My Night at Jacques'

My Night at Jacques' is a delightful night of musical theater made up of two amazingly contemporary one-act Offenbach operettas in a sparkling new translation by Gregg Opelka and Jack Helbig. Hilarity and bubbling melodies combine to make this an unforgettable night of madcap French mayhem. Here's a synopsis of each of these wacky operettas, which were the toast of 19th-century Paris when they opened.

Your Presence Requested: Eager to impress his uppercrust friends, Monsieur Choufleuri has invited half of Paris' glitterati to his home tonight at 8:00 to hear three famous Italian opera singers in an exclusive musical soirée. When the trio of traveling trillers suddenly cancels its appearance, our host is more distraught than a diva without an autograph hound. To the rescue comes his daughter, Ernestine, along with her boyfriend, Babylas, a poor, but talented, opera composer. Together, they concoct an ingenious scheme to save the evening. But not without an ulterior motive of their own!

The Island of Tulipatan: "How do you solve a problem like Hermosa?" That's what her parents ask at the beginning of the delightfully loopy Island of Tulipatan. A refined girl of 18 should be sewing or practicing the piano, not outside shooting guns and dreaming about all things military. Meanwhile, the prince, Alexis, also 18, an unusually gentle young man, is far more interested in ornithology than manly pursuits, like fighting. How will these diametrically opposed lovers ever hook up? Oh, that's only the beginning. Just wait till you see how convoluted l'amour can get on the remote Island of Tulipatan, where nobody is who they appear to be. Oh, mon dieu!