Theater gets frisky and freaky after dark

By Mindy Farabee

March 13, 2008 12 AM PT

As the clock inches closer to midnight and most theatergoers are crawling under the sheets or discussing the night’s entertainment over a slice of post-show pie, another breed of theater is just getting started. Call it late-night, call it after-hours, but just don’t call it traditional.

“It’s theater with an ‘er,’ not theatre with an ‘re,’ ” director Mike Schlitt says of “KLUB,” the new late night offering from the Actors’ Gang in Culver City -- one of a handful of late- night theater options dotting the night sky like so many fireflies. Next month, “KLUB,” a dark comedy about 10 terrible actors trying to escape a theater of the damned, resurfaces after a 16-year hiatus. The idea behind the casual, comedy-heavy production, says Schlitt, is to draw in people who didn’t know they were theater fans. “I just want to make it OK for people to go to a theater,” he says.

For a place that makes it OK for people to do just about anything in a theater, head down the street to Santa Monica’s Powerhouse Theatre at 11 p.m. most Friday nights.

“It’s about taking risks,” says producer Brian Rochlin of “No Shame Theatre,” a late-night grab bag at the Powerhouse where writers and actors team up to present wildly divergent, exuberant bursts of off-the-cuff theater (one Friday night produced a song about how difficult it is to be God, a spoken-word jam on brownies and a man dancing in a pink tutu).

Other spectres haunting the dead of the L.A. night include the Eclectic Theater’s superhero/mystery/comedy serial “Perilous!” ([818] 508-3003; www.eclecticcompany theatre.org) and the reality spoof “America’s Next Top Bottom” at Celebration Theatre ([323] 957-1884), both coming to a close this weekend. And with no end in sight, the Steve Allen Theater’s “Tomorrow Show” with Craig Anton, Ron Lynch and Brendon Small ([323] 666-4268; www.steve allentheater.com) offers a comedy/what-was-that hybrid at the witching hour every Saturday, along with a little free pizza and beer.

Such homey touches seem to go with the late-night territory -- there’s just something particularly social and cozy about seeing live theater when much of the city has gone dark. Rochlin says No Shame-ers, both performers and viewers, regularly hang out after the show on the theater’s back patio. “I’m not saying people aren’t critical of the work,” he says. “But people aren’t critical of each other.”

Criticism reigns supreme at the Sacred Fools Theater on a Saturday night. At 11 p.m., the theater produces “Serial Killers,” which presents audiences with five short, comedic skits (such as “Buzzy Grovenor’s Ding Dong” - a deliciously loopy parody of Hugh Hefner’s ‘60s variety show - or “Truck Stop,” with its Lynchian predilection for pairing violence and pie), and lets them vote for their favorite. The top three vote-getters return the following week while the bottom two are, well, killed. But when you’re out late at night, a little murder is to be expected.

-- Mindy.Farabee@latimes.com

NO SHAME THEATER

WHERE: The Powerhouse Theatre, 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica

WHEN: 11 p.m. Fridays

PRICE: $5 (includes free drink)

INFO: (323) 646-0033; www.noshamela.com

SERIAL KILLERS

WHERE: Sacred Fools Theater, 660 N. Heliotrope Drive, L.A.

WHEN: 11 p.m. Saturdays, beginning March 29

PRICE: $5

INFO: (310) 281-8337; www.sacredfools.org

KLUB