San Diego boasts a hot lineup of theater events this week

As Jordan Berman pounds the New York City pavement searching for Mr. Right, he wards off lonely nights with his trio of close-knit girlfriends. As singles’ nights turn into bachelorette parties, Jordan must face his own capacity to love and be loved. This hilarious and heart-wrenching Broadway comedy dives into the trenches of urban single life and the aspirational gay wedding, reminding us that you can’t hurry love—no matter how much you wish you could.

JCompany Youth Theatre’s RAW Summer Reading Series celebrates exciting works of theater in a dynamic way. Designed to introduce young artists to the fast pace of professional musical theater, this series will keep you on your toes as we put a full-length musical reading together in one week. On the last day, our cast, supported by professional directors and musicians, takes the stage with books in hand, ready to rock. JCompany artists and audiences alike will be dazzled by this whole new level of artistic athleticism and storytelling. About this staged reading: Richard Rodgers entered his seventh decade of writing for the theater with "Two by Two," a fresh retelling of the Biblical story of Noah.

Stephen Sondheim is at his bloody best in the Tony-winning "Sweeney Todd," his macabre masterpiece about a barbaric barber and an even more beastly baker. Set on the seedy side streets of 19th-century London, the musical tells the tale of the title character, who returns to the city after 15 years of exile, with a plan to exact revenge on the corrupt judge who banished him and stole his wife. He teams up with local baker Mrs. Lovett, who's in desperate need for fresh meat for her pies, and together they cook up a plot to solve both of their problems. "There is more artistic energy, creative personality and plain excitement than in a dozen average musicals," The New York Times raved. "Mr. Sondheim has composed an endlessly inventive, highly expressive score that works indivisibly from his brilliant and abrasive lyrics."

Clairemont Act One presents the classic comedy, "Arsenic and Old Lace." Onstage with a full set, this play will charm and delight you. You may know this show by the 1944 movie starring Cary Grant. The play is a farcical black comedy revolving around the Brewster family, descended from the Mayflower settlers, but now composed of insane homicidal maniacs. The hero, Mortimer Brewster, is a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, New York, as he debates whether to go through with a recent promise to marry the woman he loves.

St. John G. Ervine's play "John Ferguson" is Community Actors Theatre's season opener. It's an urgent and powerful tale of faith and fear in a time of crisis. Set in the 1880s, the tale follows the Ferguson family, who are on the brink of eviction from their farm when a local man makes a proposal that could be the answer to their prayers. But as a series of devastating events unfold, the family finds itself tested to their limits. See this family tragedy — hailed as an unearthed masterpiece of Irish theater — when it plays out on the San Diego stage.