THEATER / SNEAK PEEK : XMAS SPOOF OR STRAIGHT PLAY.

Once upon a time, holiday entertainment was a simple business. You had two choices: ``The Nutcracker'' or ``A Christmas Carol.'' End of story.

Well, bid those innocent times farewell. In the anything-goes '90s, Scrooge has been deconstructed, Santa may be a target of the vice squad and ``The Nutcracker'' has gone uptown - all the way to Harlem.

We offer this partial rundown of L.A. theater's seasonal attractions, from the evergreens to the flakes.

Fallen angels: Guess which Jimmy Stewart holiday film classic is being spoofed in ``Wingless in Los Angeles.'' Hint: It's not ``The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.'' The parody is one of two holiday comedies by Pepin Valera and Dan W. Davis being presented under the bill ``No ho ho in NoHo'' through Jan. 11 at the Actor's Workout Studio, 4735 N. Lankershim Blvd. The other, ``What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?'' relates the adventures of a social misfit whose only New Year's Eve guest turns out to be an escaped convict. Call [phone].

Boughs of Holly: Immortalized in Lou Reed's ``Take a Walk On the Wild Side,'' cross-dressing diva Holly Woodlawn will deck the halls of Tinseltown with her one-woman kitsch-mas show, Dec. 18-21 at the Cinegrill of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd. For a night of ``original songs and death-defying feats of madness,'' call [phone].

Jingle beaus: Love takes a holiday in ``Yuletidings,'' a quadruple bill of one-acts by playwright/director Elias Stimac. In ``All Ye Faithful'' a married couple faces a personal crisis while decorating a church altar; in ``The Twelve Dates of Christmas,'' a young woman turns to a matchmaking service in search of the perfect seasonal paramour. The Road Theatre Company production is at the Lankershim Arts Center, 5108 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood, through Dec. 23. Call [phone].

Unholy night: There's trouble in toyland in Circle X Theatre Co.'s production of Jeff Goode's ``The Eight.'' Seems that Jolly Old Saint Nick has been charged with, er, sexual misconduct, throwing the flying reindeer into an uproar. The audience gets to play jury at the Hollywood Court Theatre, 6817 Franklin Ave., where the show runs through Dec. 22. Call [phone].

Ho, ho, har, har: The venue is different for this year's edition of ``The Fa La-La-La Follies!'' but the objective is the same. This ``musical mishmash of holiday mirth'' offers everything from Victorian caroling to a challenge tap number between a Christmas tree and a Hanukkah bush. Through Dec. 31 at Ventura Court Theatre, 12417 Ventura Court, Studio City. Call [phone].

Holiday spirits: What would you expect from a production of ``A Christmas Carol'' at a theater that calls itself The Bitter Truth? For one thing, you can expect a highly seasoned performer, Davey Lee, in the lead role. Long, long before he played the miser, the stage and screen veteran was cutting his teeth as Al Jolson's Sonny Boy in ``The Singing Fool'' (1928). He also appeared with the original Rin-Tin-Tin. The production runs through Dec. 22 at 11050 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. Call [phone].

Also worth marking on your calendar: Patrick Stewart's one-man interpretation of ``A Christmas Carol'' at the James A. Doolittle Theatre, Dec. 3-22, [phone]); choreographer Donald Byrd's revisionist ``The Harlem Nutcracker,'' which sets Tchaikovsky's ballet during the Harlem Renaissance, at the Wiltern Theatre, Dec. 27-29, [phone]; ``Murphy's Xmas,'' a tragi-comic tale of the search for seasonal redemption, adapted by Los Angeles playwright Trey Nichols from Mark Costello's ``The Murphy Stories,'' Dec. 13-Jan. 26 at Moving Arts, 1822 Hyperion Ave., [phone]; Danger Zone's presentation of ``The Ex-Mass Show - Holiday Humor Without the Tinsel,'' on Fridays and Saturdays through Dec. 21 at the Eclectic Company Theatre, 5312 Laurel Canyon Blvd., [phone]; and A Noise Within's dark new adaptation of ``A Christmas Carol'' at the Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, Dec. 10-15, [phone].

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Joel Swetlow, bottom, as Scrooge, and Geoff Elliott as Marley in ``A Christmas Carol,'' A Noise Within's interpretation of the holiday evergreen at the Alex Theatre in Glendale.