MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Hyperion Shakespeare Company presents Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare’s charming comedy about the complexities of relationships and the power of words. Promises to be a witty and exuberant open-air production. Thursday, May 1, 2 p.m. Free and open to the public. Memorial Church, Harvard Yard. (TIH)

DAY STANDING ON ITS HEAD. Reality mixes with the past to arouse and comfort a man confronting the crises of middle age. The Asian American Association Players presents Philip K. Gotanda’s play about Harry Kitamura, a successful law professor, who finds his life and marriage unraveling when he researches a paper on his involvement in the 1970’s campus strike. Odd characters with violent and sexual impulses begin to invade his dreams, spilling over into his waking life so that he can no longer tell the two worlds apart. A wildly fantastic ride into obsession and revelation. Thursday, May 1, 8 p.m. Tickets $5, $4 students, $4 seniors, $3 Adams House residents, available through the Harvard Box Office (617) 496-2222. Adams House Pool Theater, 13 Bow St. (TIH)

THE DYBBUK. The Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club presents Julia Pascal’s “The Dybbuk,” a Yiddish folktale adapted to take place in the Holocaust. The play, directed by Graham A. Sack ’03, follows five prisoners in a ghetto while waiting for Nazi death camps, and their reclamation of Jewish culture through folklore at the brink of their destruction. Plays through Friday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m., with special performances on Tuesday, April 29 (Holocaust Remembrance Day). Tickets free, available at the Loeb Box Office (617) 547-8300. Loeb Experimental Theater, 64 Brattle Street. (LAA)

RICHARD III. This production sets Shakespeare’s classic drama of English royalty in the Aztec Empire, at the brink of its fall. Set against the backdrop of Diego Rivera murals, live music and dance, the play follows the rise and fall of Richard as he manipulates superstition to gain power in a deeply religious society. This original interpretation promises to make the old play new again. Friday, April 24 through Saturday, May 3 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets available for $12/$8 at the Loeb Box Office (617) 547-8300. Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street. (LAA)

music

LAST CHANCE JAM. The “Last Chance Jam” with the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones will start your evening off with a talent show featuring a motley collection of Harvard’s premiere performing artists. Then enjoy a full set of the Veritones, featuring notoriously tight harmonies, infamously amazing soloists and a stupendously bizarre sense of humor. Friday, April 25,  8 p.m. Tickets $10, $7 students, available at the Harvard Box Office (617) 496-2222. Sanders Theatre. (TIH)

BOSTON PHILHARMONIC. The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra returns to Sanders to play pieces by Debussy, Chausson, Harbison, Saint-Saëns and Ravel. Just prior to the concert, a lecture by conductor Benjamin Zander, a former pupil of Benjamin Britten, a music commentator, and the author of The Art of Possibility: Transforming Personal and Professional Life, will offer a prefatory note on the music to follow. His lecture promises to be lively and passionate (it is said that two-thirds of the concert audience attends the lecture—a loyal following). Sunday, April 27. Lecture 1:45 p.m. Concert 3:00 p.m. Admission $22-$66, $4 discount for seniors and students (2 per ID). Tickets available from the Harvard Box Office, (617) 496-2222 . Sanders Theatre. Open to the public. JPC

BRAHMS, BARTOK AND SAINT-SAENS. The Boston Chamber Music Society, which dates from 1983, is at its core an eight-person ensemble. Guest musicians enhance the orchestration as needed—this time for Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F minor, Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion and Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals. Since the Society is also celebrating its 20th anniversary year, it has promised for this performance a surprise mystery guest. Who could it be? Sunday, April 27, 7:30 p.m. Admission $16-$42; $4 discount for seniors and WGBH or WUMB members, Tickets available from the Harvard Box Office, (617) 496-2222. Sanders Theatre. (JPC)

THE SPIRIT OF SONG. Kuumba, Harvard’s largest multicultural organization, returns to Sanders once again for its 33rd annual spring concert named for former Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III. A mix of Stevie Wonder, contemporary gospel and African folk songs will supplement five original, never-before-performed pieces all written by Harvard-affiliated composers: four alumni, Derrick Ashong ’97, Theodore Maynard ’97, Sheldon Reid ’97, and Shu Nyatta ’02, and one Harvard parent, Celeste Wortes. Also, a Native American piece will be sung by Sisters, an a capella subset of Kuumba. Saturday, April 26, 8:00 p.m. Admission $12 regular, $8 seniors and students (2 per ID). Tickets available from the Harvard Box Office, (617) 496-2222. Sanders Theatre. (JPC)

THE NOTEABLES. The Noteables, Harvard’s Broadway Beat, present an evening of singing and dancing featuring songs from Broadway and musical cinema. This concert will feature a mix of show tunes from both contemporary and older musicals and movies, including: “Company” from the musical “Company,” “People Will Say We’re In Love,” from the musical “Oklahoma,” “Roxie” from the musical (and Academy Award winning motion picture) “Chicago,” “Heart and Music” from the musical “A New Brain,” and many more. Sunday, April 27, 6 p.m. Tickets $5, available at the Harvard Box Office (617) 496-2222. Lowell Lecture Hall, 17 Kirkland St. (TIH)

BACH SOC COMPETITION WINNER. The Bach Society Orchestra, directed by Sean H. Ryan ’03, presents Azura Rising, the winning submission in the 2003 Composition Competition, written by freshman Benjamin E. Green ’06. The Orchestra, Harvard’s only entirely student-run orchestra, will also play Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Ligeti’s Ramifications, Stravinsky’s Suite no. 1 for small orchestra, and Manuel de Falla’s El Amor Brujo. Friday, April 25 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets $8 regular, $6 students, available at the Harvard Box Office or by phone (617) 496-2222. Paine Hall, 3 Kirkland Street. (LAA)

dance

ELEGANZA. BlackCAST presents its annual benefit fashion show, featuring clothes from both student and professional designers. Scheduled performers include Expressions, Carribean Club Dance Troupe, and Harvard Breakers’ Organization. Saturday, April 26,  8 p.m. Tickets $10, Harvard ID only, available at the Harvard Box Office (617) 46-2222. Lowell Lecture Hall, 17 Kirkland St. (TIH)

HARVARD-RADCLIFFE DANCE COMPANY. The company’s spring concert includes original pieces by students as well as works by Boston choreographer Brenda Divelbliss, who leads weekly company-sponsored dance classes. The company draws on modern, hip-hop, jazz, ballet, and other styles for inspiration, and is the oldest student-controlled dance troop at Harvard. Friday and Saturday, April 24-25 at 8 p.m. $5. Rieman Center for the Performing Arts, Agassiz House, 10 Garden Street. (MSH)

TWO STREAMS OF RAGA MUSIC. Maestro Padmabhushan Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman, a legendary musician of the South Indian Carnatic and Hindustani styles of music, will lead this workshop on the acoustic method he revolutionized. Friday, April 25, 6:30 p.m. Tickets $25, $15 students. (781) 862-9648 or email vanita@merufoundation.org for more information. Sackler Museum, 465 Broadway. (AAB)