To the strains of the love song “Till,” Cradeau (Steven Lone) is ushered into a sparsely appointed but rather posh-looking room by a bellboy (Kevin Morrison).

“So this is it?” Cradeau asks. “Where are the thumb screws, whips, red-hot pincers?”

The bellboy laughs. “They all ask that,” he says.

Cradeau, you see, is in hell – Jean-Paul Sartre’s vision of hell, without the customary flames and devils with pitchforks. The bellboy adjusts the drapes and starts to leave. Cradeau wants assurance that someone will come if he rings the bell. “Well, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t,” is the reply.

A little later, a sullen but well-dressed lesbian name Inez (Monique Gaffney) is brought in; a bit later still, a bleach blonde named Estelle (Rhianna Basore). The three of them will spend eternity together in this room. Are they to be each other’s torturers?

Sartre’s one-act existentialist classic No Exit plays through Oct. 5 at Diversionary Theatre, directed by Esther Emery.

Sartre’s particular philosophy emphasized human freedom, will and action over all else. There was no deity in his universe; man was cursed with freedom and forced to make his own sense of the world through commitment and action.

No Exit premiered in 1944 in Nazi-occupied Paris and therefore had to pass the German censors. Though the play has no explicit political message, audiences at the time considered it subtly subversive because of Sartre’s association with the French resistance.

Gaffney is mesmerizing as Inez, with nuances, timing and attitude to spare. Basore’s society dame Estelle, who wants more than anything to find a mirror, reminds you of people you wouldn’t want to spend eternity with. Only Lone’s Cradeau makes an effort – albeit impotent – to get out, eventually realizing that “hell is other people.”

Whatever your particular vision of hell, you’ll be amused, challenged and discomfited by Sartre’s, and enthralled with Diversionary’s superb production of No Exit. Bravo to Emery and this terrific cast.

No Exit plays through Oct. 5 at Diversionary Theatre. Shows Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.; Monday, Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m. For tickets call 619-220-0097 or visit www.diversionary.org.

Back in those war- and world-weary ’60s, a Belgian troubadour puffed on Gauloises and sang of love and death, aging and bravery, dogs and girls and the draft.

That was Jacques Brel, who died young of lung cancer but left a revue of his songs sad and satirical, cynical and poignant and sometimes celebratory. The songs struck a responsive chord in listeners, which led to their translation into English by Eric Blau and Mort Shuman. The show, Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, plays through Oct. 5 at North Coast Repertory Theatre, directed by Brel fan David Ellenstein.

The show opened in 1968 off-Broadway, where it ran more than four years, followed by a brief Broadway run. The show is still being performed around the world.

Brel’s was a disillusioned world where love was rich but fleeting, “death waits like an old roué” and if you’re not careful, you’ll run out of liquor – or worse, cigarettes.

So sit back, settle into set designer Marty Burnett’s smoky boîte in Paris, and get your nostalgia hit for the day.

With a fine small combo behind them (Steven Withers on piano, percussionist Tom Versen and bassist Fred Ubaldo, Jr.), four singers (Man and Woman 1 and 2) solo and combine in various ways. Ellenstein has made a curious casting choice in Robert Grossman – an actor I will go anywhere to see – but significantly older than the others. Though the years make his poignant rendering of “Fanette” even more so (it’s about unrequited love), his pairing with the significantly younger Courtney Carey as Man and Woman 1 seems ... well, a little off. Grossman can act up a storm, even while singing, but in the performance I saw (the matinee following opening night), the voice sounded tired, almost hoarse, and there were even a few intonation problems.

Jenn Grinels, on the other hand, can sing anything and convince me. She has a great, supple, expressive musical comedy voice that doesn’t bore into your eardrums with a loud, straight tone like so many contemporary musical comedy singers. She it is who sings the whirlwind “Carousel” song, a quickly accelerating piece about the mad whirl of life that requires an incredible memory and fabulous diction. Grinels also sings the other extreme, Brel’s signature “Ne Me Quitte Pas,” quietly and with choked-back emotion.

Jason Maddy does two of my favorite songs wonderfully, both about and sung by soldiers. “Statue” is the lament of a fallen soldier who denies being any kind of hero (“I’d like to grab that son-of-a-bitch/the one who wrote on my statue/ ‘He died like a hero/he was a soldier brave and true’/Me, who went off to the war/because I was so damn bored/Me, who went off to the war/to make it with the German broads”); and “Next,” the lament of the inductee in that vast, impersonal line of naked draftees, shuffling through the process – and later, the survivor of the war (“All the naked and the dead/should hold each other’s hands/as they watch me scream at night/in a dream no one understands”).

Brel spoke to a war-weary generation almost half a century ago, but his pointed songs still resonate. Man is a slow learner.

Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris plays through Oct. 5 at North Coast Repertory Theatre. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.; select Wednesdays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 2 p.m. For tickets call 858-481-1055 or visit www.northcoastrep.org.

The horrors of going to the artistic well and coming up dry are played out in Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit’s Nine, on the boards through Oct. 5 at Starlight Theatre. Brian Wells and Carlos Mendoza direct the 1982 Tony-winning musical based on Italian film director Federico Fellini’s autobiographical film 8-1/2.

Celebrated director Guido Contini (Mauricio Mendoza) is hoping his next project will redeem his last three flops. Guido’s life is stuffed to the gills with women – 21 of them, in fact, all wanting a piece of him. French producer Liliane La Fleur (played with autocratic relish by Leigh Scarritt) demands le musical. Mistress Carla (Stephanie Burkett Gerson) wants some attention, seductively bumping and grinding her way through “A Call From the Vatican”; wife Luisa (Amy Ashworth Biedel) wants to know when Guido is coming home.

All Guido wants is a little peace and quiet, but people keep calling and showing up, as he drifts ever closer to a breakdown. Everyone wants to know what’s next, what’s in it for them and – most important – where’s the script?

What they don’t know is that not only is there no script, there is no idea for a script.

A musical about writer’s block – what a great idea. Kopit has written vivid if somewhat stereotypical female characters to drive Guido crazy. Tanya Bishop has given them some great costumes. And Yeston has written appropriate if not memorable songs, including one huge Vegas-like production number called “Folies Bergeres.”

As the pressure mounts, Guido regresses to childhood, where he recalls a certain experience on the beach with Sarraghina (Samara Otero) at the tender age of nine.

This production is blessed with fine vocal performances all around, especially from the women. In addition to those mentioned, I shouldn’t forget Debbie Nicastro, who’s lovely as Guido’s mother. Mendoza’s voice lacks the power of the women, but he’s fine on the dramatic end.

The original Nine starred Raúl Juliá and was nominated for 10 Tonys. It won five. The 2003 revival, with Antonio Banderas, was nominated for six Tonys and won two.

Bravo to Starlight for taking on this somewhat daring, not-exactly-family-oriented show. It provides an enjoyable evening of musical theater.

Nine plays through Oct. 5 at Starlight Theatre. Shows Thursday through Sunday at 7:30 p.m. For tickets call 619-544-7800 or visit www.starlighttheatre.com.

Troilus and Cressida takes place seven years into the Trojan War, and exposes not only the idiocy of war but “that curse of mankind, folly and ignorance.” Seven years, hmmm … could there be a modern parallel?

This is preachy stuff, Shakespeare that’s hard to like despite some lovely poetic stretches, because all the characters are (to put it kindly) deeply flawed. Another apt description might be “rats, pimps and whores.”

The pimp in question is Pandarus (Weinberg-Harter), who makes sure Troilus and Cressida get together, only to be split up again. Helen (Laura Kaplan) is supposed to be a tart, but she looks awfully sophisticated in those slinky dresses. Ajax is a jerk; Achilles a lazy slob; Agamemnon (Weinberg-Harter) a windbag.

My favorite characterizations are Michael Nieto’s Aeneas and Ulysses (most of the cast plays more than one part) and Adam Parker’s terrific Paris and Thersites. Weinberg-Harter also does a good job with Pandarus and Agamemnon.

Kudos to Christian Lopez for the triple-sided rotating set that makes for quick scene changes, and to the editors for the cuts that keep the time to around two hours.

Troilus and Cressida hasn’t been done in town since 1976, and may not be again, so if you’d like to add another title to your list of Shakespeare’s plays seen, here’s your chance.

Troilus and Cressida plays through Oct. 5 at Compass Theatre. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets call 619-688-9210 or visit www.compasstheatre.com.