Playwright Jeffrey Hatcher has adapted or written many horror and mystery stories for the stage, including “Murder by Poe” and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” He also wrote the play based on the immensely popular “Tuesdays With Morrie.”

Morrie Schwartz’s wisecracking saves “Tuesdays With Morrie” from being maudlin. But the play now being performed at Lakewood Playhouse is still a tearjerker.

I’ve seen “Nunsense” before but never like this. This performance is not only rolling-in-the-aisles funny and deliciously irreverent, it rocks.

Three years ago, Harlequin Productions put on a performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” that was the most elaborate and outrageously funny Shakespeare comedy I had ever seen. I would not have believed they could match that performance, but they have with their current show, “As You Like It.”

“Curtains” at Tacoma Musical Playhouse is a murder-mystery musical comedy that played to mixed reviews on Broadway as recently as 2007. It garnered major awards, but also was panned by a number of critics.

“Carl Sagan’s Contact” at Centerstage is the world premiere of an exciting new musical based on Sagan’s novel, with book by Centerstage artistic director Alan Bryce, music by Peter Sipos, and lyrics by Amy Engelhardt. It is directed by Bryce.

There are two things that make murder mysteries – especially of the British variety – insanely popular: complex and surprising plot structures and oddball characters. Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” at Lakewood Playhouse has both in spades.

Olympia Little Theatre has updated Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy of manners “The Importance of Being Earnest” to the swinging England of 1968, the era of such popular British films as “Georgy Girl” and “Alfie.” This play, performed in the round, has much of the flavor of those films. Other than a florid manner of speaking, which may have been the height of fashion among pretentious Brits in 1895 but which seems stilted today, the update seems perfectly fitted to the affectations and love of fashion in Wilde’s comedy.

New Tacoma Little Theatre artistic director Scott Campbell promised a season of comedy, and the revamped 91-year-old theater is starting the new season with a laugh-out-loud glance back at the ’60s, Neil Simon’s “The Star-Spangled Girl.”

“Mating Dance of the Werewolf” by Mark Stein is unlike anything seen on Puget Sound stages. It is a beautiful, moody, hilarious love story, and it’s a murder mystery/comedy about one of the rarest creatures in literature or entertainment – a female werewolf.

In its second season the ManeStage Theatre Company in Sumner seems to have matured a bit. That’s not to say that its current show, “Honk,” is for mature audiences, but rather that the professionalism of this decidedly amateur theater company has been kicked up a notch since I saw last year’s “Bye Bye Birdie.”

I’ve been writing this column since January 2004. And in that time I’ve seen about one play a week – sometimes more. I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly in community theater. But mostly it’s been good. Fans of theater in the South Sound are blessed with some of the best theater to be found in any comparable area anywhere in the country.

“Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” is a show ideally suited for big stages with lots of money for props, sets, costumes and lighting. It should probably not even be attempted by small community theaters, but Paradise Theatre in Gig Harbor does it justice despite a few unfortunate performances.

The 2009-10 theater season in the South Sound is the year of “Rent.” Three different theaters are doing the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, a hard-hitting look at sex, drugs, corruption and AIDS that is joyful and uplifting despite themes of poverty, rebellion and desperation. And the music is fantastic. See it at Tacoma Musical Playhouse Jan. 22-Feb. 14, at Capital Playhouse in Olympia March 11-April 3, and at Encore! Theatre in Gig Harbor May 7-23. With that many performances, there’s no excuse for not seeing it at least once this season, and if there’s a contemporary musical that’s a must-see, it’s “Rent.”

“Angry Housewives” at Lakewood Playhouse is raucous, hilarious and filled with music that in most situations very few people over the age of 20 could stand. But in this case it is a satire of loud, irritating and offensive music, and the singers and actors in this show make it palatable.

The Last Magician

Once again Harlequin Productions offers South Sound music lovers a rollicking rock and roll extravaganza. This one is a little different than their earlier rock shows in that it’s an all-girl show celebrating the girl singers of the 1960s.

I really enjoyed the first act of “The Miss Firecracker Contest” at Paradise Theatre in Gig Harbor. Director Jeff Richards’ set, the costumes by Vicki Richards and the cast were outstanding. The principal actors nailed the quirkiness and the Southern accents of their eccentric characters.

Olympia Little Theatre ends every season with an envelope-pushing production as part of their “Director’s Series.” This year they push that envelope with an adult-only show that includes sexual situations, brief nudity and adult language, not to mention a huge helping of cynicism. The show is Douglas Carter Beane’s 2007 Tony and GLAAD award-nominated play “The Little Dog Laughed.”

The rollicking comedy “Once in a Lifetime” by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman was a harsh satirical send-up of Hollywood when first produced in 1930. Today it has lost some of its satirical bite, but it’s still funny – not to mention a huge challenge to directors and actors because it has big sets, lots of set changes, and a huge cast of outlandish characters who enter and exit the stage in controlled chaos.