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By THE WASHINGTON TIMES

NOW PLAYING

The Alchemist — Shakespeare Theatre Company — ★ You want to emerge from a comedy feeling lighter, as if your burden has been lifted temporarily. However, the Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of "The Alchemist" weighs you down with the resentment of losing 2½ hours you'll never get back. In this year when we're still smarting from Bernard Madoff's billion-dollar Ponzi scheme and the dark work of other latter-day flim-flam men, you would think the play's story about con artists and get-rich-quick rip-offs couldn't be timelier. An alchemist has the ability to turn cheap metal into gold. However, this production never transforms itself into anything but the basest of elements. Through Nov. 22. 202/547-1122.

Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches — Forum Theatre at Round House Silver Spring — ★★★½ Although it was written in the early '90s and is set in the mid-1980s, many of the issues raised in Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic and intimate drama are as relevant and profound as ever. We're still deeply divided politically between Republicans and Democrats, homophobia still exists, and gay rights have gained little ground. Director Jeremy Skidmore adeptly juggles the play's exhilarating extremes — the lofty speeches about democracy and freedom and the almost painfully small moments between two people that are anything but. Playing in repertory with "Perestroika"; see www.forumtheatredc.org for full schedule. Through Nov. 22. 240/644-1100.

A Flea in Her Ear — Constellation Theatre at Source Theater — ★★★ Laughter runs rich and true throughout Constellation Theatre Company's frisky production of "A Flea in Her Ear." And while some of the credit goes to David Ives' fresh updating of Georges Feydeau's 1907 farce, it is largely thanks to the exuberant comic ingenuity of the cast. It certainly isn't the plot, which probably was first jotted down in cuneiform. Through Sunday. 202/204-7741.

A Streetcar Named Desire — Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater — ★★½ Cate Blanchett's Blanche DuBois in Tennessee William's classic play is a fragile remnant of a fanciful plantation-era South that may never have existed in the first place. She doesn't stand a chance of surviving when she arrives at the cramped New Orleans apartment of sister Stella (Robin McLeavy) and is dropped into Stella's and husband Stanley Kowalski's (Joel Edgerton) postwar, blue-collar world of poker games, beer, bowling and brawling. However, Miss Blanchett's outsized portrayal of Blanche does not much resemble the flitty, doomed "moth" Williams had in mind when he wrote the character in 1947. As directed by Liv Ullmann, Miss Blanchett acts up a storm but fails to inhabit the character or make you see beyond histrionic technique. As a result, you never sympathize with Blanche or fall under her faded spell. Nor, in this gritty production, do you get a sense of Blanche's humor and charm. Through Nov. 21. 202/467-4600.

Jersey BoysNational Theatre — ★★★½ — As a production polished to sequined sheen by director Des McAnuff, "Jersey Boys" is different on several levels. This documentary-style show traces the turbulent story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, who went from harmonizing street punks to '60s sensations and a berth in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Mr. Valli (Joseph Leo Bwarie) may sing like an angel, but he and the other members of the group were no saints. There's also the music. If you're a die-hard Four Seasons fan, the pitch-perfect renditions of "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man," "Stay" and "Working My Way Back to You" will transport you back to a time of transistor radios and beach-blanket bingo. Through Dec. 12. 800/447-7400

Much Ado About Nothing — Folger Theatre — ★★½ A Caribbean lilt and a D.C. Carnival setting appears to be an inspired combination for Shakespeare's sunny and sexy battle of wits between the sexes. Director Timothy Douglas sets Shakespeare's wordplay-drunk romantic comedy in this urban-tropical atmosphere, and it works, for the most part. Having the male characters appear as D.C. cops and security personnel sets up an interesting tension between the partyers and the peacekeepers and also is fodder for some splendidly goofy physical clowning. However, the idea that hero Benedick (Howard W. Overshown) and his compadres Don Pedro (Tony Nam), Claudio (Alexis Camins) and the resentful Don John (Joel David Santner) are returning victorious from war and looking to let off a little steam before settling down is completely lost. Through Nov. 29. 202/544-7077.

MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS

• Compiled by Jayne Blanchard