Prolific playwright/director Adam Rapp is loaded with talent and the local theater scene is all the better for it.  His Red Light Winter was a Pulitzer finalist, and his Bingo With Indians was both funny and chilling.  Here he has collected a cast of top-flight actors, including Billy Crudup and David Greenspan, for a confrontational drama about a NYC novelist (Crudup), who travels to a small U.S. town to go head-to-head with the local school board, who want to ban his latest young adult book.
 
The Vineyard Theatre, 108 E. 15th St., (212) 353-0303. Previews May 5, opens May 19.
 
OLIVER PARKER!
Elizabeth Meriwether is a very fine, imaginative young playwright.  After the successes of Heddatron and The Mistakes Madeline Made, she spent the past four years working in Hollywood, and one of her still-untitled projects, formerly called F**k Buddies and Friends with Benefits, is reportedly being shot soon with Ashton Kucher and Natalie Portman starring and Ivan Reitman directing.  Here she debuts a new comedy drama, starring five-time Emmy Award winner John Larroquette (Night Court) as a 60-year-old man whose best friend (in a non-sexual way) is a 17-year-old boy, played by Michael Zeger (Rescue Me).  The older man's alcoholism and the teenager's horniness become problems to solve.  Johanna Pair and Monica Raymond round out the cast, and Evan Cabnet directs.
 
Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce St., (212) 239-6200. Previews May 9, opens May 17.
 
RESTORATION   
Claudia Shear made her mark as a playwright/performer with the brilliant solo piece, Blown Sideways Through Life, and then increased her rep with Dirty Blonde, a tender, witty play about Mae West.  Here the playwright/actress returns as Giulia, an art restorer from Brooklyn who lands the job of a lifetime, "refreshing" Michelangelo's David in time for its 500th year anniversary in Florence.  The cast of five is directed by Christopher Ashley, artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse, where this play was first staged.
 
New York Theater Workshop, 79 E. 4th St., (212) 279-4200. Previews Apr. 30, opens May 19-June 13.
 
THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY
Written by Kristoffer Diaz, this five character dramedy, imported from Chicago, is directed by Edward Torres.  And with a charmingly grand title like that, it's no surprise to find out that it's set in the world of professional wrestling. A middle rank grappler, Macedonia "The Mace" Guerra, discovers a young Indian kid from Brooklyn, whom he recruits to take on the All-American Champ, Chad Deity.  Trash talking and racial stereotyping precede the showdown in the ring, and all three men are forced to show what they're made of.
 
Second Stage Theatre, 305 W. 43rd St., (212) 246-4422. Previews Apr. 27, opens May 20.
 
THE BURNT PART BOYS
Here is a new, ironically timely musical co-produced by Playwrights Horizons and The Vineyard Theatre, set in Coal County, Virginia, 1962, where two brothers return to the mine that took their father's life.  Mariana Elder wrote the book, Chris Miller the music, and Nathan Tyser the lyrics.  Director Joe Calarco (responsible for the long-running Shakespeare's R & J) directs a cast of nine, and handles the musical staging of the bluegrass/pop score.
 
Playwrights Horizons Main Stage, 416 W. 42nd St., (212) 279-4200. Previews Apr. 30, opens May 25-June 13.