“Tuesdays with Morrie”

CRITIC’S PICK: Actor and visual artist Dan Reichard returns to Stage Door Theatre for its 50th season to take the lead role in Tuesdays With Morrie, a play directed by Justin Ball and based on the best-selling memoir by Mitch Albom. John Romanski plays Albom, a prosperous but diffident sports writer whose former college professor, Morrie Schwartz, is stricken with Lou Gehrig’s disease. The two end up reconnecting during a series of visits on Tuesdays. A 1999 film version featured Hank Azaria as Albom and Jack Lemon as Schwartz. “There are no car crashes, no explosions, no intricate terrorist plots. It’s just two people talking,” Albom told The Los Angeles Times when the movie came out. “What producer in their right mind would want to take that on?” — Kevin C. Madigan