FresnoBeehive.com

1. GET ‘NORMAL’
It took only a little more than three years for the acclaimed show “Next to Normal” — one of only eight musicals ever to win the Pulitzer Prize — to make it from opening night on Broadway to opening night in Fresno. I wrote today’s cover story in our 7 section about the StageWorks Fresno production, which opens tonight and continues through July 29.

2. PUPPET SEX IN VISALIA
This edition of my Weekend Picks continues its theater focus with “Avenue Q,” brought to us by the Fourth Wall Theatre in Visalia. Director Chris Mangels has a proven track record with big, complicated, tech-heavy shows, and it will be fun to see what he does with this witty send-up of “Sesame Street.” I talked to Mangels about the show in today’s 7 section. It runs for six performances only.

3. TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AT WOODWARD PARK
Still more theater (are you sensing a trend here?):The Woodward Shakespeare Festival offers its non-Shakespeare title for the summer with the classic “A Streetcar Named Desire.” I write about the show in today’s 7 section. It continues through July 28. Here’s an interview with director Maggie McClellan:

4. NEW SHOW AT TIMBERLINE
Mark Heliger’s exhibition titled “Rivers, Streams and Lakes” will be feted with an artist’s reception Saturday at the Timberline Gallery in Oakhurst.