Last Chance

Theater

Bus Stop--For about 20 minutes, William Inge’s “Bus Stop” can fool you into thinking it’s a cozy little slice of down-home Americana, a Norman Rockwell tableaux vivant with a willfully naive worldview. But somewhere midway through Act 1, this underperformed Corn Belt classic shifts into darker and chillier terrain. Written in 1954, but spiritually closer to the Great Depression, “Bus Stop” is the theatrical answer to Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks,” a primal American scene raised to mythopoeic levels and transposed from the anonymous city to the anonymous Midwestern heartland, where no one is ever more than a degree or two of separation from crippling, terminal loneliness.Director Sabin Epstein’s faithful and tenderly nuanced production benefits from a core of note-perfect performances by the ensemble, including Ben Messmer as a love-sick cowboy, Abby Craden as his nightclub chanteuse love-object and, especially, Mark Bramhall’s crusty old Virgil, the cowboy’s spiritual mentor and father surrogate.

Reed Johnson

*

Ends Sunday at A Noise Within, 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale, (818) 240-0910. Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m. $28-$32.

Also closing this weekend:

Den of Thieves--Stephen Adly Guirgis’ play about criminally minded New York City have-nots, which unfolds with crackling comic momentum and a screwball sweetness, ends Sunday at the Black Dahlia Theatre, 5453 Pico Blvd., L.A., (323) 525-0070.

A Night in November--A superb multi-character turn by Marty Maguire about an Irish Protestant’s awakening from the blinders of bigotry ends Sunday at the Falcon Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank, (818) 955-8101.

Cirque du Soleil: Dralion--Cirque du Soleil’s latest touring theatrical spectacular ends Sunday at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar, (800) 678-5440.

Lifegame--Keith Johnstone’s off-Broadway hit that uses an audience member’s life story as the basis for that evening’s show ends Saturday. Los Angeles Theatresports at the Bitter Truth Playhouse, 11050 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood, (818) 505-6406.

Macbeth--Set in an unspecified time, this production of Shakespeare’s tragedy centers on the ambiguity of Macbeth’s state of mind. Ends Sunday at the Pasadena Shakespeare Company at Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont Ave., South Pasadena, (626) 799-1860.

Manchester Girl--Sue Turner-Cray’s odyssey of self-discovery in the international modeling industry, which transcends the monologue-as-therapy cliche with expert characterizations and insightful writing, ends Sunday at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 856-4200.

Pinafore--Gay sailors serve in their own separate but equal Navy in Mark Savage’s Gilbert & Sullivan parody. The wickedly incisive sendup ends Sunday at the Celebration Theatre, 7051-B Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 957-1884.