Stage spotlights: Skylark Opera, Broadway Songbook and 'Ghost'

Opening Wednesday: It must be Whoopi Goldberg season at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. The stage adaptation of "Sister Act," the 1992 comedy that starred Goldberg, recently closed. Now "Ghost," based on the 1990 film in which Whoopi headlined alongside Demi Moore and the late Patrick Swayze, is about to open. Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin also did the stage adaptation of this story about the ghost of a murdered man who hangs around to protect his still-alive lover. Minnesota native Steven Grant Douglas stars as the title character. (7:30 p.m. Wed.-Thu., 7 p.m. next Fri., 2 & 8 p.m. next Sat., 1 & 6:30 p.m. next Sun., Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls., $49-$109, 1-800-982-2787 or www.hennepintheatretrust.org.)

Rohan Preston

Friday-Sunday: The Ordway Center closes this seasons' songbook series with a tribute to the musical theater team of lyricist Betty Comden and composer Adolph Green, who wrote "On the Town," "Singin' in the Rain," "Hallelujah, Baby!" and "The Will Rogers Follies." James Rocco, the Ordway's artistic director, hosts, while singers such as Regina Marie Williams, Reid Harmsen and Erin Schwab deliver the songs. (7:30 p.m. Fri., 2 & 7:30 p.m. Sat. & Sun., Ordway Center, 345 Washington St., St. Paul, $37, 651-224-4222 or ordway.org.)

Rohan Preston

Opening Friday: For the seventh annual Summer Festival, Skylark Opera retains its tradition of producing operetta, staging Leonard Bernstein's masterful musical satire, "Candide." Bob Neu directs a cast, including Jennifer Baldwin Peden, Gary Briggle, Kathleen Humphrey, and Peter Middlecamp, singing such memorable songs as "Glitter and Be Gay" and "Make Our Garden Grow." This plays in rep with "From Berlin to Broadway With Kurt Weill," a revue directed by Frank Theatre's Wendy Knox that mixes cabaret and commentary to tell Weill's story from his rise to fame in Germany with "Three Penny Opera" to his success on Broadway. Christina Baldwin, Bradley Greenwald, Dieter Bierbrauer and Vicki Fingalson perform such hits as "Mack the Knife" and "September Song." ("From Berlin to Broadway," 7:30 p.m. Fri., 3 p.m. Sun., 7:30 p.m. Thu. & June 21; "Candide," 7:30 p.m. Sat., Wed., Fri. & June 20, 3 p.m. June 22, $29-$45, E.M. Pearson Theatre, Concordia University, 312 N. Hamline Av., St. Paul, 612-343-3390, www.skylarkopera.org.)