Seat Filler

 The Illusion
Following Angels in America and iHo, Signature's Tony Kushner season ends with out director Michael Mayer’s dreamy revival of Kushner’s charming 1989 adaptation of Pierre Corneille's 1636 comedy L'Illusion Comique. In this heady ode to theatricality, Lois Smith stars as a cave-dwelling magician who conjures visions for an old man of the son he banished, and Peter Bartlett adds to his flamboyant repertoire as a hilarious fop.
Signature Theater Company at the Peter Norton Space, through July 17.

 By the Way, Meet Vera Stark
This bittersweet satirical comedy by Lynn Nottage, who won a Pulitzer for Ruined, peers behind the screens of racial stereotypes in 1930s Hollywood. Sanaa Lathan stuns as Vera, a black maid and budding actress whose unusual relationship with her boss, a former child star played by Stephanie J. Block, is debated — were they lovers? — many years later by a panel of film scholars that includes Karen Olivo as a militant lesbian slam poet.
Second Stage Theatre, through June 12.

 Sex on the Beach
Written and performed by Roy Arias on a set that looks like a Chevys Fresh Mex, this spirited three-character monologue makes a spicy if insignificant meal of the Caribbean sex trade with a sassy Puerto Rican transvestite, a proud female escort in Cuba, and a bombastic male hustler in the Dominican Republic. Some of the sloppy Spanglish can be hard to understand, so catch one of the Spanish-language matinees if you habla Español.
Roy Arias Studios & Theaters, through July 30.