Girlfriend at Kirk Douglas Theatre

Set to Matthew Sweet's 1991 album of the same name, Girlfriend follows two teenage boys -- one a social outcast, the other the quintessential jock -- as they explore a relationship during a summer of self-discovery between high school graduation and the rest of their lives. The story, adapted for the stage by Todd Almond, unfolds to the tender love songs from Sweet's album. It's boy meets boy, while also giving voice to those of us (all of us?) who didn't quite fit in and felt somehow different, and anybody who remembers the terrors and thrills of first love. You can see this show, which one reviewer describes as "heart-stopping moments of pure vulnerability," at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in downtown Culver City.