Critic’s Picks

Nothing against drama--well, everything against bad drama--but even in a summery, sun-smacked climate such as ours, there’s something about the official season of summer that elbows you in those flabby abs, pulls on your cheek and says: Musicals! Melodies! C’mon, Germans, go into your dance! (Scratch that last one--it’s from “The Producers,” for which we’ll have to wait.)

Here’s a quartet of tuners for you. Last year’s Tony Award-winning best musical, “Contact,” saunters into the Ahmanson Theatre July 8-Sept. 1. Described by director-choreographer Susan Stroman as a “dance play,” it’s a trio of love stories--two happy, one not--told in movement. And told in a yellow dress, per the show’s poster image.

Like “Contact,” the Broadway revival of Cole Porter’s 1948 classic “Kiss Me, Kate” at the Shubert Theatre Aug. 24-Oct. 13, is still going strong in New York. The national tour stars Rex Smith and Rachel York; the song list is a killer, including “Too Darn Hot” and “Brush Up Your Shakespeare.” If the touring edition’s anywhere near as nice as the Broadway version, it’ll be a genuine kick in the Coriolanus.

Here is a title you don’t see every season: “Do I Hear a Waltz?” This rarely revived 1965 musical has a book by Arthur Laurents, taken from his play “The Time of the Cuckoo.” More to the point, it has music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. And it’ll be very interesting to see how it all fares in this new version at the Pasadena Playhouse July 6-Aug. 19.

Out in charmed Topanga Canyon, in the meantime, another sort of musical theater entirely: “The Cradle Will Rock,” Marc Blitzstein’s 1937 pro-labor landmark and subject of the 1999 film “Cradle Will Rock.” The revival is presented June 30-Sept. 30 at the Theatricum Botanicum, whose founder, Will Geer, had a hand in the original.