Portland Stage Affiliate Artist Bess Welden and Portland writer and blogger Kari Wagner-Peck create a live storytelling performance of Wagner-Peck’s book, “Not Always Happy,” a funny and often pointed memoir about adopting and raising a son with Down syndrome. The stage version, which is part of the Portland Stage Company Studio Series and will be presented at 7 p.m. Nov. 8-12 in the studio theater, features a dozen touching and subversive tales. The show won the 2017 PortFringe Pulitzer Award for excellence in writing.

Portland Ovations brings the national tour of “Jersey Boys” to Portland for performances at 8 p.m. Oct. 6 and 2 and 8 p.m. Oct. 7 at Merrill Auditorium. The musical features the songs of the Four Seasons and tells how four blue-collar kids made it to the top of the pop charts and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “Jersey Boys” includes the hits “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Rag Doll,” “Oh What a Night” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and others.

The Ogunquit Playhouse collaborates with Tim Rice and the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival on the North American premiere of the new musical “From Here to Eternity,” running Oct. 4 to 29. Based on James Jones’ novel with lyrics by Tim Rice, the musical is set in Hawaii in the weeks before the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and tells the story of two U.S. soldiers embarking on dangerous love affairs.