O Lan Jones

A familiar, familial appeal graces "A Child's Christmas in Wales" at the Gem Theatre in Garden Grove. Assured work from an engaging ensemble propels this sweet-spirited musical adaptation of Dylan Thomas' vintage story, which returns to Grove Theater Center, where it was a holiday perennial between 1986 and 1991. Jeremy Brooks and Adrian Mitchell's dramatization has become a regional fixture since Cleveland's Great Lakes Festival commissioned it in 1983.

Everything is going wrong for Josh Chamberlin, today anyway. To begin with, a filler sketch he wrote for a TV retro teen music show has upset a viewer. Josh not only had Thomas Jefferson's mother interrupting his writing of the Declaration of Independence, but she did it with a Jewish accent. You don't put down motherhood, mac! But the cartridge from the viewer's high-powered rifle that shatters Josh's skylight window and wounds him (minimally) seems to be the least of his problems.

They haven't lit campfires exactly but for the last two years, relatively small groups of New Yorkers have been gathering in a series of downtown bars, letting down their guards and re-creating all the warmth and camaraderie of a woodsy sleepover with the simple act of telling stories. The evenings have a theme and the five or six appointed storytellers must speak without notes for no more than 12 minutes.

A squeaking door, a crash of thunder, gunshots, characters larger than life and tales of daring and fright--these were the stock in trade of the pulp magazines that proliferated during the 1930s, '40s and '50s. San Francisco's improvisational Pulp Playhouse is in town to help the adventurous return to those thrilling days of yesteryear and the cult world of pulp fiction.

Indefinable truths remain hidden between the lines of "Just for Nothing" ("Pour un oui ou pour un non"), currently receiving its U.S. premiere at the Tamarind Theatre. Nathalie Sarraute's taut 1982 duologue between estranged childhood friends typifies her nouveau roman aesthetic.

Why, right now, should the comfort of the spoken word be flourishing the way it is? It's been possible to hear first-rate authors in the city for years, from nurturing-ground readings at Beyond Baroque to Los Angeles City College's City Works program, with way stations in between. Those programs still thrive.

The loss of dreams and where that loss can put us is the subject of three short plays gathered under the umbrella title "Cities," at the Figtree Theatre. They're well worth the less than two hours it takes them to unfold. The production is spare. L. Lewis Stout's set grows in detail as each play grows in size and scope. The writing is also spare, but as rich as it needs to be to rip open the wounds of disappointment.

"Ragtime" and "Show Boat"--two big musicals from the same producer, Livent--ran away with the most nominations for the 1996-97 Ovation Awards, announced Wednesday morning at the Wyndham Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood by the sponsoring organization, Theatre LA. The U.S. premiere of "Ragtime" at the Shubert Theatre picked up 16 nominations--the most any show has received in the four years of competitive Ovations. The revival of "Show Boat" at the Ahmanson Theatre won 12 nods.

Festooned with Christmas lights, the cozy village of Sierra Madre is particularly picturesque at this time of year. Make your way through the outlying Craftsman bungalows along the rows of cafes on the main streets and you'll find the Sierra Madre Playhouse, a neighborhood fixture since 1979. A regular offering at the playhouse since 2002, "A Christmas Carol Story" is an adaptation of Dickens' Christmas classic written especially for the playhouse by the late Larry Davison. According to the program, director Alison Kalmus, who has staged the show in the past, has made several tweaks to Davison's original version over the years.