June 13 marks the last chance to catch Houston's Alley Theatre's productions of George Bernard Shaw's Misalliance. The theatre staging of Tom Stoppard's Travesties, however, has been extended until June 20.

Shaw's Misalliance will close the Large Stage season at the theatre; it began previews May 14 and opened May 19 for a run through June 13. Meanwhile, Stoppard's Travesties will bring the Neuhaus Arena Stage season to a close; it began May 21 for a May 26 opening.

Shaw's Misalliance is between Hypatia Tarleton, the daughter of underwear magnate and obsessive bibliophile John Tarleton, and Bentley Summerhays, the callow scion of a cash-poor aristocratic family. Hypatia endlessly yearns for something to happen to her, and she finally gets her wish when an airplane, carrying a rakish pilot and a Polish acrobat, crashes into the Tarleton family estate, revealing and/or generating a half a dozen other romantic misalliances.

David Wheeler directs the classic comedy, which received a recent Broadway staging with Elizabeth Marvel, Brian Murray and Joanna Going.

Travesties, perhaps Stoppard's headiest historical and theoretical soup, imagines Communist leader Lenin, novelist James Joyce and Dadaism founder Tristin Tzara intermingling in 1917 Zurich society and all colliding in the faulty memory of insignificant, self-aggrandizing diplomat Henry Carr. Gregory Boyd directs. For information on both shows, call (713) 228-8421.

--By Robert Simonson