Ah, Paris in the spring – and oh-la-la, those Parisian women. It’s the stuff of dreams, desire and romance – and, too often in the theater, of stereotypes, sappy songs and predictable outcomes.

But wait. Now there’s playwright Chuck Mee’s Limonade Tous les Jours, Moxie Theatre’s latest offering at Diversionary Theatre through Feb. 26.

This is a funny, sad, clever and insightful pas de deux about passion, friendship, age and youth, the impossibility of and longing for love, hope and trust.

Young Parisian Ya-Ya (Jo Anne Glover) and middle-aged American tourist Andrew (D.W. Jacobs) meet in a café. Ya-Ya has come to pick Andrew up because his friend Pascal “cannot come because for some reason.”

It’s a simple plot: Ya-Ya is a pretty, divorced cabaret singer who is disarmingly, almost frighteningly frank about men, women and sex. Andrew the intellectual professor, also divorced, has two grown children, at least one of whom is older than Ya-Ya. Both are hurt and, as Ya-Ya puts it, “damaged goods,” and they agree, over and over, that they are not right for each other; that their relationship not only cannot last, but can’t even begin. But it’s Paris, and spring, and they are mutually attracted.

Mostly what they do is talk, sometimes while wandering the famous streets and parks of Paris, the spontaneous and shaky films they take with Andrew’s videocam projected on one of the white curtains that serve as backdrops.

Mee’s conversations sound like yours and mine. Mee describes his plays this way: “broken, jagged, filled with sharp edges, filled with things that take sudden turns, careen into each other, smash up, veer off…” just like ordinary conversation.

Glover is a perfect Ya-Ya, embodying everything that is enchanting and maddening about French women. Jacobs (co-founder of the San Diego Repertory Theatre) inhabits his over-intellectualizing role like a favorite shirt (he told me after the show that he is Andrew, in large part).

And I mustn’t forget the waiter (Arme Chan), who is unlike the ones I typically encounter in Paris – efficient, not in the least snippy or insulting (perhaps it’s the native Ya-Ya’s presence?), and with a countertenor voice to die for. He sings wonderfully at peculiar but appropriate intervals.

Limonade Tous les Jours, wonderfully directed by Esther Emily, is a paean to men and women, and to the improbability, impossibility and necessity of human (and sometimes sexual) connection. Drunk on words, images, sensuousness, and the joy and sadness of being alive, it will pick you up on that verbal wave, carry you along with these two utterly engaging people and deposit you at the other end, delighted to have spent 90 minutes with them.

Limonade Tous les Jours plays through Feb. 26 at Diversionary Theatre. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m.; Sunday at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m. For tickets, call (760) 634-3965 or visit www.moxietheatre.com.

Either Twyla Tharp is unclear on the concept of The Times They Are A-Changin’ or I am.

The well-known director/choreographer of the Billy Joel show Movin’ On has turned her considerable talents to Bob Dylan. But this Broadway-bound “musical” is not theater in any sense I recognize. It is a rock concert with acrobats, at the Old Globe Theatre through March 19.

The “plot,” minimal at best, has a run-down circus run by Capt. Arab (a Melville reference?) stopped somewhere along the road. Capt. Arab (Thom Sesma) and his son, Coyote (Michael Arden), are competing for the affection of Cleo (Jenn Colella), a character underwritten nearly to the point of anonymity. Cleo, unimpressed with both suitors, announces she’s leaving, only to return in the next scene with no explanation.

That’s the plot. The rest is a concert of mostly angry-sounding (maybe that’s because they’re over-amped) songs. The decibel level prevents all but Dylan cognoscenti from understanding the lyrics or associating the songs with the acrobats Tharp has added, presumably to reflect the circus theme and to interpret the lyrics. There are trampolines both downstage over the pit and on a raised platform upstage, and her acrobats do (among other things) tumbling, flips, stilt-walking and contortions. It looks like some of them wandered in from Cirque du Soleil. It’s good work, but what it has to do with Dylan is lost on me.

In addition, the show is ugly – a dark, seedy-looking set, a cheesy-looking drop sheet at the top of the show with Dylan songs scribbled on it, a bandstand that looks like a junk heap. What’s the point?

The cast, acrobats and musicians (a five-piece combo) work their hearts out. Sesma and Arden are both quite capable of belting out a song. Colella’s voice is smaller, but pleasant and much easier to listen to.

Call me an old fogy: Dylan is of my generation, but I never could stand to listen to him. Tell me he invented a new way to sing, and I’ll say fine, but I’ll take the old ones, thank you.

But the audience was beside itself with enthusiasm, and the twice-extended run is already nearly sold out. Perhaps it should be moved to the Sports Arena, a more appropriate venue for a rock concert, where they could sell even more tickets.

The Times They Are A-Changin’ plays through March 19 at the Old Globe Theatre. Shows Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday at 7:00 p.m.; Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m.; matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. For tickets, call (619) 23-GLOBE.

If you’ve ever wondered what a convention of fairy tale characters might look and sound like, have I got a show for you. Lamb’s Players kicks off its 35th anniversary season with a terrific production of James Lapine’s musical Into the Woods, on the boards through March 19 and directed by Robert Smyth.

Cinderella (Jennifer Shelton) dreams of going to the festival while she helps her ugly, mean stepsisters (Erin Byron, Kelli Kelley) prepare. The baker (Ryan Drummond) and his wife (Becky Biegelsen) seek supernatural relief from their infertility problem. Jack’s mother (Kerry Meads), in an effort to stay afloat financially, prepares to send her son (Spencer Moses) to market with their cow Milky White. Little Red Riding Hood (Season Duffy) is about to go into the woods to grandmother’s house, while the wolf (Jason Heil) waits. Rapunzel (Chrissy Reynolds-Vögele) waits for the right guy; and her mom the witch (Deborah Gilmour Smyth) does mischief. And then there’s the (female) giant. And all (except the giant) share the stage, often at the same time.

There isn’t a weak link in this splendid cast, from the gorgeous Shelton to the deliciously wicked Heil (as Wolf; he also plays Cinderella’s Prince); the transformational Smyth to the baby-coveting Drummond and Biegelsen. Doren Elias has a great time as both Narrator and Mysterious Man, who utters sphinx-like prophecies.

Into the Woods is a musical fairy tale collision, the music provided by Stephen Sondheim. The cast enunciates like crazy, but with some of these songs (like “It’s Your Fault”) it’s a losing battle. For my money, Sondheim’s songs are the weakest element of an otherwise smashing production. I find the fast-talking (well, singing) patter songs too numerous, too exhausting and too often incomprehensible. He’s a good lyricist (he wrote the lyrics for one of my all-time favorites, West Side Story), and many of his lines are extremely clever (sample, from the Prince: “I was raised to be charming, not sincere”), but I find his music more repetitive and tiresome than listenable.

But if you are one of the legions who don’t agree (Tony voters don’t: Sondheim took home the 1987 award for best score), hurry on down to Lamb’s to see this fabulous production. Mike Buckley’s fanciful woodsy set gives the proper fairy tale feel. Costume goddess Jeannie Reith outdoes herself with absolutely gorgeous, to-die-for fairy-tale costumes, especially for Cinderella and the ugly stepsisters. And every one is perfectly suited to its wearer.

There’s even a local connection with Into the Woods. Writer/director James Lapine first opened the show at the Old Globe Theatre in 1987. Later, on Broadway, it was Tony-nominated for practically everything and won four, including best musical.

Into the Woods plays through March 19 at Lamb’s Players Theatre. Shows Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m.; matinees Saturday at 4:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. For tickets, call (619) 437-0600 or visit www.lambsplayers.org.