Musicals and classics among theater offerings this week

Musicals, classics and a couple of productions geared to children are among this week's theater openings.

• ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, adapted by Donald Harron from L.M. Montgomery's classic novel, with music by Norman Campbell, will play Friday through Nov. 10 in the Grand Theatre, located at Salt Lake Community College's South City campus, 1575 S. State.

Directed by Narlene Mathie, with musical direction by Kevin Mathie, the cast includes Elizabeth White as red-haired orphan Anne Shirley and Gordon Jones and Betsy West as Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, an elderly couple who are devastated when the boy they were expecting from an orphanage is ... a girl.

Performances are Friday and Saturday of this week, Thursday-Saturday the second week and Monday-Saturday the third week, all at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday matinees at 2 p.m. on Nov. 3 and 10. Tickets range from $10-$24 for reserved seating. There are also family passes available for $55 for two adults and up to four children (957-3322 or www.the-grand.org).

• AH, WILDERNESS, by Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, is the second offering in Utah Valley State College's "American experience" season of stage productions.

A family comedy about middle-class life in "large small-town America," and set on July 4, 1906, the play characterizes what O'Neill's own youth might have been, rather than what he believed it to have been. It's centered around a 17-year-old man's first kiss, first breakup, first drink, first reunion and his first realization that his parents seem to have gotten it right.

John Graham is directing a cast that includes Wesley Tolmann, Sarah Preston, Jeremy Minagro, Laura Garner, Jordan Cummings, Trevor Elzey, Adam Slee, Anne Marie Johnson and Elizabeth Vogeley.

Performances will be 7:30 nightly except Sunday in the Ragan Theatre, 800 W. University Parkway, Orem. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $8 for senior citizens, students and UVSC faculty and staff, and $6 for all UVSC students (863-8797 or the Campus Connection box office).

• THE BIG FRIENDLY GIANT, the stage version of one of British author Raold Dahl's most popular stories, is being staged by the SCERA Center, 745 S. State, Orem, as part of its Theater for Young Audiences series, with public performances from Monday through Nov. 9, along with several weekday matinees especially for school field-trips.