Malaise

Marjorie has a nice, full life. Her husband, the doctor, keeps her in a nice condo in a nice part of Manhattan, she's well-read and an active supporter of the arts, and her mother lives down the hall. It's all so...nice. But when her therapist dies, Marjorie realizes that all this niceness is just a security blanket insulating her from the horrible truth: She's never going to be a great artist or writer or anything other than an allergist's wife. And then her childhood friend Lee re-enters her life. Lee, who's knocked around with Fassbinder and Kerouac (among others), spins Marjorie out of her pity party through methods both exciting and dangerous. But how much excitement is good for the bourgeois soul? Charles Busch's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife satirizes the midlife crisis quite nicely, thanks. The New Jewish Theatre presents this modern fable at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, and at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday (May 14 through June 1) at the Jewish Community Center (2 Millstone Campus Drive, Creve Coeur; 314-442-3283 or www.jccstl.com). Tickets are $20 to $28.
Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays. Starts: May 14. Continues through June 1, 2008