“Riverdance” is the thunderous party of Irish music, song and dance that started out as a seven-minute dance segment in Dublin but grew into a full-scale stage production that has drawn audiences for 13 years.

“Riverdance” has played more than 10,000 performances. The show opens Tuesday for eight performances at The Paramount Theatre in Seattle.

“Riverdance” has become an icon for Irish culture. Reviewers have exclaimed that not much can compare to the sensual theatrics and blend of dance, music and song this production delivers. “Riverdance” draws on Irish traditions and features an international company performing to the magic of Bill Whelan’s music.

“Hamlet”: A new adaptation of the Bard’s classic written by Seattle Children’s Theatre’s artistic associate Rita Giomi is a Shakespeare experience that reaches out to all ages, said Jim Jewell, SCT’s public relations manager.

The show opens tonight at Seattle Children’s Theatre with performances through Feb. 24. It is recommended for children ages 11 and up.

Hamlet is one of the greatest characters in the history of theater because everyone can identify with his passion, confusion and sense of familial loyalty, SCT artistic director Linda Hartzell said in a prepared statement.

It’s also a thrilling ghost story.

This production focuses on the core of the familiar story: Prince Hamlet returns to Denmark to find his father murdered and his uncle Claudius in possession of his father’s wife and throne. This treachery unsettles the spirit of the late king. He beckons his son to avenge his untimely death.

Hamlet puts on the trappings of madness to try to unearth the truth. He casts off all his old friends, denounces his love for Ophelia and follows his obsessive path toward vengeance. Or is this madness merely a ruse so Hamlet may enact his revenge? In the end, all fall prey to their treachery.

“Three Days of Rain”: The production, made popular with help from Julia Roberts, who was featured in the Broadway production, is full of sharp and witty language, arresting images, complex characters and deep insight.

The show opens Thursday and runs through Feb. 24 at Seattle Public Theatre.

The production has been called a tour-de-force for three actors because they play both characters in the present day and their parents three decades before during a fateful three days of rain that completely changed everyone’s lives.

“By the Waters of Babylon”: This is a journey of love, gardening and redemption written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Schenkkan and directed by Richard Seyd.

The show opens Thursday and runs through March 2 at Seattle Repertory Theatre.

Schenkkan has created a bittersweet love story. Catherine is a recluse with a dark and mysterious past. Arturo, the gardener, was a poet in his native Cuba and has come to rescue her neglected garden. The hot Texas day turns hotter as these two exiles share a drink and a dance, and try to banish the ghosts that haunt them both.

Schenkkan won the Pulitzer for “The Kentucky Cycle,” which premiered in 1991 at Intiman Theatre. He has written films for Sidney Pollack, Oliver Stone, Denzel Washington, Ron Howard and Kevin Costner. He lives in Seattle with his author wife and two children

“Wrinkles of Washington”: The show began in 1994 and comprises performers 55 and older, traveling all over Washington doing shows with music, dance and comedy. The 35 dancers performing such numbers as “The Thunderer,” “Bandstand Boogie” and “Jump With My Baby,” will be performed Saturday afternoon at historic Everett Theatre.

“Girls Gone Wide!”: Comedienne Suzanne Kelman, formerly of the “Big Purple Undies,” will be presenting a new comedy show as a Ladies Night Out fundraiser tonight for Whidbey Children’s Theater.

Kelman will be joined by Martha Murphy, Jenica Deer and others as they take a humorous look at many of the issues facing women in such comedy skits as “Snow Off-White and the Seven Dwarves of Menopause,” “Charlie’s Angels (Thirty Years Later)” and “Nobody Loves a Fairy When She’s Forty.” Several numbers will be performed by Men in Black, a chorus line boasting “some of the most handsome men on the south end” of Whidbey Island. Men in Black also will be serving hors d’oeuvres and sparkling drinks throughout the evening.

The Ladies Night Out fundraiser also will include raffles and a live auction — including a slumber party for four girlfriends at the Tuscan Lady Bed and Breakfast with pedicures and backrubs, a romantic sunset cruise on a 30-foot sailboat with a gourmet picnic for two, and tap-dance lessons for six girlfriends with Suzanne Kelman.

“The Breaking — A Tale of Love, Loss &Lament”: Can Can in Pike Place Market has created its newest show, “The Breaking,” an entanglement of opera, vaudeville, aerial acrobatics, belly dance, new circus arts and theater, set to live, original music by The Bad Things and a dramatic storyline.

The show runs Saturdays and Sundays through Feb. 24 at Can Can in the Pike Place Market.

The show stars the Can Can’s in-house performance group, The Castaways, who perform original material. Known for their obscure style and inventive productions, The Castaways have “changed the face of entertainment nationally,” according to the Wall Street Journal, with shows such as “I See London, I See France,” “Vaudeville Schmaudeville,” “Provocateur,” “Kabaret Verboten” and “Cabagazm.”

“Romeo et Juliette”: Jean-Christophe Maillot’s full-length contemporary interpretation of this ballet has been called one of the most beautiful adaptations of Shakespeare’s works that can be seen today.

Audiences can see this Pacific Northwest Ballet delight starting Thursday. The ballet runs through Feb. 10.

The three-act production was premiered in 1996 by Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, where Jean-Christophe Maillot is resident choreographer and artistic director. Prokofiev’s ballet score delivers thematic melodies that are in turn tender, passionate, fierce and eerie. Content may not be appropriate for young children.

Seattle Dance Project: Artistic directors Julie Tobiason and Timothy Lynch, both former dancers with Pacific Northwest Ballet, introduce their innovative repertory company, Seattle Dance Project. The company debut, “Project One,” will be performed in collaboration with ACT Theatre, today through Sunday.

The performances feature the company’s nine dancers in four world premieres, with choreography by Donald Byrd, Pat Catterson, Molissa Fenley and Olivier Wevers.

The company is an assemblage of artists with formidable performing experience in major dance companies, including Pacific Northwest Ballet, New York City Ballet and Mark Morris Dance Group.

Seattle Dance Project uses the traditional, rigorous ballet training of its nine dancers as a jumping-off place for the exploration of new, expressive, contemporary movement that is approachable — and enlightening — to dance enthusiasts and newcomers alike.