It's spring. It is. So it's been gray and cold, wet and windy outside. The weather's always fine inside area theaters.

        And if the artistic boycott is making you feel a little gray even when the sun is shining, come downtown and support local business — including our theaters.

        A lot of people came downtown when Bill Cosby didn't earlier this month and filled local restaurants. Keep coming down for a weekly date, but make it for dinner and a show.

        Check out downtown theater and be surprised by just how good it is. Choose among musicals, comedy, social issues, classics, one-acts, old-fashioned romance.

        Invite your friends.

        Come to the theater because it's fun and because at its best, it will take you outside yourself and sweep you off to a different place, give you the privilege of rediscovering the world through someone else's eyes and ears. This is a good time in Cincinnati to open up to different views of the world.

        And come to the theater because all these small, vigorous companies help bring downtown alive at night.

        What follows are recommendations for 13 weeks of spring theater-going.

        Week One: Syncopation, Ensemble Theatre, 421-3555 (through April 14). It's 1911 Manhattan, and ballroom dance lessons lead to romance for a middle-aged Jewish meat packer and an engaging and engaged young Italian woman. Philip Hoffman and a.Beth Harris star.

        Week Two: As You Like It, Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, 381-2273. (April 11-May 5) It's Shakespeare in love with love. Festival founding member Marni Penning returns to star as Rosalind, who disguises herself as a man and sets off for the Forest of Arden. Just about everybody enjoys a happy ending.

        And consider: True West, Know Theatre Tribe, Gabriel's Corner, 871-1429. (April 11-27) Know has cast African-American actors Reggie Willis and Gary Robinson in Sam Shepard's terrifying and funny family drama, which should give the table-turning show another spin. Matthew Pyle directs the play, about a pair of competitive brothers who each try to make a deal with a Hollywood producer.

        Week Three: The Laramie Project, College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, 556-4183 (April 18-21). Matthew Shepard's tragic story was all over television earlier this month, but Laramie lives best on stage as it examines the facts surrounding the 1998 torture and death of a gay college student in a small Wyoming town. Nick Mangano (Candide) directs.

        And consider: A Lesson Before Dying will have a staged reading at 7 p.m. April 15 as part of the Theatre of the Mind series at Ensemble Theatre (421-3555).

        Week Four: Swing!, Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati, 241-7469 (April 23-May 5). This is not your grandparents' Swing! The revue showcases jive, Latin swing, west coast swing, hip-hop swing, even country western swing as it sings and dances to a mix of classics (“Stompin' at the Savoy,” “Blues in the Night”) and new songs.

        Week Five: I Stand Before You Naked, New Edgecliff Theatre, the Artery Theater, 913 Monmouth St., Newport, 763-3844 (May 3-19). New Edgecliff moves out of the Aronoff's Fifth Third Theater and across the river to the funky and welcoming new theater space upstairs from The Artery gallery. Joyce Carol Oates writes 10 short theatre pieces that capture contemporary women in moments of crisis. Rebecca Bowman of Cincinnati Shakespeare directs.

        Week Six: King o' the Moon, Playhouse in the Park, 421-3888 (April 21-May 24) Cincinnati fell in love with the Pazinski family in Over the Tavern a few seasons back. King returns to Buffalo and picks up the Pazinskis 10 years later:

        It's July 1969, and Apollo 11 is about to land on the moon. Young Rudy (he who practiced Ed Sullivan routines in his bedroom) is AWOL from the seminary for an anti-war protest, newlywed brother Eddie is getting ready to ship out for Vietnam, sister Annie is contemplating divorce, and widowed mom may be finding another love.

        Week Seven: From Page to Stage, Ovation Theatre Company, Fifth Third Bank Theater, Aronoff Center, 241-7469 (May 10-18). What a wondrous thing is the one act, and after great success last year with An Evening of Lanford Wilson, Ovation has fun with scripts by three of theater's funniest writers that poke fun at the big screen.

        If you've never tried one acts before, there's no better time to start than with Hidden in the Picture by Aaron Sorkin; For Whom the Southern Bell Tolls by Christopher Durang; and Speed-the-Play by David Ives.

        And consider: Stop Kiss, College-Conservatory of Music, UC, 556-4183 (May 16-18) Regional premiere of Diana Son's contemporary drama that skips around in time to explore the events surrounding a first kiss between two young women. One of the play's issues is gay bashing, making it an intriguing companion piece to The Laramie Project.

        Week Eight: Mamma Mia!, Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati, 241-7469 (May 14-June 2). Hum to the tunes of ABBA as a bride, on the eve of her wedding, invites the three men who might be her father to a glorious Greek island for her wedding.

        Week Nine: The Beard of Avon, Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, 381-2273 (May 16-June 2). Award-winning playwright Amy Freed takes on the age-old question, “Who wrote those Shakespeare plays, anyway?” to hilarious results as farmer Will travels to London to go on the stage and suddenly finds himself playing front man to a royal court filled with would-be playwrights.

        For everyone who loved John Alcott in Arcadia, he returns to the festival, this time as the erudite Earl of Oxford.

        Week 10: Dirty Blonde, Playhouse in the Park, 421-3888 (May 11-June 16). It's a regional premiere for the off-Broadway hit about a pair of lonely New Yorkers who meet at the grave site of their idol Mae West. Their budding relationship plays out against the backdrop of the movie queen's turbulent career, complete with song and dance numbers from her best-known films.

        Week 11: Chagrin Falls, Cincinnati Shakespeare, 381-2273 (June 13-30). The festival closes its season with award-winning Chagrin Falls, a haunting drama about the death penalty by rising young Chicago playwright Mia McCullough.

        Week 12: Lebensraum, IF Theatre, Fifth Third Bank Theatre, 241-7469 (June 13-23). After a year off, IF returns under new management (Ed Cohen and Dee Ann Bryll) but still devoted to provocative work.

        Three actors play 50 characters in a riveting dramatic fantasy about what happens when the German Chancellor offers restitution for the Holocaust and invites 6 million Jews back to Germany.

        Week 13: The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged). Know Theatre Tribe, Gabriel's Corner, 871-1429 (June 14-29). Know provides a prelude to Playhouse's summer run of The Reducers (and holiday run of Bible) with the regional premiere of wacky revue of biblical proportions by Reduced Shakespeare Company.

        Among the great theological questions: Did Moses really look like Charlton Heston? Why isn't “phonetic” spelled the way it sounds?
        Contact Jackie Demaline by phone: 768-8530; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: jdemaline@enquirer.com.

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