In Hampton’s 1985 play, the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont are manipulative aristocrats in 18th-century France who spend their time seducing scores of people and plotting to destroy anyone who embarrasses or rejects them.  

Playwright Deborah Laufer loves to tell stories. “I think what theater does,” she told CityBeat recently, “is bring people together to contemplate what it means to be human at this point in time. It’s a place to ask all the big questions..."  

Playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa was in Chicago early in 2008, rehearsing the world premiere of a new play he had just written for Steppenwolf Theatre. The company was staging Arthur Miller’s legendary 1953 Tony Award winner, The Crucible, on its mainstage.   

Throughout the year I assign “Critic’s Picks” to noteworthy theatrical productions. As 2012 draws to a close, it seems like a good time to take a look back at some shows that made the grade.   

With the re-election of Barack Obama last month, many people who were closely following politics and current events reached a burnout point the day after the election. Comedian Auggie Smith reached that stage almost a full year earlier.   

For stand-up comedy fans, few comics are as popular as Brian Regan. Like Jim Gaffigan, Mike Birbiglia and Louis C.K., Regan has built a large and loyal fan base without having been on a sitcom or starring in a hit movie. Now he has a career many comics would love.   

Bill Burr is undoubtedly a comedian’s comedian, that rare comic who other stand-ups will go out of their way to see. However, Burr also has a sizeable and loyal fanbase that relishes in his observations on everything from Hitler to fast food.   

What makes Bruce Cromer one of our region’s best actors? He’s especially good at virtuous characters such as Atticus Finch, the admirable, broadminded attorney in To Kill a Mockingbird, a role he’s currently playing for Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (CSC).  

The Capitol Steps are on their way to Cincinnati, and they’ll stop at nothing to get audience members laughing as this grueling election year surges forward. The Steps are a group of Capitol Hill staffers turned political satirists, and no party is safe from ridicule when these performers take the stage.  

Cincinnati native Alan Kenny, fresh from graduate studies and a nearly completed master’s degree from UCLA, is back in town to stage the campy musical Xanadu at Covington’s Carnegie Center. It opens on Saturday for an eight-performance run, through Aug. 26.