Asynopsis of Tom Dudzick’s provocative holiday offering, “Greetings,“ probably would read like a cross between “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and an episode of the animated sitcom “Family Guy”—the latter, perhaps, because the first significant utterance by a formerly mute character eerily resembles that of the English-accented voice of the football-headed son, Stewie.

Bootleg Shakespeare. A true story about a radium-poisoning scandal. A black comedy whose characters include a talking apartment and a ghostly Justin Timberlake. Those are some of the enticements that Richmond-area theaters will present in the 2009-10 season. Firehouse Theatre Project artistic director Carol Piersol might have been speaking for many company leaders when she said of her play-selection process, “I make a pile of plays that hit me in the gut - and then I try to get variety.“

Altar Boyz” is still running at Swift Creek Mill Theatre, but there’s more going on there through the end of May: “Blues in the Night” is on stage when the Boyz are off. This is the 1980 Sheldon Epps revue with a cast of four covering more than two dozen blues songs, some more classic than others. We’re talking Bessie Smith blues, not Muddy Waters blues—sometimes brassy and bawdy, sometimes forlorn. Epps includes some interesting out-of-the box choices, too: Ann Ronel’s “Willow Weep for Me” and a haunting slow version of the jazz standard “Stompin’ at the Savoy.“

It’s silly, and clever, and satirical and high-powered. I smiled so much I thought my face would hurt the next day. At Swift Creek Playhouse, “Altar Boyz”—the second Richmond-area based production of this musical this theater season (Richmond Triangle Players, Jan. 28-Feb. 21)—is rockin’ the house with its special style of boy-band Christian pop music.

John Steinbeck’s 1937 novella, “Of Mice and Men,“ is wonderfully theatrical. Steinbeck structured it so that it could easily be translated to the stage. And it was produced on Broadway the same year it was published. Swift Creek Mill Theatre presents this eminently well-crafted play as its entry in the 2009 Acts of Faith Festival, and the production is as carefully realized as Steinbeck’s work.

Can two sets of “Altar Boyz” sing in harmony? The next few months will answer that question for the local theater community. Nearly four years after rocketing to small-scale hit status off-Broadway, “Altar Boyz,“ a tongue-in-cheek musical about a youthful, all-male Christian pop band, has finally reached the Richmond area. In fact, area audiences will have not one but two chances to sample the peppy piece in the near future: Richmond Triangle Players is mounting the first production, scheduled to run Jan. 28 through Feb. 21, as part of the annual Acts of Faith festival.