Kelli Bocock-Natale is "Sophie Tucker: The Last of the Red Hot Mamas"

Summer in the city turns every street into a stage. Under the sun’s spotlight, exuberance, languor and sex play out, dramatically and comically, on porches and sidewalks and yards everywhere.

But if that is not enough for you, or if it is too much for you, you might find relief by going to a show. At least you can savor a couple hours of air-conditioned entertainment or a breezy theatricale on some lawn.

Of course, you’re thinking of the annual stagings at Shakespeare in Delaware Park. This year, the comedy All’s Well That Ends Well opens June 21 and the tragedy Othello opens July 26. And of course, you can expect further coverage in these pages of those popular, populist productions.

Following is a list of some others of this year’s crop presently on the vine.

Now running: Sophie Tucker: The Last of the Red Hot Mamas. Soph could tell a dirty joke so that a nun would laugh, get an audience to its feet with a patriotic anthem and then move everyone to tears with a Yiddish ballad. Tucker was a self-promoter who could make Madonna look shy. Her secret was giving the audience just what it wanted. This is a secret shared with Kelli Bocock-Natale, who repeats her 2005 role. If anything, her performance is more dynamic and focused than it was two years ago. Through June 24 at Andrews Theatre, 635 Main Street, between Tupper and Chippewa. Additional information: 853-ICTC or irishclassicaltheatre.com.

June 7. Old Wicked Songs. It should only have been a music lesson. Complications become tense between a student from the United States and his teacher in Vienna—so fraught that matters escalate to an international incident of personal dimensions. Louis Colaiacovo and Saul Elkin introduce this play to Buffalo as produced by Jewish Repertory Theatre. Incidentally, Elkin and Colaiacovo have been student and teacher in life, at SUNY Buffalo’s Department of Theatre & Dance. Now peers as esteemed actors, they play two musicians who pluck at national, religious and political tensions like strings on a violin. Through July 1 at Musicalfare Theater on Daemen College Campus, 4380 Main Street, between Harlem and Getzville Roads), Amherst. Additional information: 688-4114 x334 or jewishrepertorytheatre.com.

June 8. Rounding Third. You’ve heard about the national impact of soccer moms? Behold and witness the world of little league dads with this one-on-one encounter between a macho, trad dad and new age, sensitive pop. Everyone says (well, everyone except Vince Lombardi) that the genuine importance of sport is how you play the game. This comedy, popular across the country and in its recent staging at Studio Arena, looks at the values you embrace as you head home. Through June 23, Marie Maday Theatre, Canisius College campus, 3275 Main Street (opposite Eastwood Place). Additional information: 629-8548 or kaleidoscopetheatreproductions.com.

June 28. Subversive Shorts. As in revolutionary BVDs? Treasonous thongs? Seditious jockstraps? Beguiling as that summer wardrobe might seem, the member artists of Subversive Theater want to stimulate your mind with this exercise of the body politic. A lineup of scenes and one-act plays deal with topical issues: war, feminism, liberal guilt and freedom of speech. Seven plays come from playwrights across the country and one is from Bill Schmidt, actor and writer of local renown. The roster of actors and directors for these different shows is impressive and seems to outnumber the capacity of the backrroom of Rust Belt Books. That just means get there early to get a good seat. And bring a hand fan. Through June 30. Rust Belt Books, 202 Allen Street. Additional information: 408-0499 or subversivetheatre.org.

July 26. Infringement Festival. More details will follow as this mega-event draws nearer. Music, literary, art and dance events are also part of the 10-day schedule of events taking place in various sites along Allen Street and in downtown. However, theater and performance art dominate the proceedings. Open to individual performers and theater companies, experimentation and new works are the standard. Through August 5. Additional information: infringebuffalo.org.

July 25. Sisters of Swing: The Andrews Sisters Musical. Another return from productions past, and another worthy one. Kathy Weese, Debbie Pappas and Kelly Meg Brennan play that girl group of note. Todd Benzin plays everyone they ever met: producers, song writers, you name it—and movie figures from Carmen Miranda to Woody Woodpecker. Weese, Brennan and Pappas take on Patty, Maxine and LaVerne with vigor and deft musicality. Through August 11 at MusicalFare Theatre, 4380 Main Street (Daemen College campus), Amherst. Additional information: 839-8540 or musicalfare.com.

August 3. Architect. Dan Shanahan won an Artie award for his visionary direction of Terminus, which, presented in the waiting room of Buffalo’s landmark train station, made vivid use of the room’s length, breadth and structural details as well as of its decay. The next episode in the dreamy, imagistic “Muriel Vanderbilt trilogy” continues at another design gem, Dnipro Ukrainian Center. This proves not only that our city is a living architectural museum but that it is inhabited by artists who, like Shanahan, are creative and clever enough to tell its story. Through August 18. Ukrainian Home Dnipro, 562 Genesee Street (between Jefferson and Davis). Additional information: tornspace@hotmail.com.

August 9. Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida. A high-tech gloss and an electronic sound replace all that was ancient and classic in Giuseppe Verdi’s and Antonio Ghislanzoni’s Aida. This is the only theater venture for Artpark this year and all its production forces are being put into this basket. Can one big, big, big show fill Artpark’s vast stage and all those seats, more so than two or three smaller shows? Let’s find out. If you, by chance, have never been to Artpark or have not been there in a long time, it may be time to make the trip to Lewiston—it’s only 25 minutes from Buffalo. You’d spend that much time looking for a parking spot at the cineplex. Through August 19. 450 South 4th Street, Lewiston. Additional information: 754-4375 or artpark.net

Check reliable theater listings regularly, as the spontaneity of the season impacts schedules for summer shows. Energetic artists put together shows at breakneck speed, with the energy of Mickey and the charisma of Judy. On the converse, some other shows might wilt before they come to harvest as the folks behind them decide they would rather go fishing.

Forgive them. Summer is short. Life is sweet. Think but this and all is mended: that you have but slumbered here while summer visions did appear. Give o’er your hands, if we be friends and actors shall restore amends…at least by Curtain Up! in September.