THEATER PREVIEW:

When you’ve been chronicling local theater for more than four decades, you tend to develop a mental list of favorites — shows you particularly appreciate that don’t come around as often as you’d like them to.

Happily, three of the plays on my personal list are waiting in the wings — all from Costa Mesa producing groups and all headed for production in the next few months.

They are, in order of appearance, “The Foreigner” at Vanguard University, “Noises Off” at South Coast Repertory and “City of Angels” at the Costa Mesa Playhouse. I’ve long been particularly enamored of all three and I’m elated that they’re all arriving between now and April.

“The Foreigner,” which opens next weekend, is an inventive comedy by Larry Shue which I first saw at South Coast Repertory in 1986 and enjoyed so much that I yearned to direct a community theater production of it. This dream was realized in 2002 at the Huntington Beach Playhouse.

Set in rural Georgia, the play focuses on a painfully shy visiting Brit who doesn’t want to converse with the natives, so he pretends to be a “foreigner,” unable to speak English. The upshot of this deception is that he ends up going toe to toe with the Ku Klux Klan.

“Noises Off” is, quite simply, the funniest play ever written, period. Michael Frayn’s frenetic farce depicts an acting troupe rehearsing a play in which Murphy’s Law prevails, then sneaks backstage in the second act for a fiasco-filled performance.

Of the three faves, only “Noises Off” was seized upon by Hollywood, and the resulting motion picture also is a comedy classic — directed by Peter Bogdanovich and featuring such luminaries as Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, John Ritter, Christopher Reeve and future Desperate Housewife Nicolette Sheridan.

Finally, there is the all-too-infrequently produced “City of Angels,” not to be confused with the movie of the same name. This “City” was written by the estimable Larry Gelbart, who helmed a little sitcom called “M*A*S*H” a while back, with music by Cy Coleman. It snagged six Tony awards in 1990.

The central figure is a pulp fiction writer who has a running battle going with his leading character. These egos clash notably in the first act-closing number as both protagonists proclaim “You’re Nothing Without Me.”

Mark your calendars. Vanguard’s “Foreigner” opens Jan. 30, “Noises Off” arrives Feb. 13 on South Coast Repertory’s Segerstrom Stage and “City of Angels” is ticketed for April 10 at the Costa Mesa Playhouse. If these three shows achieve their potential, the rewards for audiences will be abundant.

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews appear Thursdays.