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This world premiere won’t be a danse macabre, per se, but we’re dying to see what Ballet Austin’s Artistic Director Stephen Mills has conjured by way of exploring the life and works of that darkling prince of American letters, Edgar Allan Poe. Mills’ choreography, gracefully (and eldritchly) embodied by the company’s finest at the Long Center, doesn’t take place in any grave silence, of course – the kinetic biography is powered by a musical score from composer Graham Reynolds, performed live by the Austin Symphony Orchestra, and features a thrilling libretto penned by the Rude Mechs’ appropriately raven-haired Shawn Sides. – Wayne Alan Brenner

For generations of children, Arnold Lobel’s stories of amphibian best buds Frog and Toad have been a charming guide to the complexities and joys of friendship. Now the pair take to the stage for this delightful Tony-nominated musical. It’s truly a family affair, adapted by Lobel’s son-in-law Mark Linn-Baker with music by Robert Reale and book & lyrics by his brother, Willie. This new production, directed by Best of Austin winner Sara Burke, features Jillian Sainz and Victoria Brown donning the signature jackets and trousers of Frog and Toad, respectively. – Richard Whittaker

What was missing from the original Wizard of Oz movie? Not ruby slippers, or weird death-related on-set mythologies, but in-world political intrigue, discussions of oppression, and a sex club with a tiger. Gregory MacGuire’s 1995 novel added those elements in with the crimson clogs to make an Oz lore twisty enough to grab the attention of Broadway bigwigs, who then made a musical of the same name. Strangely, they took out the tiger sex club, but added in songs that launched not one but two megastars in Kristin Chenoweth and the wi-cked-ly talented Idina Menzel. Catch the musical’s run in Austin before the big-screen adaptation pops up in November, and join the elite class who can say “Pfft. I liked it better in the theatre.” – James Scott