The pre-show announcement had the opening-night audience giggling: “This show will have two intermissions and run through January 30.”

It’s not quite that long, but the next three-plus hours present a virtuoso portrayal of rudderless lives and brains fried by drugs and alcohol. Set in the Hollywood jungle, ion theatre’s production of David Rabe’s Hurlyburly is onstage through Saturday, Jan. 30, at Diversionary Theatre. Glenn Paris directs.

It’s hard to care a lot about Eddie (Fran Gercke) and Mickey (Matt Scott), casting agents who share a house in the Hollywood hills with unemployed actor Phil (Tom Hall). Eddie and Mickey never seem to cast anybody and Phil never gets a part, situations they try to forget with chemical help – a lot of chemical help.

A fourth male character – wannabe screenwriter Artie (Walter Ritter) – is older, Jewish, equally unsuccessful, and always talking about the deal he’s about to sign.

These are losers in more ways than one. Their industry doesn’t prize them, nor do the women in their lives. Eddie is a divorced father with nothing good to say about his ex; Phil, an ex-con with violent tendencies, is fearful his wife is about to divorce him. Mickey has decided that emotional distance is the best approach. These guys are all longing for connection, but clueless about how to achieve it.

Flitting through the play are three women used and abused by the guys: Donna (Morgan Trant), a 16-year-old waif Artie found in the elevator, who will do anything for a meal and a bed; photographer Darlene (Sara Beth Morgan), about whom Eddie and Phil will squabble; and nude dancer Bonnie (Karson St. John), the “call me for a good time” girl of the show.

Rabe has a way with dialogue; a good thing, because these folks are loquacious to a fault – especially Eddie, whose byword is “clarity,” to which end he talks almost nonstop but seldom succeeds in doing more than muddy the communication waters.

The always-astonishing Gercke anchors the show with a massive number of lines and a riveting interpretation of Eddie that takes full advantage of his trademark physicality. This Eddie has some pretty active inner demons whose effects are easily visible. And though chemistry frequently trumps sense in his speech and the play is so long it can’t help being redundant, Gercke is always watchable.

Scott’s Mickey could be seen as Eddie’s alter ego – the guy who keeps a lid on everything that might cause damage. As chaos plays out around him, the cynical Mickey stands by with a sardonic smile, allowing nothing to touch him – visibly, anyway.

Hall’s volatile Phil is the kind of guy you wouldn’t want to meet on a dark street – he’s none too bright and short of fuse. But he also aches to connect, and Hall brings out his palpable loneliness.

Ritter doesn’t have much to do as Artie, the older “outsider” who hasn’t quite made it to the inner circle (though it’s not clear to me why he considers that a problem).

Trant, Morgan and St. John deserve medals for putting up with this overlong, misogynist piece. It’s a testament to Paris and this fine cast that it’s as engaging as it is.

Ion Theatre’s production of Hurlyburly plays through Saturday, Jan. 30, at Diversionary Theatre. Shows Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets, call 619-600-5020 or visit www.iontheatre.com.

“There is no such thing as natural beauty,” Truvy (Christa Jackson) instructs mousy little job applicant Annelle (Emma Fassler), and Truvy’s applied-with-a-trowel makeup and fantastic blonde wig are testaments to her philosophy.

Truvy runs a beauty shop out of her home in small-town Chinquapin, Louisiana, which serves as both beauty outpost and social hall for local ladies to gather, gossip, swap recipes and complain about their husbands.

“And remember, my ladies get only the best. Do not scrimp on anything. Feel free to use as much hair spray as you want,” she tells Annelle.

Their never-seen men are depicted as absent, depressed, lazy or dead, and belittled by the women early and often, as in Ouiser’s cringe-inducing “He’s a real gentleman. I’ll bet he takes the dishes out of the sink before he pees in it.”

Robert Harling’s 1987 play Steel Magnolias plays through Sunday, Jan. 24, at Welk Resort Theatre. Brian Kite directs.

Saturday morning is normally reserved for Truvy’s regulars, but today she will ask well-off widow Clairee (Rosina Reynolds) to wait while she works on Shelby (Amy Sloan), daughter of well-meaning buttinsky mama M’Lynn (Cathy Rigby).

Today is Shelby’s wedding, and Truvy must create a Princess Grace look for the bride. In the middle of the makeover, Shelby spaces out – not from shock but diabetes – and is revived with a glass of orange juice.

The show’s sextet is completed by wealthy matron Ouiser (Michael Learned), whose way with a caustic word is nonpareil.

Tragedy will strike little Chinquapin, but these women will keep on keeping on in their usual way – throwing amusing zingers at each other and continuing to trade gossip and recipes.

The 1987 play became a successful film in 1989 with Dolly Parton as Truvy and featuring Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis and Julia Roberts.

John Iacovelli’s marvelously detailed set and Julie Keen’s mostly terrific costumes help, but the play, like many of Truvy’s customers (“Time marches on, and eventually you realize it’s marching across your face”), hasn’t aged well. It doesn’t really have a plot, blunts its own presumed points in favor of the one-liner, and leaves you wondering what the playwright wanted to say.

Nonetheless, this is a good cast. Jackson’s Truvy is clearly the star (and does she ever get the costumes!), but the stage lights up when Learned is around. Rigby seems a bit lost as M’Lynn, looking neither like a career woman nor the mother of a 25-year-old. Sloan does a nice job as Shelby. Reynolds does what she can with the underwritten Clairee, and Fassler’s Annelle has to deal with a sudden religious conversion that seems tacked on and unconvincing.

Steel Magnolias plays through Sunday, January 24, 2009 at Welk Resorts Theatre. Shows Tuesday through Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. with brunch buffet beginning at 10:30 a.m.; Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 8 p.m. with 5:30 buffet. For tickets, call 760-749-3448 or visit www.WelkTheatreSanDiego.com.