Seattle Children’s Theatre. It’s adapted from Dan Gutman’s time-traveling kids’ novel, in which a modern-day little-league benchwarmer magically encounters legendary shortstop Honus Wagner. Dietz, who also directs, successfully condenses the book without losing any of its charm. (My 12-year-old companion, already jaded enough to lament that movies and plays are never as good as the books on which they’re based, said certain characters and relationships are actually clearer in the play than on the page.) The cast is led by Gabriel Baron (pictured) playing the appealingly nebbishy kid Joey and David Drummond portraying the larger-than-life Wagner, but there’s a lot of depth in the dugout, including Marianne Owen as Joey’s ancient neighbor and Troy Fischnaller as a caustic Ty Cobb. Recommended for baseball fans (and other kids) ages 8 and up, and for anyone who remembers what it feels like to be one. Seattle Children’s Theatre, 201 Thomas St., 206-441-3322, www.sct.org. $16-$31. 7 p.m. Fri., 2 & 5:30 p.m. Sat.-Sun. Ends Sun. June 11. LYNN JACOBSON

Stomp

With Stomp, it isn’t the just the sound, but how they make it—jumping up and down on plastic barrels, wielding push brooms like samurai swords, rappeling down a wall of chain-link fencing. They become gladiators with shields made from trash-can lids or soft-shoe artists on wooden crates, and the kinetic punch to your gut is as powerful as the assault on your eardrums. Paramount Theater, 911 Pine St., 206-292-ARTS, www.theparamount.com. $27.50-$37.50. 7:30 p.m. Tues. April 18-Thurs. April 20, 8 p.m. Fri. April 21-Sat. April 22, 7 p.m. Sun. April 23. Also 2 p.m. Sat. April 22-Sun. April 23. SANDRA KURTZ

The Gospel of the Red-Hot Stars

Tom Baker’s new “operatorio” combines four elements: the reflections of a woman accused of witchcraft, given voice by Margaret Atwood’s darkly wry poem “Half-Hanged Mary”; Cotton Mather’s fire-breathing sermons on virtue; a vocal quartet singing Baker’s stripped-down, slightly skewed Psalm settings; and interludes for the six-member orchestra incorporating hypnotic repetition and free improv. The 19-number, 70-minute piece is yet another in the series of self-produced works springing up regularly this season in an extraordinary blossoming of innovative operatic activity. Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave., 800-838-3006, www.brownpapertickets.com. $7.50-$15. 8 p.m. Thurs. April 13-Sat. April 15. GAVIN BORCHERT