Theater Minis

OPENING

• The Family Reunion — The Washington Stage Guild. T.S. Eliot’s first modern dress play, a thriller set in a countryside manor house. Opens tonight. 240/582-0050.

• Third — Theatre J. A feminist professor and her conservative student clash over Shakespeare, politics and plagiarism. A Wendy Wasserstein twin bill with “Welcome to My Rash.” Opens tonight at the Goldman Theater, District of Columbia Jewish Community Center. 800/494-8497.

• Welcome to My Rash — Theatre J. A comedy about a woman who bonds with her doctor and hallucinates about Greek mythology while searching for a cure for her ailment. A Wendy Wasserstein twin bill with “Third.” Opens tonight at the Goldman Theater, District of Columbia Jewish Community Center. 800/494-8497.

NOW PLAYING

• Cooking With Elvis — Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company — ***. You think your family’s wacky? They are rank amateurs compared to the Northern English clan portrayed in this pitch-dark, pitch-perfect comedy by Lee Hall, who wrote the charming 2001 film “Billy Elliott.” From the dad, an erstwhile Elvis impersonator whom an accident has relegated to a wheelchair and deprived of speech; to the mother, a booze-guzzling lush with an eating disorder desperately trying to hang on to the beauty and sexuality of her youth; to the 14-year-old daughter who’s obsessed with cooking; to the baker who puts the moves on all three, this is a family that gives new meaning to the word “dysfunctional.” The play is not for the prudish. There are graphic depictions of sex acts of every stripe, and Mr. Hall pushes the envelope. The combination of fried banana and peanut butter sandwiches (Elvis’ favorite), X-rated sex, eating disorders, alcoholism, pop music, and the rigors of dealing with the disabled would be enough to make you queasy, but Mr. Hall and director Tom Prewitt keep this kitschy comedy grounded through the characters. The most interesting and troubling aspect about “Cooking With Elvis” is its commentary on food, which is endlessly discussed and ingested — and becomes food as fetish. And that is far more disturbing in the long run than seeing flesh and fantasy on stage. Through Sunday at Kennedy Center AFI Theater. 202/467-4600. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Crowns — Arena Stage — ****. This exuberant, soulful musical play, written and directed by Regina Taylor, is blowing the roof off Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theatre. The show is based on Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry’s book, “Crowns,” which was inspired by the authors’ mothers and combines elegant black-and-white photographs with interviews about black American women and their church hats. A fired-up cast of six depicts the book’s many churchwomen and the men in their lives. Miss Taylor’s simple plotline takes on the form of a day-long church service. The music evokes moments of glory, the cast is uniformly exceptional, and Emilio Sosa has designed chapeaux that would make the Cat in the Hat pea-green with envy. “Crowns” may be about faith, community, and keeping moving during hard times, but it is also about “hattitude.” You’ll never view hats as mere head coverings again. Through Feb. 14. 202/488-3300. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Meet Me in St. Louis — Toby’s Dinner Theatre — ***. This isn’t a show for the sugar-sensitive. Based on the 1944 Vincente Minnelli film, “Meet Me in St. Louis” captures all the sweeping changes and gentle constancy of turn-of-the-20th-century America with lollipop sweetness. As usual, Toby’s exceeds expectations of what can be done in the round at a dinner theater. In this production, it’s a fully operational trolley car and a scene in which the company spins around on skates. Sam Huffer’s fancy costumes feature the sherbet colors, band-box stripes and lacy florals of the era. “Meet Me in St. Louis” is swimming in warmth and sentiment. Come on in, the water’s fine. Through Feb. 15. 410/730-8311. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Miss Nelson Has a Field Day — Imagination Stage — **. Joan Cushing turned a picture book by Harry Allard and James Marshall into a joyous and award-winning 2002 musical, “Miss Nelson Is Missing,” about a beloved teacher at Smedley Elementary School. Miss Cushing has returned to adapt “Miss Nelson Has a Field Day,” and while the show does have its dynamic moments, it lacks the bounce and fun of the first musical. Through Sunday. 301/280-1660. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Mister Roberts — American Century Theater — *1/2. Director Jack Marshall gets high marks for reviving this touching comedy, which was a gigantic Broadway hit in 1948 before going on to become an even bigger movie in 1955. The play stands beautifully on its own, however, and comparisons to the movie are not the problem: There isn’t anything ailing this production that more rehearsal, a better set and charged connections between the actors couldn’t cure. When a live goat has the best comic timing in the bunch, you know something’s amiss. Through Jan. 31. 703/553-8782. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

• Shear Madness — Kennedy Center Theater Lab — **. This corny, hokey tourist trap — now in its second decade — is doubly maddening because the Kennedy Center displays it as art to the cultural center’s unsuspecting pilgrims. The audience-participation murder-mystery farce (set in a Georgetown hair salon) is well-played, though, when the actors refrain from mugging and cracking up one another. Continues indefinitely. 202/467-4600. File review by Nelson Pressley.

• The York Realist — Studio Theatre — **1/2. Peter Gill’s tender and acutely observant play about male lovers and class distinctions in England in the early 1960s was a smash hit in London in 2002. It’s getting its American premiere at the Studio Theatre, impeccably but bloodlessly directed by Serge Seiden. The kitchen-sink drama loses a bit in its transfer across the pond. It’s firmly rooted in place — an isolated village in Yorkshire — yet the sets and the actors’ accents seem generically Old Blighty. Lacking, too, is any hint of sexual chemistry between the two men — George (Markus Potter), a Yorkshire farm laborer and John (Tom Story), an assistant director up from London to help stage a local production of the York Mystery Plays. “The York Realist” is well-acted and competently staged, and oozes sincerity out of every Yorkshire pore. There is nothing horribly wrong with it, but there isn’t anything particularly gripping, either. Through Sunday. 202/332-3300. Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS