Michael Pevzner of Kingston knows what makes him laugh. And a combination of faith, family, and food tickled his theatrical funny bone enough to know he wanted to do a play with that theme.That mix is the basis of “Over the River and Through the Woods,’’ a production of Nemasket River Productions that Pevzner is directing at the Alley Theatre in Middleborough Friday and Saturday, and May 4-5, with shows at 8 p.m.It was written by Joe DiPietro (“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,’’), and is about Nick, a single Italian-American from New Jersey who wants to move away, snipping powerful Italian connections with his grandparents, who connive to keep him close.  

The shipwrecked Italian cruise liner the Costa Concordia will be refloated and towed away in one piece by a US-owned salvage firm, the ship's owners announced Saturday. Costa Crociere said Florida-based Titan Salvage will work with Italian marine contractors Micoperi to remove the wreck from waters off the island of Giglio, where it crashed Jan.13, killing 32 people.
 

Little Italy is having an art attack! A giant mural of a human figure with a peacock head and a tiger groin, planned for the side of a five-story building on Mulberry Street, has created an inferno in the tradition-minded enclave. “That’s not going up in my courtyard,” Father Fabian Grifone exploded when he saw a rendering of the huge painting that Little Italy merchants have commissioned for a wall overlooking the Most Precious Blood Church — the heart of the annual Feast of San Gennaro.

Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ade a surprise appearance on Friday at a court in Milan where he is on trial on charges of abuse of power and paying for sex with an underage nightclub dancer. Speaking to reporters during a break in the trial, Mr. Berlusconi said that nothing untoward ever took place in his homes and that the dinners he hosted were “elegant” and “proper.”