Coming Attractions. . . : Theater: It’s alive and at least fairly well in the Valley, and heading into the winter season with an admirable enthusiasm.

The Fabulous Invalid, as theater is often called, sometimes doesn’t feel too well, but always gets up and goes to work. After recovering from its annual holiday overindulgences, theater in the San Fernando Valley is on its feet, marching into the winter season with its usual optimism.

The longevity of some of the theaters and companies in the area bears witness to the invalid’s endurance. In Los Angeles, one of the longest-lived is Theatre West, near Universal City. On Jan. 24, the theater opens its latest production, Dayton Callie’s “Survival of the Heart” (reservations 213-466-1767).

The group started three decades ago in a second-floor room in Hollywood. According to television/film star Betty Garrett, who was one of the founding members, it was the idea of a “bunch of New York actors who were out here and feeling very expatriated. They were working in movies and TV and desperately felt the need for a place to work in the theater, and really do things they wanted to do, and experiment.”

Some of the actors were Joyce Van Patten, Scott Marlowe and Charles Aidman. (It was Aidman who created the Theatre West production of “Spoon River Anthology,” which wound up playing to packed houses on Broadway.)

The group is beginning its landmark 30th year with this production of “Survival of the Heart,” which Mark W. Travis will direct. Garrett says, “It’s probably the most commercial thing we’ve ever done.”

She explains that Theatre West didn’t stay in Hollywood too long. After moving to a small theater in West Hollywood, it jumped over the hills and settled in a space just south of Ventura Boulevard. When it outgrew that, it moved to its present location.

Its previous theater didn’t remain empty for long. It soon became the home of Actors Alley Repertory Theatre, which thrived in the small space until a couple of years ago. The expansion of the restaurant next door forced it also to move east, to a larger theater in North Hollywood.

Ira Levin’s “Cantorial” is at Actors Alley. The production runs through Feb. 16 (reservations 818-508-4200) and may be extended beyond that if the audiences remain as enthusiastic as they have been since the show moved here after opening in December at the University of Judaism’s Gindi Auditorium.

“The telephones are ringing very nicely, thank you,” says Actors Alley business manager Bob Caine. Whatever its closing date, “Cantorial” will be succeeded by screenwriter Peter Lefcourt’s comedy “La Ronde de Lunch,” about Hollywood shenanigans in a trendy Melrose Avenue restaurant.

The theater’s Monday-to-Wednesday program called Actors Alley Too, which charges no admission, also remains busy, with this week’s opening of David Fields’ “They”, directed by Clayton Raul Staggs and playing until mid-February.

Farther east in North Hollywood at the Gnu Theatre, Steve Tesich’s “The Speed of Darkness” closes this weekend, but on Feb. 13 producer-director Jeff Seymour has scheduled three one-act plays for a 10-week run (reservations 818-508-5344). Seymour is noted for directing all the plays at the Gnu (19 shows in seven years), but a film project is forcing him into a hiatus, and the one-act productions will be directed by Daniel Rojo.

The plays are Michael Weller’s “At Home,” a romantic comedy about a dinner mishap that unravels a couple’s life; “Specter” by Don Nigro, about strangers stuck in a car on a rainy night; and “Patients,” Matthew Nelson’s comedy about a patient’s having to find patience.

At Group Repertory Theatre in North Hollywood (reservations 818-769-PLAY), artistic director Lonny Chapman says the company will be opening a new play by Craig Alpaugh on Feb. 9 for a six-week run. It’s called “The Only Thing” and concerns a basketball scandal surrounding an athlete who goes to college but can’t read or write.

This season Chapman and his group will be alternating new plays with American classics. The classic to follow “The Only Thing,” Chapman says, will probably be either Tennessee Williams’ “Glass Menagerie” or Paul Osborne’s “Morning’s at Seven.” Also, beginning in February, Group Rep will present Saturday and Sunday matinee readings of American literature, beginning with Stephen Crane’s “The Red Badge of Courage” and O. Henry’s short stories.

“The Fantasticks,” which has been running in New York for more than 30 years, is having some of the same success at Woodland Hills’ Richard Basehart Playhouse (reservations 818-704-1845). Artistic director Cynthia Baer says the show is scheduled to close March 1 but may be extended. It is beginning to draw many young people and audiences new to the theater.

John Patrick Shanley’s “Italian-American Reconciliation,” initially scheduled to open after “The Fantasticks” closed, opened anyway this week. In tandem with the other production, it will run indefinitely.

Also opening this week is an evening of two one-acts and a curtain raiser under the title “Reflections on the Future in Three Tenses” at Company of CharActors Theatre in Studio City (reservations 818-508-8838). Both one-acts, Robert Spera’s “The Field” and Murphy Guyer’s “The American Century,” deal in the past, present and future. They will run through Feb. 15.

Producer Ed Gaynes, who operates two theaters, says “Broadway Sings Out” has been playing 15 months at his West End Playhouse (reservations 818-904-0444), and will continue Saturdays until March 5, when it moves to Sundays to make room for an incoming production of Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Heidi Chronicles.”

At Gaynes’ Center Stage Theatre in Woodland Hills (same ticket number) another musical, “Everything’s Coming Up Hits,” has been playing since November and has been joined by Gene Casey’s film-tribute musical “Hollywood Sings,” which moves to Center Stage from Hollywood’s Rose Cabaret.

Back in North Hollywood, Two Roads Theatre, 4346 Tujunga Blvd., will close Peter Tolan’s hit comedy “Stay Carl Stay” on Feb. 1, to be replaced by two one-acts, Patty Gideon Sloan’s “Beginnings,” about the creation of the world, and “Bench at the Edge,” Luigi Jannuzzi’s comment on mankind’s ability to make a choice for life or death. (Reservations 818-766-9381.)

A mostly scripted comedy and improv company called The Tujunga Group has been playing its “The Dog and Pony Show” at Two Roads Theatre for two years, but Feb. 1 will move to its own Acme Comedy Theatre at 5124 Lankershim Blvd., where “Dog and Pony” will continue until the group opens a new, as yet untitled, production March 1 (reservations 818-503-3823).

One of the newer groups to light up the Valley sky opens with Jane Martin’s “Talking With” on Jan. 30 at American Renegade Theatre in North Hollywood (reservations 818-763-4430). It will play on the group’s main stage until it is replaced by Larry Shue’s “The Foreigner” on March 26 (to play through May 3). The company’s Second Stage reopens Feb. 6 with the one-acts “Men Without Dates” by Jane Willis and the West Coast premiere of Brian Mori’s “Bedtime Stories.” They play through March 15.

On March 13, for one performance only, Harold Gould will appear in his one-man theater piece “Freud” at Cal State Northridge (reservations 818-885-3093).

A new play about a generation-culture clash in a Mexican-American family opens Feb. 27 and plays through April 5 at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks. “When Elvis Met Che” features the rock singer and the rebel as characters (reservations 213-660-TKTS).

This quick glance at theater’s next three months proves that the Fabulous Invalid is still alive and fairly well in the Valley.