Controversy has dogged Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi since noisy opposition led to the cancellation of its first New York run in 1998 (the cancellation was reversed and the show opened a few months later).

Though four-time Tony winner McNally wrote it as a bridge between the religious and gay communities, the provocative question used for marketing (“What if Jesus were gay and grew up in Texas in the 1950s?”) has prompted picketing at several productions and condemnation from the likes of political punster Pat Buchanan, who called it “part of the daily sewage of modernity.”

Now San Diegans can see and judge Terrence McNally’s controversial passion play for themselves. Corpus Christi plays through June 1 at Diversionary Theatre, directed by Nic Arnzen.

It’s easy to lose your way in this script. It jumps back and forth between Biblical times and Texas in the ’50s, and also calls for 13 male characters playing numerous male and female roles. But Arnzen, who has directed the play in Los Angeles and elsewhere, makes the transitions easy. He also obtained McNally’s permission to use a mixed cast.

McNally’s Jesus (called Joshua, and played by Trevor Bowles), born in a cheap Corpus Christi motel, muddles through Pontius Pilate High School despite torments from the likes of a sadistic priest who mocks his baseball-throwing style, and the puzzling phenomenon of constant hammering sounds and occasionally even a voice (God’s) that no one else hears.

He grows up, disappears for a while, returns and gathers disciples (“We were so fucking cool it hurt,” says Peter); each is christened formally by John the Baptist (Rachael Van Wormer) and given a disciple name. McNally adds more contemporary professions for some: Thaddeus (Keifla) is a hairdresser; Philip (Tom Doyle) a hustler; Andrew (Brian Mackey), a masseur; Simon (Anna Rebek) a singer. Joshua performs a marriage for teacher James (Jesse Allen Moore) and physician Bartholomew (Zachary Bryant). The playwright also posits a closer relationship between Joshua and Judas (Rich Carrillo) than the Bible records.

Joshua and the disciples go on to the good works for which they are famous. As Thomas puts it, “We did what are called good deeds. With Joshua it seemed impossible there could be any other kind.”

But this is a passion play, after all, and everyone knows how it ends.

McNally’s script has humor, pathos, time shifts, genderbending characterizations and an overarching New Testament message of love, respect and tolerance. Arnzen’s terrific ensemble cast (headed by the amazing 17-year-old Bowles and Carrillo’s smoldering Judas) will make you laugh, cry, and maybe even wish you were part of that august group.

It’s one of those cosmic ironies that the week Corpus Christi (which promotes love, integrity and tolerance) opened in New York in 1998, Matthew Shepard was tied to a Wyoming fence and left to die.

Gay bashers and Biblical literalists who don’t believe the New Testament’s emphasis on love and tolerance supersedes the violence reported and even required in the Old Testament would hate this play. One or more of them defaced Diversionary’s marquee on opening night. But they won’t likely see it.

More’s the pity.

Corpus Christi plays through June 1, 2008 at Diversionary Theatre. Shows Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.. For tickets call 619-220-0097 or visit www.diversionary.org.

David Mamet, reigning king of contemporary rat-a-tat dialogue and exposés of greed, malfeasance and financial shenanigans in such plays as Glengarry Glen Ross, recently adapted Harley Granville-Barker’s 1905 The Voysey Inheritance, trimming it to the two-hour length more palatable to today’s audiences.

The Voysey Inheritance plays through May 18 at Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado. Deborah Gilmour Smyth directs.

Voysey and Glengarry, in fact, have a lot in common. Papa Voysey (Jim Chovick), an investment broker like his daddy before him, has made a fine living investing money for other people. In fact, he’s made himself very rich by embezzling invested funds and speculating with them, a risky business which can result in untold riches – or in bankruptcy, à la Enron.

As Voysey opens, son and putative business partner Edward (Jon Lorenz) confronts his father with the newly-discovered fraud. The old man admits it and then dies, leaving Edward with the choice of admitting to the fraud and declaring bankruptcy or trying to scrape through and replace the funds before anyone asks for a payout.

The Voyseys are a large Edwardian family of expensive tastes. There are three other brothers – Major Booth (Jason Heil), Trenchard (Lance Arthur Smith) and Hugh (Kürt Norby); two sisters, Honor (Colleen Kollar Smith) and the soon-to-be married Ethel (Season Duffy), who has already specified that cash is the appropriate wedding gift.

It’s easy to rail at the illegality of this early-day Enron operation, but as the old man points out, all his investors were receiving the expected dividends on time. What he was doing with the rest of the money may have been illegal – and was certainly unethical – but up to then not financially harmful.

When old family friend (and investor) George Booth (Michael Harvey) asks for a cash payout, the “smash” is imminent, made the worse by the threat of blackmail from longtime family toady Peacey (Ralph Johnson).

The story plays out on Robert Smyth’s handsomely suggestive stage design (suspended picture frames imply a moneyed background) and director Deborah Gilmour Smyth’s evocative and discordant piano accompaniment adds the right note(s).

Voysey’s subject matter is surprisingly contemporary, but the dramatic impact seems diluted, partly by the number of characters who float through (most with other things on their minds) and perhaps partly because cutting an hour out of the script reduced the dramatic possibilities for some of the characters such as the hard-of-hearing Mrs. Voysey (Glynn Bedington), here reduced to asking people what they said. Lorenz, Johnson and Harvey portray the most interesting characters.

The Voysey Inheritance isn’t the most riveting play around, but it’s a mildly interesting period piece, handsomely mounted and periodically involving.

The Voysey Inheritance plays through May 18 at Lamb’s Players Theatre. Shows Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinees Saturday at 4 and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets call 619-437-0600 or visit www.lambsplayers.org.

Ghosts can appear anywhere, so why not move Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit from Kent in 1939 to Hollywood in the ’40s, that long-gone glamorous era when ghosts really knew how to dress?

Coronado Playhouse presents a sumptuous Tinseltown production of the Coward favorite through June 1, directed by Pete Shaner (who also plays Charles).

Coward, like many British writers of the time, spent a few years writing patriotic and sentimental plays like This Happy Breed and touring extensively for the war effort. Blithe Spirit was written in his off hours at about the same time, as a self-indulgent escape from war work.

The plot has skeptical middle-aged screenwriter Charles Condomine (Shaner) inviting well known medium Madame Arcati (Ashley Gardner) to the house for a seance in order to observe her in action for a screenplay he has in mind. Along for the ride are Charles’ wife Ruth (Nicole Wolber) and friends Dr. and Mrs. Bradman (James E. Steinberg and Renée Gandola).

The evening becomes problematic when the spirit conjured is that of Charles’ first wife Elvira (Victoria Mature). The difficulty is that only Charles and the audience can see or hear Elvira, leading to strange and amusing miscommunication between Ruth and Charles.

Elvira, it seems, misses Charles and wants to kill him off in order to get him back, but botches the attempt and Ruth ends up in the spirit world instead.

Blithe Spirit is nonsense, fluff, a trifle – all those things – and also, as mounted here, delightful eye candy. Brittany Hauselmann’s expansive set design is deep, wide and handsome. Costumer Jennifer Kindsche has done some terrific period costumes, especially for Ruth, and Elvira is a knockout in her long dresses.

Shaner is solid as Hollywood wheeler-dealer Charles, the unbeliever caught in a trap of his own making but still trying to take advantage of it. Wolber is a properly bewildered Ruth, worried by the onset of Charles’ seeming schizophrenia as he hears and responds to apparently nonexistent voices. Mature is a perfect Elvira – sexy, kittenish, verbally adept, with a figure that won’t quit. Gardner is delightfully wacky from costume to accent as Mme. Arcati. The rest of the cast is equally adept.

Flashy costumes, spectacular set, fine performances – what else could you ask?

My one cavil is that the actors seem not to be adjusted to this sound-swallowing set, and too many lines are lost. Speak up, folks, for the sake of your audience.

Blithe Spirit plays through June 1 at Coronado Playhouse. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. For tickets call 619-435-4856 or visit www.coronadoplayhouse.com.