Scrappy Portrait of Truman at Tiffany

“Truman ‘92” campaign buttons are going fast at the one-man “Give ‘Em Hell, Harry” at the Tiffany Theatre.

Jason Alexander blows life back into our 33rd President in a performance so good it should make believers of political cynics.

James Whitmore and Kevin McCarthy drew mileage from this show, too, but Alexander (the neurotic George on NBC’s “Seinfeld”) makes Truman’s bulldog spirit remarkably appealing given this election season.

He also comes naturally by Truman’s squat, brick-like figure and refreshing commonality. Behind those wire-rimmed glasses, his squinty, no-nonsense eyes mirror a man who reduces things to basics. To the show’s benefit, he plays Truman like a man who’s having the time of his life.

This scrappy portrait by playwright Sam Gallu focuses on the White House years but excavates the early ones as well. Truman is dramatized telling off the KKK in a menacing encounter in a hay barn in the 1920s and, late in his presidency, is seen excoriating hatemonger Sen. Joe McCarthy.

“The Buck Stops Here” was a great slogan that enjoys a prominent place in his Oval Office (warmly designed by Douglas D. Smith), but the buck didn’t always stop at Truman’s desk. At one point, he bluntly admits that his effort to take over the country’s labor unions was wrongheaded.

On the other hand, the play has wonderful insight into power, particularly in its gripping depiction of Truman’s classic battle with Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

“Give ‘Em Hell, Harry,” Tiffany Theatre, 8532 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood . Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Nov. 1. $25; (310) 289-2999. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

‘Raft of the Medusa’ a Searing AIDS Drama

“Raft of the Medusa” is the title of a painting by Gericault that hangs in the Louvre depicting shipwrecked characters on a raft--the dead, the dying and those waving to a distant ship. It’s a stunning metaphor for Joe Pintauro’s searing AIDS drama, “Raft of the Medusa,” at the Incline in Santa Monica.

If you suspected that AIDS plays had run their dramatic course, this production confirms they have not. The show’s impact is Pintauro’s propulsive, humorous dialogue and a blistering cast of 13 actors playing 12 AIDS victims and their therapist. They breathe vitality into that most mechanical format: sufferers in a room yelling at each other.

Such is the ensemble direction by Laura Henry and the maw of bare space that you hardly notice the absence of a stage or even a play in the conventional sense. “Raft” is provocative theater fueled by passion and tough love.

Among the characters hardest to shake off are the unshaven, angry Vietnam vet (Stephen Hornyak) “who hates coming to the group,” the meek married man (Bob Dobosh) who got AIDS from a prostitute, the free-lance journalist and impostor (John Prosky) whose comeuppance is startling, the withdrawn young girl (Mel Castelo) who was infected by her drug-using boyfriend, the homeless deaf-mute who calls herself Nairobi and hides surprising resources (Del Hunger-White).

An affecting, preening peacock of a fashion plate (Bill Brochtrup) triggers the drama’s rapturous, dream-like reversal at the end when the group, responding to a chorus of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” “Danny Boy” and other songs, dissolves into swaying dance couples.

The fact that the director could pull this scene off is evidence of a production that gives only the appearance of being raw. On the inside, it’s tuned like a clock.

“Raft of the Medusa,” Incline, 1634 17th St., Santa Monica. Wednesdays (free to teen - agers), 8 p.m.; Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 6:30 p.m. Ends Nov. 8. $17:50; (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours.

Actors’ Travail Focus of One-Acts at Hudson

Two coy one-acts at the Hudson Theatre are diverting if you like shaggy-eared stories about young urban actors and the scheming women in their lives. The acting, rather than the forgettable material, is sharp and bright.

“Thespians and Troglodytes,” by Ken Lipman and directed by Thomas Calabro, features a terrific turn by Cameron Watson as a TV star so enamored with his good looks that he sets himself up for one of the oldest cons of all: a woman who convinces him he made her pregnant. His neurotic, out-of-work actor buddy, a recluse of classic dimension, is craftily played by Jack Kenny, and Lisa Edelstein is the double-dealing femme fatale. But the chuckling of the winners belies a really nasty ending that’s not funny at all.

Kell Cahoon’s “Little Miss Hot Tamale,” directed by Jeffrey Marcus, co-stars the affable Drew Smith as yet another floundering actor and the determined Rhonda Dotson as his restless wife who resorts to strip poker to get her husband’s attention.

The production is notable for the sensual dance demanded of the disrobing Dotson and how charmingly she meets the task.

‘An Evening of Unprotected Social Intercourse,” Hudson Theatre, 6539 Hudson Blvd., Hollywood. Mondays-Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 28. $10; (213) 243-8491. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Some Trial Scenes From Shakespeare in ‘Lawyers’

Inspired by a line from Shakespeare (wherein a character named Dick the Butcher proposes legal reform in “Henry VI, Part 2”), “Let’s Kill All the Lawyers” is a clever idea, bringing selected trial scenes from the Bard to barristers and other patrons in the plush setting of the Biltmore Hotel’s Grand Avenue Bar.

Co-produced by Shakespeare Festival/LA and staged arena-style on a platform over the bar’s marble dance floor, the opening show drew the attention of an after-work crowd that watched five actors unfurl four trial scenes from as many plays. The highlight was the “pound of flesh” trial from “Merchant of Venice,” featuring Robert Grossman’s withering, broken Shylock and Beth Kennedy’s burnished Portia.

Unevenness qualified the proceedings. One moment actress Cynthia Bond was a towering Queen Katherine in “King Henry the Eighth” and the next she was humbled by a gross, foolish-looking beard that muffled her speech and covered half her face as Froth in “Measure for Measure.”

But where else can you better brush up on the law and enjoy Shakespeare at the same time?

“Let’s Kill All the Lawyers,” Grand Avenue Bar, 506 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. Tuesdays, 7 p.m. Ends Dec. 8. Admission free, two drink-minimum; (213) 612-1595. Running time: 1 hour.

Too Many Subplots Defeat ‘Real Life’

The dramatization of a mentally ill mother and the painful process of healing are smothered by extraneous family and neighborhood subplots in Jill Gray and Ken Feinberg’s “Real Life” at the Rose Theatre in Venice.

The effect of the production, enhanced by large still-life projections, is that of flipping endlessly through a family photo album. The subtitle, “Photographs, A Play in 24 Exposures,” acutely describes the structure but belies the blurry nature of the work.

The unfocused play veers between the dysfunctional Kentucky mom (sensitively played by Alison McHale) and her daughter (dark, vivacious Samantha Humphrey) who leaves hearth and friends to study acting in New York.

The huge cast has some fine supporting players but director Jeff Rubens can’t get a handle on all the exposures.

“Real Life,” Rose Theatre, 318 S. Lincoln Ave., Venice . Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2 and 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 25. $12; (310) 392-6963. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.