It's never too late for a little Theater Stub:

* Theater District -- On Thurday night, Miss Kim and I kicked off our third year of SpeakEasy subscriberhood with this short, sweet play about teen angst in an alterna-yuppie Manhattan family. Wesley, a perceptive 16year-old, splits his time between his divorced parents' households: weekdays with Dad and his partner, George, weekends with Mom and new hubby. He's ignored by his high-powered parents (a lawyer and a book editor) but respected and loved by their spouses (restauranteur and eye doctor), and he's muddling through it all when his best friend comes out at their prep school assembly. Much reflection ensues, along with flashbacks to the good old days for the adults (including the master of comic relief, Neil Casey). Creative staging, strong dialogue, and knockout performances by Bill Brochtrup as the wry, thoughtful George, and Edward Tournier as Wesley, who seems like a real live teenage boy, make the show shine despite its brevity. As the last lines note, a lot can happen in a day -- that's what days are for. (A-)

* The Kvetching Continues -- The Theater Offensive lives up to its mission once again! Back to the South End we go, on Saturday, for the one-woman comedy cabaret stylings of Jackie Hoffman, thankless starlette of Broadway's "Hairspray." Decked out in a gold cocktail dress, leaning against a baby grand, Hoffman lets loose a tirade of, well, kvetching, in word and song, on everything from bratty children to kissy-kissy couples to Jewish mothers to (shudder) Rosie O'Donnell. And of course, her "Three Minutes on Broadway" (this lead-off song in her ersatz lineup), which come after hours of trying to flush the slow backstage toilet. Scathing, biting, grating -- and hilarious. (B+)