Coronet Theatre

With its humor, animal heroes and large themes, "Charlotte's Web," E.B. White's gentle tale of friendship and sacrifice, life and death, is a natural for children's theater. The Serendipity Theatre Co.'s pleasant staging of the classic at the Coronet Theatre does well by both author and audience until the finale. In that scene, meant to help children accept death as part of the life cycle, a much-needed visual image is missing.

There is indeed a vacuum in L.A.'s mid-sized theater, and that vacuum is apparently reflective of the dearth of insightful theater criticism available in Calendar. Don Shirley intimates in his Stage Watch column (Nov. 28) that the Coronet Theatre, seemingly because it primarily houses the Serendipity Theatre Company (a professional company devoted to theater for young audiences), does not present "challenging new work." Nothing could be further from the truth. Youth theater is a viable and important aspect of the local theatrical community.

These days the penis can't get no respect. Health professionals label it toxic if not downright lethal. Prosecutors denounce it as a blunt offensive weapon. And those endless e-mail spam offers to enlarge it cast suspicion on even the most innocent exhibitionists. Who can point with pride to manhood in such shriveling times? David Friend and Simon Morley, that's who.

The Serendipity Theatre Co. once again demonstrates its unusual commitment to serving older as well as younger children with a surprisingly solid production of "The Diary of Anne Frank" at the Coronet Theatre. The stage adaptation by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett is sensitive and true, giving full weight to the peril in which the Franks and their friends lived.

"Girls Night." Wow. There's a show title and a marketing catchphrase in one concise, easy-to-remember package. And it's on the marquee of the Coronet Theatre, longtime home to "Menopause: The Musical." It would appear that a license to print money has just been issued. But not so fast. This concept musical -- gal pals gathered for a karaoke song fest -- is no "Menopause" or "Marvelous Wonderettes" or "Mamma Mia!"

Recently, simultaneous ads have run in Calendar for separate productions of the musical revue "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change"--one at the Laguna Playhouse through Aug. 23, and another one scheduled to open at the Coronet Theatre on Oct. 7. In fact, the Coronet run will use the same cast, director and set (though the set may be slightly shortened for the smaller Coronet stage) as the Laguna production, according to Barbara Corday, a co-producer for the Coronet version.

Los Angeles will finally have a full-time, year-round resident professional children's theater in a permanent space. The Coronet Theatre, a mid-size Equity house in West Hollywood, will become home to the Serendipity Theatre Company in August. That announcement was made by Jody Davidson, executive director of the newly formed children's theater, who is leaving her job as general manager of the Laguna Moulton Playhouse in Laguna Beach, as of Dec. 30.

It was O. Henry who created the original "Home Alone" kid. In his short story "The Ransom of Red Chief," published in 1910, a feisty little boy so terrorizes his two bumbling kidnapers that they're willing to pay to have his family reclaim him. It's not surprising then that Serendipity Theatre Co. is making the most of the comparison in its lively production of the classic at the Coronet Theatre (playing today and Sunday).

When he sits in the audience during performances of "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change," producer Michael Filerman listens for what he calls "the recognition sound"--that little grunt, or giggle, or rustle of someone elbowing their seatmate that always comes when someone in the audience has just recognized that other person, or themselves, on stage.

An upstairs space at the Coronet Theatre is about to open. Called, simply enough, Upstairs at the Coronet, it has been approved by the fire department for a maximum capacity of 168. But there probably will be about 150 seats for the opening show on Dec. 3, "Late Nite Catechism." Theatergoers who usually turn left when they enter the Coronet courtyard--in order to reach the lobby next to the main 284-seat theater--will turn right and climb stairs to reach "Catechism."