‘Cheatin’ ’ at Theatre/Theater; ‘Hay Fever’ by Group Repertory; ‘Rehearsal’ by 21st St.; ‘Attics of Imagination’ at Powerhouse

Before the popular “Daddy’s Dyin’ (Who’s Got the Will?)” there was the seminal “Cheatin.’ ” It is set in the same dusty hamlet of Lowake, Tex., and features the prototypes of the characters playwright Del Shores has since turned into something of a cottage industry (Shores is now completing a third play in the Lowake cycle).

“Cheatin,’ ” which originally played here four years ago, has been successfully revived and now performs in tandem with its offspring, “Daddy’s Dyin,’ ” at Theatre/Theater. The line on “Cheatin’ ” is this: The dialogue and characterizations are funny, the performances are uniformly vivid, the philandering characters quite human and likable (well, almost; there is actress Jeri Gaile’s rapacious and snotty wife).

In short, for the legions of fans who have kept “Daddy’s Dyin’ ” running for 17 months, “Cheatin’ ” is bound to be good news. Both productions are sodbusters.

Director/host/narrator and occasional Western balladeer Newell Alexander is the production’s down-home anchor. He serves as a kind of Lowake Greek chorus from his post in Bluebell’s Bar & Dining Facility, in which a half-dozen other characters spill their woes.

The production’s failure (a comparatively minor if nagging one) is its awkward effort to scenically wedge two other settings, a local inn and a beauty shop, onto the stage. The attempts are artless, and John Dickey’s lighting design does little to distinguish these spaces. The set is uncredited.

The prize acting achievement belongs to Leslie Jordan’s lovable, dim, sweet mailman. He is strongly coupled with LaRue Stanley’s plump and eternally (until now) dateless denizen. Other performers, all flavorful, are Dean Scofield, Brenda Hillhouse and David Cowgill.

Performances are at 1713 Cahuenga Blvd.; Thursdays, Sundays, 8 p.m., Saturdays, 5 p.m.; runs indefinitely. Tickets: $12.50; (818) 985-6924. ‘Hay Fever

Noel Coward, who reportedly was inspired to write “Hay Fever” after spending an amusing Long Island weekend as the guest of actress Laurette Taylor and her boisterous family, is amply served by the Group Repertory Theater in a production that is a whoop.

It’s all style, which is as it must be because “Hay Fever” (1924) is essentially a drawing-room comedy without a story line. The Bliss family is very theatrical and the members are all artists of one stripe or another. (One of them just draws; it is one of the play’s most lingering, quaint touches.)

When each of the parents and their two adult children, unknown to one another, invites a comely mate for a weekend in the parlor, events will turn as rich as an eclair if the actors are up to the task.

Under the burnished direction of Patricia Lee Willson, this cast is a charm, a peacock ensemble of elitists whose feckless self-absorption grows merrier through the play’s three acts.

Flawless in their sense of controlled flair and uncanny period style are Kim Pawlik and Kent Rogers as the callow, bickering brother and sister. As the family’s centerpiece, Bonnie Snyder’s mother is warmly flamboyant. John Petlock’s snobbish father and Arlan Boggs’ jut-jawed suitor with the splendid collection of plaid sweaters (credit Pam Macchi’s sumptuous costume design) are delicious caricatures.

The nine-member cast deftly negotiates some intricate staging featuring five exit doors (in Dale Carney’s otherwise rather uneventful set design).

Performances run at 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood; Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, 8 p.m.; through July 23. Tickets: $8-$12. (818) 769-7529.

‘The Rehearsal’

Jean Anouilh’s “The Rehearsal” deals with a “liaison dangereuse” between a womanizing French aristocrat and an innocent nursemaid. Set in a French chateau in 1950, the play is rarely staged, perhaps because its bewitching mixture of gaiety and darkness demand a stage poetry extremely difficult to fine-tune.

The 21st Street Theatre Company, under the direction of Anne Davis, catches the frolicsome decadence but does not define or clarify the play’s theme of love betrayed and its undertone of despair. The darkness behind those French windows (a handsome set design by Gene E. Putnam) remains mostly baffling.

The play appears to enjoy only one compelling scene, but that one is shocking. It’s a long encounter of seduction, powerfully played by Scott Hunter as a man betraying his best friend. Dyanne DiRosario movingly essays the victim.

The drama, ironically set against a party of house guests rehearsing a play in period costume, deceptively focuses on a philandering count (an earnest Sam O’Neal) and his gleaming countess (in turn a gleaming performance by Juliette de Haas). A supporting player (Carla Wynn’s animated portrait of vanity) carries a beauty mark above her cleavage, an image characteristic of this production’s care and detail, albeit in the service of an experience that sends out too many mixed signals.

Performances are at 11350 Palms Blvd.; Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m.; through July 31. Tickets: $8. (213) 827-5655. ‘Attics of thr Imagination’

One-acts do need a sense of balance. Take the double program at the Powerhouse, which is co-presenting “Attics of the Imagination” with Theatre of Note.

A tantalizing one-act called “The Dummy,” in which a young woman explodes a philosophy professor’s stuffy pretensions, solidly concludes the evening. But the opening program, Noelle McGrath and Fred Bishop in four comedy sketches called “The Black and Blue Revue” in which only the opening number about Lotteryholics doesn’t demean the performers, belongs somewhere else (say, back in vaudeville, in grind houses).

Michael G. Basson’s “The Dummy,” conversely, draws fine performances from Doug Burch and Sarah Lilly as a strangely entangled professor and his ex-student. Jessie Ehrlich contributes sardonic support under Karen Bartlett’s direction.

Lilly turns in an erotic, teasing performance. Casually hiking up a floor-length, prim white skirt, she frequently unfurls gorgeous, unending legs in the increasingly startled face of the professor. That’s after she accuses him of giving her a C and plagiarizing her dissertation. This time the game belongs to her, with a twist of a twist of an ending.

Performances are at 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica; every day except Wednesday at 8 p.m.; through July 16. Tickets: $10. (213) 392-6529.