Cincinnati’s Riverfest fireworks once fired the starting gun for local theater, but already several theaters have shows onstage. This week Cincinnati’s major theaters open their first productions of 2011-2012, launching a fall offering an unusual number of award-winning shows.  

The show, first produced in 2000, resonates with echoes of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, about the citizens of Grover’s Corners, a tiny New Hampshire town. Both towns are fictional — and universal. The latter point is brought to our attention immediately by a narrator (played by Jeffrey Kuhn). He’s a descendant of Wilder’s Stage Manager, full of philosophy, poetry and wry observations.  

I’m no expert on pop culture, but I was a teenager in the 1960s. So the 40 or so tunes by “girl groups” and women singers that constitute Beehive are front and center in my mental jukebox. It feels good to stroll down memory lane, and Beehive’s visuals with dozens of wigs and evolving outfits, from pink chiffon to mini skirts to bell bottoms and fishnet stockings, were a reminder of how music and style intermingled.  

The deft and compelling story of Lee Miller, a photographer’s model in Vogue in the 1920s, a photographer herself in the 1930s and a fearless photojournalist across Europe during World War II. The show — and Miller’s life — ends in an unexpected moment that leaves the audience gasping. Anyone who yearns for the power of dynamic theater needs to look Behind the Eye.   

Not many theaters have been led by an artistic director for more than a decade. The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park has had Ed Stern as its producing artistic director for nearly two. He’ll end his run in June 2012, completing his 20th season. Stern recently announced the shows for his final season at the Tony Award-winning regional theater.  

I like to write about the excitement of new works and regional premieres, which are important in sustaining theater as an art form. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t respect the classics. In its prior 16 seasons, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company presented all but five of the Bard’s 37 plays. They’ve checked another one off the list with the just-concluded production of King John and they plan to complete the canon in 2015 by offering one of the remaining works in each of the next four years.  

The holidays offer a perfect time to go to the theater with local productions for theater fans from wide-eyed kids to old cynics. Some shows are familiar, like a visit with old friends, while others spruce up an old story with some new garland — and perhaps a sprig of twisted sass. Here's a rundown on eight locally staged holiday recommendations.  

It's too late to vote early, but not too late to vote for the 2010 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards. If you haven't done so yet, go to citybeat.com to pick your favorite stage performances from the past season. What's at stake? Well, no big prizes, but theaters and actors thrive on awareness and recognition, and that's what the CEAs offer. This year, with four new categories for community theater actors and productions and another four for university performers and shows at educational institutions, there are 27 categories of nominees.  

Pop quiz: After William Shakespeare, who’s the most frequently produced playwright in Cincinnati? How about Steven Dietz? By my estimate, Cincinnatians have seen 10 of his shows over the past few years. His recent play 'Becky's New Car' opens March 10 at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, the fifth of his works to be staged at the Over-the-Rhine theater.  

Walter Mosley hates to be pigeonholed. Perhaps that goes back to his origins: His mother was Jewish, his father African-American. His genealogy perhaps instilled in him a desire to explore different avenues, and that's what his life has been about. A computer programmer until he was 34, he's now spent two decades as a prolific and successful writer. His first play, 'The Fall of Heaven,' is receiving its world premiere at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.