Set in 1979, Chess starts with an American world champion and a Soviet challenger battling for chess supremacy at a match in Merano, Italy – with all the Cold War implications that carries. That set-up is just a backdrop for the show’s forbidden love story, though: The American champion – temperamental Freddie Trumper – finds his second, Florence, falling for his opponent, Sergievsky. The two lovers leave Merano together, with Sergievsky defecting to the West.

Students sing and dance this satire at such a high level, it’s astounding

Arnold Lobel’s amphibian friends are brought to life with verve and heart.

Whenever the topic of time is broached in front of Toad, which happens repeatedly in the year we observe this peevish amphibian and his more mellow friend Frog, he may be counted on to say testily that his clock is broken. You can set your watch by it.

When you see Summer Stock Austin’s staging of “Springtime for Hitler,” the outrageous signature number from the 1968 film made more outrageous in the 2001 stage musical, that’s what you get. The chorus line of tap-dancing goose-steppers, the showgirls fresh from a Berchtesgaden beer hall, the Busby Berkeley-style twirling human swastika – they provoke guffaws because director-choreographer Ginger Morris (with an assist by guest tap choreographer Scott Thompson) and her young performers serve every inanity with enthusiasm and a flair for the ridiculous.

Summer Stock Austin’s Sweeney Todd, aside from a few tech mishaps, is a bloody good thrill of a show

Weekly World News’ favorite cover boy is alive and well in Summer Stock Austin’s energetic show