Charles McNulty, theater critic for the LATimes, expresses an oft-heard cry in theaters there: With John Goodman getting raves in Waiting for Godot and sharing the Broadway spotlight with Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, Jeremy Irons, Geoffrey Rush, Marcia Gay Harden and James Gandolfini, why aren’t any of these above-the-title stars acting onstage in the LA area — like Laurence Fishburne and Annette Benning are?

Of course, there’s always the answer provided in Paul Rudnick’s  I Hate Hamlet, his stage comedy about a TV star deciding to play the Bard’s broody tragic hero. The actor’s Hollywood producer friend tries to talk him out of it — for his career’s sake.

When people back in LA “hear that you’re doing the greatest play in the English language,” he tells him, “they’re gonna know you’re washed up.”