Without the charismatic film stars, Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connor, the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre's stage version of “Singin’ in the Rain,” is mundane. Despite the infectious musical numbers, including the title tune, the trite and predictable story of Hollywood’s transition from silent to talking films plods and the characters never change. The production has one outstanding talent in John Ramsey who turns Cosmo, the O’Connor role, into the musical’s central focus even though it is a supporting part.

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Does the epic musical/pop opera “Les Misérables” work in a smaller production that focuses on the story and music? The answer is “yes” based on the superlative Phoenix Theatre’s staging.

Don’t let it throw you that this is a smaller production. It is still grandly scaled, with a huge cast that creates a wonderfully robust musical sound. Until this production, “Les Misérables” has only been seen locally in the original Broadway production, with its ever circling turntable and enough scenery to distract any theatergoer from the Victor Hugo novel the musical is based on.

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“An Impending Rupture of the Belly” is a deeply dark comedy about a guy who society and circumstances pushes over the edge so his weird worries dominate and direct his life. He’s convinced the apocalypse is just around the corner and, as he prepares for the birth of his first baby, he becomes obsessed with planning for things unlikely to occur.

But with our times so unusual and the economic situation so bizarre, the play may predict a reality that might soon become more apparent. People like Clay Stilts may be lurking in society’s shadows.

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The perfect theatrical production is hard to achieve but Arizona Theatre Company has accomplished this triumph with a superlative staging of Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 masterpiece “A Raisin in the Sun.”

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Walking down Broadway is pretty bleak now. Many long-running shows have closed and several new shows are coming for limited engagements. The dreadful economy has hit. But there are still theatergoers around and the six shows I saw for my two annual Broadway reports were wonderful. You’d never know there’s a recession at “Pal Joey,” “Equus,” “In the Heights,” “Billy Elliot,” or “South Pacific,” the best of the shows I saw. I also saw “Gypsy” that has since closed.

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The reserved and dry British humor is very different from American comedy. It’s more subtle, filled with innuendo, and not peppered with American one-liner barbs and jabs. The differences are especially obvious in Phoenix Theatre’s new comedy, “How the Other Half Loves,” by popular British playwright Alan Ayckbourn.

Parts of the comedy work but much of it sinks. Part of the problem is the halting and non-existent British accents employed by the six person cast. They never seem to be British; they always seem to be Americans.

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Actors Theatre touts “Triple Espresso,” a comedy the local troupe imported from its Minneapolis birthplace, as “a hilarious riot.” Instead, the meanderingly predictable show boasts few genuine laughs so the two-hour show drags on for an eternity.

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If a raunchy, tell-all tale of a house of ill-repute appeals, the country-western musical, “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, is your show. It’s just too bad that the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre production is so bland, plodding, and lackluster. The cause is guest director, Brian J. Enzman, who lets the normally zippy show poke along when it should zing and strut with artful verve and pizzazz.

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If you see “The Lion King” at ASU Gammage, and you should, know that you aren’t going to hear the Elton John/Tim Rice songs or to see the animated cartoon story. You are going to see Julie Taymor’s superlative production. What Taymor has created is one of the finest stage productions you will ever see.

Taymor’s staging is wonderful but her visual concepts, including her costumes and Richard Hudson’s scenery, are brilliant. She’s created 25 animal species and the scenic wonders she and Hudson craft will amaze. The cast become animals with elaborate costumes that appear awkward but that the performers navigate brilliantly. You will think the animal kingdom is alive on stage.

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Leave it to the Arizona Theatre Company to be ahead of national theater trends. ATC announced “Hair” as this season’s musical long before New York Public Theatre’s triumph with the show last summer in Central Park. The successful New York run may lead to a Broadway transfer in March. The New York staging can’t be any better than the superlative ATC version.

“Hair” is a fascinating show. After its initial 1968 success, it’s been forgotten because it seemed antiquated. But recent political events and the Iraqi war made the show timely again. It paints a vivid picture of ‘60s rebellious youth, but it also resonates with the accuracy of their political opinions. An audience member remarked that we should have learned from our past mistakes and not repeat them today.

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