On Theater:

The new year is upon us, and so are a number of new productions from local theater groups, all waiting in the wings in various stages of development.

The 2010 parade begins this weekend as South Coast Repertory lifts the curtain on a new musical offering, “Ordinary Days.” Composer-lyricist Adam Gwon recently won the Fred Ebb award for excellence in musical songwriting.

Directed by Ethan McSweeny, the show continues through Jan. 24 on the Julianne Argyros Stage. It focuses on four young New Yorkers trying to find their way in life and becoming intricately connected through a series of funny and fortuitous musical events.

The Newport Theater Arts Center will be the latest to demonstrate that it “can handle the truth” when Aaron Sorkin’s “A Few Good Men” opens Jan. 22 and plays through Feb. 21.

Gigi Fusco Meese, who knows her way around military courtroom dramas (having staged “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” at the center), is directing this account of a murder trial for two Marines accused of killing a third.

South Coast Repertory is back in action the last weekend of January with August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Fences,” which focuses on a hard-working family man in the 1950s who “meets life head-on with dignity, humor and eloquence.”

Performances of “Fences,” which chronicles the black experience in 20th century America, begin Jan. 22 on the Segerstrom Stage and will continue through Feb. 21 under the direction of Seret Scott.

That venerable invisible rabbit will pay his third visit to the Costa Mesa Playhouse beginning Feb. 5, when “Harvey” hops across the local stage. Mary Chase’s whimsical comedy will be in residence through Feb. 28.

Back at South Coast Repertory, the children’s play “A Wrinkle in Time,” adapted by John Glore, will be staged from Feb. 5 to 27 on the Argyros Stage.

The Orange County Performing Arts Center will bring a celebrated composer to the foreground Feb. 16 to 21, when “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber” fills the auditorium. This compilation will offer selections from such musicals as “Cats,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “Evita” and “Jesus Christ Superstar,” among others.

Vanguard University gets into the act Feb. 26 with a two-weekend engagement of “Shakespeare’s Kings, Lovers and Fools,” adapted and directed by Susan Berkompas. Characters from “Romeo and Juliet,” “Hamlet,” “Macbeth,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and others will be juxtaposed against the backdrop of a post-modern society.

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