Old Standards and New Favorites Help Start the Year Off With a Bang on Area Stages

December’s doldrums are a thing of the past as theater in 1991 gets off to a fast, furious and jampacked start. The openings include:

Wednesday: Emily Loesser is a plucky Polish heroine (circa 1936) in the new English-language Yiddish musical “Yiddle With a Fiddle” at the Westwood Playhouse.

Thursday: L.A. Theatre Works hosts an all-star reading of Joyce Carol Oates’ short stories “The Key,” “Tone Clusters” and “Greensleeves” at the Santa Monica Guest Quarters Suite Hotel. Oates will attend.

Thursday: Stages Trilingual Theatre in Hollywood hosts the English-language premiere of Italian playwright Edoardo Erba’s one-act “The Night of Picasso,” plus readings of two short stories.

Thursday: First-time playwright Tannis Benedict debuts with “Timing Is Everything” (at the Court Theatre in West Hollywood), the 21-year romantic odyssey of a contemporary couple. Benedict is a descendant of Louisa May Alcott and “hopes writing runs in the family.”

Friday: Jean Colonomos’ “Treasure Hunt” has its premiere at the Callboard Theatre in West Hollywood. Lynn Milgrim (“The Wonder Years”) plays a writer whose art and life get mixed up during rehearsals for a new play.

Friday: Actor-bassist Louis Fantasia reprises his virtuoso turn in Patrick Suskind’s one-man play about music and obsession, “The Double Bass,” at the Burbage Theatre in West L.A.

Saturday: Dan Kwong’s “Tales From the Fractured Tao,” based on the author’s Asian-American family experiences (and rated “PG-12”), opens at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica.

Saturday: The Odyssey Theatre hosts a guest production of Wedekind’s “Earth Spirit” and “Pandora’s Box,” presented under the umbrella title “The Lulu Plays.”

Jan. 13: Beverly Hills’ Theatre 40 kicks off its second annual One-Act Festival with Pirandello’s “The Vise,” Isadore Elias’ “Goods” and Rich Orloff’s “The Whole Shebang,” and on alternating nights, Kendrew Lascelles’ “Tigers” and Brook A. Berry’s “Bad Brad.”

Jan. 14: Joan Hotchkis reprises her solo autobiographical performance piece, “Tearsheets: Letters I Didn’t Send Home,” at Highways.

Jan. 17: Noel Coward’s satire of British upper-class relationships and addictions, “The Vortex,” opens at the James A. Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood. Starring are Stephanie Beacham and Rupert Everett.

Jan. 17: John Kaye’s “Cherry Terry/The Rockin’ Robin,” the story of a ‘50s disc jockey determined to re-enter the world of radio in 1969 Hollywood, opens at Theatre 6470 in Hollywood.

Jan. 17: Robert Morse won the 1990 Tony Award for Best Actor for his performance in Jay Presson Allen’s one-man tribute to Truman Capote, “Tru,” opening at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood.

Jan. 17: Peter Fieldson’s “Black and Blue,” billed as “a farce mixing the fiction of Joe Orton’s plays with the facts of his life,” opens at the Tamarind Theatre in Hollywood.

Jan. 17: Ten short plays make up “Public Places/Private Places,” an evening of original short works at The Complex in Hollywood.

Jan. 17: Sherman Snukal’s “Talking Dirty,” described as “an uncommitted comedy about open marriage and relationships,” begins at the Hollywood Actors Theatre.

Jan. 18: French author Eduardo Manet’s Gothic horror/comedy “The Day Mary Shelley Met Charlotte Bronte” has its English-language premiere at the Burbage.

Jan. 18: Studio City’s Actors Forum Theatre touts the local debut of “The Dreamer Examines His Pillow,” “an obscure John Patrick Shanley play” about awakening and self-identity.

Jan. 19: The Traveling Jewish Theatre’s “Heart of the World,” on a Gentile woman and Jewish man’s decision to have a child, comes to the University of Judaism’s Gindi Auditorium in West L.A.

Jan. 19: Two one-acts of passion and intrigue, “Simoom” and “Playing With Fire,” open at Hollywood’s 2nd Stage. The show’s press release credits the author as “August Strindberg, the great playwright.”

Jan. 20: A national touring company of “Les Miserables”--which played 62 weeks at the Shubert in 1988-89--comes to the Pantages in Hollywood. The sprawling musical based on Victor Hugo’s novel stars Gary Morris as Jean Valjean.

Jan. 20: Catalina Productions’ “A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening”--at the Coast Playhouse in West Hollywood--honors the lyrics of Harold Adamson and music of Jimmy McHugh. Songs include “I’m in the Mood for Love” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”

Jan. 21: “Goose & Tom-Tom,” David Rabe’s surreal comedy about a pair of crooks, opens at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood.

Jan. 22: America struggles under the oppressive rule of President Ferris Freemont in Philip K. Dick’s satire “Radio Free Albemuth” at Theatre of NOTE in Hollywood.

Jan. 26: Velina Hasu Houston’s “Tea,” the story of a group of Japanese wives of American soldiers, travels with its Old Globe cast to the Odyssey Theatre.

Jan. 24: Paris in 1916 is the setting for “Modigliani,” Dennis McIntyre’s drama about obsession and art, opening at the Alliance Repertory Company in Burbank.

Jan. 24: Jonathan Tolins’ “The Climate,” an original comedy about life in the ‘90s, opens at Theatre/Theater in Hollywood. Producing are “Hilarions” Michael Caldwell and Rachel Winfree.

Jan. 25: Minneapolis’ Children’s Theatre Company presents a single performance of the musical “Pippi Longstocking” at the Wadsworth Theatre in West L.A.

Jan. 26: “Andi’s Act,” Andi Matheny’s “one-woman show with a cast of thousands,” bows at Hollywood’s West Coast Ensemble.