Twisted gender bender

As is typical with any offering from the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, “As You Like It” at the Matrix features an all-female cast. Considering that Shakespeare’s comedy revolves around Rosalind, the beleaguered heroine who dons men’s attire for much of the play, the ironic juxtaposition of cross-dressing women in men’s roles may prove intriguing to students of gender studies.

But whether you’re a scholar or a mere groundling, you’re likely to have a rollicking good time in this revisionist production. The decision to set the action in the Wild West is surprisingly apt, although the ebullient cast can be a bit uneven and choreographer Cate Caplin’s dance sequences, while charmingly conceived, are sometimes ploddingly executed. For the most part, however, director Lisa Wolpe masks the deficits and maximizes the fun in this high-spirited entertainment.

Mia Torres’ clapboard sets look like they were lifted directly from a studio back lot, appropriate considering the heightened theatricality of Wolpe’s energetic staging. Christina Wright’s splendidly detailed costumes are essential to the tone, while Mary Trahey’s hair and makeup design makes us forget that, under their mustaches and muttonchops, these swaggering cowboys are actually women.

Kimberleigh Aarn’s thoughtful, virile Orlando is nicely balanced by Abigail Rose Solomon’s breezy, feisty Rosalind, whose hoydenish qualities also contrast nicely with Celia’s (Katrinka Wolfson) elegant girlishness. Fran Bennett does her usual fine job in dual roles as Duke Frederick and Duke Senior, while Kate Roxburgh’s Touchstone is a Cockney wag always ready to tweak the proprieties of his betters. As the deceptively “melancholy” Jacques, Wolpe is the evening’s standout, particularly in her authoritative rendering of the “Ages of Man” speech -- the most lucid interpretation of that particular passage in memory.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“As You Like It,” Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends June 3. $25. (800) 595-4849. www.lawsc.net. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.

Examining a victim’s life

Human truisms drive about the enigmatic collage of “Last Fare” at the Hayworth Studio Theatre. In this allegory-in-psychological mystery guise, which studies a murdered man through interviews with his contemporaries, actor-writer Dominic Hoffman considers that none of us truly knows each other, yet everybody affects everybody, even if they cannot detect it.

It’s easy to detect the formidable abilities of Hoffman, a double Ovation winner for “Uncle Jacques’ Symphony.” Compact and intense, with a liquid mug and a resonant vocal range, Hoffman carries the house from his first entrance as a reverend at a memorial service. This benevolent paternal surrogate frames the vignettes that make up “Last Fare,” as an unseen reporter (the audience) questions various entities (embodied by Hoffman) about the dead man in No. 609.

By the time we’ve traveled the circle of his life through a gallery of vivid characters -- British cabdriver, wary superintendent or insouciant hooker -- “Last Fare” unveils almost more about them than the departed. Using shifting layers of information to address social issues, Hoffman draws on a shade more content than necessary, but his writing chops are impressive.

“Last Fare,” fascinating in the Eric Bogosian manner, could benefit from a director. The text has many sharply un-PC observations, also a few too many repetitions that aren’t leitmotif. Although lighting designer Ken Booth and the excerpts from Branford Marsalis’ “Requiem” establish mood, transitions can confuse.

As a showcase for a significant talent, “Last Fare” is arresting. It just needs an outside eye to complete the picture.

-- David C. Nichols

“Last Fare,” Hayworth Theatre, 2509 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends June 3. $25. (800) 838-3006. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

A woman’s place isn’t in the home

The first play to win a Pulitzer was “Why Marry?” a dust-gathering 1917 social comedy by Jesse Lynch Williams. Theatre Neo’s revival of this bit of theatrical obscurity reveals a vibrant, Shavian skewering of early 20th century gender roles with surprising -- one might say unhappy -- resonance for today.

Directed with a buoyant touch by David Cheaney and performed by a strong cast at the Secret Rose Theatre in North Hollywood, the play revolves around unmarried research scientist Helen (memorably played by Aimee Guichard, also the stand-out costume designer).

Women have yet to win the right to vote, and to be a single career woman is not only regrettable but unnatural to society at large and to Helen’s family, especially head-of-household brother John, a wealthy businessman (Steven Benson, the epitome of comically corpulent outrage).

Freakish, unwomanly “new women” like Helen threaten the very institution of marriage and the male-dominated status quo. She twists the dagger with her decision to go to Paris in unwedded bliss with colleague Ernest (Greg Baglia, an appealing, Hugh Grant-ish foil).

She stands firm as John bullies, her uncle (sly David St. James) plays devil’s advocate and impoverished minister Theodore (Cheaney, standing in for James Knudsen), preaches. Soon, sister-in-law Lucy (Judy Young) wants a divorce, and Jean (Christine Krench) is rethinking her carefully machinated engagement to rich playboy Rex (Tripp Pickell).

Williams laces his fizzy repartee with trenchant observations of the inequality of the sexes, sexual double standards, the death of chivalry, social and religious hypocrisy, marriage as commerce, ownership and paternalism -- and the then-shocking divorce rate (1 in 10).

The more things change ...

-- Lynne Heffley

“Why Marry?” Secret Rose Theatre, 11246 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays; ends May 19. $20. Running time: 2 hours. (323) 769-5858, www.theatreneo.com.

Embracing ‘Life’ and theater

Anne Frank wrote a diary; Charlotte Salomon painted one.

The daughter of a Berlin doctor, Salomon was in her early 20s when she was sent to not-yet-occupied France in 1939, as the Nazis intensified their harassment and imprisonment of Jews. From 1940 to 1942, she painted more than 1,300 gouaches and organized a select number of them into a somewhat fictionalized autobiography, accompanied by textual narration and even musical cues. She gave it the title “Life? Or Theater?” In 1943, she was taken into custody and killed at Auschwitz. She was 26.

A show based on Salomon’s work is being given its West Coast premiere at the Met Theatre, with text by Elise Thoron and operetta-like songs by Gary S. Fagin, to Thoron’s lyrics. The hopscotching nature of the story hinders narrative flow, but director Louis Fantasia gorgeously paints the story onto the stage, and a cast of eight tenderly reanimates Salomon and her family.

As portrayed by Megan Goodchild, Salomon is vulnerable yet wily, principled and determined. Strong acting (and singing) also are contributed by Stasha Surdyke as Salomon’s sensual, life-savoring stepmother; Andreas Beckett as a psychically wounded voice teacher; and Michele Greene as Salomon’s sweet but never-quite-there mother. Colin R. Freeman sensitively accompanies on piano.

Death shadowed Salomon not only in the form of the Nazis’ Final Solution but also in a maternal history of suicide. This sketchy yet artful show demonstrates how devotedly she clung to life.

-- Daryl H. Miller

“Charlotte: Life? Or Theatre?” the Met Theatre, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., L.A. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends May 27. $20. (800) 838-3006 or www.brownpapertickets.com. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.