‘Company’ at La Mirada; ‘Overland Rooms’ at Theatre Exchange;’The Hostage’ at Celtic Arts; One-Acts at West Coast Ensemble

The company that’s doing “Company” at La Mirada Civic Theatre is loaded with talent. But the Stephen Sondheim/George Furth musical wasn’t ready for opening night Wednesday. And the central role of Bobby is miscast.

David Ruprecht, who plays Bobby, is best known for his performances as comic relief. His off-center face has a natural smirk; he’s very good at greasy characters. But Bobby’s problem is that he’s a nice guy, an observer who can’t cut through his blandness to connect with other people--and “Company” is more about his problem than it is about him.

The part calls for conventional, almost anonymous good looks--and a voice that can make “Being Alive” soar. Ruprecht and the engaging Heather Lee are very deft in the spoken one-on-one comedy of the second act, but elsewhere Ruprecht appears uncomfortable as an onlooker. He doesn’t know what to do with his hands during his solos, and his singing never quite ushers us into his heart.

The show got off to a shaky start Wednesday. Joy Claussen was out of sync with Dennis Castellano’s orchestra in her song about “Perfect Relationships.” Some of Joanne Trunick McMaster’s sets wobbled at inopportune moments. The big group numbers, staged by Lara Teeter, were not at the level of precision that one would expect from this company. One suspects that director Glenn Casale didn’t have enough rehearsal time.

Nevertheless, a couple of difficult numbers sparkled: “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” with Lee, Manette LaChance and Patty Tiffany, and “Getting Married Today,” with Marsha Kramer, Robert Yacko and Teri Ralston.

Performances are at 14900 La Mirada Blvd., Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. Tickets: $15.50-$19.50; (213) 944-9801.

‘The Overland Rooms’

Sawdust went off to war and never came back. His wife Granada likes to think he died in combat. The alternative is to suspect that he deserted her.

In “The Overland Rooms,” Richard Hobson’s play at Theatre Exchange, it’s now the late ‘60s and Granada runs a small-town brothel, temporarily short of girls. Her son Howard has transformed his room into a shrine to his late father in particular and the military in general. But then Howard is a little touched in the head. He keeps hearing these voices. . . . So do we. “The Overland Rooms” comes with a musical score sung by a young woman (Jennifer Parsons) invisible to the characters but visible to us as she follows Howard around. Some of the songs are pretty, in a country-folksy-bluesy way. But their connection to what’s happening is often oblique.

Furthermore, the songs too often stop the play in its tracks. The characters on the other side of the stage awkwardly freeze in place while the singing goes on, and the listeners in the audience grapple with the meaning of the words, even after the action resumes.

Too bad, for the characters and the situation are interesting, and Darlene Conley is an especially formidable presence as Granada. As Howard, Mark Hattan rigorously rejects acting “crazy,” perhaps too much so. Carol Mansell has some amusing moments as the one and only prostitute, though her character’s familiarity with the latest psychobabble seems unlikely.

Matthew Faison directed on a nicely grimy but uncredited set.

Performances are at 11855 Hart St., North Hollywood, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m., through June 8. Tickets: $12.50; (818) 782-3140.

‘The Hostage’

“The Overland Rooms” isn’t the first play with music to be set in a house of ill repute. Brendan Behan’s “The Hostage” is another. It comes fitfully to life in a rough and raucous production at the Celtic Arts Center.

It’s hard to get a handle on this “Hostage,” in part because of the seating configuration. The audience is divided into two groups, who face each other across the rather narrow stage. Rather than play to one group or the other, the actors too often appear in profile to both groups, and stay that way for too long. If director Brian Heron has to use this arrangement, he should make the blocking at least twice as fluid as it is now.

Another reason to qualify any remarks made about this “Hostage” is that it’s double cast. The cast I saw was wildly erratic in quality. The younger characters fared best; the actors playing the old men weren’t nearly old enough.

There were a few moments when everything clicked; these did not include the production’s references to the Bakkers or “La Cucaracha.” Heron, speaking to the audience before the play began, acknowledged that his other cast takes the play in a different direction.

Performances are at 5651 Hollywood Blvd., Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m., indefinitely. Tickets: $10; (213) 462-6844.

Celebration of One-Acts

The West Coast Ensemble’s Celebration of One-Acts includes three rotating bills of three plays each.

If Series C is representative, each program offers a variety of styles, but none of the plays is a knockout. Series C begins with Jeffrey Bender’s “Warp,” an extended comedy sketch about a man who’s thrust into an interview for the position of Supreme Being. It’s clever, though somewhat collegiate.

In Kent R. Brown’s “Reduced for Quick Sale,” a woman is pricing the belongings from her failed marriage, assisted by her mother and sister, veterans of their own divorces and garage sales. Then the straying husband shows up to re-claim his cleats--and perhaps his marriage. The scene is familiar and the staging sluggish, but the writing is fairly adept.

Ron Carr’s “The Civil Servant” is a truly pretentious addition to the list of park-bench plays, theater of the absurd subdivision. Full of garbled symbols and would-be profundities, it does nothing but prolong the evening.

Performances are at 6240 Hollywood Blvd., Tuesdays through Sundays at 8 p.m. Tickets: $10; (213) 871-1052.