STEVE DUNKELBERGER: THEATER THURSDAY >>>

Boy Gets Girl
Theater Artists Olympia is premiering Boy Gets Girl by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Tom Sanders. The psychological thriller is basically a stalker’s tale. Theresa Bedell is a journalist for the New York magazine The World and finds herself set up on a blind date with Tony. They have some beers and then go out on a dinner date, but her heart isn’t in it. Tony really doesn’t do it for her, so she breaks things off before they ever get started. Tony, however, sees things differently.

His efforts to win her over step from the desperate to the creepy. He follows her and makes sure she knows that he has been watching her. The show gets dark quickly after that.

[Black Box Theatre, through March 30, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $12, Minnaert Center, South Puget Sound Community College, 2011 Mottman Road S.W., Olympia, 360.357.3471]

Man-eating plant
For more musical theater about off-the-wall topics, Tacoma Musical Playhouse’s Youth Theatre is staging Little Shop of Horrors, the sci-fi tale about a man-eating plant and a nitro-huffing dentist who seems to have a bit too much fun at his job.

The topic of two movies, a handful of traveling and regional productions as well as one of the longest-running off-Broadway shows of all time, the show is one of the classics of the stage.

This production features local youth performers Marvin Gold as the floral shop clerk Seymour, Emily Dale as the bombshell dingbat Audrey, Derek Strausbaugh as the skid row floral shop owner Mr. Mushnik, and Bryan Gula as the sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello. The cast is rounded out by Claire Idstrom, Emily Urfirer and Kaytee Brown as the backup doo-wop trio Crystal, Chiffon and Ronette.

[Tacoma Musical Playhouse, 7 p.m. March 28, 2 p.m. March 29, $10, Narrows Theatre, 7116 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.565.6867, www.tmp.org]

That’s a peach
Olympia Family Theatre is staging a stage version of the children's story James and the Giant Peach, a story about a boy who escapes his otherwise dull life by climbing into a peach only to find a world of talking animals and adventure on every corner.

[Minnaert Center, through April 6, 7 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 1 and 7 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday, $8-$15, South Puget Sound Community College, 2011 Mottman Road S.W., Olympia, 360.596.5501]